“Hi, Rocky.” Some guy, I assumed it was DJ, said as he came inside. What the hell was it with the nickname? They acted like they’d known Aspen her whole life instead of a few weeks.
“Hey, DJ. I just came in to check my schedule.” She stepped away from me.
The red headed guy handed her a piece of paper. “Here, I have a copy right here. I’ve been busting my ass trying to fill in the holes. Trish quit with no notice, so we need to get someone else hired pretty quick.”
The homing beacon inside me I usually used to find girls started beeping. I stepped forward and held out my hand. “Hi. I’m Aspen’s friend, Sebastian. I’d love to fill out an application.”
Thirty minutes later I had my app filled out and had pretty much been promised the job. A pizza place definitely wasn’t my dream job, but it paid and Aspen worked there, so it couldn’t be that bad. We were almost to my house where she was going to get dressed and then head back to DJ’s. The cocky-smile guy had mentioned something about needing the evening off and Aspen had jumped at the opportunity to work for him.
When she pulled into her driveway, I turned to her. “So. The people you work with? They’re cool?” I felt all proud of myself for wanting to protect my friend.
“Yep. You’ll like them. Bradley’s a shift leader. He’s pretty kick back. Liz is a delivery driver, so she’s in and out a lot. Matt started about the same time as I did. You’ll like him. He reminds me of you, actually. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well.”
I tried not to roll my eyes. “Pfft. He looked like a loser to me. All smiley, Mcsmilerson. I think you need to watch your back around him. I got a funny feeling about him.”
“What? You talked to him for like two seconds. He’s a good guy. Real funny.” She poked me in the side. “Much like you, Bastian.” With that, she climbed out of the car. I pushed the door open and jogged over to her.
“Wanna hang out Friday night? We can see what Pris and Jaden are up to.” The words tumbled out of my mouth without a thought.
Aspen shrugged. “Sure. I get off at six, so we can do something after that. I gotta go though. I need to get into work.”
Before she walked away, I grabbed her and hugged her, the whole time thinking I was being pretty damn cheesy right now. It wasn’t like we never hugged, but usually she was doing the hugging, and I was doing the hugging back. Aspen must have noticed because she laughed against me. “Bastian, you’re being weird. Is everything okay?”
When our hug ended, I ruffled her hair because I was being weird and it started to freak me out. “I’m cool.”
“How’s your mom? She still seeing that guy?” Her mouth turned down and her eyes got all soft.
I sure didn’t want to talk about that, even with Aspen. She was the only one who knew how much my mom’s boyfriends pissed me off, but still, I wasn’t one to sit around and harp on it. My shoulders lifted into a shrug. “Beats me.” I playfully pushed her toward the door. “Now get in there and get ready for work before you’re late. I don’t want it to look bad on me, now that you’re my reference and all.”
Aspen laughed. “Bye, Bastian.”
“Bye.” As she walked away, I found myself watching her. Jaden was right. While we weren’t looking, Aspen did get a nice butt.
And I needed to get myself an appointment with my mom’s shrink, because there was definitely something wrong with me.
Chapter Four
PA,
Hey. Hope you got a chance to see lover boy and give him some quality time ;). I’m going to go ahead and give you your next step now. If you haven’t had a chance to do the first one, get on it girl. What are you waiting for? Dream Man won’t be around forever. Gotta be proactive and all that crap.
So, now that you were all nice and helpful to him, it’s time to take a step back. A few actually. I know it’s hard, but you have to pretty much ignore him. Don’t be bitchy, because that’s going to make him run for the hills, but show him you have a life without him. Go out. Have fun. Talk about it so he hears you—or better yet, let him see you out.
He knows what it’s like to have you there for him and he’ll miss you all the more when you’re not. Let me know how it’s going.
Hook-up Doctor
***
“Sebastian. Time to get up. We’re meeting Roger for lunch in an hour.” I’d originally planned on playing possum, but as soon as she muttered the words Roger and lunch, my eyes shot open to see Mom standing in the doorway of my bedroom. She had on a tight-fitting shirt and a skirt. I recognized it as one of her favorite date outfits. It was one of the ones she wore when she really wanted to impress. Shit.
“Ma, you can’t spring something like this on me. I’m half asleep. I need to make a good impression when I meet him.” My mouth felt all cottony, like I had to pry my lips apart to speak. My heart beat a little too fast for having just woken up.
Mom sighed and her voice came out all soft. “You don’t want to meet him, do you?”
My shell started to crumble. I didn’t like hurting my mom. No, I hated hurting her. She’d been hurt enough that she shouldn’t have to get it from her own son too. We were all each other had. “Ma.”
“No, no. It’s okay. I understand. I really wish you’d change your mind though. He’s important to me, but you’re more important. I won’t make you do something you don’t want to do.”
She moved to close the door. “No!” I called out, stopping her. I wanted nothing to do with this guy, but I wasn’t willing to hurt my mom over it. “I’ll go. I just need to call Jaden and cancel my plans. It’s not a big deal.”
Her face lit up. It was always so easy to make her happy. I wondered if that was the reason so many guys had been “the one” for her and why it had been so hard for them to keep making her feel that way. She didn’t ask for much, but none of them had ever been willing to keep giving it to her.
