Reina [HS]

68.

TW: very brief mention of suicide, substance abuse and the loss of a loved one

5 months later
April 11th

"What did you do, Harry?" I rolled my eyes at my mum's accusing tone coming through the phone as I manoeuvred carefully between the aisles of the grocery store.

I was having my daily call with mum. Over the last couple of months, we had been talking a lot more frequently. I don't know if it was because of moving and the fact that we were living in the same city now, or because of the baby–

Actually, it was definitely because of the baby.

Ever since we told Gemma and her, she had switched to crazy-insane-over enthusiastic grandma mode. She was so happy and so excited, checking on us daily and making sure that everything was okay. We now saw each other every few days, we didn't live too far away so she either came to visit us or we went to hers. And on the days we couldn't do that, she called. If we were in the same place, we talked to her together and if we weren't, she phoned us separately.

I loved my mum to bits, but holy shit was she annoying sometimes.

I mean, god bless her for caring so much, but there was a reason why I only called her once a week before. She was intense, to say the least, and I hated how she breathed down my neck sometimes.

On the other hand though, I understood. She was about to have her first grandchild, after all. She was excited and she wanted to know everything. And I guess she was also scared, after what had happened to Elizabeth. When we told them about it, both my mum and my sister were crushed. They cried and hugged her so tightly that I was seriously worried about her bones breaking.

And so ever since then, Mum had turned into this overprotective mama bear when it came to Elizabeth. She took her side in everything and I somehow always turned out to be the bad guy.

"I didn't do anything, okay?" I huffed, annoyed that this was her first question right after I answered her call.

"I don't believe that for a second. She sounded upset on the phone." Mum continued as I scanned the shelves for the next thing on my shopping list, only half listening to her. "You must've said something to upset her–"

"I didn't!" I cut her off, whisper-yelling. "Look, I don't actually have to do anything to make her upset. Her hormones are all over the place. It has nothing to do with me, she's just emotional, that's all."

It was true. This last month of the pregnancy... it had been by far the hardest part of it. Elizabeth was... well - to put it mildly - sensitive. She often cried for no reason, got emotional over the smallest of things or got pissed off if I so much as breathed in her direction.

Aside from the accident, her pregnancy went as smoothly as ever, so I guess it was inevitable to have a downhill like this at one point. And I tried to be understanding about it, I really did, but man was it hard sometimes. Especially when our little girl decided to stay with her mumma a bit longer than expected...