I woke earlier than usual the next day to find Dylan already wake; he was sat next to me, his back against the headboard and was staring at the opposite wall, a frown on his face.
“Hey,” I said sleepily, rubbing my eyes and squinting at Dylan. His face softened and he gave me a cute, lazy smile.
“Hi,” he said quietly.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked as he shuffled back down under the covers next to me.
He stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, and I thought he might just shrug his shoulders and say it was nothing. But then, I remembered, this is Dylan were talking about.
“Life. Back home. School.” I waited. “Jayme.”
I felt him stiffen next to me, waiting for my reaction.
I didn’t know how to react. I trusted Dylan, and that trust gave me no reason to be jealous of Jayme. However, I didn’t know Jayme, and I guess if I were to feel jealous it would have to be that Jayme was Dylan’s first. But I could also be angry; angry that Jayme didn’t realise how lucky he was to have that honour, and that Jayme abused Dylan’s trust and kindness, and his love.
Despite the possible anger and jealousy, I was mainly curious.
“What about Jayme?” I asked calmly.
Dylan sighed. “I don’t know, I guess I just didn’t have a reason to think about him at all lately but after Cally phoned...”
This time he shrugged and pulled the covers over his head. I tried to hold back a laugh as I tried to pull the covers off him, not succeeding. I opted for the better option and pulled the covers over my head too. I turned so we were facing each other, Dylan’s hair tickling my face.
“You just going to hide under here?” I asked.
“Might as well, what could I possibly want out there?”
I took him by surprise and kissed him.
You’re doing that a lot lately, Alec.
When he reached out to cup my face I pulled away quickly, threw back the covers and leaped towards the bathroom.
“You’re right,” I called while making my way into the bathroom, “out here sucks, just you stay under there with everything you could possibly want.”
I stripped off my boxers and threw them on top of Dylan who was still under the covers. I ducked into the bathroom when I saw him pull the covers back and waited with the door still open.
“Alec?” he called.
“Yeah?” I replied, sticking my head round the door. He was sat with the covers round his waist, holding my boxers in one hand and his eyebrow was raised.
I wiggled my eyebrows and waved as he began to get up, and I shut and locked the bathroom door.
“ALEC!”
~
By the time we were all packed and ready to go it was nearly lunch time and being hungry and having to put up with Mitch’s car sing-a-long extravaganza is not a good combination. We went to McDonalds drive thru and after Sally eventually made up her mind we were back on the road. We made it home in good time and after we dropped off Sally and Mitch we were headed over to Dylan’s.
“Shit!” I cursed. “I need to phone my mum first to let her know I’m staying at yours,” I said to Dylan. He pulled over as I dialled her.
“Hey mum, it’s Alec.”
“Oh hi honey! How was your trip?”
“It was great! Actually, I was planning on just going over to Dylan’s and staying there tonight, is that okay?”
“Are you able to pop over first? And bring Dylan with you since I’ve never met him.”
Okay. My mum is never really bothered about meeting any of my friends ... or is ever eager to see me.
“Sure... mum, is everything okay?”
“Of course it is,” she said quickly, “I’ve just missed you, that’s all!”
“Okay, I’ll see you in about fifteen minutes?”
“See you soon! Bye!”
I hung up and looked over at Dylan who was watching me with an amused expression on his face.
“Do you want to meet my mum?” I asked.
He placed his hand over his heart and sighed. “I would be honoured.”
I leaned over and punched him in the arm as he started the car and we headed over to my place.
~
My parents are pretty average people. They’re not overly friendly, or adventurous, or weird... you might even describe them as boring. We’re not big on the whole family thing, especially my dad, so we all kind of keep to ourselves and get on with our lives.
Therefore, I couldn’t prepare Dylan for what was away to happen as we walked through the door, or be any kind of support whatsoever as I seemed to have gone into some kind of shock.
“Hi! You must be Dylan!” said my mum as she came out of the kitchen as I was closing the door. That was the last bodily function I could muster. Karen Brooke is the kind of person who would wear heels in her own home and be dressed to perfection with the plan for the day to be cleaning the house.
“I’m Karen,” she said as she shook Dylan’s hand while I stood there trying to remember what the act of breathing implied.
MY MOTHER WAS WEARING SWEATPANTS.
SHE HAD HER HAIR IN A MESSY PONYTAIL.
SHE INTRODUCED HERSELF AD KAREN AND NOT MRS BROOKE.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Dylan.
“I’ve made cookies, would you like some?”
“I’d love some,” said Dylan, following her towards the kitchen.
SHE HAS BAKED COOKIES.
DOES SHE EVEN KNOW WHAT A COOKIE IS?
I don’t know how long I stood there till Luke came downstairs and started waving his hand in front of my face.
“Huh?”
“I said, why are you standing there like a creepy?”
“Mum made cookies,” I stated. Just when I thought the day couldn’t get even weirder Luke managed to get his facial muscles to construct something that closely resembled a smile.
“I know right? She’s never done that before! Come on,” he said.
“Don’t you think it’s a little strange?”
“Don’t care. Make the most of it,” he said as he pushed me along into the kitchen.
Dylan was sat at the kitchen table while my mum HAND WASHED SOME DISHES.
“Hey, what’s up,” said Dylan, fist bumping Luke as he appeared from behind me. “Luke right?”
“Yeah,” replied Luke.
“Luke this is Dylan,” I said as I picked up a cookie and examined it. “Is this edible?” I asked my mum.
She gave me a look. “I cook all the time,” she stated.
“Yeah,” I said, biting into the cookie. I didn’t die instantly, that’s for sure. “But not cookies.”
Luke sat down next to Dylan and they both stated talking and munching on cookies. I walked over to my mum and started drying the dishes.
“So,” I started.
“So?” she replied, giving me a confused look.
“What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
I took the bowl she had finished washing and began to dry it. I spoke quietly.
“Not to be mean or anything, but you’re not usually like this; making cookies, wanting to meet my new friends... I didn’t even know you owned sweatpants.”
She sighed and leaned back against the sink. “Okay, so while you were away I just realised that we’re not that close of a family, and you’ll be moving off to college or whatever when you finish school and I don’t want you to resent coming home for the holidays. Or to feel like you have nothing to come home to.”
I looked at her and was speechless. I never thought she had noticed that we weren’t close, or that she even cared, and I never thought she would do anything to try and change that.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“Nothing for you to worry about, trust me.” She quickly changed the subject. “So where did you meet Dylan?”
“Detention.”
She gave me a slap on arm.
“What was that for?” I exclaimed.
“You know what. What did you get detention for?”
“Punching Cam in the face.”
“Guess I can’t yell at you for that. I’d love to give his mother a punch in the face sometimes.”
AM I ON AN EPISODE OF MUM SWAP OR SOMETHING.
“Anyway, Dylan seems nice. So you’re staying at his tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, well have fun.” She leaned in and brushed he thumb over my cheek before rushing over to grab the plate of cookies from Luke.
“It was nice meeting you Dylan!” called my mum as we headed out of the kitchen.
“You too Mrs.Brooke!”
“Call me Karen!”
“You too Karen!”
When we got to Dylan’s car I deflated into the car seat.
“She was nice,” said Dylan as he pulled away from my house.
“She was strange. She’s never like that. Ever.”
“So maybe this is a good thing?”
“If it lasts. She said that something happened but we didn’t need to worry about it, that she was handling it.”
“Then don’t worry about it,” said Dylan as he reached over and laced his fingers through mine.