“Like you could survive a month without your phone.”
Caroline made a face, covered her cell with her hands, and whispered, “Shh, you’re going to hurt her feelings.”
The boys started banging on the back door to be let in, and I took that as my cue to leave. The last thing I wanted was for their filth to rain down upon my outfit. I slipped out the front door and dashed through the downpour to my car. Once in the dry vehicle, I thought about my family. I’d never spent a day away from them, and now, not only would I be gone for nearly two months, but I was also planning to leave them altogether after the show was completed. I wondered if I would have the courage to leave them behind to follow my own path. God, I hoped so.
* * *
The interview tookabout ten minutes. Apparently my life was so boring I couldn’t even get my fifteen minutes of fame. I was peppered with questions about the show and the recruiting process, and I happily answered. Slowly I was adjusting to the camera and feeling more comfortable in front of it. At least, until I was hit by a query I hadn’t expected. This was supposed to be a lighthearted fluff piece, not an exposé. Yet the reporter began describing my mother’s death as if were the most natural thing she could speak of. My stomach clenched in grief, as it always did when someone mentioned her.
“Do you think losing your mother in such a tragic way has conditioned you to seek out adventures in your own life?”
I wanted to laugh in her face. If anything, her loss had driven me inward and created a more cautious person. What I was doing – competing onMarooned– had nothing to do with my mother and everything to do with myself. I’d spent too many years living the life that was supposed to be hers. No more. From now on, my future was mine to make.
3
Kyle: Family Matters
Walkingup the ramp at LAX, I could hear them before I could see them.
“There he is,” Mom sighed in relief.
“Where?” Dad asked in his signature clueless tone.
“Over there!”
“Where? I can’t see him.”
“Oh, my god, Scott,” Mom’s irritated voice echoed. “He’s literally right there!”
Dad kept searching the crowd until I magically appeared before him.
“Oh, there you are,” he beamed.
Mom rolled her eyes.
A smile spread across my face.Those two!“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.”
“Kyle!” Mom came in for a hug. “Ahh. Look at you! You’re taking the scruff to a whole new level, aren’t you?”
“Nice to see you too,” I grinned.
She pulled on my sorry excuse for a goatee. “What’s this thing called?”
“I call it Jim.”
Mom laughed. “Well, will ‘Jim’ be joining us for Mitch’s wedding?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“Maybe you should start now, since it typically takes you a while to make big decisions,” Mom teased.
“Are we really having this discussion?”
“I just want you to look nice for your brother’s wedding. That’s all.”
“No one’s going to care if I have whiskers, Mom.”
“Yeah, Michelle,” Dad grinned. “They’d first have to get past his ugly mug.”
