Chapter Twenty-One
The Snack
Ruthie awoke at about two in the morning. She was starving so she headed down to the kitchen to make herself some Mac n cheese. She found her mother sitting alone at the kitchen table twirling a tea bag in her mug. She looked just like Ruthie had wanted her not to. She looked heart broken and it was tearing Ruthie in two.
"Mom?" Ruthie said.
"Ruthie?" Annie said turning around, "Are you ok? Why are you up?"
"I'm hungry." Ruthie said and walked over to the pantry to pull out a blue box of Kraft macaroni and cheese.
"Here let me do that for you." Annie said, they could both feel the tension in the air but neither of them said a word about it. Annie walked back over to the pantry and grabbed a second box. She opened it up and took out the cheese pack and put the extra macaroni in the noodle jar. Then took the box Ruthie had gotten out and began to boil those noodles.
"I used to make it extra cheesy for you when you were little by using two packets of cheese." Annie said after awhile, "You were the only one who liked it that cheesy besides me."
"I know." Ruthie said smiling, "Mom we need to talk."
"Yeah we do." Annie said stirring in the noodles.
"Do you hate me?" Ruthie asked causing Annie to stop stirring and turn around to face her daughter.
"I could never hate you." Annie said, "The reason I'm so upset is because I love you and I know how hard this is going to be. I'm also a little upset that I'm just hearing about this now when you're….How far a long are you?"
"Four months." Ruthie said.
"Four?" Annie said, "How could I not notice?"
"Sweatshirts." Ruthie replied shrugging her shoulders as Annie put her food in front of her.
"Oh Ruthie," Annie said with a sigh, "How could this happen?"
"I don't know it just did." Ruthie said. Annie took a seat next to her daughter and they both had a midnight snack together.