Her Hometown Girl by Lorelie Brown

Author:Lorelie Brown [Brown, Lorelie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Published: 2017-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

Tansy

“Why are you still at the school?”

I’m twenty-five minutes into a conversation with my mom when she drops the question. There’s a hundred things I could be doing, but Mom and I have been building a new relationship over the past couple of months. I didn’t talk to her much when I was with Jody. It was hard to have a conversation without Jody needing something, or asking questions while I was still on the phone, or jumping into the topic and insisting I put it on speakerphone. I hadn’t noticed how short my conversations with my mom had become until it was too late.

I’m flat on my back on the rug in our library nook, my feet up on a padded bench that I usually use when I’m reading to the kids. On the wall above me are the natural disaster projects they turned in last week. Corbyn has a really nice eye for emotion in her drawings. The fear on the faces of the earthquake victims is surprisingly real. I guess that’s what Sunday afternoon drawing classes with a Cal Arts student will do for you.

“I had a lot of grading to get done,” I tell Mom.

“Couldn’t you take it home?”

“It’s not exactly cozy there. I haven’t really unpacked.” I sigh. “Honestly, I haven’t unpacked at all.”

There’s something clattering on the other end. Mom’s making dinner. “You’ve been in that apartment for two months. You know what I say. A tidy room . . .”

“Makes for a tidy brain. Yes, Mommy,” I tease. “I heard that a thousand times when I was a kid.”

“I’m going to send your brother out there.”

“Mom, no!” I sit up in a panic. “What?”

“He’s bouncing around the house like a bum ever since he got laid off at the factory. He needs something to do.” She’s got that note of determination in her voice. “He’ll come unpack for you.”

“That’s really not necessary.”

“It’ll be good for you and good for him.”

“Mom, you can’t.” I rub my forehead. It’s not that I suddenly have a headache, but I can feel the pressure of my brains trying to scramble out of my head because I can’t figure out how to solve this. “Justin’s got a life. He’s not your proxy to send off.”

“Not much of a life, he doesn’t.” She makes a tsking sound. “That Johnson girl dumped him, and I can hardly blame her. He was at the bar flirting with Rebecca Wilkins. You know her. She was a year behind you.”

Life in a small town is such a weird little dance. There are certain things that are wholly public and other parts that are never talked about. “Is there anything you don’t know about his life?”

She gives a tuneless hum as she thinks about it. “I don’t think so? Oh! I don’t know what kind of porn he likes, thank goodness. But I swear to god that’s about it. I need a break from him, Tansy. I haven’t had a quiet dinner with your father since Justin moved back in.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.