The next day during school I get a weird text from dad.
***I know you had planned to go to the station for a bit after school, but change of plans. Just come home instead.
That's weird.
Dad seemed fine when I told him I was going over there for Geometry help from Taylor. So I reply back quickly before I'm caught with my phone.
***Everything ok?
A minute later I feel my phone vibrate.
***yes and no. Mom and Taylor are fine. I'll explain later
I'm getting pretty annoyed with these vague texts
***is the baby ok?
Another minute passes
***yeah. Everybody is fine
The relief that passes through me is staggering...maybe one day I won't be so freaked when they are both on call.
~*~
My day goes by slowly, and when I finally get home, dad isn't here yet. I clean my room and start on my homework so I don't have to deal with him being annoyed at me on top of whatever else is going on. He finally gets home around 5:30, with pizza.
"Hey champ! How was your day?" He asks, with a weird expression on his face. He looks strange.
"What happened?"
"Uh, it was an interesting day today," he stalls.
"Yeah?"
I swear if he doesn't spit it out
"Well, do you remember Jessica?"
"Of course I do!" I'm seriously getting pissed at how much he's dragging this out.
"Turns out she's been hard-core stalking Taylor for months. We found pictures and videos throughout her entire apartment. She started stalking mom too, the last month or two."
All of the blood drains from my face and I legit feel like I'm going to pass out.
"Is mom ok?"
That's why his face is so weird. Something happened with mom, and it scared the crap outta him.
Dad sighs, and finally spits it out.
"Jessica came by the station today, and held mom up at gun point."
Woah shit. How...what....um.....
"I got there, and Taylor was trying to get her to drop the gun—She wasn't having it. She looked pretty close to pulling the trigger. Greene saved mom's life."
"How did he do that?" I ask, trying to keep myself from already crying.
"He uh, he distracted Jessica for a moment, by putting himself in front of mom and kissing her. It was enough time for Taylor to get the gun away from Jessica, and for me to cuff her."
"Mom is ok?" I ask again.
Dad nods, looking hard in my eyes. "She's fine. Physically at least. I'm not sure about emotionally yet."
"And Jessica?"
"Right this second she's in jail, but I just got word that they're transferring her to a mental institution. She's messed up."
"Where's mom?" I ask.
"At home. She and Taylor took the rest of shift off."
"You can go over there if you want," he says softly.
I just shake my head—I know mom. She always thinks she has to act tough around me. I want to give her space to fall apart if she needs to. I'll just go over when it's my day with her.
~*~
I don't see mom for two days. I finally see her after school on Wednesday, and I'm a little nervous, to be honest.
As soon as I see her, I just give her a huge hug. I've texted her a lot these last two days, but it's the first I've seen her.
"Missed you," she says quietly as she gives me a kiss.
"Me too," I say, kissing her back. "How are you?"
"I'm fine buddy," she says, giving me a gentle smile.
She goes to bed that night, and I finally have a chance to talk to Taylor alone.
"How is she really doing?" I ask him.
He just shakes his head. "I don't know. She acts perfectly fine. I don't know what's going on in her head though. No way she isn't messed up from that—I've been having nightmares every night. It's messed me up."
"So Greene really kissed mom, huh?" I ask, smirking.
"Oh yeah! He really went for it," he chuckles.
"Did that bother you?"
"Under normal circumstances it would have. Since he did it to save her life, and my baby's life, however, I'll let it slide."
"Well, I bet he still enjoyed himself." I say, laughing a little.
Taylor just snorts and rolls his eyes. "I'm sure he wasn't repulsed by it—He's totally in love with Megan, though."
~*~
We play some Xbox for a while, and then we head to bed. It's around midnight, when suddenly I'm woken up by a horrible, blood curdling scream. My first initial thought was that Jessica came back, and is murdering my mom.
I'm out of bed so fast that I run out into the hall in my underwear. Taylor comes out of his room the same moment I do, and he's in his underwear too. We're both staring at each other, completely horrified. We are both completely positive that she's being killed.
Within half a second we're both barreling to her door and swinging it open. Taylor flips on the light, and we stare at her in horror. Mom is screaming...bloody murder... thrashing, and kicking, and flailing.
She looks possessed.
Taylor and I stare at each other for half a second before we both run over to her. Taylor sits on her bed and grabs her by the shoulders.
"Eleanor. Eleanor. Wake up. You're ok. Everything's ok. Calm down, baby. Shhh" he says, trying to rock her.
She's not having it.
