“How are the boys?” Mom asked, fiddling with the wrapper from her straw. I didn’t need to ask who she was talking about because I already knew. Jake and Aaron, as children, she called her adopted sons. It was pretty close to the truth, too. I was an only child, and Jake and Aaron were always around. Even when Aaron got bounced from foster home to foster home, he always managed to make his way back to us. I know that even at one point, Mom tried to adopt Aaron officially, but something kept her from succeeding. Single parenthood. Money. Whatever it was, the odds were against her.
“They’re good,” I muttered. I must not have sounded as convincing as I hoped because mom’s thin brows furrowed.
“Are you boys fighting?”
I couldn't help it. I laughed. It was like we were all back in elementary school, punching each other on the playground. “No, Mom, we’re not fighting, okay?”
“Then what’s wrong, baby?” She looked hard at me, and I knew she could read me better than anyone else. No matter how hard I tried sometimes, nothing got past my mom.
“Look, mom, it’s fine. My stupid problems are not even worth discussing right now, okay? I want to hear about you.”
My mom shook her head, lips tightening in a thin line. “You are my son, Matthew, and I am much more interested in your life than I am in my own. Now, tell me what’s going on with you. Something is bothering you, I can tell.”
I sighed and shook my head, knowing that if I didn’t come clean with my petty college issues, my mom wouldn’t just let it drop. She pushed me until I did.
“Fine, mom, it’s about a girl, okay?”
As the words flowed between my lips, Mom’s eyes popped nearly straight out of her skull. She coughed on the soda she just took a drink of and put her hand over her mouth.
“A girl?” she repeated. When I nodded, she shook her head as though the mere thought of a girl I could be interested in was unthinkable.
“Don’t look so surprised.” I popped one of the pinwheels into my mouth. “I am a big boy now, and I like girls.”
“I know that, honey,” Mom said with a chuckle. “But you’ve never liked a girl enough to mention her to me.”
“I guess there hasn’t been anyone worth mentioning until now.” I shrugged, but Mom wasn’t about to let me drop the conversation that easily.
“Tell me about this girl.”
I sighed, rubbing the ache out of my temples. I loved my mother; she has always been the one person to turn to for support and unconditional love. For all I knew, my mother remembered Renee just as vividly as I did from high school, and absolutely none of it was good.
But she had no idea about the bullying. Jake, Aaron, and I ... Well, we were vicious. Only now could I look at my past and own up to that.
“We know her from school,” I said with a slight shrug. “High school. Renee Lyon.”
“Renee.” Mom taps her chin thoughtfully, brow furrowing again. “Renee ... Ren. Thick red hair and glasses, right?”
“Right.”
“I didn’t realize you had a thing for her,” Mom said, thanking the server as she put our food on the table. “I never heard you boys talk about her much. Are you all friends with her?”
“She’s different now,” I said, biting into a chicken taco. “She really grew into herself.”
“Is that the only reason you like her now?” Mom asked, and I could hear the mild disappointment in her voice.
“I don’t know if it is or not, Mom, but that doesn't matter, does it?”
“Does she remember you from school?”
“Oh, yes. She remembers us very, very well.”
Mom eyed me across the table, dry lips pursed into a thin line. She didn’t look pleased.
“What about Jake and Aaron? Do they know who you like?”
“Yeah, well, that’s kind of the problem.” I shook my head and leaned back in the seat, jaw clenching automatically. Mom scans my face with dark eyes, reading me like the open book I’ve always been to her.
“Uh-oh,” she said. “Don’t tell me all three of you are smitten with the one girl.”
