Page 116 of If the World Was Ending

I understand what you’re saying.

But it sucks. I know.

Colby

Yup. Take care of yourself Hunter.

You too Colbs. I’m sorry.

Colby

Me too.

Chapter 38

You’ve done everything

Catherine Amaia Gibson chose a Monday to die. She said it was because everyone always hated Mondays anyway, so she wouldn’t be ruining another day. Hunter flew straight from Croatia to Montreal the day filming finished. He didn’t even stay for the wrap party, which tabloids were reporting meant he was difficult to work with. It didn’t help that Jack Byrne, when asked about it, shrugged and muttered, “Some people aren’t in it for more than the paycheck.”

It made Hunter look shitty, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was getting home to spend two days with his mom before she left this earth. And they were good days. There were a ton of tears, but there was also a ton of laughter. His parents held hands and kissed a lot. They walked Manuel the cat together when her headaches weren’t too bad and she wasn’t dizzy. When she was, she napped on the couch with the cat curled up on her, Hunter and his father chatting quietly beside her. They ordered all her favorite meals even though she couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites. They were a connected, complete family for the first and last time.

She shook Hunter awake Monday before the sun rose. She sat on the side of his bed as he blinked sleep from his eyes, which were puffy from crying himself to sleep. She smoothed his hair. “You’re the best thing I ever did, Hunter.” She wore a small but deep smile he could see in the low light coming in from the moon outside the window. “I know that’s something women who give birth say, but even though I didn’t do that, I helped create who you are.”

“You did,” Hunter agreed and bit his bottom lip to keep it from trembling. “You are the best mom I could ever have asked for.”

“Thanks, baby.” She hadn’t called him baby since he was a preteen. “I’m still worried about you, though. You have a restless heart. All artists do.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I researched it,” she said proudly. “When you first started begging me to act and do theater, I thought, whoa, this kid is out of my comfort zone. So I started reading biographies of actors, singers, and artists. They all had this incredible drive to throw themselves, heart and soul, into the unknown. That’s you, baby, and as much as it scares me, it awes me too.”

Tears fell from both of them, but they pretended they didn’t. Hunter sat up and moved over, and Catherine pulled her thin legs up on the bed too and wrapped an arm around her son’s shoulders. “Thank you for trying to learn about me and not trying to change me.”

“Honey, you gotta be who you gotta be, and I gotta find a way to make sure you find you as safely and happily as possible,” she said softly as she smoothed his hair again.

“I have a friend whose parents wanted him to be like them, and he isn’t, and they basically just let him go, emotionally and physically,” Hunter explained. “And it made me appreciate you even more.”

“What was he like that they didn’t approve of him?”

“He was artistic instead of sporty. He was gay instead of straight.”

“You have gay friends?” she asked and sounded a little more shocked than Hunter would have liked.

“Yeah, Mom. It’s Hollywood, and it’s also not 1940,” Hunter said with a chuckle in his voice.

She laughed too, but it sounded like it kind of hurt. She inhaled sharply. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that to be the way it sounded. For the record, if you’d been gay, I would have just read up on that and figured out how best to support you. But I would have worried too because people can be such assholes about that. And I don’t ever want people to hurt you, Hunter. Or deny you a job. Or refuse to make your wedding cake or whatever.”

Hunter turned his head and kissed her cheek. “I love you, and I’m fine. I’ll always be okay. Because you made me resilient, Mom.”

She sniffed. “I wish I didn’t have to go.”

“I wish you didn’t, too.”

“Take care of your dad. He’s the love of my life.” She sighed. “Cheating bastard but the love of my life.”

She laughed. Hunter did too because he’d learned that you couldn’t stop yourself from loving someone, even if you should. And then Manuel sauntered in through the cracked door and curled up at her feet as she dozed next to her son.

Hunter never told her he was bisexual because he decided that it didn’t matter. She’d said she would still love and support him if he was gay, but she’d also said she would worry. And he didn’t want her to worry in her final moments. And when those moments came, after she took the medication the doctor supplied, it was so peaceful it was almost beautiful. Except for his heart breaking.