Page 35 of The Young & the Sinner

Olivia

Saturday morning,I woke feeling apprehensive.

It shouldn’t be this hard. The whole meeting-the-parent thing, I mean. Kids do it all the time. But I had never been one of those kids. And Max would surely intimidate Lorenzo.

When I had invited Lorenzo over, he had sounded excited about the prospect of meeting Max. He even assured me that he didn’t scare easy. But that was because he never had to face someone like Max before.

There was one thing I learned about Lorenzo over the past couple of weeks that I found to be barely tolerable: He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I didn’t even think Lorenzo knew what it meant to run into a challenge. There had never been a problem in his life that he couldn’t throw money at. I frowned down at my hands. That was how he got me to go out with him, wasn’t it?

I shook away the depressing thought. I shouldn’t be questioning either of our motives for being in this relationship. In fact, aside from the dates he took me on, where I let him pay for me, I had never asked him for anything. I didn’t need him to spend money on me.

I worked hard for my money, and even though being a cashier at the grocery store didn’t pay much, it was more than enough for me. I didn’t have any bills, and Max would be appalled if I ever tried to give him rent or grocery money.

Lorenzo often expressed his annoyance over my work schedule. He didn’t understand why I was working at all when he was sure that if I asked, Max would give me spending money. And I knew that was true enough. But I didn’t want it. It was important to me that I kept the same schedule I had before I came to live with him. Plus, I would never feel right about asking that of Max. He was already footing the bill for the absurd tuition the University of Chicago was charging me.

I let out a sigh and leaned back against the couch I’d been sitting on for the past fifteen minutes.

Suddenly, someone sat down next to me and I looked up in surprise. “Whoa there. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, little one,” Mason said.

My nose wrinkled. Little one? Like something you would call a little kid? He grinned, as if he could tell what I was thinking.

He was carrying two mugs of coffee. He handed one to me with a smile. Like every time I was in Mason’s presence, my heart rate accelerated, and I could feel my temperature spiking. There was just something about him that I couldn’t get over, and that was bad, mostly because I was with Lorenzo, but also because Max would have a stroke if he’d ever found out.

This crush was turning out to be such an inconvenience.

“Thank you. And you didn’t. I was just surprised is all.”

“What’s got you so wrapped up in your head? You didn’t even hear me call your name.”

I blushed. Had he been calling my name? “Sorry. Just thinking about today.”

“Ah, the meeting.”

“You don’t have to say it so ominously.”

Mason threw his head back and laughed. I stared, mesmerize. I had never seen him laugh so cheerfully before, and it was a joyful sight to behold. That is until I realized he was laughing at me.

I scowled. Mason ruffled my hair. I scowled harder. This was such a big-brother gesture. Max liked to ruffle my hair, and though I wasn’t a fan of it, I didn’t mind it so much. But I didn’t want Mason to act like my big brother. Not when my feelings toward him were very unbrotherly.

“Ah, don’t look at me like that. I’m sorry. I just never heard a teenager use words like ‘ominously’ in a sentence before.”

I scoffed. “Well, I don’t know the kind of teenagers you’ve been talking to, but this one does.”

I could feel my cheeks getting redder. Did I sound strange when I spoke? I never thought about it, but I had always been a little antisocial, and I knew I read more words than I spoke. But had I somehow adopted a way of speaking that was… weird?

Lorenzo sometime looked at me like I was, especially when I tried to discuss some of the plays I had been reading.

“Don’t feel bad. I think it’s great. I happen to like the way you talk.”

My flaming cheeks weren’t getting any better, but this time, it was for a completely different reason. Not knowing how to respond, I took a sip of my coffee, buying time to think of something else to say.

“Has Max talked to you about how he feels about Lorenzo coming today?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, is he excited to meet him… again? As my boyfriend this time.”

“Max is feeling a lot of things about today, but I don’t think excitement is one of them.”

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