Page 9 of Fake It Till You Break It
And yet, after everything she did—everything she gave up—how did Finn repay her? By ditching town to work at some cruise line the instant he graduated. That was the second time she ever cried.
Ungrateful ass.
I forced a smile onto my face for her benefit. “I haven’t really thought about college yet, but I’ll probably go to Houston for college, Mom. It’s not too far. I mean, I don’t even know what I’m majoring in yet. Going out of state would just be a waste of money.”
Mom let out a sigh of relief that she tried to cover up with a laugh. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes. “Oh, okay. I mean, I don’t want you to think I’m forcing you to stay here with me. You’re free to do whatever you want. Spread your wings and leave the nest. All that poetic stuff.”
“I don’t need all that poetic stuff.” I stacked my hands behind my neck. “I’m fine right here.”
Her smile turned suspiciously sweet. “Right here with Mia?”
I rolled my eyes. “We’re not having this conversation again.”
“I swear, there’s so much chemistry radiating between you two every time you’re together, I practically need sunglasses. If only you could just TRY dating her. Just once. For me?”
“Mom, that’s hatred between us. Not chemistry.” With a snort, I leaned back against my chair. It squeaked every time I pushed backward. “Seriously, we haven’t gotten along since we were kids. I don’t think playing house when you’re five means Cupid’s going to come running with his bow.”
She pursed her lips for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh. “Fine, I can see that you’re not ready to accept the truth yet. I’m willing to wait a bit longer.”
“Like forever?”
I was surprised that she was giving up so soon. Usually she could ramble on and on about Mia until morning. About how sweet she was. How the sunlight glinted off her shiny dark hair and lit up her eyes. How contagious her laugh was. If it were up to Mom, we’d be getting married after high school and alternate weeks living here and at the Les’ house.
“Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something else,” Mom continued. “Mrs. Le and I have been talking about where to go for vacation this summer, and we decided that a cruise would be fun. Maybe to the Bahamas…”
A cruise? My eyes narrowed at the direction this conversation was going. Especially when she looked away, suddenlyreally interested in the books on my shelf. “And did you decide on which cruise line?”
“Actually, we did. The Emerald cruises sounded nice. Clean, delicious food, affordable, great on-board entertainment. It has three water slides and a rooftop miniature-golf course. It even has a huge arcade and bowling alley on the third floor!”
I crossed my arms. “Wait, let’s go back to the on-board entertainment. How do you know that it’s great?”
Finally, she looked over at me. Guilt etched across her entire face like a banner. “It’s the cruise ship your brother works on.”
Even though I suspected this was what she was getting at, it still hit me like a ton of bricks. How could she even think about seeinghim? That she could makemesee him? My vision got a bit blurry, and I blinked furiously to gape at her. “Are you serious? Why the hell would you want to go there? And seehim?”
“Now, Jake, I know you’re upset—”
I scoffed. “I’m not upset. That jackass doesn’t deserve me caring enough about him to be upset.”
Now it was her turn to scowl. “He’s still your brother. Yourolderbrother. I won’t have you talking about him like that.”
“Even if he deserves it,” I muttered under my breath before shutting up for good when she shot me a fierce glare. My stomach still twisted uncomfortably at the thought of going on this trip.
I’ve always known that Mom would welcome Finn back with open arms the second he came back someday, but this was even worse than anything I imagined. He wasn’t coming back to see us.Wewere going tohim. Like we were begging him to come back to us. To be in our lives. Like weneededhim.
My hands curled into tight fists against my side.
Mom lightly touched my arm. “I know this is pretty sudden to you, but I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It’s time to let everything go and be a family again. Before it’s too late. And we’ve been apart long enough.”
“But wearea family. You and me. Isn’t that enough?”
She gave me a sad smile but didn’t answer. Instead, she just got up and headed toward the door. “I’ll give you time to let things sink in before we talk about it again. Good night.”
Frustrated, I shoved myself away from my desk so hard that my folder slid off and my English report flew everywhere. Even my Little League trophy toppled over and landed facedown in my trash can.
Instead of cleaning up, I gave my trash can a good kick and flopped onto the bed with an arm over my face.
Did she think we would just go on this cruise and suddenly become one big happy family again? She had to be crazy. I mean, I loved Mom and everything. And I would do almost anything for her. Anything except for this. Even I had a limit to what I was willing to do. And seeing Finn’s stupid face wasn’t one of those things.
