Page 75 of How We Fooled

Liza

I’ve been locked in my room since I got home from Billings. I’m absolutely sick to my stomach about getting caught. If Maya tells just one person, we are beyond screwed. What will I do? Will I have to go back to California? I can’t stay here, only to become the talk of these towns. I’m already milking off my aunt and uncle enough. If I don’t have a job, I can’t ask them to still take me in.

The thought of going back to California is almost worse than losing Eli altogether. I know if I move, then there is no way Eli and I can ever make it work. That would be a finalization between us that I can’t risk.

I need to talk to someone, so I pick up the phone and call my mom. She thinks we ended our relationship, but it’s time to tell her the truth because I need to talk this through with someone.

“Hello, mija,” she answers, and I instantly break down. “Whoa, what’s wrong, baby?”

“Mom, we got caught, and if they tell anyone, my life is over,” I say through my tears.

“Who got caught? Mija, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

“I didn’t break it off with Eli, like I told you. We’ve been still texting and talking every day. We just want to be together, so we went to Billings, but one of his friends saw us together.”

I hear the sound of disapproval with her deep sigh into the phone, making me want to die even more. I’ve listened to her vent about my sister for years. I was the good daughter, the one she didn’t have to worry about, yet here I am, a teacher dating her student. She must be so disgusted with me right now.

“Love sucks, doesn’t it?” she says to my surprise, making me let out a hard laugh.

“Yes, it does. You’re not mad at me?”

“Mija, why would I be mad at you? I know the entire situation, and I know how much you loved that man. I didn’t understand how you broke it off so easily. Now, I see that it’s because you didn’t.” She laughs. “I’m sad you’ve been having to hide it, but I understand why.”

“Eli says she’ll keep it a secret, but how do we trust that?”

“You have to. Or if she does tell someone, you have to lie in the bed you made. You can’t go back now.”

“What if I lose my job?”

“Then, you’d better hope he gets drafted so he can take care of you,” she says in a teasing voice.

“How do you know about that?”

“Are you kidding? Your dad’s been following him since you first started dating. He knows he’s nationally ranked. He knows his name is being thrown around as a prospect.”

“How did I not know he was following him like that? I don’t even really know of his prospects of being drafted.”

“I think it gave him something to be excited about. With your sister’s drama, Lord knows we need some good things to think about. We thought you broke it off, so it wasn’t like he was going to mention it to you. He’s finding his name in a lot of things though. The possibility is there, for sure.”

“Which means …” I say, not wanting to admit it to myself.

“What?”

“Which means if we get caught, it could ruin it all for him …” I’ve been so focused on my career that I haven’t thought about his.

She sighs. “I have no clue what that would mean for him. He’s eighteen. You guys met before you were his teacher. In some people’s eyes, it would still be a big deal. In others, maybe not.”

My brain goes in a million different directions as I try to wrap my head around everything going on here. Every single thing says we cannot be together, but every single ounce of my soul wants him more than life itself.

It all makes zero sense.

“Try not to overthink it,” Mom says, taking me from my thoughts. “Go day by day. What will be will be,” she says with a sense of faith.

That’s how she is with my sister. She always says she’s in God’s hands and that she has to have faith he will lead her in the right direction.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Anytime, mija. I’m sorry you’re in this situation, but it’s only a season. If you guys are meant to be, you’ll have the rest of your lives together. I can’t wait to tell your dad though that you are still with him. He’ll be excited to know we might have a ballplayer in the family!”

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