Understanding Teenagers

16: Dinner and Ricky's Mom

Liam's POV

It was about twenty minutes until dinner was ready as Jaxon called all of us to the table. spaghetti and breadsticks were tonight's dinner.

"Alright everyone, please help yourself," called Jaxon.

And so we all helped ourselves to spaghetti. Ricky's Mom seemed to be enjoying the food with constant moaning coming out of her mouth. Things were a little quiet with Ricky's Mom eating the way she was.

"So Ricky's Mom," began Jaxon. "What are your plans now?"

After all that time in the kitchen with her, you would think he would be able to pick up on her name, but apparently not. It seemed rude at this point to not know her name, but that's just me. Thankfully she seemed to catch on to that.

"Please, call me Gloria," she smiled. "And yes, I don't believe I have any big plans at the moment. There's an apartment that I'm looking at, but I do need a job in order to afford it."

"The Wells Fargo that I work for is hiring. I'm sure you'd love it there."

Ricky was seconds away from putting his head on the table in embarrassment. It was obvious that he was not liking where this conversation was going. I almost felt bad for the kid.

"Well, that does sound fine. Could I pick up an application tomorrow?"

"You certainly can or you could apply online."

The conversation began to die down again as we continued to enjoy our spaghetti. Who would want to talk with this amazing spaghetti?"

"You know," began Giselle. "Liam is actually writing a book for Mid Mills Publishing."

A bright smile took over Gloria's Face leaving Ricky all the quieter. "My, you don't say. I used to be a Line Fan. All of them sex novels were the tip of the toe for me. It's probably what led me to be a damn prostitute. But anyway, what's your book about?

I couldn't believe I was having a conversation about my book. "Well, it's about this teen girl named Bunny who becomes a stripper because her mom is a stripper. The family in this story is pretty dysfunctional."

"You know, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for both of them to be strippers. I was a whore on the streets, and you don't see my boy Ricky whoring himself. Although he did sell drugs. Got him in some mighty trouble. Aint that right son?"

Her eyes were directly on his eyes while he took slow breaths to respond. "Yes, mother."

"Anyways," I interrupted before Ricky did anything crazy. "What would you suggest I do instead?"

"Well if you ask me, I'd like a story where the mother is on her death bed. Not a soul knows if she'll make it. Something like that would touch any child leading them to do something crazy. And that does remind me of how my cousin almost killed her brains when her daddy died."

"Sounds pretty disturbing," chirped in Heather.  "You're really going to write something like that babe?"

"I like the idea of that," Giselle stated. "My mom gets sick a lot. I sometimes wonder what I'd do if she died."

"I was completely fine when my grandma died," stated Jaxon.

"Having your grandma die ain't the same as having your mama die," stated Gloria.

Something in the conversation must've triggered Ricky as he stabbed his spaghetti with his fork. "I could care less if you died, mom!"

The whole table was completely silent for a moment. I couldn't believe he actually said that.

"Honey," a tear was noticeable in her eye. "You can't mean that."

Ricky had it and stood up. "Oh, I do mean it. I mean every damn word of it! Do you realize mom, that I had to spend most nights going to bed hungry because there was not a damn thing to eat in the fridge! Sure, there was the occasional Twinkie. But most of the time it was always alcohol or drugs! I had to sometimes steal money from you when you were asleep just to buy a loaf of bread! Hell, sometimes I went out looking for a good restaurant! Not once did you ever care! Not once!

That was all he had to say as he ran outside. Where exactly was he going to go, nobody could be too sure. Giselle went running off after him while Gloria sat in the living room and cried.

"Well, that was fun," stated Heather with much sarcasm. "I think I'm going to call it a night."

Things certainly did become weird, but thankfully most of the food had already been eaten and I found myself helping Jaxon wash dishes.

"Interesting night, isn't it?" I asked while drying the plates that he handed me.

"I would say so. My sister sure does know how to pick them. Not exactly sure what she sees in him or how a relationship like that started so quickly."

"It's hard to understand why these things happen sometimes."

"On a related note, I don't know if you noticed this, but Gloria looks oddly familiar." He paused to think about what he was saying. "Some of her facial features look strongly familiar. She kind of reminds me of Giselle. It's a little strange, but maybe I'm just crazy."

"Or maybe you've had too much to drink," I joked. The last of the plates were dried. Moving on to the forks and knives. 

Giselle's POV

Ricky didn't make it far outside like I thought he would. Instead, he climbed a tree and sat in it. Thank goodness I knew how to climb a tree. I sat next to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"You ok?" I asked.

"I don't know." He picked at a few leaves. "It was freakin' weird to see my mom actually eat tonight and try to have a conversation with people. She never did that with me. She never cared. Why does she care right now? Why should I care about her? She'd be better off dead."

Without realizing it, I was rubbing his shoulder. "I know she messed up, but she was pretty excited to be here tonight and have dinner with us. It seems to me that she feels guilty and wants to make things right. I thought it was pretty cool that she was interested in what Liam was writing. She even knew who Line was. A connection with her and Liam was building. She was doing her best to build a connection with everyone at the table."

He sat there and thought about what I said for a moment. "Maybe you're right, but she didn't seem to build anything with Liam's Girlfriend."

"To be honest, I haven't connected much with her either. But it doesn't matter. She's your mom."

His eyes met with mine which led to a kiss. "Maybe your right. I'll try to be a good son, but it's going to be hard."

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Remember to comment, vote, and share.

Next Chapter: The gang helps Gloria move into her new apartment.

Should Ricky give his mom a chance?