Braver Than I Used to Be

Chapter Seven

"How long have you been dating Maggie?" I said.

"Like four months."

"Then three months."

Ray rolled his eyes. "Well I broke up with Maggie yesterday anyway. So, I guess we are all dating now."

"Wait what? You broke up with Maggie? Why?"

"She was a pain, always wanted me to take her out, constantly needed attention and for me to tell her she looked nice. It was cute at first, but she fucking drove me crazy."

I felt bad, because I was sure I liked her, but I knew Ray wasn't going to last long. "Figured it would happen sooner or later. Oh well."

"Rita, honey, how did you get home last night?" My mom asked as she shoved food onto our plates.

I paused for a moment, she hasn't called me honey in so long. My heart fluttered and I stared at her for a moment before answering. "Janice dropped me off."

"Who the heck is Janice?" Ray said.

"Some lady who lives two miles away. I fell on her lawn and she came out and talked to me. I told her everything and she helped me. She told me to come home and hug my mom. She also told me that things will be hard at first, and it will hurt, but not to let it take over me. That I would come out stronger once I was able to move past it."

My mom stared at me and I knew she was fighting back tears, at least that's what it looked like. "This Janice sounds like a very smart woman. I think I'd like to buy her flowers or something."

"Well I know where she lives."

My mom looked at me with kind eyes, it was weird. She had always looked so tortured and miserable when she looked at me, but not right now. She looked relieved and just a little less sad about her life. She nodded at me. "You can show me this weekend."

"Oh mom, I forgot to tell you, we got suspended." I said while shoving eggs in my mouth.

"Both of you?" She stopped and looked, I thought maybe Ray may have mentioned why he had two black eyes and was home early yesterday.

"All three of us. Did Ray not fill you in on what happened? How do you think his face got like that?"

She looked at Ray, then at Matthew. Both of Ray's eyes had black and blue under them, but he could see just fine, not much swelling. Matthew had one black and blue and a bruise on his cheek.

"Did you do that to him?" She asked Matthew. She looked at him as if she regretted being so nice to him since he ruined her baby's face.

"No, your fucking princess did." Ray said.

"He did this to me." Matthew pointed at his own face. I think he was hoping to win her favor back.

She looked at me. "Why did you do that?"

"Well, what had happened was-" I began but Ray cut me off.

"What happened was this guy from the basketball team told me he saw Matty, feeling up on Rita the night before at the frozen yogurt place. So, I wasn't happy because I told Mateo like three years ago, she is off limits. So, I did what I always do, I went looking for him."

"Mom, he came out of nowhere and just hit Matthew. I told him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. Matthew wasn't going to fight him and I wasn't going to let Ray beat him up for no reason. So, I hit him once, he wouldn't listen, so I did it again." I finished the story for Ray. That was how it worked, we each told our parts to any story involving both of us.

My mom just shook her head dismissing how disturbed she was by all of it. "I can't deal with this right, how long are you suspended for?"

Ray went to answer her but I jumped in before he could say it. "Thursday."

"All of you?"

I kicked Ray. "Yes." We all said.

"Wait, do I have to cook for all of you? Matthew how long are you staying?"

He looked over at us, "I....don't know, it wasn't discussed."

"Mom, you never cook, what are you even talking about?"

"Oh yeah, okay, never mind. Do whatever you want, just no more fights please."

"Done." I said.

"What are we doing today?" Ray said.

"We?" I said, "Oh so now that you don't have a girlfriend, we have to babysit you?"

Ray rolled his eyes. "I told you, we are all dating now."

"Well WE weren't all dating when you were with Maggie, now were we?"

"And look at how that turned out."

I got up and took all the plates and dishes and put them in the dishwasher.

"Listen, I have no idea what is going on. I am just going with the flow. All I know is if I am expected to stay again, I need to stop home and we need to feed her cheesecake before bed." Matthew said.

I felt bad, I wasn't sure how he felt about everything. He seemed like he was dealing with everything well, or at least trying to for my sake. I honestly thought he would leave last night and tell me that he couldn't do this. Not that I was expecting any of this happen, but he didn't have to stick around to deal with it. Hell, I didn't even know how to deal with it. Right now, I just wanted to pretend I didn't know until I was ready.

"Well, it is up to you. I don't want you feeling like you have to stay here or do anything."

He walked up to me and looked down at me placing his hands on my shoulder. "I told you before, I am not going anywhere unless you want me to. I know a lot of things happened yesterday, and it was hard for everyone, especially you. You're crazy if you think I am just going to go run off to someone else because we had a rough day. As bad as things got yesterday, I am glad I don't have to keep you or my feelings secret or hide things from your brother. Besides what did you think I was going to do this weekend?"

I smiled and wiped my face. "Ask me to have cheesecake?"

"Exactly."

"You know Ray has to come with us everywhere until the day we die right?"

He laughed. "I know, that is fine with me. I wouldn't expect anything less."