Midterms were coming up and Maddie could tell her son was struggling. She still couldn't figure out why his grades were slipping but lately it seemed like he was trying. He was meeting up with his friends for study sessions, she caught him studying on the kitchen table after he had gotten home early from school one day, and he even went with Jazz to the library just last week.
She could see him trying but she could also see how much stress he was under. He always looked so exhausted lately. Was he not getting enough sleep?
She wanted to talk to him about it. She needed to know if he was ok, but he always seemed to avoid her now. Did he think he was in trouble all the time?
It was a rainy Friday when Maddie knocked on her little boy's door. "Sweetie, can I come it?"
There were some sounds of hesitation before she hears, "Sure, what's up?"
"Well", she opened the door to see he was at his desk, books open and twiddling a pencil between his fingers, "I was wondering if you wanted to join me for a movie later. I was going to go pick up some pizza and rent that one space one..." oh darn now she couldn't remember what it was called. "Oh it's got what's-his-face in it, that slow talking guy from the fancy car commercials?"
"Interstellar!" he dropped his pencil and turned to fully face her, gripping his chair and desk visibly excited.
"Yeah that's the one!" she loved to see that glimmer in his eyes. "And it's just going to be the two of us tonight."
"Oh yeah? Why's that?"
"Well I've your father running some errands for the lab and that usually takes awhile and your sister is out tutoring tonight." she looked to his desk, "you think you'll be free for that later?"
He gave his desk a side glance, "yeah. I think I can find some time."
She gave a few hours to himself before she went to get everything ready. Even though it was only going to be the two of them she got a larger pizza, even if she over-estimated her son's appetite it's not like leftover pizza would be the worst thing in the kitchen.
Once everything was ready she called up the stairs for Danny. He quickly ran down and plopped down on the couch.
"Aren't you forgetting about something?" she looked to the pizza as a hint
He followed her gaze, got up to go to it but she interrupted him with a simple clearing of her throat. He turned on his heel and went to wash up first.
The movie was a lot longer than she thought it was going to be. Once they finished eating they had an impromptu intermission to clean up and get into pajamas. Maddie gathered up as many quilts and pillows as she could carry. She was actually surprised how many they had, Jack sure was busy with that needlepoint of his judging by all the cute little embroidered ghosts on the pillows.
"What's all that for?" Danny asked when he came back wearing his NASA shirt and a pair of sweatpants she didn't know he owned.
"Just something to keep cozy with. When did you get those pants?"
He looked down at the green galaxy print, "Oh these, Sam got 'em. She actually got a pair for all three of us, I got the green ones, she kept the purple ones and I think Tucker's are yellow? Or maybe his are red…" he shrugged dismissing the thought.
She smiled, but couldn't help but think how they looked like what they could see through the portal. "They look good on you."
"Thanks! So we gonna finish this or what?"
They got back into very comfortable position on the couch filled with the little pillows and covered in the biggest fluffiest blanket they had.
After a bit more of the movie, Maddie felt a slight weight fall on her shoulder, she looked down and saw the top of messy dark hair. Carefully she leaned forward and saw that his eyes had closed. Carefully she held his head in place and moved over ever so slightly and reoriented him so he was laying down, his head now on her knees. She gently ran her fingers through his hair, for old times sake. He sighed in contently and leaned into her a bit.
She turned off the movie and let the sound of the rain against the window pane be the soundtrack for the night.
Prompt from the 2014 calendar, day 11.