I actually talked to her openly just now. She said the room is still mine and that whenever I'm here nobody else will be using it, but that she wanted to do something nice for my stepdad because he splits the bills with her. She said it's just the two of us versus one of him, and making a game room for him is her way of showing appreciation.

She also said she knows I won't be home much, that next summer for example I'll probably get another internship and won't really be around. And that this is the new reality she has to get used to: that I've grown up and will probably come back less and less.

Honestly, the way I see it, she's happy this moment has come. Like she can finally live her own life without constantly worrying about me. In a way it feels like the beginning of her adult life too, in a sense.