Page 24 of True Honey
“Why?” He leaned forward, clearly very suspicious of me.
“You’re a teenager, you’re supposed to be excited to skip school,” I said with a nervous laugh but August didn’t break his judgmental stare. I didn’t necessarily blame him, I had a poor track record for keeping him in school and even worse keeping him in one place. But it wasn’t anything bad this time around. “I found us an apartment. We can move in today, if you want.”
“Like a real place to stay?” August sat up straighter, suddenly much more interested in the morning conversation. “Permanently?”
“Yeah, Auggie. Permanently. It came with my new job, I’m working for the college baseball team in town.” I nodded, and watched him flush with excitement. “I mean…we’ll have a roommate for a while but just until I can find us something even better…”
“Anything is better than the car or this hotel. It smells like mold in here,” he laughed but a smile formed on his face, one I hadn’t seen in a long time. “Thanks Mom,” he said softly and the sound of his surprised appreciation was enough to bring tears to my eyes.
“I’m going to shower,” I said, my throat tight as I rose from the bed. I refused to cry in front of him, especially when he was so excited. “Get dressed and clean up your things, after breakfast we’ll pick up the U-haul.”While most of our belongings were in the car, we had managed to collect furniture along the way in hopes that one day we might actually find something more permanent.
“Burritos?” he asked, shuffling from the bed. I noddedbefore slipping into the bathroom and pressing my back against the door and rubbing my flat palm against my chest to keep my spiraling into a panic attack.
I inhaled slowly, filling my lungs with air on a count of four, holding it and releasing it with the same count. Trying to get a grip before I cried again.
Today wasn’t for that, today would be good. It had to be, for August.
I gave him so much hope with such a domestic and mundane decision. Something a good parent would have provided from the start and yet, he was just thankful for a chance at a normal life, even just for a little while.
It broke my heart.
I triple checked the map on my phone as we pulled up to the massive iron gates that blocked the mouth of the driveway.
“Mom, that’s not an apartment,” August said, peering through the windshield at the massive manor at the top of the small hill. “That’s a mansion.”
“I’m not even sure this is the correct address,” I scowled and flickered back to my note app again, seeing that it was correct. I chewed the inside of my cheek and flipped through my contacts, searching to see where Silas had put his number and called him.
“Hello?”he answered and I could hear people talking in the background.
“Shoot, are you at work?” I asked.
“No, no…”Silas said, he must have moved somewhere quieter because the chatter died down on his end.“Are you here?”he asked.
“I think?” I said, “you said it was an apartment but I’m staring at a massive house that looks like it belongs in a horror movie…”
“Welcome to the Nest,”he laughed, but I didn’t get the joke and the awkwardness surged between us over the phone. “I’ll open the gate…”He said after he had stopped nervously laughing.
The iron bars clicked open and swung inward leaving me room to enter, “thanks,” I said, hanging up the phone and pulling the car up the driveway with the small U-haul attached to the back. Silas was standing on the porch in a hoodie, looking more casual than I’d ever seen him.
“Who is that?” August asked.
“My new boss,” I sighed and cut the engine on the car. “And our new roommate.”
“I regret skipping school to get murdered,” August muttered, apprehensive.
“Be polite, Auggie. Keep the serial killer jokes to a minimum, ” I warned and climbed from the car.
“Sorry about the gate, we’ve had to keep it closed lately, usually it’s a free for all…” Silas said, turning to look at August as he rounded the car and leaned against the hood. “You must be August.” Silas stepped down off the porch and held out his hand for him.
I cleared my throat when August didn’t move to shake it, “I’m sorry it’s still pretty early for him…” I apologized with a nervous smile.
“The guys call me Doc, or…” Silas sighed, narrowing his eyes up into the sun, “Grandpa…”
That made August smile in amusement, a tiny echo of laughter tumbling from him. He pulled off his headphones and stared Silas down for another second and stuck his hand out finally, “Auggie,” he said.
“I like that,” Silas said with a nod. Thankfully one of us was comfortable in the situation because I could feel my skin crawling with the lie that I had told August and it was only making me feel worse.
I took a long quiet breath and forced a bigger smile when they looked over at me. “I know you said that the apartment was furnished but we had some things in the U-Haul and then I can work on finding storage…”
