Page 23 of Paint Eater
She turned to Jay. “See how polite he is?”
“I’m polite!”
“Not spilling milk anywhere…”
“We haven’t even eaten yet. Maybe he’ll spill the whole plate.”
His mom snorted as they all finally sat down, each person serving themself. Jay piled a mountain of spaghetti on his plate, ignoring the exasperated look his mom sent him.
“I’m a growing boy, Mom,” he protested.
“Oh, say it ain’t so,” she said dramatically.
Jay stuck his tongue out at her, and she did it right back.
“Anyway,” his mom said, turning to Logan. “I hope you know that we’re not usually this uncouth.”
Jay laughed. “Uncouth?And yes we are. We’re exactly this uncouth all the time, every day.”
His mom ignored him. “So, Logan. You’re in college?”
“Yes. Uh. Majoring in Business and Economics.”
“Oh! You planning to go into business? Start your own?”
“Yeah. I mean, yes.”
“Any particular field?”
“Uh. Not sure yet.”
Jay’s mom waved her hand. “Well, plenty of time to find out. I was pregnant with this one before I figured out that I needed to do something with my life. Everybody has different paths in life.”
Logan looked down at his plate, nodding.
“What do you get up to when you’re not in college?”
Logan stiffened, the silence extending awkwardly.
Jay leaned forward. “He’s great at photography. I took him to that church mural in Bed-Stuy, remember I showed you?”
“Oh, that one’s amazing.”
“Yeah! And I haven’t seen the pictures printed or on the computer or anything, but they looked really good on the camera. Logan showed me liketwo, but still. They could go in a gallery.”
Life returned to Logan’s face, rolling his eyes. “Come on.”
“Theycould,” Jay insisted. “I bet the ones with the kids by the water hydrant are really good too.”
Logan huffed, but Jay’s mom was nodding. “My boy has a good eye. Trust him.”
Logan looked embarrassed, which was curious to see outside of a kissing-and-touching context.
Jay smiled. “Yeah, you could do so many things with a business degree. You can open a gallery.”
His mom nodded. “Or a photography business.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jay said. “That makes more sense.”
