Page 53 of Press Your Luck

He stared at me, and I had no clue what was going on in his head. “I don’t know how.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how to clean the bathroom.”

“Oh... well ...” I guess it was another thing Jeannie had failed to instill in him. “We’ll do it together, then. I’ll show you, and then from now on, it will be your responsibility to keep it clean. I’m going to count on you to follow through. We don’t want guests to think we live in a dirty home, do we? So it will be your job to make sure it stays clean.”

He eyed me suspiciously but nodded. We went to the bathroom, and I showed him how to use the cleaners safely. He even got a kick out of using the toilet bowl brush to clean the toilet.

Once the bathroom was cleaned, we headed out to eat. As I drove, I felt a mix of hope and apprehension. This was a small step forward, but I had no illusion that Porter and I were past all the problems. I realized that I needed to make sure that Porter knew that I truly cared about him and that I wasn't going to give up on him, no matter how many obstacles we faced.

"Where do you want to go for dinner?" I glanced over at Porter in the passenger seat. He stared out the window, his expression unreadable.

"Doesn't matter to me. You pick."

"Alright. There's a diner nearby with great burgers and shakes. How does that sound?"

"Sure, whatever." His voice was flat, but at least he wasn't arguing.

As we drove toward the diner, I racked my brain for conversation topics that might help us connect, but short of gaming and fighting, I knew almost nothing about him.

Once in the diner, we ordered burgers and fries with large chocolate milkshakes.

“Porter?” I asked once our waitress left to turn in our orders. “What do you need to be happy here?”

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just want to have fun.”

I thought about what Jeannie said about indulging him if I wanted him to be happy. But I knew that wasn’t the answer. “Is it fun not getting along with me? Or at school?”

Instantly, his hackles rose and he turned to look away.

“Porter, you have everything you could want right now—video games, your own room, lots of free time, and yet, you’re not happy. I get the feeling you don’t want to be happy because the only thing stopping you from having fun and being happy is... well, yourself. You're so mad all the time that it's like you won't allow yourself to enjoy anything."

His expression shifted from defiant to vulnerable in an instant. I wanted to see it as a victory, another step forward.

He didn’t respond and instead, looked down at the table, poking at his spoon.

I wasn’t sure what to say beyond that. “Hey, want to see something?” I took a sugar packet and turned my spoon around so the handle was near me. I put the packet on the end. Then I pressed down hard on the spoon, sending the packet flying over to his side of the table.

His lips quirked up, although he fought it. “I want to try.”

“Okay.” I looked around at the diner, thinking maybe this wasn’t the best thing to teach him, especially as he sent a packet nearly flying over my head. I was able to catch it.

“Score.” He thrust his hands up in the air. For a moment, I marveled at the excitement on his face. The glitter in his eyes. The smile. This was what I needed to coax out of him more often.

I taught him table hockey with a spoon and a packet after that, which we played until our food arrived.

After dinner, we headed to the ice cream shop down the street, and I was feeling pretty good as a parent. As we stood in line waiting to order our cones, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, frowning when I saw Bo's name on the screen.

"Hey, Bo. What's up?"

"Where are you guys?" he asked, sounding concerned. "Everyone's here, and we were expecting you an hour ago."

I bit back a curse, realizing that I had completely forgotten about Bo and Ruby's party. "Dammit, I'm so sorry. We got caught up... we'll be there as soon as we can."

"Alright, see you soon.”

“We’ll get ice cream, but then we need to go. I promised Bo and Ruby that we’d go to their party.”

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