p; “But I’ll be right here,” I exclaimed loudly.
Dean and Mom looked at each other.
“I don’t know,” Dean said slowly. “Your mom rules the roost around here. You know that, kiddo.”
Defeated, I slunk back down in my chair.
Bible study was even worse than I thought it would be. The rest of the people there were young – like teenagers – and I was obviously the oldest one. Even worse, some girl asked me which high school I went to because she’d “never seen me around.”
It was like my hot night in bed with Andrew and Victor was the most distant of distant memories.
At home, I crawled into bed and turned out the lights, with my door wide open (of course.) Mom and Dean stayed up watching old reruns of Family Matters and then around eleven, they finally went to bed. As quietly as I could, I pulled my laptop out of my bag and booted it up.
Without thinking too much, I wrote:
“Dear Andrew,
You were right. This is completely miserable, and it’s gotten even worse. I can’t stay here anymore. Were you serious about me being able to live with you?
I miss you.
Kristin.”
I almost wrote “love” before my name, but decided that was too mushy and stupid. Besides, I was sure that Andrew didn’t feel the same way about me. He was a cool, older guy. He’d taken my virginity, and I was sure that was the extent of his affection towards me. It wasn’t like he was the kind of guy who fell in love, at least, that’s what I had to think. Andrew was too cool for things like love. Besides, I imagined if he loved anyone, it was probably Victor.
I debated hitting ‘send’ for a solid ten minutes. Then I heard a cough from my mom’s bedroom, and the yellow glare of light appeared in the hallway. It’s now or never, I realized. I have to do this or else I won’t get the chance again. Nervously, I pushed ‘send’ and watched the email fade away, out of my inbox, towards Boston.
“Kristin?” Mom was standing in the doorway, wearing a hairnet and glasses. “Why aren’t you asleep?”
“Your cough woke me up,” I mumbled, turning on my side and facing away from the door.
Mom sighed angrily, but she didn’t say anything.
Finally, I fell into a deep, troubled sleep.
In the morning, I went downstairs and turned the coffeemaker on. Normally, I wasn’t allowed to touch it, but the thought of Andrew rescuing me made the thought of punishment much more bearable.
“Kristin, what are you doing?”
I jumped a mile into the air at the sound of Dean’s voice.
“Um, sorry,” I said quickly, blushing to the roots of my hair. “I wanted some coffee.”
Dean glared at me. “You’d better not have broken this,” he warned. “This was a very expensive piece of machinery!”
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I really wasn’t trying to do anything wrong.”
The knock on the door made me jump again. Dean turned to me, glaring.
“Are you expecting anyone?”
“Me?” I shook my head in surprise. “Of course not.”
Mumbling under his breath, Dean went to answer the door. When he yanked it open, Andrew and Victor were standing there, holding a bottle of wine and a basket of fruit and chocolate.
“Hey, Dad,” Andrew said, a huge shit-eating grin spread across his handsome face. “Long time no see!”
When Dean recovered, he backed away from the door. For a moment, I was terrified that he’d tell Andrew to get the hell out of his sight – after all, I was shocked that Andrew had showed up with Victor. But when I saw Victor’s easy grin, I couldn’t help but relax.