Jhondie
"What's 286 times 384?" Justin asked from the doorway of the office.
"One hundred nine thousand, eight hundred twenty-four," I replied absently as I stared at the paper I was writing, trying to decide if 'the changes of the mitochondria DNA that result in' sounded better than 'the changes of the mitochondria DNA, which result in'. I normally don't agonize over which word to pick, but for the life of me, I couldn't decide which way I liked it more.
"You did that in your head?"
"Yeah." I knew from his tone I probably should be paying more attention to this conversation, but half of my grade was going to be determined by this one paper and I was determined to blow my professor away with it.
"So you're good at math, right?" Justin insisted. Okay. Time to pay attention here. I can multitask, but Justin required all mental circuits. Sometimes it sucked to have a smart fiancée.
I swiveled the chair around so that I was facing him. "You know I am."
He gimped into the office and sat down in the other chair. "Physics too, right? Not my best subjects, but you're good at them both right?"
"I'm assuming you're going somewhere with this."
"See," he explained. "There's this mathematically anomaly that's occurring and I think there's some time-space warp that's happening which is causing the problem." I blinked. "Theoretically," he continued, "since I have a cast on one leg, I'm only wearing a sock on my other foot. Therefore, my socks should last me twice as long. However, I'm using half as many, but mysteriously going through twice as much. I'm thinking some wormhole that's attracted to socks is localizing itself in my drawer. What's your opinion?"
I couldn't help rolling my eyes. "Cody has a full-length fur coat," I reminded him. "He has no need for your socks."
"I know," Justin said, hands up in mock surrender, "that's why I know it can't be your cat at all. Since you don't like men's socks and Cody can't be stealing them, then it's got to be some trans-dimensional thing."
I could feel the smile forming on my face, despite my attempt to keep it under control. Cody hadn't taken moving very well and Justin swore he was getting revenge by stealing his socks. Okay, the first day, Justin came in and there was Cody on the back of the couch with a pair in his mouth. He meowed, picked them up and scampered off. And no, I still hadn't been able to find that pair.
"I'm not getting rid of my cat because of a sock fixation," I said firmly.
He smiled. "I don't want you to get rid of your cat. Just please find a way to keep him out of my sock drawer."
I laughed. "There's something wrong about putting baby locks on a drawer to keep a cat out." I had no idea how Cody was doing it, but if there was a way to open the drawer without having opposable thumbs, then Cody would figure it out.
Justin leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose. "I've got to meet Nikki tonight and go over some things for the boss. You want to come?"
I shook my head. I appreciated the way he was trying to keep me in the loop, but I was buried in schoolwork. "I can't," I said apologetically. "Two papers and a test to study for. Plus research." I hated to admit it, but the best thing Justin could have done was bring Nikki into the Informant Net. I didn't have the time to dedicate to it like I used to. The more school went on, the more I wondered how people who had to sleep managed. Granted, I was taking a heavier course load than most people, but still, I needed those extra eight hours a day.
"I know what it's like," he said with a wistful smile. "I'm just sorry I can't help you like you helped me."
I shrugged a looked around. "A nice place to study, not having to worry about paying rent like most of my classmates, I think you're doing plenty to help me."
He grinned and stood, putting a few things in the backpack he had started carrying while he was stuck on the crutches. "I shouldn't be more than a couple of hours," he promised and then was gone again.
I turned back to the paper I was still muddling through, but I was now in too good of a mood to write. The last several weeks had certainly been a challenge for Justin and I. The day after I caught my mother, I had come home while she was at work, packed my stuff and was gone before she got home. Justin didn't want me doing this just to run away, but I pointed out that the only reason I had been hesitating was that I thought she needed me. Since she obviously wasn't lacking for company, I could be where I wanted to be the most. Justin wasn't about to argue with that perfect of logic, so despite Cody's displays of unhappiness at the suddenness of our change of address, we were now one happy little family.
Kayla wasn't happy about it though. She had asked me more than once what was going on, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I didn't even want to remember what I had seen when that door crashed open. And then Tom ratting me out about Eyes Only. How juvenile can you get? But passing the blame is popular when you're guilty about something. Better to do that than accept responsibility for your own actions, I guess.
