18.

~ Alex always had pleasant memories of his mother taking him to Harper's ice cream shop after a good report card or a winning baseball game when he was little. During the hight of summer, when there was no school and no baseball, they would just go to the movies together and then for ice cream. The mother and son pair throughly trashing the movie they had seen as if they were paid movie critics.

Harper's had the best, and most expensive ice cream in the village. A fancy tourist attraction with a very Norman Rockwell appeal to it. They served a dizzying verity of flavors, toppings and cones. Theresa Romero always remarking with a smile about how greedy her son was in that he always wanted more ice cream than he could possibly eat in one sitting.

Still, there was no place better in Alex's mind, than a hot summer spent in Harper's cold ice cream parlor with his mother; as they talked about movies they had seen and wanted to see. They naturally wouldn't tell his father about all these sweets or Alex's torn jeans or the fights with Keith Summers she knew he was getting into.

It had been a good memory of something nice and wonderful that was shared just between the two of them.

As the years went by though, those memories, this place, became slightly tainted. A visit to the happy, white and candy pink ice cream shop was marred because his mother started taking him whenever there'd been trouble at home the night before.

When his dad had come home too late, or had been drinking and been a little too loud and aggressive with her and Alex. Ice cream and some soft words were a way for Theresa Romero to gently apologize to her son for his father's bad behavior.

It wasn't his mother's place to apologize for him, but she did it anyway. Just as it wasn't Alex's place to apologize to his mother now for his father failing to come visit her at Pine View. Yet, it was the first thing he did when he saw her these days.

~ "So you were just waiting for me to come out of the art room?" Norma asked releasing a long breath.

Alex nodded but decided to tell the truth.

"Well, sort of. Coach wanted to talk to me today. Make sure I'd be on the team this year." He clarified pulling the car into Harper's parking lot. Harper's was usually always a little busy but Alex was surprised to see it nearly empty. Then again, it was early on a Saturday evening and the movies hadn't let out yet.

"Will you?" Norma asked.

"I'm not sure." Alex said distractedly. If he was being honest, he wasn't thinking too much about baseball just now. His mother's issues, his dad always angry about something. It was enough work just to keep his GPA up.

Norma had been a welcomed diversion from everything he'd been feeling at the end of last year and the total abandonment of his friends that summer. It was bad enough his mother had her problems, what made it worse was that it felt like he had no one to even talk to now.

If Rebecca had been a normal girlfriend, he could have confided his worries to her, but she'd wanted little to do with him outside of treating him like an accessory. A plaything to grow bored with and thrown away.

"I keep meaning to tell you." Norma said in a dead tone. Her face expressionless and her eyes lacking that shine he'd always looked for.

She stepped out of the car as soon as he pulled to a stop.

"What?" Alex asked meeting her quickly in front of Harpers. Her face looked washed out. Like she was exhausted and sad all at once. An expression he'd seen all too often in his mother.

Norma gave a conflicted shrug.

"I... It's nothing really. I met your dad the other day." She admitted sheepishly.

"What'd he do?" Alex demanded. The horrid old Sheriff of White Pine Bay wasn't above bullying anyone. Not even a teenage girl. If he found out Alex was dating Norma, or even liked her, he might make it his business to intimidate her.

"No, nothing like that." Norma said quickly. "Nick Ford's driver had dropped me off in front of the station. I felt safer. I didn't want some strange guy knowing where I lived."

"Smart." Alex nodded.

"Well your dad was there and he agreed." Norma went on quickly. A ghost of a smile flighting over her face but disappearing quickly. "Anyway, I... I just... met him is all."

"He wasn't mean to you?" Alex asked in slight surprise. Dominic Romero was rude and hateful to everyone.

"No. I told him I was baby sitting Blair for Nick Ford and he told me to always have the driver take me to the station. That if anyone gave me trouble, I should run inside and ask for him." She explained simply. "He wanted me to go home then and turn on a light so he could make sure I was okay."

Alex was slightly take aback. He wasn't used to his father being kind to anyone. Not like that. Not to someone who needed to be looked after.

"I just wanted you to know I had met him." She explained quickly.

"Okay." Alex nodded. He nodded to Harpers storefront. "Let's go inside." He said with a smile.

~ "This place was the first drug store in the village." Alex explained while Norma slowly picked over the monster of her coffee ice cream in a waffle cone. The rush of sugar, caffeine and Alex's company were exactly what she needed after the night and day she'd had. The nearly empty ice cream shop looked charmingly traditional with it's soda fountain bar and a cozy pink an white parlor.

"Back then, they didn't make much money doing prescriptions. So many home remedies." Alex went on. "So they started selling soda, ice cream and treats. Now, it's all they do."

"Wise choice." Norma nodded. She could feel herself relaxing and letting go.

Alex waited as Norma ate a good portion of her ice cream. She was going to be full in a second, but didn't want Alex to taunt her with an 'I told you so' after she'd ordered three scoops of coffee ice cream.

