The Art of Courting

The Art of Courting- Chapter Twelve

“My mom’s dead,” Jay informed her matter-of-factly.

“Oh,” was her ingenious reply. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “It’s not your fault. She died of lung cancer because she smoked most of her life.”

“How old were you?”

“I was eight. It was, um, kind of an expected thing though.” She could see him starting to get emotional, and it broke her heart. “It wasn’t like it was overnight or anything. She was in and out of hospital for years. In the end she just got sicker and sicker until the cancer spread to her blood stream. Jordan and I weren’t there when she died; we were at our grandma’s house. We stayed there for weeks because our dad was a no-show. He came back after a couple of months, but he was… I don’t know. Different, I guess. Watching someone die does that to you.”

“I can imagine,” she murmured. “That’s awful, Jay. I’m so sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” he laughed back. It was a sad laugh. “You didn’t do anything. If my mom didn’t smoke she’d still be here.”

“Oh, Jay. You don’t know that. Your family might just be unlucky.”

“No, Chelsea. I know it was the smoking. I’m positive.” She didn’t pursue the subject because it seemed too touchy.  

“Alright then. Let’s just… get over our sob stories,” Chelsea decided. She couldn’t take the chance that he’d try to uncover everything that happened the night her mother left. It wasn’t exactly something she wanted to relive.

“I agree.” They both settled back on the grass, lying on their backs. Jay rolled over and opened the picnic basket, taking out two bottles of flavored mineral water. He handed her the pink one.

“Thanks,” she said with a small smile. She could tell that he was catching onto the fact that he spilled his guts while she gave the bare minimum of details. It was time to completely change the subject. “So… Are you going to take over your father’s company after you finish school?”

“I’m going to college first,” he replied. Chelsea couldn’t help but be surprised at how easy he talked about the subject now, since before it was like taboo. “Dad want’s me to study music and business before I take over when I’m twenty three.”

“Cool.”

“Do you have any idea what you’re going to do yet?”

“Nah. I mean, next year’s our last year so I’ll probably decide sometime then…”

“You know,” he mused, “this is kind of surprising. I always expected you to be one of those people who had their life planned out by the time they’re ten.”

“I did have my life planned out,” she whispered back. “I was going to be a lawyer just like my mom. She even took me to the office a couple of times and let me help sort files. But when she left it kind of… I don’t know. Stopped my passion for the whole thing.”

“Fair enough.” He twirled a piece of her hair around his finger as she sipped her drink. “I’m hungry.”

Rolling her eyes, Chelsea searched through the picnic basket for food. There was a tub of Belinda’s specialty brownies and a couple of apples. She passed the tub to Jay and bit into an apple.

“This is nice,” he sighed as he ate.

“What’s nice?”

“Just this. Being with you. I’ve wanted it for as long as I can remember.”