Page 10 of Honest With You

Shaking my head, I run up the stairs to my room at the end of the hall. Clapping the wall where I know the light switch is, I wait as light illuminates my room and groan.

Of course she did.

Four weeks ago, when I left, I had black sheets and my room was in a perpetual state of organized chaos, just the way I preferred it. Now, my room is pristine. Nothing on the floors. My guitar rests on an actual stand in the corner with my songbooks stacked neatly on a shelf next to it. My desk is organized, equipped with new pen holders. And my bed is now blanketed infreaking baby bluesheets and….What the fuck?

Are thosethrow pillows?

I step into my room and heave my suitcase onto the foot of my bed.

I pick them up. Somehow, it’s not registering in my head that I’m really looking at what I’m looking at. Picking one up in each hand, I stare. Shaking my head, I shut my eyes for a second and stare again. I look away, then back again, hoping in that miniscule amount of time I’ve blinked the eyesores away.

No such luck. A sound reverberates from inside my throat and it comes out in something that sounds like a cross between a growl and a screech.

“MOOOOOM!”

Not even a second later, she peeks from behind the door. I just know she followed me up the stairs just so she can see my reaction to these monstrosities she left on my bed.

I hold out the pillows.

“Care to explain?”

She crinkles her nose and purses her lips in a blatant attempt to stifle her laughter.

“Mom, seriously?”

I hold out the pillow in my right hand, a bright blue one that says PROUD MAMA’S BOY.

“This one is bad enough, but did you have to go this far?”

I shove the other one at her and step back. Her laughter rumbles out of her and she smirks.

I gesture at the offensive item she now proudly cradles against her chest. That one has a picture of me printed on it. It’s baby Jesse… in, you guessed it, my birthday suit. This is not a picture for anyone’s eyes. Especially not mine. Thankfully, it’s just me mooning and not full frontal but damn it, it’s still weird.

“Just getting a head start on your college dorm décor, honey.”

My head snaps in her direction and I can feel the laughter rumble in my chest before it comes out. As much as my mother annoys the hell out of me with her weird antics, she sure knows how to liven the mood and make everything better. In an instant, all the stress and tension from the last few weeks dissipate and I feel lighter already just being home with her.

What can I say? I am a proud mama’s boy.

I just don’t tellherthat.

As if noticing the change in my demeanor, her hands grip my shoulders as she laughs with me.

“I missed you, Jess.”

I bend over to compensate for our half foot difference and hug her tight.

“I missed you too, Mom.”

Patting my back once, she eases herself out of my hold. She grabs the pillows and smiles to herself.

“I had to find something to do to stay busy, you know. Since my only child, the same one who’s leaving me next year, decided to spend his last summer in New York and not even bother to call his mom.”

I brush a knuckle on my mouth to hide my grin, but I know better than to respond to one of her guilt trips. Before I know it, I’ll find myself promising her something outrageous like the time she somehow conned me into singing a John Legend song with her at a cousin’s wedding.

Picture a sixteen-year-old singingAll of Me.

With his mom.

---