"Don't worry. Brett and Maria can come over on the weekends. You guys will have fun exploring a new neighborhood."
I just stood and screamed. I couldn't help it. "I don't want to explore a new fucking neighborhood, I want to explore this neighborhood."
And then I did the unthinkable. But, again, I just couldn't help it. I started to cry. Not a soft cry, but a shoulder-shaking, stomach- hurting cry. My mom rushed over to me and hugged me so hard. I put my head on her shoulder and she stroked it. God, I felt like such a baby right now. A stupid, defenseless baby.
"It's alright Mike. We'll adjust."
"I don't want to adjust," I said and wiggled out of her grasp. I walked towards the front door and slammed it as hard as I could as I walked out. I immediately started running in the direction of Maria's house and within seconds I'm up the trellis and in her bedroom. But her room was empty. I didn't feel like walking down stairs in this state, I didn't want to explain to her parents, and definitely not to MacKenzie why I was crying. I took out my phone and sent her a message. I heard a beep and turned to see that she had left it on her bedside table.
So I flopped down on her bed and decided to wait for her to come back. But as I did, and I know I shouldn't, I took her phone and looked at it. Five messages from me, all unread, and one from Jarrod... read. I stopped for a second. I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't... FUCK IT!
I opened the message.
Hope you feeling better. Last night was fun. X
Huh? I stared at the message and read it over and over again. What the fuck was so fun about it exactly? And why the hell had she read his message and not mine?
Maria
MARIA
I came home later that afternoon with my dad, we'd decided to drive out to the lake and get an ice cream too, just incase we weren't already ODing on sugar. It was nice spending time with him like this, and suddenly I felt sorry for Mike. He wouldn't be able to spend time with his dad whenever he wanted to when his parents got divorced. The anger that I felt for him this morning dissipated, and now all I wanted to do was hug him and tell him I would be there and that everything would be okay.
My mother was in her craft room when we get home, doing whatever craft she was currently into. I think she's into scrap booking these days and Pinterest. She has more Pinterest boards than anyone I know and they are all filled with useless crap, like how to remove a stain from a mohair jumper. Stuff like that. Mom-ish stuff that only bored housewife moms would collect. How to make a gluten free, taste free, no fun, boredom inducing vegan pizza?
'Did you too get enough sugar?" She asked with a disapproving eye.
My dad smiled at her and I remembered what he'd said about being meant for each other, "For now," he said in a slightly teasing voice. "But that all depends on what kind of "food" you keep feeding us." He gestured inverted commas and winked at my mom. My dad was cool!
My mom shook her head in mock defeat, and smiled up at my dad. Suddenly, and maybe for the first time ever, I thought they were pretty cute together. I wondered what my mom was like when she was younger, she must have been a much cooler version of herself for my dad to have fallen in love with her. But I guess in her own, strange special way she was rather "interesting."
"Heeeeyyyaaa." I heard McKenzie behind me and she made me jump. She seemed to have this uncanny ability to appear out of nowhere, usually at the worst times too. I looked at her, she had a kind of wicked smile plastered across her face and I knew she was about to do something that I wouldn't like. She was transparent that way. Why was she like this now? She never used to be?
"So I see you have a guy sleeping in your bed Maria?" She said it with mock concern and shot my mother a concerned look too, just to add to the drama of this no doubt well thought out moment.
And she immediately got the reaction she was hoping for when my mom literally flew out of her seat. "What? Who is he? How long has be been there, oh God, Maria, you're not having sex are you?" She hung her head dramatically and I imagined her calling a prayer circle again.
"Bi-sexual slutty daughter to be prayed for at : AM at the Glover house. Snacks provided."
My sister stepped forward looking pleased with herself, "Relax everyone. Its just Mike."
"Oh!" My mother's shoulders dropped and her face unscrunched itself. I was waiting for her to accuse me of having sex with Mike, but she didn't. "Well, that's okay then."
I was shocked. My mother wasn't laying into her year old daughter because there was a boy sleeping in her bed (I didn't even know Mike was there though) Was I that far gone in the friendzone that even my mother knew it? Was it that bad?
I walked upstairs and sure enough, there he was sleeping on my bed holding my pillow. I walked in and closed the door behind me, careful not to make a noise, careful not to wake him because he looks so beautiful. The light was shinning through the window and was hitting his face. I sat in my chair and just watched him. He looked so peaceful and I was overcome with the desire to just crawl
