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I just stared at her. “I missed him. His flight had left already.”
Mom winced. “Oh. Well. You can still call him.”
“Mom,” I said. “I can’t call him.”
“Don’t be silly. Of course you can.”
“Mom. I can’t call him. I kissed J.P. And Michael saw me do it.”
Now it was Mom’s turn to stare at me. “You kissed your best friend’s boyfriend?”
“Actually,” I said, “Lilly and J.P. broke up today. So he’s her ex-boyfriend. But yes.”
“And you did this in front of Michael.”
“Yes.” I’m not sure the Quarter Pounder with cheese was actually the best idea. “I didn’t mean to, though. It just sort of…happened.”
“Oh, Mia,” Mom said with a sigh. “What am I going to do with you?”
“I don’t know,” I said, tears tickling my nose. “I’ve completely ruined everything with him. He’ll never forgive me. He’s probably glad to be rid of me. Who wants a crazy girlfriend?”
“You’ve been crazy since Michael met you,” Mom said. “It’s not like you’ve gotten any noticeably crazier.”
The thing is, I knew she was trying to be encouraging.
“Thanks,” I said, through my tears.
“Look,” she went on. “Frank and I are ordering from Number One Noodle Son. Do you want anything?”
I thought about it. The Quarter Pounder really wasn’t sitting all that well. Maybe what I needed was some more protein, to help keep it down.
“I guess some General Tso’s chicken,” I said. “And orange beef. And maybe some fried dumplings. And how about some spare ribs? You guys always look like you’re really enjoying those.”
But my mom, instead of looking happy that she didn’t have to order a vegetarian entrée that no one but me was going to eat, looked concerned.
“Mia,” she said. “Are you really sure you want to—”
But I guess something in my face made her change her mind about finishing that statement, since she just shrugged and said, “All right. Whatever you want. Oh, and Lilly called. She wants you to call her back. She said it’s important.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thanks.”
Mom opened my bedroom door—BANG! Giggle. BANG! BANG!—and left. I stared at the ceiling for a while. On Michael’s ceiling, in his bedroom back at the Moscovitzes’ apartment, there are glow-in-the-dark constellations. I wondered if he’d put glow-in-the-dark constellations on the ceiling of his new bedroom. In Japan.
I leaned down and picked up the phone and dialed Lilly’s number. Dr. Moscovitz picked up. She said, “Oh, hello, Mia,” in a not-very-warm voice.
Yes. My boyfriend’s mother hates me now.
Well, she has a right to.
“Dr. Moscovitz,” I said. “I’m sorry about—well, everything. I’m a huge jerk. I understand if you hate me.”
Dr. Moscovitz’s voice warmed up a tiny bit.
“Oh, Mia,” she said. “I could never hate you. Look, these things happen. I—well, you and Lilly will work it out.”
“Right,” I said, feeling fractionally better. Maybe I didn’t have dysthmia after all. I mean, if I could actually feel something. Besides bad. “Thanks.”
Except…did she say “you and Lilly”? She must have meant “you and Michael.”
