Familiar by Rhodes M. L

Author:Rhodes, M. L. [Rhodes, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Gay & Lesbian
ISBN: 9781611243659
Publisher: Amber Quill Press, LLC
Published: 2013-01-30T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

"Sweetheart, we need to talk."

It was my mom. I think she must have been lying in wait for me because I'd pretty much been avoiding everyone for days. For weeks. And this midnight foray into the kitchen for a snack was supposed to have been stealth because I thought everyone was already in bed. Now I was busted. She knew me too well.

"What about?" I asked, shuffling to a stop, my bare feet scuffing at the hardwood floor in the kitchen of our old house as I stared down, avoiding her gaze.

She let go of one of her crutches, balancing her weight on the other, and tipped my chin up with her fingers. Her green eyes were narrowed in concern. And sympathy. And I knew, right there on the spot, that I wasn't going to be able to squirm my way out of this.

"You haven't been yourself since graduation, Emrys. What happened?"

I shrugged. "Nothing really."

I got the eyebrow. That raised eyebrow that disappeared up under her flaming red hair. My sisters and I pretty much always flinched at the sight of it because it meant she wasn't going to take any crap or accept any fibs, diversions, or attempts at escape. She was like a master spy interrogator, and she'd laid us all out at one point or another in our lives, picking us apart bit by bit until she had the information she wanted. Resistance was futile. And it was even worse because even though she knew how to work us like a hardened agent, at the same time, she managed to kill us with kindness and sympathy until we were blubbering like wee children and spilling all our secrets. It wouldn't have been so bad if she wasn't so damned nice when she did it.

I sighed, knowing I wasn't going anywhere and, for the next however long it took, my fate was in her hands. I hooked one of my feet under the leg of a wooden chair at the kitchen table and pulled it out. I motioned for her to sit. She looked at me and smiled, before easing into it and propping her crutches against the table. I pulled out the chair next to her and sank into it, then rested my elbows on the tabletop and dropped my face into my palms, sighing.

She stroked my back, offering comfort, and all of a sudden I was five years old again, coming to her to make me feel better when I'd broken my favorite toy, or had had a fight with one of my sisters.

"Tell me what's on your mind. What happened after graduation, sweetheart? You've been sad and distant and trying really hard not to show it but failing miserably. You go to work, come home, spend hours lost in your video games, never go out with your friends, and when you do emerge, you try to time it so you don't have to see anyone. That's not like you at all."

"I really don't want to talk about it, Mom.

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