“I think that’s a great idea, babe,” I told him with a reassuring smile. The tension seemed to melt away from his body, his grin growing more confident as we paid for our food and headed to our table. “Besides, I don’t think this is going to get any better,” I muttered under my breath when I looked up and saw the assistant principal glaring at me from where he stood across the room.
“We’ll talk to him tonight,” Kingston started, “unless you want to come with us. Your grounding’s over tonight, isn’t it?”
At the reminder of what day it was, a solid lump formed in my stomach. Nerves that I had been trying to avoid thinking about, returned with a vengeance. I was excited for dinner with my mom, but for whatever reason, I had an odd sense of dread worming its way through me.
“Uh, I’m actually going to make dinner tonight,” I explained quietly. “I decided on Sunday that I was really struggling with the rift between my mom and me, and since she’s been home so much it might be nice to try and… I don’t know… work it out? So she said she’ll have dinner with me, and we can try and talk some stuff out like we used to. Figured with it being a workday she’d appreciate if I made dinner and everything. Going to be running to the store after school and picking up the stuff I need for it. Since my grounding was up, I figured it would be all right to not come home immediately.”
“That’s sweet, Cali girl.” Reid was smiling, but I could see the sad glimmer in his gaze as he looked at me. I tried to come up with something reassuring to say about the fact that his parents had kicked him out and refused to talk to him, but when I couldn’t, I reached over and took his hand, squeezing gently. “I’m sure it’ll be great.”
“You’ll be able to text us while you’re doing that too which will be nice. Well, that is if you’re allowed to keep your phone,” Kingston added. Jesse nodded next to him silently. “We can always ask you if there’s anything we’re confused about or think we’re missing when we talk to Dad.”
“Yeah, you enjoy your time with your mom, Em. We can hang out tomorrow after school or…” Jesse trailed off, glancing at the others in a not-so-subtle way that caught my attention. My gaze narrowed in suspicion, but I waited patiently for them to do their weird silent communication. “Even go out Friday, for Valentine’s Day?”
“Will you be our valentine, Cali girl?” Reid asked, and my eyes fell on the bundled bouquet of heart-shaped lollipops in his hand that I assumed he grabbed from his backpack. All three of them watched me with tiny grins and hopeful expressions as I took the candied present and flipped open the small tag.
We’re suckers for you, our sweetheart!
I gasped as soon as I finished reading their note. It was sweet, and I loved the three hand drawn hearts at the bottom. Nodding fervently, I had completely forgotten Valentine’s Day was this upcoming weekend.
“We would have planned on asking you in some cute way, but that was kind of hard with the grounding and everything,” Kingston explained with a sheepish shrug.
“You guys don’t need to do stuff like that every time you want to ask me out—”
“No, but we like to,” Reid cut me off, pointing at me with a half-eaten fry, “so expect something cheesy and ridiculous for prom.” With his declaration, we all laughed and went back to eating, but all I could think was one thing.
I can’t wait.
The grocery store was fairly empty, most people were at their jobs since it was still the workday, so I was able to push the cart up and down the aisles easily and not have any of the dreaded traffic jams with other shoppers. Music filled the headphones that I had stuffed into my ears, not wanting to make small talk as I ran over my list. Hopefully, none of the recipes I had picked out were things that would remind her of my dad… well, non-biological dad, I thought.
As I continued to stroll down the aisle and put the ingredients into the cart, my chest squeezed with the memories. I missed my mom, and when we were fighting and arguing, it was easy to let the anger and hurt flow, but the truth of the matter was, I loved her, and I didn’t want to lose the close relationship we had.
Taking a deep breath, I focused on the positives. Not only would we have a yummy meal together, we could finally have some time for just us. My mom and me. No boys or work or drama… hopefully.
With those in mind, the shopping went faster and my mood improved significantly. Not only was there a smile on my lips, but a little pep in my steps as I felt myself nearly skipping down the fruit and vegetable section. As I placed the salad ingredients in the cart, my gaze fell on the small flower section of the store. A bundle of bright colorful flowers arranged beautifully in a small ceramic vase caught my eye, so I headed that way and checked the price.
I would have just enough to be able to get the flowers, yay!
Wheeling the cart to the check out, I found myself humming along to the song in one headphone, pulling the other loose so I could hear the cashier. It went quickly, and before I knew it, I was wheeling my haul to the parking lot.
I loaded up the trunk of my car, returned the cart, and headed home, dancing by myself the entire way. In the midst of all the completely emotionally draining events that had happened in the last few weeks, it felt good to have a few positive things happen, first with the Valentine’s date the boys had asked me on, and now this.
The drive was peaceful, my humming continuing along with the radio as I turned into my neighborhood a little while later. The driveway was empty which lately hadn’t been surprising since my mom had kept her car parked in the garage, but when I unloaded the first batch of groceries, the house was once again depressingly silent. A notepad sat in the center of the counter, my mom’s script scrawled across it.
Work emergency came up, will be back in time for dinner!
Love, Mom
P.S. I’ll bring our favorite ice cream for dessert
“Oo, ice cream. Yummy,” I murmured, a smile spreading over my face. That meant I could make dinner without it being potentially awkward and still enjoy the time with my mom. Glancing at the clock, I realized it was only four, giving me plenty of time to work. I went about unloading the rest of the bags from my car, making sure to be careful with the vase of flowers. Right as I set them on the center of the table with a happy clap, my phone started to ring with the signature ringtone I had specifically for the boys.
“Hey,” I greeted, “I’m putting you on speaker as I unload the bags.”
“How was the store, Em?” Jesse asked. Rustling sounded in the background along with Reid and Kingston egging each other on, probably over a video game if the ‘ugh!’ shouted at the end of Jesse’s question was any indication.
“Good, not busy which was nice. Got everything I wanted to and had enough to spare for some pretty flowers. How’s it going there? I’m assuming Reid just lost the race or match you three are playing?” As I talked, I started washing veggies, filling the pot with water and putting the pan on the stove to brown the meat for the lasagna.
“They’re so mean to me, Cali girl!” Reid whined playfully. “I never win.”
“You just won the last race, stop trying to be pathetic,” Kingston countered, laughing at Reid’s ridiculousness. “But I’m happy you got everything you needed for tonight. Still nervous?”