All We Ever Wanted(9)

Finch heaved a sigh and said, “Why’re you so pissed off, Mom? You know I drink.”

“We’re both very, very upset, Finch. But it’s not just about the drinking,” I said, then took a deep breath, pulled my phone out of my purse, and found the image saved to my camera roll. I slid it across the counter and watched him look down at it.

“Where did you get that?” he asked.

My heart sank.

“Mrs. Parker showed it to Mom. At our event tonight,” Kirk replied.

Finch glanced at me as I nodded. “Yeah. So let that one sink in….But, honestly, is that really what you’re worried about here? Where I got it?”

“I was just wondering,” Finch said.

I took a breath and said, “Did you take it?”

“Mom, it’s a long story…and it’s not as bad as it looks….I bet she wouldn’t even be that mad….”

“Who is she?”

“Just some girl,” he said.

I turned the words over in my head, feeling absolutely sickened. “Does this girl have a name?” I asked him.

“Yeah. It’s Lyla Volpe….Why?”

“Why? Because you posted a photo of her half naked, Finch. That’s why,” I said, feeling myself become hysterical.

   “It wasn’t posted. It just got sent to a few people. And she wasn’t half naked, Mom.”

“I saw her nipple, Finch,” I said. “That counts as naked to me.”

“Well, it’s not like I took her clothes off….”

“Well, that’s a relief,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “Because that would make it assault.”

“Assault? C’mon, Mom. You’re overreacting,” he said with a weary sigh. “Nobody assaulted her. She drank too much and passed out. That’s not my problem.”

“On the contrary, son, this is your problem,” Kirk said, as if the gravity of the situation was finally setting in for him. “Many people have seen this photo. It’s out there.”

“And…green card, Finch? Really?” I said.

“It was just a joke, Mom.”

“It’s racist,” I said. “You took a photo of a half-naked girl who was passed out, and then made a racist joke about her.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, lowering his eyes and voice.

“That you did it? Or that you got caught?” I asked.

“C’mon, Mom. Please. Stop. I’m really sorry.”

“What were you thinking? I mean, actually what was going through your mind?” I said.

Finch shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Nothing? Nothing?” I said, floored by his answer, though maybe it was better than if he had set out to hurt someone. Still, the result was the same. The injury wasn’t any less.

When he didn’t reply, I got more upset. “How could you do this, Finch? I just don’t get it. It’s so…cruel! This is not the way your father and I have raised you!”

“And beyond that, do you realize what you’ve risked here?” Kirk asked, finally raising his voice, too. “How stupid and irresponsible this was? You could be expelled!”

   “C’mon, Dad, that’s crazy,” Finch said.

“No, it’s not,” I said. “It’s not far-fetched at all, actually. Hell, forget Windsor. You could be sued in court.”

“On what grounds?” Kirk asked me, as if I were a legal expert.

“I don’t know—I’m not a lawyer,” I said, my voice rising. “Defamation? Child pornography?”

“Pornography? Come on, Mom,” Finch said.

“Yeah. This is hardly a porno,” Kirk chimed in.

“Porn, Kirk,” I said. “They dropped the o two decades ago.”

“Yes. Because that’s the important point here,” Kirk said under his breath.

“Look. There is enough here to bring a lawsuit,” I said. “I am certain of that. Bottom line, this girl and her parents could always claim emotional distress—”

“Mom, there’s no emotional distress,” Finch said.

“There’s not?” I asked, incredulous. “How would you know? Did you ask her? Do you care about her feelings at all?”

“She’ll be fine, Mom. This kind of thing happens all the time.”

“Happens? It doesn’t just ‘happen.’ You did it!” I started to rant again.

Kirk held up his hand and said, “Look. It’s not about the girl.”

“It’s not?” I said. “What’s it about, then, Kirk? Enlighten me?”

Kirk cleared his throat. “This is about his shitty judgment.” He turned his gaze to Finch and said, “Son, you showed terrible judgment tonight that could jeopardize your future. You really have to think—”

“Not just think. You have to feel, too,” I said, cutting Kirk off. “You can’t treat people like this.”

“I don’t, Mom. It was just—”

“A lapse of judgment,” Kirk finished for him.

“Well, unfortunately, it’s not that simple,” I said.

   Because deep down, I knew that even if every person out there deleted the picture from their phones, and Lyla and her parents and the administration of Windsor never caught wind of it, and Finch truly was sorry, everything had still changed. At least for one of us it had.