Page 54 of The Comedown

Automatically, Mary chastises him, saying, “Watch your language,” to which Julian responds with, “Shit, sorry.”

I’m not going to kick any ass. I’m just going to hold some brats responsible for their actions. Anybody can be brave behind a screen. I want to see how bold they are when they get called out in front of their parents.

Holter mutters, “It’s okay. I’ve heard it before.”

I open my eyes to study him and then Julian, who’s bobbing his head, the hands at his sides alternating between twisting his many rings and clenching and unclenching.

“So, was that it? Is that all yinz were talking about before I came in? Or was there something else that had your mom all indisposed?”

“Yinz?” Holter questions.

“Yeah, yinz.” Julian looks around like it should be obvious before telling us, “Man, yinz need some culture. It’s the Pittsburgh way of saying y’all, or you guys.”

“Oh, please. You don’t even know what indisposed means.”

He thins his eyes at me. “I know what it means.”

I laugh, shaking my head against the loveseat’s upholstery. He doesn’t know.

“Anyway, since you asked, what has me all ‘indisposed’ is the fact that my only child is too embarrassed to introduce me to his girlfriend.” Holter makes a sound in the back of his throat. “And still has the audacity to want to take her on a date.” Now my throat’s making a weird sound. “Probably with my money, and with my name on the reservation.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Yet,” Irelynn adds unhelpfully.

“Told you that word fucking sucks,” Julian says to me.

“Language,” Mary tsks, this time without even looking up from her e-reader.

“Fuck,” Julian blurts, making all of us laugh.

“What word?” I ask him once everyone’s quiet again, the mood rapidly improving.

“Date.”

I roll my eyes, heaving myself up to sitting, my upper half swaying from the movement even when I’m stationary.

Am I stationary?

“What’s wrong?” I hear Julian ask, but it takes me a few blinks to make both his bodies blend back into one.

“Um, nothing?” Right? I check around me, making sure I’m actually upright and everyone that was here a second ago is still here. It feels like I blacked out but didn’t lose any time.

“Then what just happened?”

“I don’t know. I must’ve got light-headed or something.”

For the first time since barging in here, Julian frowns, pulling out his phone without taking his eyes from mine.

“When’s the last time you ate?”

“When’s the last time you ate?” I counter, then immediately follow up with a much softer, “I think I’m just worn out from the show.” I did perform twice as long tonight.

Tearing my gaze away from Julian’s merciless stare, I focus on Holter, asking, “How is that supposed to work? You want to take this girl out on a date, but I can’t meet her. You’re thirteen years old, Holter.”

“Where you trying to go?” Julian asks my son.

“Alma.”