Where Would I Be Without You - By CJ Hawk Page 0,1

What I had on was perfect for this party, right up until the moment, she opened her judgmental mouth.

"I am dressed mother." I replied in a soft even tone, but my mental voice was screaming back. 'I look incredible Harriet so just shut it would you.' Harriet would be the name my mother was called whenever I was mad. More often than not, I said her name internally, but when I did speak up and voiced her name out loud, she knew I was mad. Today, I was not going to let her get to me and say her name aloud.

"Oh. All right. I guess if that is what you have chosen to wear. I thought maybe you had some THING before this, and that you might want to change into more family attire before the rest of the family gets here."

I didn't have a chance to snap a rebuttal back as my younger sister Bethany, the perfect one, as she came into the room like a floating angel. "Mom. I got some more tape. Sis. Hey, you look nice. Got a hot date later?"

"Actually, he's coming tonight." I said it as if I was floating on air while thinking about it.

"I see. Mom, here's the tape but really I think we've done enough. Don't you sis?" Bethany was on one of her typical missions, helping my mom, and nothing could distract her.

"Too much if you ask me." My tone snapped out a bit too snarky, but I wanted the night to be elegant and sophisticated not toddler time with dressing insults. Would it kill my mother, just for once, to say, 'my dear you look lovely - who did your hair; it's stunning'? I might be doing a mental reach here; however, it was what I wanted to hear versus what I always got. Therefore, my tone reached everyone's ears before I had a chance to reign in the anger.

My mother completely ignored me and turned to my sister, looped her arm in my sisters, turned her to look at the mass of decorations and leaned her body into hers. "Well if you think so, I'll stop, but I just thought it might help liven the mood since your sister only turns thirty once, and I haven't been able to throw her a graduation party for college like we did for you sweetheart. Not to mention the fact that you just got that huge promotion and was made manager."

I got it. I did. I got every slick tongue dig my mother tossed out there. I grew up with this, and I wanted to shout out that my sister was addicted to speed and sleeping pills, not to mention she jumped Redbull's revenues up a percentage all by herself. However, I have never once, called out my sister's flaws to deviate from mine. I don't think my mother would have accepted them any ways. Superhuman Sis could keep my mother's attention; I was never on the happy reciprocating end of it any ways... no matter how hard I tried.

I turned on my heels and headed back to the bar, only to find Marion and her husband Carl ordering a drink for themselves and my dad. Marion and my dad had always gotten along. They were my joint force in dealing with the rest of my crazy family. Carl? Well, he loved Marion, but he also tolerated all of this only twice a year, my birthday and the family summer barbeque that Marion always insisted he attend with her. The rest of the time, Carl would claim he had to be out of town or Marion would say he had to golf with a client.

Marion stood at the bar looking ever the perfect trophy housewife she had come to be. Her perfectly done long brown hair hung in glorious curls down her back. Her simple elegant black dress with lace shawl made her look glamorous at any age. She turned to me with her eyes sparkling and her makeup perfect, and even though she left me at the plant six years ago to marry Carl and become the perfect quintessential housewife slash trophy wife; I loved her every day for the person she still is.

I watched Carl's arm slip protectively behind Marion as he turned to see who she was smiling at. Some days I thought it was true love, but the other day Marion let me know that, as long as she had her looks and wits about her, she