Blue (The Spectrum Series: #3)

Chapter Thirty-Two

"I own a photography company; built it from the ground up when I was twenty," she explains, "I dropped out of college because I figured it wasn't for me after my first semester. I was networking at a party, which is where I met Theo's father... anyways, my company kept growing with every job I booked. More and more until I had a famous clientele. I've met and photographed many celebrities, which is how I got to photograph her and a lot more ballerinas I thought you'd like to see." She gestures to the binder with a knowing smile. "Ever heard of Misty Copeland?"

"Have I?" I accidentally squeal but she laughs before I can take it back. I laugh in humiliation, and she does too and, together, we leaf through the hefty book that contains more ballerina legends than I can count.

* * *

Somehow a few hours have passed, of just us combing through her binders and me listening to stories of each individual she photographed. For the last hour she's been teaching me a few techniques on Theo who bounced in after growing bored of trying to find Blue. My heart sunk with guilt when he said that, but I tried to conceal it by snapping pictures of him in front of the backdrop with his mother coaching me as she clung onto him. I managed to make it another hour until she got a text from her husband that he was almost at the house and she needed my help setting the table.

On the way to the dining room, I discreetly look for Blue. I feel horrible he's been hiding away in a house he didn't even want to come to tonight, but I don't regret what I said, he was being disrespectful for no reason. In the past few hours Catherine proved how sweet and genuine of a person she is, and I wish he could see her the same way as I do.

Once we reach the massive dining room, Catherine disappears for a minute then returns with silverware. I take a few from her and begin walking around the lengthy mahogany table. "Thank you, Lily, for bringing Blue here," she says as we set utensils around beautiful china plates. When I look over at her across the table, she's swiping her hand across her glossy eyes. "His father and I have been trying to invite him over for over a year, but he denied every invite. We even tried to convince him to come on family vacations and a reunion just this past summer, but he's been so adamant on distancing himself from us. But you... you got him to come two times, and it may seem like nothing, but to us it means everything. So thank you."

Seeing her so teary eyed and choked up over something so simple to many brings tears to my own eyes. "I didn't do much," I try to be modest. It's no secret that Blue would rather do literally anything than be here, but I can at least try to make it seem less tragic than it actually is.

She laughs because she knows getting him to come here was a battle all on its own, and I laugh because I can't help it. Blue is loved by the people he hates the most, and it's ironically humorous. Painful in reality, but I believe Blue will come around and someday we'll come over without any fights and we'll all sit down and have a nice conversation about the weather or something as trivial. One day he'll love back the people who love him with all their hearts. The day they stop trying is truly the day he'll truly believe they're out to get him.

"We never thought we'd see the day he loves someone like you: intelligent, bright, beautiful, and filled with so much light you have the ability to wash out the darkness in our headstrong son," she says, tears filling her wide eyes. "Thank you for edging him out of it; even if it is a tiny inch, it is an ocean to us."

I don't know how to respond. How do I respond to her thanking me for loving her son? For making such a huge change in her eyes, it means the world to her? Noticing my shy and stunned mood, she walks over to me and launches her arms around me. I gape even wider as I hear her cry lightly into my neck. Unable to pry her off me and hit with an overwhelming sense of bliss, I hug her back. We stay like this for what feels like an hour before she pulls away and swipes under her eyes.