Protected

A girl is glaring at her closed bedroom door like she's hoping it'll burst into flames.
"It's not fair," she thinks, fingers curling into fists. "Why won't she let me be with him?"
The girl keeps glaring, face red, teeth grit, eyes fierce. She is so angry at her stupid mother.
"Mom never lets me do what I want...she doesn't want me to be a teenager...sometimes I just hate her..."
With these sour thoughts in mind, the girl sits in silence, brooding over her mom.
A timid knock sounds at the door, no doubt brought by the knuckles of the woman the girl was trying to escape.
"Leave me alone," she snarls.
"Please, let me come in," her mother's soft voice whispers.
The girl, from an early age, has been taught to be merciful and compassionate. Her heart softening, she walks to her door and opens it slowly.
There stands her mom, about as tall as her daughter, eyes full of a pain she has never seen before.
"I need to tell you something," she whispers, lips trembling. "Something I've been trying to forget...and it's the reason why I won't let you be with Jake right now..."
The girl sighs and sits on her bed, tucking a piece of her inherited strawberry blonde hair behind her ear.
She looks at her usually smiling and gentle mom, who is now pale, shaking, eyes full of anguish.
"Honey," she whispers, looking deep into her eyes. "I need to tell you the story of my first love."
The girl's heart fills with dread. "This does not sound like a happy ending," she thinks to herself. But she listens, her hard feelings reduced.
"When I was your age," her mom begins, eyes going to somewhere far away. "I met a boy that changed my life. He was everything to me. He was my other half, my best friend...we spent hours on the phone together, spent hours just BEING together, enjoying each other's presence...always wanting to be by each other's sides...we began to know each other as we knew ourselves...and I...I loved everything about him. Even his flaws were beautiful to me. He was beautiful to me..."
The girl is surprised to see a brilliant light suddenly appear in her mother's lightly wrinkled face. Her cheeks are pink, her smile radiant.
"My father loved our relationship. He loved its purity and simplicity and tenderness...my friends all looked at us as a couple meant to be...for, as you know, you marry your best friend..."
The girl's nervousness dissipates. "So you did," she says, giving a hopeful smile. "You married dad."
Her mother's smile disappears.
"N-no..." she replies, her face pale. "He is not your dad."
The girl feels like her heart freezes.
"As my love for him grew deeper with each passing day," her mother continues. "It became more evident that he didn't...feel the same way...he loved me as a friend...b-but..."
Her mother's eyes are a thousand years away, it seems.
"But nothing more."
The girl can barely hear her mother's choked whisper.
"Wh-what happened?" she asks, staring at her mother's defeated face.
"He and I are still friends," her mother says. "But...I forced myself to f-find someone else. Someone that...I could settle for...because I realized that no matter how much I wanted it, no one would ever make me feel the same way Paul would...who he was to me was unmatchable. What he did for me was...impossible to remake...our relationship was something I could never experience again..."
The girl looks at her mother, as tears roll down her cheeks.
"This is why I'm trying to keep you from falling in love until you're a little bit older..." she sobs, trying to compose herself but failing miserably. "Because I don't want you to go through what I did. You can find someone that makes you feel like you've found an angel on Earth...b-but...it doesn't mean he'll love you back...no matter how amazing your relationship is, no matter how close you are...sometimes, it doesn't matter...
Sometimes, no matter how much your heart yearns for him, he...
He doesn't feel the same way..."
Her mother's hands shake.
"M-mom," the girl whispers, staring at the woman that gave her birth. "I'm s-so--"
But her mother has left the room.
The girl can hear her sobs as she prepares dinner for her husband and children downstairs.
The husband that she had to settle for...
The children that came from a marriage of disappointment and pain.
The girl looks down at her phone. One new text message from Jake.
Suddenly, she doesn't feel so mature anymore. Suddenly, she realizes what could happen.
Suddenly, she realizes love is not happiness and fairy tales...
Suddenly, thanks to her heart-broken mother...she's learned the truth...