Slammed (Slammed #1)(41)

I don’t wait for her to respond as I get in the backseat and slam the door.

“Get me out of here. Hurry,” I say to Eddie.

I start crying as we drive away. I never want to go back.

***

“Here, drink this.” Eddie shoves another soda across the table as she and Gavin watch me drink-and cry. We stopped at Getty’s because Eddie said their pizza was the only thing that could help me right now. I couldn’t eat.

“I’m sorry I ruined your date,” I say to both of them.

“You didn’t ruin it. Did she babe?” Eddie says as she turns to Gavin.

“Not at all. It’s a nice change of routine,” he says as he shoves his pizza into a takeout box.

My phone is vibrating again. It’s the sixth time my mother has called, so I hold down the power button and throw it back in my purse.

“Can we still make it to the movie?” I ask.

Gavin looks at his watch and nods. “Sure, if you really feel like going.”

“I do. I need to stop thinking about this for a little while.”

We pay our bill and head to the theater. It’s not Johnny Depp, but any actor will do right now.

10.

“She puts her hands against

the life she had.

Living with ignorance,

Blissful and sad.

But nobody knows what lies behind

The days before the day we die.”

-The Avett Brothers, Die Die Die

Chapter Ten

We pull up to my house a few hours later. I don’t immediately get out of the car as I take a few deep breaths, preparing for the fight that’s about to go down.

“Layken, call me later. I wanna know everything. Good luck,” Eddie says.

“Thanks, I will.” I get out of the car and walk up to the door as they drive away. When I walk inside, my mom is lying on the couch. She hears the door close and jumps up. I expect her to continue yelling but she runs to me and throws her arms around my neck. I stand stiff.

“Lake, I’m so sorry, I should have told you. I’m so sorry.” She’s crying.

I back apart from her and go sit on the couch. There’s tissue paper all over both end tables. She’s been crying a lot. Good, she should feel bad. Awful, even.

“Dad and I were going to tell you before he-”

“Dad? You were seeing him before dad even died?” I stand up and pace the floor. “Mom! How long has this been going on?” I’m yelling now. And crying again.

I look at her, waiting for her to defend her repulsive behavior but she is staring at the table in front of her.

She leans forward and cocks her head at me. “Seeing who? What do you think’s going on?”

“I don’t know who! Whoever wrote you that poem in your nightstand! Whoever you’ve been going to see every time you run errands. Whoever you’ve been saying I love you to on the phone. I don’t know who and I really don’t care who.”

She walks to me and places her hands on my shoulders.

“Lake, I’m not seeing anyone. You’ve misunderstood everything. All of it.”

I can tell she’s being honest, but I still don’t have any answers.

“What about the note? And the bank statements? We aren’t broke, Mom. And you never even sold the house! You lied to us to drag us up here. If it wasn’t for some guy, then why? Why are we here?”

“Oh god, Lake. I thought you knew. I thought you figured it out.” She sits back down on the couch.

“Apparently not," I say. I'm frustrated. I don't understand what could possibly be so important about Michigan that she would drag us away from our entire lives.

"So tell me,” I say.

“Sit down. Please, sit down.”

I sit back down on the couch and wait for her to explain everything. She pauses for a long time as she gathers her thoughts.

“The note, it’s just something your dad wrote. He was being silly. He drew on my face one night and left the note on my pillow. I kept it. I loved your dad, Lake. I miss him so much. I would never do anything like that to him. There’s no one else.”

She's being sincere.

“Then why did we move here, Mom? Why did you make us move here?”

She takes a deep breath and grabs my hands. The look in her eyes makes my heart sink. It’s the same look she had in the hallway earlier this year when she came to tell me the news about my dad. She takes another deep breath and squeezes my hands.

“Lake, I have cancer.”

***

Denial. I’m definitely in denial. And anger. Bargaining? Yes, that too. I’m in all three. All five, maybe. I can’t breathe.

“Your father and I were going to tell you. After he died, y’all were so devastated. I couldn’t bring myself to talk to you about it. When I started getting worse, I wanted to move back here. Brenda begged me to, said she’d help take care of me. She’s the one I’ve been talking to on the phone. There’s a doctor in Detroit that specializes in lung cancer. That’s where I’ve been going.”

Lung cancer. It has a name. That makes it even more real.

“I was going to tell you and Kel tomorrow. It’s time you guys know, so we can all prepare.”

I pull my hands away from her.

“Prepare...for what, Mom?”