Page 52 of The Comedown

“You’re gonna get someone pregnant with lyrics like that.”

He says something under his breath I can’t make out, then we’re back on stage…performing his rap songs…together.

“Mom, I didn’t know you could rap,” Holter teases as soon as I enter my dressing room, and I laugh, barely feeling my cheeks from the last hour and a half. I don’t think I stopped smiling once. Julian really knows how to show out when he tries, and he’s so damn charming doing it, too.

Not changing my shoes for an entire ninety minutes bit me in the ass though, and it takes the help of Holter, Mary, and Irelynn to get my boots off.

I’m just coming out of the attached bathroom, tying the drawstring of a pair of baggy sweatpants when they bring up what everyone wants for dinner.

“Are we going out or staying in? Because I can’t wear this out.” I don’t even specify what “this” is. They know.

“Well…” Holter says, studying his sneakers.

“Well, what?” It seems pretty simple to me, either we’re eating at a restaurant or we’re getting takeout.

“There’s this…”

“There’s this what?” I look from Holter to Mary. “What’s he trying to tell me without actually telling me?”

“You better make it quick like a Band-Aid,” she says to Holter.

“It’s the text messages, isn’t it?”

Holter groans.

“I knew it. There’s a girl.”

“There’s a girl,” Mary confirms, nodding, and I sink down on to the loveseat, my eyes welling up with tears.

“I told you she’d overreact,” he says to Mary like I’m not even here.

All I can do is sniffle, asking, “What’s her name?”

“I’m not telling you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll look her up and troll her on every platform.”

“So? That’s my right as your mother.”

“That’s not a thing, Mom.”

“Yes, it is. It’s my thing.”

Holter groans again. “You’re so embarrassing.”

“I am not,” I mumble from behind a tissue after blowing my nose.

A knock at the door barely even registers until Irelynn goes over to crack it the slightest bit.

I knew this day was coming; I just didn’t expect it for another two or three…decades. I’m not ready for my little boy to date.

“She’s, um, indisposed at the moment,” Irelynn says to whoever’s at the door. “Can I give her a message for you?”

“Indisposed? The fuck?”

Julian.