Chapter 46 46 - Pizza Night
Since Liv had agreed to let me help her improve her relationship with our mother, practically 50% of the work was done. I had to do the other 50% of the work with my mother.
After taking a shower and looking at the changes in my statistics, I went to the kitchen where my mother was deciding what to make for dinner.
Since it was Saturday and my father had come home early, I thought of something else.
"Hey Mom, how about instead of making dinner we order a pizza?" I suggested.
My mother looked at me in surprise and thought for a moment before answering. "Is that a good idea? Aren't you trying to lose weight?"
Looking at my body and her, I laughed. "I'm already losing weight Mom, eating junk food one day a week is good for me. Come on, I'll call and order two large pizzas for us, okay?"
She thought for a while and finally accepted.
"Okay." She replied, smiling and putting away the things she was going to use for cooking.
Like me and my siblings, my mother had black hair, but instead of the blue eyes we got from my father, she had green eyes.
Because she had showered after practicing with us, her long black hair was damp.
She was a beautiful woman, but because of her excessive stress and anxiety, her age was beginning to show.
Although she was only 50, she looked older, with wrinkles showing and a few strands of white hair on her head.
When I earn more, I'll try to help her more so that she can relax.
After she put away the things she'd picked up for the kitchen, I leaned against the kitchen counter next to her and said.
"You know, I was talking to Liv about you two." I said.
When she heard that, she looked at me in surprise. "Really? What did you talk about?"
"About you two getting better. I noticed at practice that she was avoiding you while you wanted to talk to her but were afraid to." I said as I looked at her.
But she was embarrassed and tried to look away.
"Was my observation correct?" I asked.
"Yes..." She replied, her shoulders slumped. "I want to improve our relationship, but ever since that song of yours, I've started to realize the things I did wrong, things I thought were best for her, things I projected onto her and didn't even ask if it was what she wanted..."
"And you're ashamed of that?" I asked.
"Yes..." She replied.
"And do you regret it?" I asked again.
Lowering her head, she replied. "Yes..."
"Why don't you tell her that?"
"I..." she was lost. "I'm ashamed, I don't have the courage to go to her and talk about these things, not after seeing how much she has suffered over the years..."
"When I asked her why she was still angry with you even after you tried to change, do you know what she told me?" I asked.
My mother stared at me with hope in her eyes. "What was her answer?"
"She told me that she was sad because even though you tried to be better, you didn't even go to her to apologize." I explained as I noticed her expression change from hopeful to even more desperate.
"I'm sorry..." She whispered as she lowered her head and tried to control her tears.
"You don't have to apologize to me, she's in her room, you can go and apologize to her yourself." I said as I nodded towards the stairs.
Looking at the stairs, my mother swallowed and nodded as she slowly walked up the stairs.
Leaving the two of them to talk, I went into the living room and lay down on one of the couches.
"I'm going to order a pepperoni pizza, what do you want?" I asked.
"Cheese!" Ethan said excitedly as he jumped up and down because he was going to eat pizza.
My dad looked a little surprised as he replied. "Whatever you want, I'll eat it."
Looking at him with a skeptical expression, he realized what I meant and finally replied. "Margherita..."
Laughing that he didn't want to say what he wanted, I nodded and thought about ordering some ice cream for dessert, too, since there would probably be crying upstairs, and I know that ice cream after crying works wonders for women.
After ordering the pizzas, I went back to fiddling with my phone while Ethan played with some cars on the floor and my dad watched an old movie on TV.
I checked how many views I'd had on Spokify and was surprised to see that I had a total of over 60,000 views for all three songs.
This meant that I had already earned $240 from this app alone, and considering the rate at which the songs were growing, I had a big smile on my face.
It's funny that MeTube needs 300,000 views to reach that number.
I really had to plan on making longer videos to earn more on MeTube and focus on the music on Spokify.
When I opened my Instabram, I heard some murmuring and crying coming from upstairs, but I just shook my head as I ignored it.
My dad looked at me worried and confused, but I just reassured him that everything was fine and he put it aside for the time being.
I don't think Ethan even heard the screaming from upstairs because he was too focused on his stroller.
Looking at my inbox, that annoying girl was there again.
Just to make sure it was her, I opened her profile and knew for sure.
It was the tattooed girl who posted pictures of herself smoking cigarettes and wearing nothing but lingerie.
She knew how to show how hot she was, and if I were in my old body, where I also smoked and didn't worry about anything, I would probably go for this girl.
But considering my situation now, a stable life with a smooth development of my relationships, my health and my career, it wasn't worth getting involved with a problematic girl like that.
Even if she'd sent me a photo of herself in her panties and on her back in an Instagram DM...
[You still haven't answered me, sweetie B... aren't you interested in the photo I offered you?]
Dude, that ass of hers... calm down Noah, stay focused... don't let those thoughts overwhelm you...
She may have a delicious ass and a divine waist, but it's not worth it.
She must have a lot of problems, a lot of simps, it's not worth it, just breathe and ignore it.
I reluctantly closed the conversation on Instabram, and it was even harder not to download the photo she sent.
When I read the other messages, they were more normal.
[Thanks for the song you made BV, I hope you're doing well].
[Hey BV, I heard the preview of the song you showed on the stream and I thought it was amazing, I think the lyrics of it really fit a more electronic style of music, how about trying that?]
[Hey BV, I broke up with my boyfriend because of your song Numb, now I'm alone... don't you want to talk?]
[...]
There were several types of messages.
Those who sent me messages talking about music or wishing me luck, I replied politely and wrote down their ideas.
As for the girls and even some boys who sent messages with other intentions, I just ignored them.
Even if there were pretty girls among those who sent messages, I've seen so much shit in my previous life from artists who replied to fan messages like that and ended up getting screwed, so I just ignored that kind of thing.
It's better to just keep focusing on my career and let time find me someone good.
What was nice about seeing those messages was the idea that one of the followers gave me.
I could do an electronic version of the song. Since Selena had already bought the keyboard for me, it would arrive next week, so I could learn how to set it up and use the programs to get the most out of it and try to make a really good version of the song.
It's not like learning it would get in the way over time, so I might as well perfect it slowly until in the future I have a lot of experience and can make even better music in this style.
Surprisingly, the pizzas arrived and the two were still upstairs talking, so I went upstairs to check on them, not wanting them to get cold.
Arriving near Olivia's room, I heard the two of them laughing softly through the door.
I slowly knocked on the door and spoke. "It's me, Noah."
After a few seconds of silence, Liv replied. "You can come in."
When I opened the door, I saw them both with red eyes from crying, looking at an open album between them on the bed.
Curious, I looked at the album and was surprised to see that they were looking at photos from our childhood.
"Are these our photos?" I asked.
Laughing as she wiped her eyes, my mother replied. "Yes, I had this album saved and I took it out to show Olivia the good things and to apologize and explain myself for the bad things."
Seeing her admit it so openly brought a big smile to my face, and seeing Liv's relaxed expression, I knew it had worked.
"Let's eat, the pizzas are here." I said as I took a deep breath, trying to show the smell of pizza entering the room.
Liv sniffed curiously and was surprised to smell it. "Are we having pizza?" She said excitedly.
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