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For once, I won an argument against my mother.
I managed to convince her that Greenies wasn't the way to go. Instead, we had a nice lunch not surrounded by drunk, leering idiots. In the relative peace of a local cafe, we caught up on each other's lives.
Aka I got battered with questions about Jackson and college.
Mostly the former.
The campus tour commenced after lunch and quickly became a lot more detailed than I intended it to be. Ma forced me to show her pretty much every room I've ever had a class in, and she insisted we have a sneaky look around the art department too.
We're almost home free, so close to being out of the building without incident, when we turn a corner and smash face-first into someone. Two someones, actually. I break out in a smile as I recognise the blonde who collided with me.
“Hey stranger.” I pull Pen into a hug that she returns eagerly. I offer Professor Jacobs a polite smile that he doesn't return because he's too busy staring at something beside me. I ignore his weird expression and focus on my friend. “It's been a while.”
“Sorry.” Pen grimaces. “I've been busy.” It sounds like a lie, a loaded one. Code for ‘remember when I told you Christmas was a shitshow? Well, the effects are still lingering.’
I never did get the details on what happened, and I don’t think now is the time to push, so I settle for making introductions. “Pen, Professor Jacobs, this is my mom.” I expect my mom to jump in, insisting she be called Isla like she usually does, but she stays eerily silent. When I glance her way, her appearance coaxes a frown out of me. She’s white as a sheet and rigid, looking like she’s seen a damn ghost or something. “Ma, you okay?”
It takes a hard nudge until she snaps out of her daze. Shaking her head once, she adopts a fake bright smile. “Yeah, hun. You ready to go?”
“Uh, yeah.” I give her a weird look before turning to Pen. “We're going to Jackson's game, you wanna come?”
“I-”
“No.” Jacobs butts in before his daughter can answer. “She can't.”
Steam pours from Pen's ears as she scowls at her father. “Dad.”
“Penelope, no.”
“Why not?” Her dad simply answers with a shake of his head, but neither Pen nor I miss the way his eyes frantically dart to my mom. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear there was fear lurking in his gaze. And something else.
Something that looks an awful lot like recognition.
As she glances between me, my mom, and her dad, it's like something clicks in Pen's head. All of a sudden her face drops and she turns as white as Ma. “Oh my God.” She breathes out shakily. “It was her?”
“Penelope.” Jacobs clasps his daughter's shoulder tightly only to be knocked away, abrupt distance put between them. “Not now.”
“Oh my God, it was.” Tears blur her eyes, wide with shock, tinged with disgust. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“What's happening right now?” No one answers despite the fact it feels like everyone knows what's going on but me. Ma says nothing but her gaze says everything. Apology. Guilt. “Ma, what the fuck is going on?”
Pen's entire body shakes as she turns to me, as does her voice. “My dad cheated on my mom when she was pregnant with me.”
“Penelope, don't,” Jacobs rasps at the same time Ma chokes out a plea.
Pen doesn't listen to either of them. “He had an affair with a student.”
Remember that moment I was talking about?
The one I was waiting for?
Where the perfect, happy little life I've been living suddenly gets ruined?
A twisted feeling deep in my gut is telling me that moment has arrived.
I choke on my next words. “Why are you telling me this?”
