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“You want to do the honors? Or should I?”
I kissed her head again. “It’s your weekend. You can go in when you’re ready.”
With a heavy sigh, she slipped her key into the hotel room door. And when the air conditioning slapped us in the face, the two of us sighed with relief. I helped Rae get her things into the room, and as she flopped onto the bed I walked over to the window. I pulled back the curtains and looked down the five stories all the way to the ground. More boys walked by. Laughing and punching one another in the arm. Having the time of their lives during orientation weekend.
Boys that had their life together.
Unlike me.
I’ve just got my notebook and bullshit side jobs.
“So, do you wanna talk about it?”
I turned away from the window as my question lingered in the air. Rae sat up and looked my way, then heaved a heavy sigh. A sigh I heard much too often nowadays.
A sigh I didn’t know how to fix.
“I don’t know. It’s just--”
I walked over to her. “What happened with your mom?”
She scooted over, giving me room to sit. “She called me at Allison’s and started rattling off all sorts of nonsense. How she was in my room supposedly cleaning or whatever and wondered if I left my charger cable for my phone behind.”
“Why was she in your room in the first place?”
“I don’t know, but she flat-out lied to me about it. She said there was ‘a smell coming from a box under my bed.’”
“She didn’t.”
“I’ve had that box with me this entire time. Have you smelled anything?”
I sighed. “Oh, Rae.”
She shook her head. “I’ve let up lately on the money I’m giving Mom and she’s actively snooping around for it. I know she suspects something. That’s why I gathered all of it up and shoved everything I figured she might find into that purse.”
I nodded slowly. “I figured that’s what it was.”
“What the hell am I going to do? She’s literally going through my room trying to find shit. What the hell is wrong with her?”
“Rae, your mother is sick. Maybe not physically. But, mentally? Possibly. Is she still going to therapy?”
“With as easy as it was for her to bold-faced lie to me about some stupid shit? I don’t even know anymore.”
“Is she telling you she is?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
I wrapped my arm around her. “I don’t want to seem as if I’m walking all over what you want. But I really do feel that one of the reasons you need to give at least this first semester a chance is to get away from your mother. Figure out how to live your life without her influence and her presence.”
“I know.”
“And who knows what’s going through her mind right now?”
She snickered. “I’ve got an idea as to a few things.”
I kissed her temple. “I know you do. But we’re away for the weekend, so one of the first things we can do is find a branch of your bank to put all that money in.”
“Well…”