I was making time for Kayla though and going out and doing stuff with her. My schedule was getting tighter and tighter, but even if it was just picking her up from ballet, at least we would have a few minutes. I knew it hurt her that I wasn't talking much to Mom, but there wasn't anything to say. Kay couldn't understand how I could get so icy so quickly, but there wasn't a choice in the matter. What Mom was doing was sickening. Weeks later and it still made me sick to think about it.
I knew Justin and his father had talked privately. Justin still wasn't happy about the situation, but their relationship hadn't deteriorated like me and mom's had. I did try to talk to Mom once. It wasn't pretty and the words passed best left unrepeated. Tom had tried to talk to me the last time he was over here with the twins, but I went all ice-princess on him. He told me that no matter what; I wasn't going to be able to drive him out of his son's life. I had given him my sweetest smile and told him that I didn't want him out of his son's life. Just out of my mother's pants. Needless to say, that wasn't exactly a bonding moment either.
I knew part of it was that I didn't know Mom was sleeping with anyone at all since Dad died. She had gone out on dates, but never anything serious like this. She had always been sedate and not one guy had ever gotten her worked up. That was the way she was supposed to be. Calm and cool and looking at things with an air of wisdom when she decided on how a relationship should go. Not this wild chick that would seduce her daughter's future father in law. I couldn't reconcile it and until I could, the best thing for me was to not be around the situation at all.
Besides, with Justin's recovery, school and Kayla, I had enough on my plate. I was not ready to deal with her bad choices. The fallout was eventually going to happen and it wasn't going to be pretty when it did. I had other things to deal with like Cody stealing his new daddy's socks all the time. Once we got that worked out along with who does the laundry next, Justin and I were going to have a perfect relationship.
And that's the way it seemed as the days turned into weeks. Justin and I had a few arguments here and there, but we were doing better. I just had to keep restocking his sock drawer without him knowing about it. Eventually, Cody was going to make a mistake and his stash would be located. Or else we would move and the new tenants would wonder over a bunch of men's socks in some hidden location. Either way, it wasn't anything to worry about now.
Justin and I had made a couple of other changes too. We had actually started to go to church more. It had started more or less when we were trying to decide where to get married and oddly agreed easily on a whole formal church ceremony. Father Carlos at St. Andrews insisted on couples doing pre-marriage counseling before he would marry us there. The scary thing is that he didn't admonish much about us living in sin, and I actually learned some things. It still creeped me that a man who hadn't been in a relationship since he was sixteen knew so much about marriage, but he was a good man and had some good ideas. I'm not sure if it was a side effect of Justin being injured or us just being there so much anyways, but Justin and I started going to mass several times a month now. Not every week, but close enough.
I felt like I was getting my life in order. Like I was becoming a regular person with a job and family and everything. I couldn't forget about the darkness that was following me, but I could learn to deal with it so that it wouldn't run my life. Not hearing from Zack helped, I think. I didn't want him out of my life, but I wasn't ready to have him there. I had enough to deal with as far as siblings went with Kayla. And I didn't realize how upset she was about the situation with Mom and me until one Sunday I came out of the Confessional and Kat was sitting there.
Seeing Kat in church was like seeing a priest at a porno convention. She was wearing her usual low-slung pants, this time with a grease-stained tank top. The top of her devil tattoo was visible, but I could only be thankful she wasn't exposing her other tattoo to the congregation.
She grinned at me and stood as I stepped out of the booth. I thought about running, but that would have left her alone in a church. There was some kind of blasphemy in that. "So," she said brightly as I approached, "you finally confessing your carnal desires for my lusciousness?"
Anyone else and I might have laughed. With Kat, she would have taken it for an invitation. "Kat, I think you're desecrating a holy place."
A young novitiate was walking up the aisle and Kat look at her appreciatively, giving her a lascivious wink. I almost groaned. The girl looked startled and hurried a little faster. Kat turned back to me. "Desecration," she said firmly, "would be me getting a little of that penguin love behind the alter. Change her whole outlook on life but some praying would be involved later." Kat paused speculatively. "Though she would be screaming for God a lot during."
"Kat!" My cheeks were turning pink. "Is there a reason why you're here?"
Her teasing turned serious. "Big reason," she said. "But I am not letting those unholy words come from these lips in a holy place. Even I'm not that determined to end up in Hell."