He smiled at her, willing her to say uncle but she scowled.

"I had a fight with my mom last night." She confessed at last.

"Oh." Alex said softly.

"She... wants us to move. Back to Florida." Norma told him taking a small bite.

Alex leaned back away from her. She could tell he wasn't expecting that.

Norma shrugged.

"My mom, she works at some bar." She explained quickly.

"The Dizzy Lumber Jack?" Alex asked. "It's the only bar in town."

Norma shrugged.

"She said there was some trouble, I'm not sure what happened. She wants to us leave." She said.

Alex nodded slowly. His face growing cold.

"Are you?" He asked. "Leaving?"

"I don't know. We argued about it. My family..." she explained slowly. "My family moves around a lot. I was hoping this time my mother and I would stay."

She was keeping her focus on her ice cream. She didn't want to look at Alex. Didn't want to see the disappointed look on his face.

"You should know, that... this isn't the real me. If you saw me back home in Florida, you wouldn't want to be with me, or have me around your friends. My family..." it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him everything that was wrong, but she couldn't do it. He couldn't understand. Couldn't see her in the run down trailer parks with the drunken men always hanging around outside so that she was afraid to be home alone after school. The roach infested apartments that smelled of trash and sour foods gone bad. Alex wasn't apart of that world. He couldn't understand.

"I just wanted so badly to start over here. To be someone else; someone good." She confessed sadly and refused to look at him. "You liked that girl I was pretending to be. Not the real me."

Alex was quite for a moment.

"I don't want you around my friends, because my friends are assholes, Norma." He said at last.

She looked up at him hopefully.

"Everyone's pretending to be something else in high school. Something different from their parents. No one wants to be like their family." He admitted. "You telling me you met my dad almost gave me a heart attack. I thought you'd never want to see me again because of how horrible he really is to people."

She knew she was giving him a perplexed look because Alex nodded.

"It's true." He laughed. "Everyone hates my dad. My mother hates him so much we had to have her committed to a private care facility because she wanted to kill herself this summer."

He looked away shamefully and Norma felt her heartbreak a little for him.

"I haven't told anyone that." He said softly. "Sorry."

Norma shook her head.

"It's hard isn't it?" She said. "Keeping these secrets."

"Sometimes." Alex agreed tonelessly. "Please don't say anything to anyone. About my mom. It's personal and... she's just not well."

"I won't." Norma nodded.

"You really think you'll be leaving?" he asked.

Norma shrugged. Her ice cream almost forgotten now as it slowly melted.

"I hope not. But I don't know what my mother will do." She admitted sadly.

She was thinking her own sad, miserable thoughts when she felt Alex lean in and kiss her swiftly.

Norma instantly pulled away. Her cheeks burning at the thought that others might have seen them kissing here.

"Alex!" She hissed brushing her lips to try and take away that knowing tingling sensation he always left behind when he kissed her.

"What?" He asked innocently. "I wanted to taste your ice cream."

"You could have had some here." She said showing him her half eaten cone. Her face flushing red.

"I didn't want that and I told you that was too much ice cream, Greedy." He said with a smile.

"I AM greedy." She agreed with a slight groan of defeat.

"Want to go to the movies?" He asked. "They have the late show horror fest on Saturday nights. Supposed to keep the kids out of trouble."

"Horror fest?" Norma sighed.

"I think it's a Werwolf movie. One of the old black and whites. Supposed to be for families to go together." Alex said tossing the rest of her ice cream in the trash.

"I should go home. My mother's probably furious with me." Norma sighed.

"So, what? Alex sighed defiantly. "She'll just be a little madder and call the Sheriff on us?"

"If I stay out too late, she might not let me go out with you tomorrow." Norma said wisely. "Let's not press our luck."

Alex nodded.

"Well, let me drive you home." He said. "It's getting dark out, I don't want any wolf-men grabbing you."

Norma finally smiled a real smile. She wanted to joke about how he was the only wolf- man she had to worry about, but thought better of it. He was already becoming a little too bold with his affections and who knows what he might do if she compared him to a wolf.

The idea made Norma giggle slightly. Too much sugar and caffeine for one night.

"Thank you." She said finally as they left the ice cream shop just as a group of rowdy teenager pulled in. The sun was starting to go down and Norma was glad she wouldn't be staying with the rambunctious crowd.

"For this." She nodded backwards. "I needed someone to listen to me tonight."

"You're welcome." He said. "If you still want to cancel tomorrow, I'll understand." He added.

Norma made a face and shook her head. She didn't want his friends to think she was a coward.

"Well, then I'll pick you up at noon." Alex promised.

Norma didn't want to clarify that if her mother was still in town, or if she would even allow Norma to leave. When she was very little, Fanny wasn't above locking Norma in the closet. But that had been forever ago.

Still, she wasn't looking forward to seeing her mother when she got home.