She somehow pushes him off of the bed, and he hits his elbow on the nightstand and groans in pain.
"You ok?" I ask him as I go to the other side of mom.
"I'm fine," he says, not taking his eyes off of her. She is still hysterically screaming.
"Momma. Mom. You're alright. You need to wake up," I beg, taking her hand in mine.
She flings her hand out and I have to duck away from her fist. I'm suddenly thinking that the lessons Jake gave me might not have been so stupid after all.
"What do we do?" I ask as I look at Taylor in a panic.
"I don't know," he says, equally as panicked.
We both get on either side of her, and get as close to her as we can. Taylor has her face cradled into his chest, and I'm rubbing her shoulders, telling her over and over that it's going to be ok.
It has felt like hours, but it's only been about ten minutes. She finally relaxes and quits screaming, going completely limp on Taylor's chest.
We both just look at each other, saying nothing. Afraid to move. Afraid to breathe too loudly.
"What the hell?" I say, my voice is shaking.
Taylor shakes his head, completely rattled.
"I have no idea. I've never seen anything like that before."
"You think she will remember this in the morning?" I whisper.
Taylor nods. "I don't see how she wouldn't," he says, kissing her forehead gently.
After another minute we get up and leave her room.
"I'm glad you were here and we weren't on our own. I probably would have called 911," I say shakily.
"I was this close," he says, putting his thumb and pointer finger together, showing me how close he really was.
"Night," I say, lifting up my hand.
"Night"
~*~
The next morning we wake up early—I don't know if either of us really fell back to sleep.
Mom comes out after a bit, and she looks totally fine. "Morning guys! You're up early," she says as she goes to the fridge. "I was going to make bacon and eggs. Want any?"
We both just stare at her with our mouths hanging open.
"How did you sleep?" Taylor asks, hoping to read her facial expressions.
"Fine," mom says, completely at ease.
She has no idea what happened last night.
We both look at each other, and I feel sick to my stomach—She's messed up, and she doesn't even know it.
By evening, Taylor and I really start noticing some things. They are subtle, but they're there. If we laugh too loudly, or cheer too loudly when the Cubs make a base hit, mom will flinch. I noticed it first, but I discreetly told Taylor about it when she got up to get a drink. After that he started paying attention.
His phone rang a little later on, and she went white. He answered it quickly, and then took it to his bedroom.
When he came back out, he apologized. "Sorry, it was Lilah. She wants to come see the new place. Are you up for that?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
Suddenly the oven went off, letting her know that her cookies were done. She closed her eyes and went completely still for a moment. Taylor and I both just stare at each other in horror.
Tonight she had another night terror. It was worse than last night, and it lasted 15 minutes this time.
In the morning, she again remembered nothing. Taylor calls dad when mom goes to take a shower.
Dad has no idea what to do, just like us.
~*~
After two weeks, mom is just a shell of the person she was. She doesn't talk unless spoken to, and even then it's just a couple word answers. We can't watch the news anymore, because everything makes her jump.
We can't play video games anymore, because all the shooting is detrimental to her.
Even watching sporting games is too much for her. The cheering makes her go white.
Taylor is beside himself. He's constantly watching her, not sure what to do—He hasn't been sleeping at all. Mom has had a night terror every single night since that first time. Some are worse than others, but some are really really bad.
I hear Taylor on the phone one afternoon, when I get home from school.
"Because I don't know what to do. It's bad, Billy. No. I think you need to come down and see her. Bring Justin. No, I'm not calling Jake....Because Jake is the last person I want her around.... I don't give a damn that you're shooting a commercial in three days. Your daughter needs you......ok, so that's it? Yup. Oh, I hear you. Don't worry, Liam, Alex, and I will take care of her," he says as he throws the phone across the room.
"Grandpa won't come down?" I ask.
It doesn't surprise me, but I'm still pissed
"Nope. His exact words were "Don't worry, kid, she's tough. She will figure it out." He curses under his breath and kicks the couch before turning back to me.
"How she became the woman that she is with that man as her dad, is beyond me."
"Where's mom?" I ask, looking around.
"She's taking a nap. The baby has been kicking her all day and it's made her tired," he says, lighting up the way he always does when talking about the baby.
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, Liam," he says, falling into the couch and putting his head in his hands.
"I went around today to all of the neighbors next to us, below us, and above us. They all understand, but I don't know how much longer they're going to put up with this. We might be kicked out soon."
"We've got to tell her," I say, sitting next to him.
He just looks at me for a moment.
"I don't think I can, Liam....."