Delicate

Chapter 13

William's P.O.V

"Someone you don't like is trying to talk to you." Blares loudly out of my phone. "I repeat, someone you can't stand is trying to hold a conversation."

I climb down from the small, step ladder in the shop with a string of curses escaping my lips. I had that ringtone set for all the contacts in my phone but Francis so the caller could be anyone. 

Once on the floor, I pull my phone out and try to read the saved name. My failure to do so is equivalent to falling flat on your face. I tap the pulsing green phone icon and bring the phone to my ear, face distorting with quickly forming dread.

"Hello?" I say into the phone, my voice showing my disinterest.

"William!" My mother exclaims into the phone, offering unnecessary joy. "Oh, William! It is so good to hear your voice."

"Well not hearing it for a month might do that to you," I reply sarcastically, not bothering to hide my annoyance. 

My mother hadn't spoken to me once since I left home. Not once.

Not a single call, text or transmitted message delivered through Francis. Nothing. I knew she wasn't my biggest fan, but I believed she was a good enough actor to pretend to be. Apparently, she couldn't even offer me that much. 
It annoyed me that sometimes I forgot about her true nature, it upset me that I still wished for her to actually care about me.

It was a stupid hope. She only put the mask on when people were watching, only shed the tears when it seemed favorable for her. It slipped on from time to time when she wanted to convince even herself of her own act or when she needed practice.

I wondered which of those reasons she could be calling me for.

"I wanted to give you some space and time to settle in William." She replies calmly, pushing aside my anger the way she always did. "And Francis tells me every day that you're doing well."

Shouldn't it be the other way around?

"I'm busy right now mother, what do you want?" I ask getting right down to it.

"To talk to my son." She replies and my eyes roll the second I hear the trembling in her voice. "To make sure that you're doing okay out there on your own. You're blind and alone William."

"I hadn't noticed," I reply dryly before sighing deeply. "What do you want mother?"

"I don't want anything, nothing but to check up on you." She protests sounding chocked up. "But I was talking to Christine and she told me that Liam is returning home from university this Friday.

They're throwing him a dinner, isn't that lovely? It's absolutely brilliant. Anyway, Christine wanted to know if you would like to come as well, seeing as the two of you are best friends."

"No." I grind out before reaching for the record case I was wiping before she called. I press the phone to my shoulder and challenge myself, to multitask.

"William, you mustn't always be so crass." She drawls. "It's a lovely gesture to invite you, you shouldn't be so rude as to reject it. I've already had your flight booked, I expect you home by Friday."

"You can expect my shadow and cancel the flight because I'm not coming," I state clearly.

"William." She says in warning, somehow the tears clearing from her tone within moments.

"I am not going to fly home for a single dinner to show your friends and dad's partners that I'm alive, well and not gay. That's what you guys really want, don't even try to convince me otherwise. And for the last time mother, Liam and I are not friends."