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“Big deal! I wanna be near you. So does Jake. Besides, I’ll only be two hours away. An hour and a half if traffic isn’t crazy. They’re acting like I won’t keep in touch. I definitely will.” Mariska cleared her throat. “And they like you, they just don’t like Cindy.”
“On top of that, they’re convinced that I’ll be a bad influence on you.”
“Then why haven’t you corrupted my virtue all these years? I am gonna do what I really wanna do, whether you encourage me to or not. Might as well be in college. And one of these days, there’ll be another scapegoat around here. Cindy and you will be hard to remember. So, how did Cindy act when she saw you?”
Her question reminded me that I didn’t know where Cindy was, or when or if she was going to come back home. The longest relationship that I recalled her ever having had lasted three months. The guy hadn’t been pleased at all when he’d found out that she had a kid. Soon after, the guy had broken up with her and she’d been in bed for a month, telling me never to have children because they’re “cock-blockers.” That comment made me feel great about my existence, about being a burden. Around the same time Cindy had been sulking about the end of her relationship, she’d advised me to start dating in order to “get my feet wet.” I’d been thirteen years old at the time. I’d started to have crushes that didn’t expire hours later and I hadn’t had a clue about what to do about it.
Since I was considered to be just like Cindy in Franklin Parks, I’d had no problem getting attention from my male peers in school, and it had brought about looks of disdain from my female classmates. No one that I knew ever spoke badly about Mariska’s character. Jake had almost gotten suspended because he’d punched some boy who’d grabbed my ass. It hadn’t been the first time that had happened. Jake had just been there that specific time.
“Beth, you still there?” Concern laced Mariska’s voice and brought me out of my reverie.
“I am still here.” I dryly laughed. “Cindy’s not here, though.”
“Oh,” she said. “Don’t take it personally. You know she’s just out for the—”
“You can come by whenever. She won’t be back for a while. She might not ever come back.”
“What do you mean she might not ever come back, Beth?” Mariska asked as if I was being dramatic. “I just saw her this morning at Walmart. I know she didn’t answer your calls in the car, but that’s not anything new, is it?”
“That was this morning. As of this evening, she…left.” I took the small note from the side of my bed and fisted it in the palm of my hand, closing my eyes. “She left me a note and basically said that she had to follow her heart.”
Her voiced dropped. “Her heart? You’re supposed to be her heart. She’s no longer the fifteen-year-old she was when she had you. What’s wrong with you? Why’re you so chill about this? And wait till I tell Jake about this!” Her voice shot up an octave. “Didn’t she say that you didn’t have to work during the summer?”
“Cindy did. But if she comes—”
“Hold up! Beth.” She huffed out her alarm effectually. “That’s a big if, seeing how she’s never pulled this stunt before. Look, my parents just left for their shifts. I gotta monitor Pete’s bath.”
“Give him a kiss for me.”
“Will do.” Her tone had warmed. “He’ll be ecstatic. I love you. You know that, right?”
Everything she’d said came from a sincere place. Just like Jake, Mariska always looked out for me.
“Love you too.”
“Later.”
I stormed out of my room and into Cindy’s room. In a matter of hours, Cindy had also taken her mattress—something I think she purchased on her own—with her, to wherever she and her new Prince Charming had gone to.
***
Sleep evaded me. By the time I’d finished talking to Mariska last night and had showered, Luigi’s had closed. This morning, my stomach was a little cramped up from hunger and lack of sleep.
Was Cindy all right? Had she really left abruptly because she’d wanted to? I mean, sure that note made it clear that she had, but perhaps she’d wanted to talk to me about it. She’d told me that I came first, but that she needed time to do “non-mommy things” so that our time together could be better. It made perfect sense to me. I imagine if I had a child that I’d still want a personal life, but I think I’d do some things differently. Okay, well, I think I’d do a lot of things differently. Not that Cindy wasn’t a great mom to me in her own ways. How long had she been forcing herself to parent me when she wanted to live her own life?
After I brushed my teeth and brushed my hair, I smelled food. Heading downstairs, I heard chatter and the pulse at my throat quickened. I quickly walked to my room, retrieved my bat, and tried to be light on my feet as I paced down the stairs, relieved that it wasn’t an intruder. I didn’t live in the best part of Franklin Parks. Not the worst either. Break-ins hadn’t happened in a while, but my guard was up.
“Beth!” Jake called out to me. “Put that bat down! We’ve got the copies of the keys you gave us!” I placed the bat against the laundry room door. I watched as he cooked some bacon. Flashing his perfectly straight and commercial white teeth at me, Jake opened his arms, and I wrapped mine around him. Mariska sat by the table, pouring the pitcher of lemonade into three glasses. She looked like a goddess in her long, light gold dress with spaghetti straps, sun-kissed bronze skin, and loose curls flowing past her narrow shoulders.
“W-what’re you guys doing here?” I stammered.
“Well, good morning to you too, shit!” Jake shook his head, “Like you’re not lucky to see us at the crack-ass of dawn.”
“Morning, Jake.” I inclined my head to Mariska. “Hey.”
“Much better.”
He let me go. I walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek. She wreathed her arm on my waist. “This morning I told Jake what happened and he wanted to come over ASAP.” She mocked a dry cough. “He came home a little…late last night, like he does every night, so I couldn’t tell him sooner.”
