Page 39 of Taking Care of You
Well, hello to you too, Mom.
Sighing, I tell her, “I was hanging out with a friend, Mom.”
“A male friend?”
I know what she’ll say if I confirm I am hanging out with another guy. So I don’t say anything at all. I slide around her and try to walk to my room.
“Get the fuck back here!” she yells, making me jump violently. I close my eyes for a second before turning around to face her. “Don’t you walk away from me. You’re under my roof and you’ll show me respect.” She’s slurring her words so bad that I barely understand what she’s saying. It’s only three in the afternoon and she’s already three sheets to the wind. God, why is she like this?
“I’m sorry, Mom,” I murmur with my head down. If I’m contrite enough, she'll let me off the hook so I can go to my room and stay out of her way.
“Yeah, you are sorry. A sorry excuse for a fucking son. Now clean up this nasty-ass house. I won’t live in filth.” She pushes past me, almost falling before she goes into her room and slams the door.
Sighing, I go to my room, toss my backpack on my bed and go back to the living room. She stopped moving the couch whenI walked in, so now it’s in the middle of the floor. The TV stand and TV aren’t together, with the TV on the floor and the stand on its side. I don’t know where she was going with that. The floor lamp is beside the couch, and the coffee table and end tables are shuffled into the kitchen.
It'll take me a while to get everything exactly how it was. If I don’t, I’ll just have to do it again.
If I had the money, I wouldn’t come back here. I’m eighteen—technically an adult and legally able to get an apartment. I’m responsible enough to get up for school on time and get my homework done.
But I’m broker than broke, so I have to stay here to keep a roof over my head. Going to Ethan’s house is the greatest escape. The main reason? My mother doesn’t know where he lives. I could never hide at Crystal’s because my mother would walk down the street in nothing but a tattered robe and house slippers looking for me.
This is the first time I’ve been able to escape the hell that I live in. I can be somewhere that I’m not talked down to and treated like shit. A place that’s warm, smells good and is welcoming, where the people treat me good, and I have a friend. A best friend...that I'm hopelessly falling in love with.
I curse to myself, coming to terms with what I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about for weeks. How could I not be falling? Ethan is the best person I know. He’s been there for me since we met. He’s listened to me cry, comforted me, and kept me company when I needed it. He’s trying to do what he can to guarantee I don’t get picked on and called slurs by putting his reputation on the line. He’s opened up to me, sharing things with me he hasn’t told his other friends.
It’s probably inevitable that I’m falling so hard and so fast. We’ve only been friends for about a month, not nearly enough time to be in love by most people’s standards, but it is what it is.
No one has treated me so well or been so kind to me. Crystal has been my best friend since we were five. She’s been kind to me since the beginning. It’s different with Ethan, our friendship just began. He doesn’t owe me anything, but he’s going out of his way to do things for me anyway.
I’m in big fucking trouble.
After comingto my realization about falling for Ethan, I try my hardest to not make things weird. But it’s hard.
I know I’m fucking it up, but it’s like the floodgates have opened and I can’t help myself.
The next time Ethan touched me, I shivered. When he kissed my forehead before I went into class, I had to hold myself back from standing on my tiptoes to plant my lips on his. I’ve never kissed anyone before, so those thoughts are startling.
At lunch, he keeps giving me strange looks because I’m being quiet again. I’m trying not to be, but I can’t help it. Now that I know my feelings have grown, I don’t know how to act. I liked him before getting to know him, but now it’s amplified. It’s like my belly is full of butterflies on crack, trying to escape and make me word vomit my feelings.
So I keep quiet. Or I’ll ruin our friendship.
“You okay?” he asks when he’s walking me to class.
“Fine,” I whisper.
He doesn’t push, but I know he wants to. Another thing I appreciate about him. He lets me talk about things in my own time. He is patient with me, never prying anything out of me before I’m ready.
The rest of the day passes by rapidly, like time wants me to see Ethan as quickly as possible.
Despite how I feel, I can’t help the smile that stretches my face when I see him at the end of the day. He just looks so good. The most handsome guy I’ve ever seen.
He wraps me in a hug and I hold him tight, not wanting to let him go. But I do with great reluctance.
“Ready, creep?” he asks after a quick forehead kiss.
I nod and he takes my hand, walking to his car. I spot Elle a few spaces over and wave at her. She’ll probably follow us to Ethan’s house.
Maybe it’s just me, but the tension is thick in the car. Like there’s something building that I can’t help or stop. Something that’s inevitable.
