Summer, 1983 (I'll call you by mine)

4th of July

It was the first week of July and B was going to get its first 4th of July party, Oliver had ordered fireworks. Jona was excited, he thought they were going to do nothing for the 4th. His dad had ordered so much food from the local deli and pastry shop that Sophia required help from her younger sister. She was Jonas age, she was freckled faced and her eyes were different colors, one was blue and the other was green. He almost hadn't noticed it. He hurried to introduce himself.

"I'm Jona!' His voice cracking at the end. She kind of giggled.

"Lea, it's nice to meet you."

"When you're done helping your sister, you should come down to the lake. That's where everyone hangs out."

"I will try but only if Sophia lets me."

Oliver was laying by the pool reading over notes from his editor.  There were many changes that he wanted made, one, in particular, was changing Elio's age. Oliver had been fighting it, because this book was about love about his love and the fact that when he met Elio he was only 5 months shy of being 18 doesn't make a difference. Elio hadn't given Oliver any notes on the book, he sat in bed reading it, with nothing, never making any indication of whether he loved the book or hated it. He was getting frustrated with his editor's note when he saw Christopher come up from the lake.

"Hey, buddy, what's going on for today?" He asked as Christopher flopped down in the lounging chair.

"Nothing, Valentia wants me to take her out to this book signing. Her favorite author will be there, I read the book, it was sappy and stupid. No teenager I know talks like that when they're in love."

"Come on, what's bothering you? You have just been in a hateful mood since your birthday, what happened?" Oliver asked sitting up. "Come one I'm your dad you can tell me anything."

"I don't wanna talk about it right now."  He didn't look at his father he refused.

"Well I know something's going on, I know you talk to Elio and even he says you've been pretty tight-lipped about whatever's been bothering you."

Christopher sat up and acted like he was a toddler throwing a tantrum. 

"Ugh, fine, I guess I need to talk about it before it eats me alive. Haven't you noticed mom's not called? My birthday was last week and we've not heard a peep from her."

"Yeah, I noticed her calls are getting less frequent. She's going through something buddy, I don't know what it is yet. She doesn't talk to me either."

"She didn't even call me on my birthday, dad. Actually, I got a card this morning, it was a stupid little card that she probably picked up from a penny store and do you know what it said?"

Oliver just shook his head, his heart was breaking for his son.

"It just had happy birthday printed on it and on the inside it said to have a great birthday and the only effort she put in it was Mom. Not I miss you, not I love you, not even Love mom!"

Oliver quickly got up to console his son, he embraced him rocking him back and forth. Oliver could feel tears hitting his chest.  He pulled Christopher into his chest tighter, he didn't want anything else in the world hurting his baby. He made a promise to protect him when he was born but never imagined he would have to protect his son from the women who gave birth to him.

"Shh, it's ok baby, let it out." Christopher pulled away from Oliver.

"It's not ok, she is my mom. When you and she signed those papers it's like, it's like she flipped a switch off. Jona noticed the way she was treating me but now she's even pretending he doesn't exist." Christopher was sobbing now.