"Mom, I need to talk to you." Kevin approached his mother in the kitchen a couple of weeks after he and Joe had started their relationship. Everyone else was either upstairs or at a movie.
"What's up Kevin, are you alright?" she put down the book she was reading and looked up at her son. "Sit down."
"Ok," Kevin nodded and pulled up a chair. "So there's this thing that I've been thinking about for a long time you see," Kevin paused, letting out a sigh. "Try not to be mad, alright?"
"What's wrong?"
"Mom, I don't want to go to church with you and the family anymore, I don't think I'm a Christian." He let out a deep sigh. "And if I am, I'm not a very good one." His mother looked appalled. "I also don't want this anymore." He slipped his purity ring from his finger and set on the table between them.
"Kevin…are you trying to tell me that you had sex?" she looked at him.
"No…" he shook his head. "But I think I might want to soon, and I don't plan on getting married any time in the near future."
"So what you're trying to say is that you want out of your vow and your family's religion so that you can have sex?" she sounded upset.
"Well that and I'm pretty sure the religion isn't right for me, yeah!" Kevin sighed, he knew this wasn't going to end well.
"You really have no respect for your family…or yourself, do you?!"
"Mom, how can you say that? I'm 20, I think I know what's best for myself!"
"You're a child star, you don't know anything about what's best for you!" she yelled back at him. "I don't want to see MY SON disgrace himself because he doesn't think he wants to be a good little Christian human being anymore!"
"Are you implying that I'd be an animal if I gave up Jesus?" Kevin stood up, angry with his mother.
"No, no, it's just you've grown up like this, I hate to see you going all…psycho on me."
"I'm not psycho mom! I'm just thinking about what I want for my life, and every Sunday at church hearing about some guy was probably just a regular, crazy guy doesn't appeal to me!" Kevin panted. "If you would stop trying to run my life for more than 2 seconds then you might know that I'm actually a pretty bright person! You're just an overbearing bitch!"
"You know what? You were a mistake then, and you're a mistake now!" she screamed.
"What?" Kevin asked, his voice dropping to a soft whisper. "What are you talking about?"
"You were an accident Kevin, and it was a mistake to keep you." She looked at him, her eyes narrowed. Kevin's face fell and the color drained from his face. His mother saw tears begin to well in his eyes, and she moved closer to him. "Oh Kevin, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that!" She put her arms out to hold him, but he pushed her away angrily. He ran upstairs to his empty room, grabbed his car keys and shoes, and ran out of the house, crying tears of anger and sadness. His mother, unable to stop him, just listened as she heard his Jeep screech out of the driveway as he sped off.
"Mom?" Nick and Joe came bounding down the stairs. "Mom, what's wrong with Kevin?" Nick asked. "We heard yelling, and then Joe said he saw him run in to his room and then run out."
"We had a fight…" she said. "He got angry and left."
"What?" Joe looked at her, his eyes wide. "Mom, where did he go?"
"I don't know." She shook her head. "He probably just needs to cool off…"
"What was the fight about?" Nick asked.
"He told me that he didn't want to be a Christian anymore, and he took off his purity ring, and I blew up at him, and he blew up at me, saying that I need to stop running his life, and I told him he was child in an adults body, and he said I was an overbearing bitch…and I told him – I told him." She burst in to tears.
"What did you say to him mom?" Joe asked, putting his arm around her.
"I-I told him that he was an accident and a mistake." She cried.
"Oh shit!" Joe exclaimed. "Mom, do you know how upset he must be? And he's driving in the rain! I don't think that's safe." Joe looked worried.
"I'm sure he'll be fine; he's a good driver, if not a little fast at times." She shrugged, still crying.
"Mom, I'm going out, I'll be back later." Joe put his shoes on, grabbed his jacket from the peg by the door and ran out of the house and into the rain. Joe knew exactly where Kevin had gone, and he was just hoping that Kevin had gotten there without crashing his car. He ran for almost two miles in the rain before reaching the bowling alley. By the time he reached it he was soaking wet, even his jacket, which he had left unzipped, had been completely soaked through, and his hair was sticking to the sides of his head face. He looked around for a minute, trying to spot Kevin, and he saw him at a lane on the end. For a second, he watched as he brother steadied himself, and then he threw the ball. Joe watched as the bowling ball glided down the lane, off center, knocking down only two pins. It was obvious from that roll that his game was off, and Joe, released from his temporary frozen state of awe, rushed down to the lane and stood back as Kevin prepared to roll his second ball for that frame. He moved closer to Kevin as his brother waited for his ball to come back. "Kevin?" he asked softly, standing behind his brother and putting his hand lightly on Kevin's shoulder.
"WHAT?!" Kevin turned around and yelled at Joe, tears streaming down his face. "Oh, it's you…sorry." He wiped his eyes. "I didn't want you see me like this…god, you're soaking, what happened?" Kevin looked at his shivering brother.
"Mom told me about your fight, I wanted to make sure you were alright…it sounds like it got pretty bad back there, are you alright?" Joe looked seriously at Kevin.
"Did you walk all the way here in the rain?" Kevin asked, shocked, and avoiding Joe's question.
"Ran, yeah, but that's not the point, Kevin, are you ok? You're crying, you like never cry."
"I cry plenty, YOU never cry." Kevin was still tiptoeing around Joe's question.
"Fine, whatever, I still need to know what happened. Mom's at home bawling all over Nick, and you're here sobbing over all over a bowling ball, something's not right, and I'm not going anywhere until you explain it." Joe slid his hand down Kevin's arm and took his hand. "It's alright, you can tell me about it."
"I-I" Kevin paused. "No…I can't."
"Look, I know that mom told you that you were an accident…that's why I came, I knew how badly that must have upset you." Joe looked up at Nick, water from the rain still all over his face.
"Joe, she told me I was a mistake, A MISTAKE!" Kevin broke down; crying harder then he had been before. "She and dad didn't want me then, but it was against their religion to get rid of me, and they don't want me now!" Kevin fell in to Joe's arms, crying onto his brother's already soaking wet shoulder. Joe hugged Kevin tightly, and both boys shivered as the water from Joe's sopping clothes soaked through to Kevin's.
"I want you," Joe whispered softly in to Kevin's ear. "I want you so bad," he began to sing softly. "I want you, I want you so bad it's driving me mad, it's driving me mad." He pulled Kevin's body closer to him and rubbed his brother's back. "Don't cry, it's alright, I want you, and I'm the only one who's here."
"You're the only one who matters," Kevin said, choking back a sob until he finished speaking. "You're the only one who cares."
"I'm not the only one who cares!" Joe said. "We all care about you, mom, dad, Frankie, Nick." Joe pulled away from Kevin just enough to look him in the eyes. "We're your family, and we love you…all of us."
A/N Question for the readers: What kind of popsicles are your favorite?