Okay, now I was curious. We went outside to a little bench. She turned to me. "Justin asked me to do something," she said. "In my life, I have seen and done a lot. But I have never been asked to do something so sick by a man who should know better." I know the confusion must have been evident on my face. Her voice lowered. "He wants me to fix his car."
"What?" I demanded. "You're acting like something is wrong over his car?" I thought my heart was going to stop when she was acting like something was wrong and it turned out it was nothing. The girl was begging for a strangling.
"It's a Ford!" Kat yelled. "Jhondie, the boy is rich as hell and he wants me to use these gifted hands to bring a Ford Taurus back to life! That's sick! It's profane!"
"It's just a car," I broke in. I thought she was going to pass out.
"Now who's talking blasphemy?" She shook her head. "Jhondie, get him in bed and do wild things to him until he agrees to take on a car that can be driven through a small wall and live. Trust me, I've got all kinds of special touches in mind, but I'm not putting that kind of effort into something that should never have been born in the first place."
I was trying to keep from laughing. If there was one thing in the world that Kat took seriously, it was her cars. "Why don't you give him some options?" I suggested. "He said to fix his car because you haven't said what else you can do."
She grinned. "I've got something in mind with plenty of room in the backseat. Maybe even enough for three."
"Kat!"
She laughed. "Okay, okay, but if I don't remind you I'm ready to initiate you into lady-love, you might forget."
"I don't think it's possible for anyone to forget you."
She looked quite pleased with herself. "Good. Now, when you going to get back in with your Mom?"
I blinked. That came out of left field. "Um, that's not your problem," I finally managed to say.
"Yeah, right," she protested. "See, Kay's bummed about it. When Kay's bummed, then I get down. When I'm down, Rach wants to cheer me up. Her idea of cheer means I get out of bed more tired than when I went to sleep if you know what I mean. And then I'm useless to Scott with the cars. It's hurting my business, so yeah, it is my problem."
The scary thing is her logic made perfect sense. "Kat," I said uncomfortably, "this is something I have to work out with Mom. And Kay needs to understand we both love her and this has nothing to do with her. It's us and we have to deal with it."
"Uh huh." Kat's expression expressed her disbelief. "That's exactly what parents say in a divorce, usually right before one takes off and is never seen again."
"That's not going to happen," I reassured her. Then it hit me. Beneath all of the exterior reasons and flirtations, Kat was here because she was worried about Kayla. Her friend was hurting and she was trying to do something about it. Well, miracles could occur. Who would have guessed Kat had a soft heart in there? "Mom and I will work it out eventually. But in the meantime, I'm here when Kay needs me."
"You better be," Kat said, standing. She looked like she was going to say something else, but left it at that as she sauntered away, making at least one alter boy forget where he was walking.
I leaned back on the bench, thinking. Maybe things did need to change a little. It had been over two months, and maybe I needed to relax. Breathe a little. Mom was doing something I didn't approve of. I had done a heck of a lot of things Zack didn't approve of, but he still loved me. I sighed. I needed to go to the library and do some research. But while I was there, I mostly was thinking about my family and what it meant to me.
"What's 286 times 384?" Justin asked from the doorway of the office.
"One hundred nine thousand, eight hundred twenty-four," I replied absently as I stared at the paper I was writing, trying to decide if 'the changes of the mitochondria DNA that result in' sounded better than 'the changes of the mitochondria DNA, which result in'. I normally don't agonize over which word to pick, but for the life of me, I couldn't decide which way I liked it more.
"You did that in your head?"
"Yeah." I knew from his tone I probably should be paying more attention to this conversation, but half of my grade was going to be determined by this one paper and I was determined to blow my professor away with it.
"So you're good at math, right?" Justin insisted. Okay. Time to pay attention here. I can multitask, but Justin required all mental circuits. Sometimes it sucked to have a smart fiancée.
I swiveled the chair around so that I was facing him. "You know I am."
He gimped into the office and sat down in the other chair. "Physics too, right? Not my best subjects, but you're good at them both right?"
"I'm assuming you're going somewhere with this."
