Page 22 of So Long, Honey
“You’re alone in this house for a week?” I said, my tone shocked because she looked at me in confusion over her shoulder. “How often do they leave you alone like that?” I asked her.
“All the time, there are housekeepers around…” she tugged me into the kitchen and pointed to one of the stools at the massive island. The kitchen alone was bigger than the main floor of my house, with dark wood cabinets and fancy countertops that didn’t look plastic. She dug in the drawers and pulled out some forks before going into the fridge.
She balanced a small, half-eaten cake in one hand and two sodas in the other. I reached forward and helped her despite the groan of my sore ribcage. It was vanilla with pink frosting. It looked like she had been picking at it all night, and the scribbled white font on the top was half gone, but I could tell that it was her birthday cake.
“When was your birthday?” I asked her with a pit in my stomach.
“It’s tomorrow,” she said with a shrug like it wasn’t a big deal.
“Rae.” I stopped her from moving away from the island with my hand on her wrist, “it’s your birthday tomorrow?”
“Yeah, just like it was last year and the year before.”
“Were you going to celebrate alone?” I asked her and pinned my shoulders back, looking around at her big empty house, suddenly mad at everyone in her life.
“It’s just a birthday, Ryan,” She said to me and handed me a fork.
“It’syourbirthday,” I argued against her blatant lack of concern. If she wasn’t going to be angry, I would be angry for her. “You should never be alone on your birthday.”
“I’m an only child,” Lorraine said, taking a bite of cake.
“That makes it worse! I have six siblings, and my Mom remembers every single one of our birthdays. If anything, sheshould be forgetting one or two a year,” I laughed. “They only have you to celebrate, and they’re not even home.”
“It’s fine, I’m used to it. They left me presents, and I baked myself a cake.” She smiled down at it.
“You baked that yourself?” I said in shock as the vanilla sponge cake melted in my mouth. She smiled at me, “It’s really good but that's also really sad.”
“Thank you,” she said, unscrewing the soda cap from the corner of her shirt and handing it to me before doing her own. “You know my parents may leave me alone, but at least they don’t hit me.”
I laughed hard, mostly because I didn’t know how else to interpret her statement. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I shook my head. “I kind of earned it this time.”
“Ryan, you’re a child; you don’tearnbeatings,” She said quietly, “You might be the most insufferable person in this town, but he’s still your dad.”
“I’ll be out of there soon enough,” he said.
“If you finish your papers,” she reminded me.
“My tutor quit,” I looked at her with a smile.
“Tried to,” she laughed, and the sound created a burst of fireworks across my chest.
“Please don’t, I need your help,” I said.
“No, you don’t. Half of those assignments you’ve done on your own. You’re just trying to impress me.” Lorraine sipped on her soda. “The other half you don’t want to do because you’rescared.”
“Hey now,” I took another bite of cake.
“It’s true. It just wasn’t clear before. You don’t want to do any of the papers that involve any sort of childhood memory or family members. You avoid them.” She said it as if it was a matter of fact.
And maybe it was.
“I didn’t come over here for a therapy session, Starlight.” I hummed as a joke, but the darker reasonings of my impromptu visit tonight. I hated that she saw through my defenses and always found me hiding in some dark corner of my mind.
“Right, you just came for the cake.” She held up a spoonful. “You can sleep in the guest room tonight,” she offered. “But you have to take those boots off. If you get mud anywhere else, my Mom will kill me.”
I looked down at my boots, hand-me-downs from my brother Robert. They fit funny around my ankles, but they did the job. My mind completely glazed over the fact that she said I could stay here.
“Did you say I could stay?” I looked back up at her, and she nodded.