Rayne and Alex

Chapter 12

Alex

I honestly wasn't expecting Rayne to agree to dinner with my mom. I mean, I wanted her to, but I figured she would say it was too soon. Instead she surprised me and said yes with her bright smile. Mom doesn't know much about her. She doesn't even know her name, but I didn't mention it to her on purpose. Now that I think about it, that probably wasn't the smartest idea.

As I drive home, Eli is complaining at my side in the passenger seat. He's grown to really like going out with Rayne, Jenn, and I. It makes sense that he'd be upset about us having to leave early, but Mom said she was having some kind of cooking emergency. I'm not sure what she meant exactly, but I figured I should get home quickly before she burns the house down.

When I park the car in the driveway, I look to Eli and shrug, "Sorry, bud."

Eli gives me an exaggerated sigh and looks to the front door of my mom's house. "Do you think she burned another chicken like at Christmas?"

I cringe at the memory. "I hope not. I don't think I ever recovered from that nightmare."

Eli laughs and opens the car door, "Only one way to find out."

I grumble to myself like a child before climbing out of the car myself. I walk with Eli to the door and open it without knocking. I lived with my mom up until the moment I turned eighteen. Eli's parents are loaded. His dad is a screenplay director and writer and his mom is a lawyer. Their huge house has a bunch of extensions which are mostly empty with the exception of me and my mom. When I stopped living with my mom, it wasn't because I needed to, I just wanted a place to call my own. It didn't take Eli's parents long to agree to giving me one of the small apartments. Since then, I've had my own living space, but I'm not ashamed to admit I still visit my mom from time to time. I even let her cook me dinners with those Godawful cooking skills of hers.

"Hey, Mom," I call out as I walk into her living room.

"Hi, Lily," Eli chirps next to me. He's a suck up when it comes to my mom.

Mom rounds the corner of the room and appears. Her blonde hair is pulled into a high ponytail at the top of her head and her green eyes are bright and happy. I get most of my features from my mom. I have no idea who my deadbeat dad is, but I assume I get my height from him because my six-three frame is gigantic compared to my mom's five-four.

Mom smiles widely at the both of us as she walks across the room and wipes two hands down her blue apron. When she reaches us, she engulfs us both into one hug and squeezes tightly. I lean down and place a quick kiss to her head. There were moments as a prepubescent teenager where I didn't appreciate my mom as well as I should have. I didn't realize until later in my teen years that she had raised me as a single mom since day one. She was the one who potty trained me, taught he how to walk, taught me how to ride a bike, and has even given me girl advice. My sperm donor couldn't even show up to my first sonogram. Now I try to show her how much it means to me everyday.

"I'm glad you boys are here, I need help," Mom says as she backs away. She turns and starts walking back to the kitchen and motions us to follow.

Eli and I comply and we sit at the kitchen table as Mom throws stuff onto it. Her kitchen counter is a mess of pots and pans. Mom hands me a bowl of raw meat and slides spices at me along with olive oil.

"Marinate the meat," she says with her finger pointing at the spices.

"Okay," I say. What else am I supposed to say? I look across the kitchen table at Eli who is trying hard not to laugh at me. I roll my eyes and do my job. I hear mom quietly ask Eli if he can wash her dishes. Of course, he says yes.

After marinating the meat, I go to help Eli dry the dishes that he washes so the meat can sit for a while. My mom leaves the room, but when she comes back I know I shouldn't avoid the Rayne topic any longer.

"So, Mom-"

"Oh, Alex. What did you do?" Mom interrupts. Eli snorts.

I put a hand to my chest, "I didn't do anything!" When she keeps staring at me I repeat, "I swear, I didn't do anything wrong."

She humphs but motions for me to continue.

"So you know I've been seeing this girl for a while..." I trail off as I try to explain how I invited her over to meet her.

"Alexander, do not tell me you got a girl pregnant," Mom huffs.

This time Eli snorts and coughs and bursts out into laughter. Little shit. He knows how uneventful my sex life has been.

"No, Mom. I didn't get anyone pregnant," I would actually need to have sex for that to happen.

I know the day Rayne and I met we weren't exactly going to take things slow, but after we decided we were going to actually date, we thought it would be a good idea to wait a bit before sex. It seemed like a great decision at the time, but the closer we become, I can't believe I was stupid enough to agree to something so insane.

"Okay," Mom says, still sounding unsure. "Continue."

"Well, I invited her over to dinner tonight," I pause. "So that she can meet you."

I avoid looking at Mom, but when she doesn't say anything for a long time, I do look at her. She's smiling widely and she looks like she's about to squeal. If I didn't know any better, just looking at my mom, I would think she was even younger than I was. She has a young, childish way about her.

Mom's smile doesn't vanish one bit as she says, "Looks like you need to marinate some more meat, Alex."