I wondered whether I should lie to her, but it was probably too late. And anyway, I was tired of hiding. “We’re dating,” Iadmitted, and waited for trouble to come. But Mom was silent for a moment.
“You’re grounded,” she finally said.
“What? Now you’re kidding, right?”
“Cameron,” she said, “go take a shower. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.”
My brother looked at my mother and then at me, and I could tell he was happy to get away. He ran off up the stairs, and Mom spun around and went back to the kitchen.
“You can’t punish me for having a boyfriend,” I said, hot on her heels.
“I can punish you for whatever reason I feel like.”
“You can, huh? Then you better buy a padlock and shut me in my room because there’s no way I’m staying home just because you tell me to.”
Mom stopped stirring whatever she had in the pot and looked at me in a fury. “It’s not enough that I’m getting a divorce! It’s not enough that your father’s broke! No! You have to go out with the last person your father and I would ever want to see you with!”
“Can you stop making everything about you? This is my life! I’m having a hard time too! And in case you forgot, Taylor and Thiago used to be my best friends before you screwed everything up and they had to move away!”
“Well, you can kiss them both goodbye because this is not happening, not as long as you’re under my roof.”
“Sure, Mom, you screw their dad and that means I can’t be Taylor’s girlfriend? Sorry, that’s not how it works. Taylorismy boyfriend, and the sooner you get used to the idea, the better.”
Without waiting for a response, I turned on my heels and walked up to my room.
