Chapter 13: Two Mugs

My mother had set out two mugs, and she had not even asked.

One was my old blue one.

The other was the chipped white mug with a yellow stripe that had been Erin's since she was nine.

"Sit, sit," my mother said, pushing the door shut against the cold. "You'll catch your deaths. Erin, honey, you're blue."

Erin sat at the far end of the table, as far from me as the room allowed.

She kept her hands in her lap.

My mother looked from her to me and back again.

"Did you two have a fight?" she asked.

"Sort of," Erin said.

"Good. You were due one." My mother pushed the white mug an inch toward her. "Drink, it's warm."

Erin did not touch it.

She looked at the mug, and then at me, and her face had gone white.

I understood that she was waiting for me to say it.

If she took one swallow of my mother's milk in this kitchen, I would never be able to look at the glass again.

If I said so, I would have to explain it to my mother.

"She's not thirsty, Mom," I said.

"She's always thirsty."

"Not tonight."

My mother's mouth turned down.

She had been warming that pan since before I could walk, and I watched her decide not to ask.

"All right," she said, and picked up the white mug herself. "I'll drink hers. Waste not."

She sat, and she looked so small in her robe that I felt it in my chest.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Reborn to Leave Her Behind from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.