"See," he explained. "There's this mathematically anomaly that's occurring and I think there's some time-space warp that's happening which is causing the problem." I blinked. "Theoretically," he continued, "since I have a cast on one leg, I'm only wearing a sock on my other foot. Therefore, my socks should last me twice as long. However, I'm using half as many, but mysteriously going through twice as much. I'm thinking some wormhole that's attracted to socks is localizing itself in my drawer. What's your opinion?"
I couldn't help rolling my eyes. "Cody has a full-length fur coat," I reminded him. "He has no need for your socks."
"I know," Justin said, hands up in mock surrender, "that's why I know it can't be your cat at all. Since you don't like men's socks and Cody can't be stealing them, then it's got to be some trans-dimensional thing."
I could feel the smile forming on my face, despite my attempt to keep it under control. Cody hadn't taken moving very well and Justin swore he was getting revenge by stealing his socks. Okay, the first day, Justin came in and there was Cody on the back of the couch with a pair in his mouth. He meowed, picked them up and scampered off. And no, I still hadn't been able to find that pair.
"I'm not getting rid of my cat because of a sock fixation," I said firmly.
He smiled. "I don't want you to get rid of your cat. Just please find a way to keep him out of my sock drawer."
I laughed. "There's something wrong about putting baby locks on a drawer to keep a cat out." I had no idea how Cody was doing it, but if there was a way to open the drawer without having opposable thumbs, then Cody would figure it out.
Justin leaned over and kissed the tip of my nose. "I've got to meet Nikki tonight and go over some things for the boss. You want to come?"
I shook my head. I appreciated the way he was trying to keep me in the loop, but I was buried in schoolwork. "I can't," I said apologetically. "Two papers and a test to study for. Plus research." I hated to admit it, but the best thing Justin could have done was bring Nikki into the Informant Net. I didn't have the time to dedicate to it like I used to. The more school went on, the more I wondered how people who had to sleep managed. Granted, I was taking a heavier course load than most people, but still, I needed those extra eight hours a day.
"I know what it's like," he said with a wistful smile. "I'm just sorry I can't help you like you helped me."
I shrugged a looked around. "A nice place to study, not having to worry about paying rent like most of my classmates, I think you're doing plenty to help me."
He grinned and stood, putting a few things in the backpack he had started carrying while he was stuck on the crutches. "I shouldn't be more than a couple of hours," he promised and then was gone again.
I turned back to the paper I was still muddling through, but I was now in too good of a mood to write. The last several weeks had certainly been a challenge for Justin and I. The day after I caught my mother, I had come home while she was at work, packed my stuff and was gone before she got home. Justin didn't want me doing this just to run away, but I pointed out that the only reason I had been hesitating was that I thought she needed me. Since she obviously wasn't lacking for company, I could be where I wanted to be the most. Justin wasn't about to argue with that perfect of logic, so despite Cody's displays of unhappiness at the suddenness of our change of address, we were now one happy little family.
Kayla wasn't happy about it though. She had asked me more than once what was going on, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I didn't even want to remember what I had seen when that door crashed open. And then Tom ratting me out about Eyes Only. How juvenile can you get? But passing the blame is popular when you're guilty about something. Better to do that than accept responsibility for your own actions, I guess.
I was making time for Kayla though and going out and doing stuff with her. My schedule was getting tighter and tighter, but even if it was just picking her up from ballet, at least we would have a few minutes. I knew it hurt her that I wasn't talking much to Mom, but there wasn't anything to say. Kay couldn't understand how I could get so icy so quickly, but there wasn't a choice in the matter. What Mom was doing was sickening. Weeks later and it still made me sick to think about it.
I knew Justin and his father had talked privately. Justin still wasn't happy about the situation, but their relationship hadn't deteriorated like me and mom's had. I did try to talk to Mom once. It wasn't pretty and the words passed best left unrepeated. Tom had tried to talk to me the last time he was over here with the twins, but I went all ice-princess on him. He told me that no matter what; I wasn't going to be able to drive him out of his son's life. I had given him my sweetest smile and told him that I didn't want him out of his son's life. Just out of my mother's pants. Needless to say, that wasn't exactly a bonding moment either.
I knew part of it was that I didn't know Mom was sleeping with anyone at all since Dad died. She had gone out on dates, but never anything serious like this. She had always been sedate and not one guy had ever gotten her worked up. That was the way she was supposed to be. Calm and cool and looking at things with an air of wisdom when she decided on how a relationship should go. Not this wild chick that would seduce her daughter's future father in law. I couldn't reconcile it and until I could, the best thing for me was to not be around the situation at all.
