Page 39 of Falling Too Late

CHAPTER 17

WREN

Alexand I sat in a booth along the back wall of Tony’s, the diner that Gloria worked at. The diner was old, and it smelled like pancakes and grease. I was wearing cutoffs with a black tank top and had to keep adjusting to peel the backs of my legs off the fake leather seat.

“Here you two go.” Gloria set down two milkshakes in front of us. Strawberry for me, chocolate for Alex.

“Thank you,” we said in unison, bringing the bendy straw to our lips and sucking deeply.

It was a Friday night, and the diner was moderately busy. It was August and hot in the late summer months and the apartment just wouldn’t cool down. We were escaping here tonight for a while. Gloria rolled her eyes when I asked for a coloring page and some crayons, but she gave them to me anyways, and I colored the pig with the cowboy hat that saidTony’sacross the top of it. She even gave one to Alex, who worked on his for a bit before folding the page into a football, and now we were flicking it back and forth. Each holding our hands up like they were goalies and trying to see who could make the most and not get our eyes poked out.

“So, where are you two going tonight again?” Gloria sat down next to me in the booth between tables. I laid my head on her shoulder, and she brought her hand up, cupping my cheek.Icould faintly smell cigarettes on her. I had been smelling it more and more lately. I wasn’t sure if she just started smoking or if it was something I hadn’t noticed at first.

I loved Gloria.

I loved Gloria more than I’d loved anyone else ever before. She was the mother I never had. She braided my hair for me and then taught me how to braid it myself. Every Sunday she volunteered down at the shelter and would bring things home for me. Everything she said included me. Even though I felt like a burden to her, another mouth to feed when she could already barely feed Alex and herself.

The only thing that made it better was she finally started to receive checks for my care.??

“There’s a party that a bunch of our friends are going to. It’s at Teddy Clark’s place,” Alex said around a spoonful of milkshake.

It amazed me how honest Alex always was with his mom. From the beginning, he never lied to her. As far as I could tell, he was always up-front and honest with her. I thought back to his confession of not wanting to ask for more from her. He didn’t want to see her working more.

Alex and I had tried to get summer jobs. We wanted to contribute more, be able to get Gloria something special for her birthday and Mother’s Day, but Gloria wouldn’t hear of it.?

You two will work when you are adults. Once you start working, it never stops. I want you two to enjoy your last few summers.?

“Well, you two be careful and look out for each other.” She kissed the top of my head before scooching out of the booth, kissing Alex’s cheek, then pointing to him with a hitched brow. “Watch after our girl.”

Alex grinned, his eyes sliding over to me. “I got her, Ma, don’t you worry about that.”

We could hear the music from Teddy Clark’s driveway. He and his parents lived on the outskirts of town in an old two-story farmhouse. His parents had gone on some kind of vacation, so this gave him the opportunity to throw a party.

The gravel crunched under our feet as we walked up the driveway.

“I’m nervous.” I started to chew on the side of my thumb. “I’ve never been to a party before.”

“Stop it.” Alex grabbed my hand, preventing me from chewing on my thumbnail. “You have been to a party and it’s going to be fine. It’s like a giant hang out with music.”

“That was just Jon’sbirthdayparty. That’s not a high schooldrinkingparty.”

I didn’t know what to do or how to act at something like this. I stopped in my tracks, causing Alex to stop. “Let’s not do this.”

His thumb caressed the back of my hand in small circles, a thoughtful look on his face. “If you really don’t want to go, we won’t.”

I knew he meant it. I knew if I told him I wanted to go home, go back to the apartment and hang out in our room, reading or playing another game of Uno, he would. He would take me home and not say another thing about it.

There was a thought that tickled the back of my mind. Did Alex go to parties before me? What was his life like before he brought me into it? Did he hang out with friends and drink and just relax? Who was he before me?

These were answers I wanted, but didn’t know how to ask.

“Just for a little while,” I conceded.

A smile spread across his lips. “You don’t have to drink. If you do, pace yourself.” He tugged me along and we weaved between the parked cars up to the porch.

“Hey, Harper!” Some guy in a gray beanie slapped Alex’s shoulders as we walked up the steps. “It's been a while, where ya been, man?”

“Hey,” Alex greeted. I stood halfway behind him. The guy looked at our joined hands, then back up to us. “This your girl?”

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