Sara was looking thoroughly uncomfortable when Echo’s giggle reverberated through my head, the first sound I’d heard from her in hours. “Wow! Now she is just something else, isn’t she.” Echo's tone carried a note of superiority. In that one comment, I got a distinct feeling that Echo didn’t like Sara. I ignored Echo’s snide remark and answered Sara’s question instead.
“No, that’s okay, and for the record you assumed right. I am a virgin in both respects. I’ve never really been interested in dating, never really had the time or the patience for boys with school and Volleyball to keep me busy. It took Drew months of pestering me before I finally agreed to go on a date with him. Now I’m glad I finally gave in.”
Sara sat on the foot of the bed and angled her head to the right as she considered me. “Months—not weeks, but months,” she asked slowly, “He’s never that persistent about anything! He must really like you.” Then out of nowhere, she sprang off the bed with forced excitement. “Well then, I guess it’s not Andrew’s heart and emotions I need to be obsessively worrying over then—it’s yours. She seemed to get lost in that realization as she spun around and headed toward the bathroom without another word.
“Ya think?" Echo's voice just oozed with sarcasm, “She’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, is she?”
“Echo stop, she didn’t know in the first place, please just…,” I started to tell her, but she didn’t let me finish.
“So what if she didn’t know? It’s none of her business what goes on between you and Drew.” I could feel Echo's emotions taking a defensive stance. “He’s almost eighteen! He’s an F-in adult, Eden!”
“First, don’t swear at me, Echo. Secondly, she has every right to want to know, she’s his mother. But if we are going with your train of thought please just shut the hell up because whether you're my mother or not—It’s none of your damn business,” I was practically screaming in my head. I’d had my fill of Echo’s point of view, but what was more I could feel the toxicity of her emotions tainting my own.
“Eden? Are you okay, hun?” Sara had strolled out of the bathroom, but I'd been so distracted with Echo that I hadn't even noticed. “I’m sorry sweetie I wasn’t trying to pry. If I said anything to offend you, I’m really sorry, that wasn’t my intention. Andrew accuses me of not having a filter regularly. I suppose this might be one of those times.”
A glance in the mirror told me exactly why she’d come to that particular conclusion. My expression was unmistakably rigid and angry. Echo had pissed me off, and my face portrayed my aggravation loud and clear. I felt the panic rise in me as I grasped for a reason to explain my sudden change in mood but couldn’t think of a single believable, but more importantly, truthful response. I felt Echo’s raging emotions simmer down and heard her take an exaggerated sigh. Her anger was replaced with annoyance.
“Here we go again with this stupid, ‘I shall not tell a lie’ oath. If I could lie for you, I would, but I can’t, and if you tell her the truth she is gonna think you’re batshit crazy. We both know how she’ll more than likely feel about her precious little boy dating someone like that!”
Instead of reacting to the animosity in Echo’s tone, I took a deep breath and decided to try something that had worked with Drew in the hopes that it would work with his mom too. I glanced away from the mirror and faced Sara again. “It’s not anything that you said, Mrs. Graves, and I am the furthest thing from offended.”
“Was it something Drew did?"
To my surprise, her voice rung with protectiveness—for me! I giggled in spite of myself because her vengeful face was nothing short of funny. She couldn’t intimidate a fly. “No, Drew isn’t capable of upsetting me at this point in our relationship, even if he tried,” I told her and then sobered as the answer came to me as truthful as anything had ever been. “I’m just having some family issues right now is all.”
Sara hiked an eyebrow. “Is it something I can help you with, something I can talk to your dad about?”
“I would like to bring it up to him in my own time. If you could just act like you don’t know anything is bothering me, I’d appreciate it. I don’t need him pestering me to death right now.” It was the absolute truth through and through. She didn’t need to know the family issue was that my dead mother’s soul lived in my body along with my own.
She laughed, and the sound was very comforting. “Oh boy, do I ever remember what that felt like. I won’t say anything as long as you promise me something.”
“What’s that,” I asked.
“If you ever feel like you need someone to talk to, just remember, you can always come and talk to me, okay?”
I rolled the idea over in my head a few times before I answered her. “That I can promise, and thank you for understanding.”
Rather than say anything, Sara just nodded her head in acceptance and began rifling through her suitcase. It only took a few seconds of watching her fling clothes over her shoulder and onto the chair behind her to realize she was trying to figure out what to wear. I simply shook my head and headed for the bathroom to shower and get ready for dinner.
Two hours later, we were sitting in a restaurant with a laid back and relaxed atmosphere, not far from the Mississippi River. The only problem was it served
