Page 35 of The Comedown

With his mouth half-full, he complains, “It’s not fair when you two gang up on me.”

“Think about kids that live with both parents, they get it all the time,” Irelynn says, and Collette curses, dropping the knife in her hold.

“Are you okay?” I reach out a hand, wanting to touch her, but hold myself back.

With a tight smile, she says, “I’m fine. Here. Just take mine.”

“You said you would eat.”

“I will. I’ll have…” She rolls on to her tiptoes to reach into a high cupboard, pulling out another one of those packets of baby food, but it’s out of her hand and tossed back into the cupboard before she can settle back on to her heels.

She glares at me, and I smirk, closing the cupboard to emphasize my point.

“You said you were leaving.”

“I lied.” Just because I know I should leave doesn’t mean I actually want to. Besides, everybody knows I never do what I’m supposed to.

Without taking her eyes from mine, she brings the sandwich up to take a bite. It’s weak compared to her son’s, but teenage boys are like cows grazing in a field. Those motherfuckers never stop eating.

“Go sit with your boy and I’ll make my own,” I tell her, hoping like hell she won’t kick me off the bus for ordering her around. It’s not exactly an order, I just feel bad she missed time with Holter to take care of me. If I can make it up to them, even in this tiny stupid way that probably doesn’t mean anything to anyone else, I will.

Collette hands sandwiches off to Irelynn and the other woman, introducing her to me as Mary, Holter’s nanny. Nobody’s allowed to actually call her his nanny since he’s a teen now, so she’s just…Mary.

I introduce myself to her, too, before piling one slice of bread with a handful of ham, then squirting mustard all over it. I’m not using mayonnaise. I didn’t know that’s all Collette had or I would’ve said something sooner. I’ll choke it down dry with no sandwich lube at all before I use mayonnaise.

Finished, I sit next to Collette at the table, telling Holter, “You got tall, dude. I think it was at last year’s Mousai Awards when I saw you last, and I swear you weren’t half this size.”

“Yeah, I get it from my dad.” His eyes touch on his mom, then drop.

“Bodee is very tall,” Collette chirps, and the other women agree like well-trained robots. “We should have you two stand next to each other to measure when he gets here. See who’s taller.”

Gets here?

“When I went with him last month, we did that, and he was still taller than me by two inches.”

“That was last month and I’m pretty sure you grow half an inch a day, so…” Collette laughs, but I’m still stuck on that whole “when he gets here” part. The “last month” part isn’t sitting right either. Holter hasn’t seen his dad, his richer-than-shit dad, for a month? Bodee’s got his own private jet. I’ve seen it. It’s got his ugly fucking mug on the sides.

“Are you tired of being on tour yet?” I ask Holter, trying to get off the topic of Bodee Keys.

Holter chuckles. “It just started.”

“Yeah, this one did, but I mean tour life in general. How do you handle school when you’re always traveling? Friends? When do you see them?”

“Sometimes I do remote schooling, but I haven’t had to for…what? Has it been a full year?”

Collette’s head rocks side to side like she’s doing the math. “This past year, you did it almost all in person.”

“And my best friend lives,” he makes a face at Collette that makes her snort, “up the driveway from me, so I see him every day. His dad takes us to school, and Mary and I eat dinner there a couple times a week.”

Mary adds, “More since they built that pizza oven.”

Collette nods, saying, “Oh, yeah, I still need to try that.”

I turn to her. “I thought you just came off another tour on to this one.”

“And one before that,” Irelynn says, then winces, looking at Collette, too.

“Unfortunately, it isn’t always…suitable for Holter to come along, so Mary stays with him when I can’t, and I fly back to see him whenever I get the chance.”