“Did you see that story in the news?” His mother asked, drawing his attention back. “They found the monster who’d been stalking those girls around Meeker Street. It was a vampire.”
He held in a sigh. His mother was going to play all the hits this morning.
“I looked it up; your apartment is only ten minutes from Meeker.Luis, maybe you should move back in. With your condition it can’t be safe to be near all that. You know there’s probably a whole den of those bloodsuckers nearby—”
“Is this the emergency you were calling me about?” The words slipped out, sharp.
There was a tense moment of silence. He could just picture his mother’s face, the way the corners of her mouth tilted down when he dared talk back. If they’d been in person she probably would’ve reached over and smacked him.
“It is,” she said slowly. “Is it a crime to want to make sure you’re safe? There’s a killer running around andyou don’t answer your phone for two days. Am I not allowed to be concerned?” The volume was rising, her words coming out lashingly quick. “What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t care? Maybe that’s what you’d prefer, someone who just abandoned you like your father did, someone who doesn’t care where you are. Is that what you want? You want me to abandon you?” The question came with a touch of hysterics.
Against his will, the guilt seeped in.
“Mama, no.” Luis barely kept the apology out of the sentence. It was on the tip of his tongue.
She sniffled across the line, but he couldn’t tell if it was authentic or put on. “Then maybe you’ll stop ignoring my calls for days at a time. I love you and I just want to make sure you’re safe. I bent over backwards raising you, trying to make you into a good man–”
“I’m not ignoring–” Luis tried.
“I’m not stupid,” she cut him off. Then there was a loud, audible sigh. “Fine, you were busy with work,” she conceded, but it sounded like anything but a concession. “You work too hard, Luis. Are you eating? I can make some empanadillas and bring them over this afternoon.”
He’d left himself open for that one.
“No Mama, I’m fine. I’m eating. I’m fine.” He looked better than he had yesterday, but if she came over today, she’d definitely see something was off with him.
She hummed as though she didn’t believe him, but didn’t press the issue. “When are you coming over then? It’s been a month since I’ve seen you, it’s too long!”
Not long enough.
But Luis was in a losing battle. He wasn’t going to get off this phone call without giving her something. If he didn’t go there, she’d come here. He needed to at least control when he saw her, and he always preferred if she didn’t come here. He had to hide his personal things when she came over, and he was always nervous she’d still see the empty spaces and justknow.
“How’s Wednesday morning?” Luis worked second shift every day except Friday, so the only times during the week he had available were early. He enjoyed the switch in schedule when he’d been offered it, because aside from making him less available to his mother, he’d always been a bit of a night owl.
“Wednesday is good.” Her tone went honey sweet. Luis hated that tone, it meant he’d given her what she wanted. “I’ll make all your favorites for breakfast.”
“Okay,” he said flatly.
She talked another twenty minutes, but it was passive, her updating him on the dramas of her neighbors and friends at church as if he cared. José and Rachel were getting a divorce, the Harris family down the street were starting up their obnoxiousfront-yard vegetable garden again. Luis pressed his face into the pillow and waited for it to be over.
Then, finally, she was wrapping up. She made another attempt to bring him food which Luis rebuffed, and then they exchanged I love yous. The words tasted like ash in his mouth.
“Answer next time I call,” she said warningly, “I get so worried.”
“I will Mama.”
Then the call was done. He dropped the phone beside him, drained.
Later, he’d have to get up and do the laundry, the dishes, maybe put in a grocery order for the coming week. Eventually, he’d have to look at what had happened on Friday and Saturday.
But for right now, he let all of that slip aside. He grabbed his phone and put on one of his favorite playlists and closed his eyes.
He wanted to pretend a little while longer that he hadn’t just introduced a bomb into his life by letting his vampire employers drink his blood. By letting someone help him with his treatment in a way that had felt… not the worst. Maybe even somewhat less terrible than the way his treatment normally went.
He wanted to pretend he hadn’t just jeopardized the one good thing he looked forward to every week.
But then he thought back to the way Karim had fought for him, the careful way Julien had carried him, and couldn’t regret it. They’d both helped him yesterday to eat and do his treatment, and neither of them had made him feel scared or bad about it.
Luis had never had anyone other than Cassie care about him before. His mother had never left any space for it to happen.
