Page 86 of Fight Or Flight

“Riggs,” Mom hisses.

“Fine, I’ll shut up.”

Just when you start to lose your faith…a miracle!

“Eric,” my mom calls, forcing my eyes back to her. When I see the tears in her eyes, I straighten in my chair. If there is one sight I can’t bear to watch, it’s seeing my mom cry. Especially when I’m the reason. I’m a total mama’s boy and I’m not ashamed to say it. But I’m guessing you know that already.

“I need you to slow down a little bit so I can catch up,” she pleads, her voice crackling. “I look at you and even though you tower over me, I still see a little boy, one who is suddenly making a whole lot of life-altering decisions without even consulting me. You used to ask me to play video games with you, now you’re joining the Army and leaving condom wrappers on your nightstand. It’s a lot.” She wipes her tears and looks between me and Brooklyn. “I promised your mom I’d take care of you, that I’d take a baseball bat to any boy who hurt you.”

Whoa.

So that story about the baseball bat is true.

Good to know.

“I really don’t want to have to take a bat to my son, so someone is going to have to make me understand what is happening here. Are you together or just having fun?”

Even though Brooklyn wants to kill me right now, I still grab her hand and lace our fingers together.

We’re together and we had a shit ton of fun last night—I leave the latter out.

“We’re together,” I confirm.

“Can I say something?” Dad asks.

“No,” Mom snaps, glancing over her shoulder. “This one is on me.” She turns her focus back to us. “Okay, so you’re together. Wonderful.”

Glad we agree.

“How does that work with your decision to join the Army?” She glances at Brooklyn. “Do you plan on staying together? Do you have any idea what that will entail?”

“Yes,” Brooklyn replies quickly. “We spoke a lot last night.”

“Oh, there was time for talking?” Dad snarls, glaring directly at me. “Impressive.”

I arch an eyebrow.

“Wanna give me a pound?”

“Think you’ve had enough of that, no?” he retorts.

I roll my eyes and drag my eyes back to my mom.

“If you’re going to try to use what me and Brooklyn have to sway me away from enlisting, don’t waste your time.”

Mom folds her hands on top of the table and pins me with a stare. After a moment, she shakes her head, and every conflicted feature begins to soften.

“I’m not looking to sway you any which way, Eric. I’ve done things with my own life that I regret, things I did to please my mom. Your Uncle Anthony was…well, you know, you call him Uncle Gangster for a reason. He broke our mother’s heart, and every night I’d listen to her cry and pray for him. When it came time for me to graduate high school, I wanted to make her proud. I wanted to dry her tears, and I thought if I just followed the plan she had made for me, I’d be able to do that. Being a nurse was never my dream, Eric, it was your grandma’s and when I dropped out of nursing school, I swore if I ever had children of my own, I wouldn’t discourage them from following their dreams.”

She pauses and I follow her gaze to mine and Brooklyn’s joined hands. Smiling faintly, she takes my other hand and lifts her eyes back to mine.

“I listened to you last night. I saw the passion in your eyes when you told us you wanted to join the Army and it terrified me.” A tear slides from the corner of her eye as she forces a swallow. “It still terrifies me, but if that’s what you want for your future, your father and I will not stand in your way. We support you, Eric.”

“Really?” I ask hoarsely.

“Always.”

I look from her to my dad, watching as he crosses his arms and diverts his attention to his feet.

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