At 61 years old, I thought I had seen it all. I had lived through every emotion imaginable. But nothing could have prepared me for the day my 15-year-old son looked at me with shame in his eyes and said, “Why did you even bring me into this world?”
What I had hidden from him would change everything between us.
My name is Helen, and my son’s name is Eli. I raised him alone after my husband died in a car accident. For 13 years, it was just the two of us against the world.
We had our Saturday morning pancakes, our movie nights where we argued about whether action movies were better than comedies, and our bedtime stories. We were a team. And we were strong.
But lately, something had changed. Eli had started hanging out with a new group of friends—boys who wore their baseball caps backward and talked nonstop about video games I’d never heard of and couldn’t understand. That didn’t bother me.
Eli was growing up. He needed friends his age and experiences beyond our little bubble. What hurt was how quickly I seemed to be fading out of his world.
That Saturday, I wanted to do something special. A new superhero movie was playing at the downtown theater. I thought maybe we could grab lunch and see it together… like old times.
I called Eli once. No answer. I waited ten minutes and called again.
Still nothing. By the fifth call, I was anxious. I walked to the little café downtown where he usually hung out with his friends.
Through the window, I saw him laughing. Seeing him so happy warmed my heart. Then I walked in.
“Eli! Sweetheart! Over here!”
His friends started laughing.
“Dude, is that your grandma?” one of the boys asked. Eli’s face turned red. He stood up.
“What are you doing here, Mom?”
I tried to ignore what his friend had said. “I just thought maybe we could see that new movie together. You know, the one you’ve been talking about all week.
We could grab lunch first—”
“Mom, stop!” he said. “You’re embarrassing me. Please, just go.”
I froze.
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just wanted to—”
“Then leave,” he said, not even looking at me. “Leave before more people see you.”
Those words hit me like a slap in the face.
I walked out of that café with my head held high, even though I was falling apart inside. I pretended not to hear the laughter that followed me to the door or see the pitying looks from the other customers. I walked the twelve blocks home, dazed, my eyes burning but refusing to cry in public.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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