“Are you sure?”
“Hell yeah. I haven’t had the chance to give him the warning speech. He needs to know if he hurts my mom, he’ll have to deal with me.”
I pushed out of bed, running a hand through my messy hair. The smile on her face made it worth it.
“I love you, kiddo. I don’t know how I got so lucky.”
She closed the door before I mumbled, “I love you, too.”
***
So, Roger pretty much looked like a loser. He was one of those suit and tie guys with a comb-over. She’d never, ever dated a guy with a comb-over before. She usually liked musicians or guys who were in motorcycle clubs. If this guy was in high school, he’d be in the math club.
I still didn’t like him.
He held my mom’s hand through most of the meal. If you ask me, that seemed pretty awkward. The whole time I wanted to yell at him, “Sometimes it takes two hands to eat, buddy, give her some space.” Plus, it always felt like showboating to me, trying to brand a girl as yours. Lame. I’d never wanted to brand a girl and I hated that he was doing it to my mom. But of course, I didn’t say anything. I was the perfect gentleman, because I knew it would upset Mom if I wasn’t.
He talked through most of the meal. He was divorced. An accountant, which made me laugh. Definitely the math club.
He also owned a house. Liked watching my mom dance—too much information for me. Yeah, it wasn’t skeezy dancing, but still. He kept going on and on, yada, yada, until I wanted to tape his mouth shut.
Then the conversation turned to me. “How do you like school, Sebastian?” Roger asked me after he finished his salad. Salad! What kind of guy orders a fuckin’ salad for lunch?
“It’s summer.”
“Sebastian…” Mom kind of coughed at me.
“Oh! I forgot about that. Well, how do you like school when it’s in?” He gave me a smile.
I didn’t feel like talking, but knew I didn’t have a choice. “It’s okay. As cool as school can be, I guess.” I started playing with my eyebrow ring, hoping he’d stop talking to me, but he didn’t.
“So, you said summer break then? You’ll be a senior next year, right?” The loser let go of my mom’s hand, but started tickling the top of it. It was weird to watch. I couldn’t stop focusing on their hands. I’d never really seen her like this with someone before.
“Yep.”
“Do you know what you plan to do after?”
Hell, I hated this question. Why was it always the first one people asked? It’s like parents thought your whole life depended on this one answer. Made no sense to me, even though I kind of did know the answer to it. “Not for sure. My friends and I want to take a road trip next summer. Aspen and Pris are planning on going to college in New York. I think Jay and I are going to tag along.”
My mom cut in, reaching across the table to pat my hand. “Don’t let Sebastian fool you. He’s into music. The boy can pick up almost any instrument and play it. He’s already got pamphlets in his room for some fancy music school out there.”
I pulled my hand back and sighed. “Ma, I was just looking. I don’t even know if I want to go to school right away.” I picked up another fry and popped it in my mouth, even though I wasn’t really hungry. “It’s hard as hell to get into. They probably wouldn’t take me anyway.”
“Language, Sebastian.”
My eyes snapped up to hers. “Sorry,” I mumbled. I hated it when she tried to make us look like some perfect family. Yeah, I was pretty damn good at music. I played guitar and piano (most of my friends didn’t know the piano part), but a career in music was pretty much like wanting to be an actor or something. It didn’t happen often. Plus, I had time to figure all that out. I sure didn’t plan on stressing about it now.
And the language thing. I couldn’t remember the last time she gave me a hard time for saying hell. But then, I knew she just wanted to make a good impression. She was obviously head over heels for the guy. Why, I didn’t know.
“It’s okay.” She stood. “Now, if you boys would excuse me for a minute, I need to go to the restroom.”
Great. Just what I didn’t want: to be left alone with math club. I focused on my half dead food so I didn’t have to look at him. I didn’t trust myself not to say something I shouldn’t, not to find a way to ruin this for her. Honestly, what I really wanted to do is tell the guy to stay the hell away from us. But would I really be ruining it for her or saving her in the long run? I didn’t know and I wasn’t willing to risk finding out.
After a minute or two of silence, Roger broke it. “Can I talk to you man to man for a minute, Sebastian?” he asked.
This was the perfect opening for me. I leaned back in the chair and crossed my arms. “As long as I can do the same with you.”
He nodded his head, with a partial smile on his face. “Fair enough. You go first.”
“My mom means everything to me. She’s been through a lot and the last thing she needs is another jerk that’s going to bail on her. I don’t want to see her hurt again, so if you’re playing games, play them with someone else.” A deep breath escaped my lungs. This was the thing, what all those girls who emailed me to hook them up didn’t understand. Getting a guy isn’t the same thing as keeping him. I can always promise a hook-up, but I can’t control if it lasts or not. As far as I could tell, it almost never lasted.
If you asked me, I wasn’t sure it was worth the risk.
The putz looked at me and smiled. “Your mom is very lucky to have you for a son, Sebastian.”
“I know.” I hated to sound cocky, but I knew I was a pretty good son. Despite everything, she was a good mom, too. The jury was still out on this guy. Guilty until proven innocent when it came to her.