The Catch

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 18

“Where’s Colin today?”  I asked John when he showed up at the coffee house.  I had a few minutes left in my shift.

“He left town this morning; he has to go visit his cousins in Nevada.”

“Oh.  God, I can’t even imagine what his family would be like,” I said, thinking aloud. 

            I disappeared into the kitchen for a moment to clock out and get my bag.  When I stepped back into the parlor, I noticed the slouch in John’s posture, the frown on his lips, and his bloodshot eyes.  I followed him outside and we walked a block in silence.

“Don’t tell me you have separation anxiety from being away from Colin for twelve hours,” I mused.  The frown lifted from his face for a moment, but he didn’t quite fully smile.

“Nope, don’t worry.”

“You need a good joke, and since Colin isn’t here, I’m gonna have to come up with one.”  I stepped in front of him and walked backwards so that we were facing each other.

“Where did George Washington keep his armies?”  I asked.

“I don’t know, where?”

“In his sleevies,” I laughed, but he just smiled and sighed.  He looked up for a half second and I caught his eyes.  He looked away quickly and I stopped dead in my tracks.  We were still facing each other, so he ran into me, and before he could react, I wrapped my arms around his torso and ducked my head against his chest.

“Hug me back, dummy,” I muttered.  He hugged me back awkwardly.  I patted his back once, firmly, then stepped out of the hug.

“Let’s go to the playground,” he said with determination.

He climbed the stairs on the jungle gym and sat against the short, plastic walls with one knee up against his chest and his other leg hanging over the slide.  He rested his elbow on his knee and dug his fingers into his hair.  I sat next to him and waited for him to talk.  I knew that he wanted to say something, but I didn’t think he’d tell me if I asked.  We sat speechless for a full minute.  Then two.  Then five.  I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. 

“Is it nice to be away from your parents?”  He asked.  I looked over at him, but he continued to stare straight ahead.

“See, that’s a tricky question, because for the last year or so I’ve considered Ruth my parent—or at least grandparent, and I miss her.  But as for my biological parents… yeah, I guess it’s… nice,” I stared at my toes and tried to control the flood of anger awakened at the thought of them. 

“Do you hate them?”

“Yes,” I replied without hesitation.

“I should hate my mom, but for some reason, I always forgive her.  And every time I give her another chance, she fucks up again.”

“Parents are the ones that are always supposed to be on your side, and it’s hard to let go of your only loyal teammate.  So you give them chance after chance, but some people are just so damn dense.”

“Dense would be the word for her.  She only cares about herself in the end.”

“What did she do to make you so angry?”

“Well, Trevor has been building this savings account for college all on his own since he was fifteen, and he had a lot put away, but at the moment my mom isn’t making enough money at her mediocre job to pay the bills for our house—which she’s too stubborn to move out of—so she took almost all the money out of Trevor’s account without telling him, and now he barely has any money to pay for tuition in the fall.  He has to start from scratch basically.  He’s gonna have to get a second job now, and I’m going to give him half of my savings to get him started.”