Lost and Confused

This class assignment was to showcase an argument between family members where it doesn’t come to a resolution.  This is a prequel piece for the first book I “wrote” (still collecting dust in 1st draft form) starring the book’s protagonist, Mackenzie Porter, and her mother who struggles to figure out who she is.  
Lost and Confused
By Sara Curto
 “You’re wearing that?”  Mack challenged her mother.
               “What’s the matter with this?,” she replied looking down at her flannel shirt unbuttoned to show off her ample cleavage, bootcut jeans and cowboy boots, “Harrison is taking me Line dancing, I want to fit in.”
               “You hate country music.”
               “I don’t hate it, I never really gave it a chance before.  Harrison has really opened my eyes, well maybe I should say my ears, to the heart & soul of it.”
               Mack rolls her eyes, “so are you going to turn into a Cowgirl for him?  Like you turned into a stepford wife for the banker, a motorcycle chick for the ZZ Top lookalike or the bookworm for the librarian?”
               “Mackenzie Porter, how dare you!”
               “How dare I? How dare you Mom.  I’m so sick of this.”
               “Well I’m sick of your attitude.  You’re 16 years old, you know nothing about love and dating.”
               “Honestly Mom, I don’t think you know much about it either.  Do you really hate your life so much?  You already work such long hours at the hospital and then you spend every moment not working with whoever you’ve decided is the flavour of the month, changing yourself to whatever ideal of a woman that they want.”
               Patricia slumps down onto the couch, her eyes filling with tears, “being a single mom is hard, Mack.  I never signed up for this.  Your father up and running to the other side of the country with a woman half my age, it shook me.  I’m the one responsible for you and your sister while he gets to swoop in during holidays, for all the fun bits.  I’m lonely.”
               “Mom, I want you to be happy, but how can you be happy never being yourself?”
               “I don’t know who I am anymore, I’m trying to figure it all out.  Yes, it’s a bit trial and error,” she smiles through her tears, “but I’m hoping I’ll discover who I am AND love at the same time.”
               “It seems to me that all the books and stuff say you need to love yourself first before you find love, maybe you need to take some time off from dating.”
               “I’m not young like you Mack, I don’t have the luxury of waiting.  I want to get married again, I want to want to spend more time at home.”
               “Aren’t Nat and I enough?”
               “Of course you two are, but spending time with your teenagers it isn’t the same as someone who’s in love with you, besides you shouldn’t want to spend so much time with me,”
               “I don’t want to spend all my time with you, but some time would be nice,” Mack jumps off the couch to glare at her mother, “why can’t you want to spent time with us?  We love you for who you are.  Instead of chasing some idea of love from someone who doesn’t even know you because you won’t show them the real you.”
               “Mack, you’re twisting my words.”
               “Am I though?  You literally just said you want to want to spend more time at home, which implies that right now you don’t want to spend time at home.  Plus, that you’ll only want to spend time here once you have a man living here, it won’t be us it’ll be them.  How am I supposed to interpret that?”
               “I’m a woman and a mother, I have wants and desires.  Your father took the best years from me and wasted them by throwing them out the window, tossing me aside like I was trash,” her voice cracked but it did nothing to calm Mack down.
               “And I’m your daughter, who just wants a mom.  A mom who cares, who supports, who just wants to spend time with me.”  
    Mack turns her back on her mother and dashes from the house for the woods, hoping that a run will make her feel better.