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I wondered as I pulled into my parents’ driveway when I’d become this hard. It’s not like me to fly off the handle like this, to make drastic changes without too much thought. It was then that I realized what my woman had come to mean to me.
I’ve never really respected people who fell in love or claimed to at the drop of a hat. I’ve always looked sideways at anyone who proclaimed to have known their partner the first time they met. It’s always seemed too much like fairytale bullshit to me.
But I realized as I stepped out of the car and headed for the door of the house that I’d paid for that I was willing to cut ties with anyone who agreed with what Roz had done, and I felt no guilt over the decision because she’d come to mean that much to me, in the little time we’d known each other.
There was no fanfare, no fireworks, nothing to herald this great change. Just a slow, gentle feeling of warmth that filled me out of nowhere as the realization set in and took root. It was a hell of a time to be hit this hard by the love bug, but I’ll take it any way it comes.
I didn’t use my key like before but rang the doorbell and waited. Dad was a bit surprised when he opened the door and saw me standing there. “Morning, son, forgot your key?”
“Morning, dad. Are the others here?” I ignored the question about the key as he turned and led the way into the house.
“Yes, they just got here.” That’s because the homes I’d bought them and their families were within walking distance of mom and dad’s new place. I felt a moment’s guilt that my baby sister might not get the same treatment later on down the line, but it didn’t last long once I remembered why I was here.
Mom, as was expected, started in on me as soon as she saw me enter the room. “What’s this I hear about you mistreating your little sister? I didn’t raise my kids to act like that with each other.” I listened to her rant without interruption because this way, I would learn exactly what she’d been told.
Roz sat with a smirk on her face while my other siblings looked on, not showing any expression one way or the other. At least with them, I can expect a fair trial. Maybe it’s because the three of us had had it the hardest, had weathered the storm with mom and pop, or maybe it’s because they know me well.
“I can’t believe my own son would treat his sister so poorly for a stranger. And to embarrass her in front of her friends, no less. Who is this woman anyway? Aren’t you going to say anything? Why have you become mute? Is it because you know you were wrong?”
Mom will always go to bat for Roz, as she should. She’s her late-in-life baby, a surprise after raising us three, and the one who came when things were looking up, which meant she got to enjoy motherhood without all the hassle. This, I know and understand, and have backed her one hundred percent until now.
“I was waiting for you to get it all out.” Instead of saying anything further, I placed my phone with the recording from the night before down on the table and hit play. Roz’s eyes darted around the room like a cornered rat, and it was clear from the way mom stuttered that she’d been given a completely different story.
When mom opened her mouth to speak again, I didn’t give her a chance. Because my mind had already been made up before I arrived, and there was no way anything she said or did was going to change that.
“Roz, what the hell?” My sister Evelyn glared at her in disgust while my brother Tom just shook his head.
“I… I,” Roz looked at me as if I’d betrayed her. Her lips started to tremble, and her eyes filled with tears the way they used to when she was a child. They didn’t have the same effect this time around, though.
Dad’s head hung down in shame, but mom was still looking at me with pleading eyes. “The woman she’s describing is the woman I just might marry and spend the rest of my life with. So, tell me, how am I supposed to respond, do you think? Should I expose her to more of the same without her knowing? Should I bring her to dinner or come around for the holidays knowing that someone at the table thinks of her this way? Never!”
“Your sister was just playing around with her friend. Don’t take it so seriously.”
“I’ve never been more disappointed in you, mom.” I grabbed my phone and got to my feet. “But I expected you to respond this way. You should know, especially you, Roz, that I will no longer be supporting you. It’s still time enough for you to look around for financial aid to finish paying for college.”
