The Obscure Downsides of Fame

62 // on purpose

I sat down at the table, grabbing my phone from my pocket. Of course it opened on the people complaining about the way my boyfriend looked again, but this time I got smarter and closed it all off. Oakley was going to be alright. Neither of us needed this kind of negativity.

You:
I messed up the cookies :(

Dimple💞:
You were baking cookies?

You:
Yeah the red velvet ones you loved so much

You:
But I almost set the place on fire.

Dimple💞:
You're amazing

Dimple💞:
I love you

You:
I love you too

You:
How are you doing?

Dimple💞:
Terrible headache :/

You:
I wish I were there

I was in trouble. I wanted to be with him constantly. Maybe to make up for the fact we were gonna be apart a lot. I wasn't even sure how me having an 8 PM curfew was supposed to keep me from doing drugs or whatever.

I texted my mom, asking her when she'd be home so maybe I could ask her to re-evaluate that curfew again.

Mom:
I'll be home before 11

I decided to kill time by going through my script again. Maybe I could spend the next hour or so at least halfway useful.

•••

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked. "Where's dad?"

She handed me a bag. I looked at her skeptically.

"What's this?" I asked. She smiled as I looked inside the bag. It was some fancy packaged whiskey decanter set.

"Is this a test?"

"No. I just want you to be comfortable with me. I want you to feel like you can tell me anything."

"Is this about me being gay? Because that wasn't supposed to be a secret."

"Not just that, Nolan. It's everything. I know you've been keeping things from me and your dad since... well, since you became a teenager. I don't expect you to talk to me about it now, but I hope one day you will."

I've never heard my mom act like she cared like this before.

"Okay." I wasn't sure what to do with the whiskey though. I definitely wasn't going to drink it so she could change her mind and ground me or whatever. "By the way, what's the curfew about?"

"You're legal to take alcohol in most of the world, but I don't want you having cocaine and LSD and whatever else anymore. I'm still a mother."

I just knew she'd done cocaine before, though. She must've found her fuck buddies somewhere. I tried to not press on it because I didn't want to have that kind of conversation with her. In fact, I was actually fine with having no conversation with her at all. We could go back to how it was, and I'd turn to dad for anything more serious.