Laugh Until You Cry

18 Mixed Emotions

“Stella! It has been way too long,” Andrew’s mother is saying as she wraps me in a tight hug once she arrives at the house after work, only about ten minutes after we had gotten back to the house. After leaving the airport, we stopped at a restaurant to eat and we stayed there for a few hours just talking to Lucas. It was awkward at first (only for me) but after a while, I realized that Andrew was right- Lucas didn’t seem to hold anything against me at all. He didn’t even talk about the breakup at all, as if he didn’t even know about it but I could tell by the curious looks he was giving Andrew that he did know, he was just being polite by saying nothing.

“Yeah,” I agree with his mom, hugging her back. “Hi, Marie. It’s nice to see you.”

“We have so much catching up to do. We missed you at Thanksgiving,” She says, stepping back and grinning at me excitedly. Andrew and Lucas are outside playing basketball but I came in to get something to drink when I saw Marie pull up so she hasn’t even seen Andrew yet so I figure that I should go get him so that they can say their hellos.

“My family actually had Thanksgiving this year,” I say without telling her that even if my family didn’t have a Thanksgiving because at the time, the breakup was pretty recent and the wounds were still fresh so I most definitely wouldn’t have been here with Andrew anyway.

“Well, that’s lovely,” She grins at me. “Let me go get settled and go find Andrew and then we’ll really start talking.”

“Sure. I’ll go tell Andrew that you’re home,” I inform her as I start for the door. Just as I’m about to step outside, both Andrew and Lucas walk through the door before I can even get it open. They reek of sweat from all of the basketball they’ve been playing so I kind of feel sorry for Marie when Andrew rushes over to her and engulfs her in a sweaty hug.

“Hey, Ma,” He greets her.

“You could have waited until you didn’t stink so bad,” She mumbles with a small laugh as she hugs him back. “You stink, Andrew. But how have you been? How’s school?”

“I’ve been… good,” He says and I wonder if she can tell that he’s lying by the way that he chokes on the word ‘good’. I awkwardly shuffle my feet and look down at the floor and listen to the rest of their conversation as I stand off to the side, waiting for Marie to leave the room.

“What do we do now?” I ask Andrew when we’re eventually standing in the kitchen by ourselves since his mom went to put all of her work stuff away and Lucas went… I don’t know where he went but he left the kitchen with his mother, leaving me and Andrew alone. It’s kind of awkward, being here with Andrew, especially since his mother doesn’t know that we’re not actually together and his brother does and it’s all kind of complicated.

Andrew shrugs. “I don’t know. What do you want to do? We can watch a movie or something before my mom will want to take us out to dinner.”

“I think that you should tell her,” I say quickly before I can even register what’s coming out of my mouth. “About us.”

He burrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Why?”

“Because…” I trail off, trying to find something in my muddled brain to say to him right now. “It’s so awkward, her thinking that we’re together and everything. It’s just weird that she thinks that we’re still dating when we’re not. And I’m terrible at keeping secrets. I also feel terrible that I’m kind of lying to your mom when she’s such a nice person. I can’t do that. You have to tell her. I mean, what if she buys us matching sweaters for Christmas or something?”

“Stella, slow down. Nobody’s getting matching sweaters, okay?” Andrew tells me. “Look, I’ll tell her. Just give it a few days, let’s get settled in a little bit and then I’ll tell her.”