Confessions About Colton (Wattpad Books Edition)

Chapter 3

She visited at least twice every year, usually on our birthdays and sometimes during the holidays, but other than that, we hardly saw her. She was like that distant relative that everyone has. The one who you share an awkward relationship with and who gives you presents you loathe because they hardly know you. That was the kind of connection I had with my mother.

"Is she bringing Ryan?" I asked. Ryan was the name of her new husband. Technically I guess he was my stepfather.

"No," Cass answered. "He's staying home to look after the kids."

"Why is she even coming?"

"She thinks it might be a little overwhelming for you here. She wants to take you out for a week-long vacation. Anywhere you like, as a graduation gift."

"I'm fine right here," I insisted, cringing at the thought of my mother being around and the thick, unbearable tension that came with her visits.

I wasn't sure if I could handle her presence, especially at mealtimes. She was an impressive cook, but that didn't compensate nearly enough for the awkward silence that consumed us at the table. There just wasn't anything I felt comfortable talking about with her, and I was sure she felt the same. She was my biological mother, sure, but her family in Queensland were the ones she had grown to love and treasure. She'd left when I was barely two; we were almost strangers now.

We'd always had trouble establishing a connection, and there was only so much of a relationship that could form through phone calls and cards in the mail. Cass occasionally called her, but I suppose she remembered more of her than I did. Either way, Valerie never put in the effort to see me, so I never returned the gesture. And I wasn't about to start now.

Besides, I had six more letters to find.

"Maybe a change of scenery will make you feel better," Cass suggested. "I don't know about you, but this town just feels so much darker now, even if it is spring."

"I'm not going anywhere, Cass," I answered firmly before I stood, picked up my keys, and swiped the letter out from between the books.

"Elliot! Where are you going?" she called.

But I was already out the door and down the stairs. My dad was in his office, his old typewriter out and a stack of syrup-drenched pancakes next to him. The door was wide open, showcasing a messy display of unorganized papers and a wall of bookshelves filled with paperbacks with cracked spines. Dad looked up at me, startled eyes growing wide behind his glasses. Before he could say a thing, I'd opened the front door and left.

‡

"Check out my new socks," Colton said, lifting his leg out from under the table and pulling his pants up to reveal horrendously stretched-out fabric with clusters of his girlfriend's face printed on it. Lydia buried her face in her hands and made a small, tortured sound.

"That's disgusting," I said.

Colton lifted his index finger for me to wait before he swiveled around in his seat to hike up his other leg. This time when he pulled his pants up, he revealed a stretched-out sock with clusters of my face on it.

"Now that," I said, "is a work of art. Awful picture of me, though. My head looks ginormous."

"They only had one size," Colton said, grinning. He lowered his leg back down. "Now my favorite people are with me wherever I go."

"We're already with you wherever you go," Lydia pointed out.

"It's true. This relationship is a tricycle now, what with all my third-wheeling all the time," I teased.