Besides, with Justin's recovery, school and Kayla, I had enough on my plate. I was not ready to deal with her bad choices. The fallout was eventually going to happen and it wasn't going to be pretty when it did. I had other things to deal with like Cody stealing his new daddy's socks all the time. Once we got that worked out along with who does the laundry next, Justin and I were going to have a perfect relationship.
And that's the way it seemed as the days turned into weeks. Justin and I had a few arguments here and there, but we were doing better. I just had to keep restocking his sock drawer without him knowing about it. Eventually, Cody was going to make a mistake and his stash would be located. Or else we would move and the new tenants would wonder over a bunch of men's socks in some hidden location. Either way, it wasn't anything to worry about now.
Justin and I had made a couple of other changes too. We had actually started to go to church more. It had started more or less when we were trying to decide where to get married and oddly agreed easily on a whole formal church ceremony. Father Carlos at St. Andrews insisted on couples doing pre-marriage counseling before he would marry us there. The scary thing is that he didn't admonish much about us living in sin, and I actually learned some things. It still creeped me that a man who hadn't been in a relationship since he was sixteen knew so much about marriage, but he was a good man and had some good ideas. I'm not sure if it was a side effect of Justin being injured or us just being there so much anyways, but Justin and I started going to mass several times a month now. Not every week, but close enough.
I felt like I was getting my life in order. Like I was becoming a regular person with a job and family and everything. I couldn't forget about the darkness that was following me, but I could learn to deal with it so that it wouldn't run my life. Not hearing from Zack helped, I think. I didn't want him out of my life, but I wasn't ready to have him there. I had enough to deal with as far as siblings went with Kayla. And I didn't realize how upset she was about the situation with Mom and me until one Sunday I came out of the Confessional and Kat was sitting there.
Seeing Kat in church was like seeing a priest at a porno convention. She was wearing her usual low-slung pants, this time with a grease-stained tank top. The top of her devil tattoo was visible, but I could only be thankful she wasn't exposing her other tattoo to the congregation.
She grinned at me and stood as I stepped out of the booth. I thought about running, but that would have left her alone in a church. There was some kind of blasphemy in that. "So," she said brightly as I approached, "you finally confessing your carnal desires for my lusciousness?"
Anyone else and I might have laughed. With Kat, she would have taken it for an invitation. "Kat, I think you're desecrating a holy place."
A young novitiate was walking up the aisle and Kat look at her appreciatively, giving her a lascivious wink. I almost groaned. The girl looked startled and hurried a little faster. Kat turned back to me. "Desecration," she said firmly, "would be me getting a little of that penguin love behind the alter. Change her whole outlook on life but some praying would be involved later." Kat paused speculatively. "Though she would be screaming for God a lot during."
"Kat!" My cheeks were turning pink. "Is there a reason why you're here?"
Her teasing turned serious. "Big reason," she said. "But I am not letting those unholy words come from these lips in a holy place. Even I'm not that determined to end up in Hell."
Okay, now I was curious. We went outside to a little bench. She turned to me. "Justin asked me to do something," she said. "In my life, I have seen and done a lot. But I have never been asked to do something so sick by a man who should know better." I know the confusion must have been evident on my face. Her voice lowered. "He wants me to fix his car."
"What?" I demanded. "You're acting like something is wrong over his car?" I thought my heart was going to stop when she was acting like something was wrong and it turned out it was nothing. The girl was begging for a strangling.
"It's a Ford!" Kat yelled. "Jhondie, the boy is rich as hell and he wants me to use these gifted hands to bring a Ford Taurus back to life! That's sick! It's profane!"
"It's just a car," I broke in. I thought she was going to pass out.
"Now who's talking blasphemy?" She shook her head. "Jhondie, get him in bed and do wild things to him until he agrees to take on a car that can be driven through a small wall and live. Trust me, I've got all kinds of special touches in mind, but I'm not putting that kind of effort into something that should never have been born in the first place."
I was trying to keep from laughing. If there was one thing in the world that Kat took seriously, it was her cars. "Why don't you give him some options?" I suggested. "He said to fix his car because you haven't said what else you can do."
She grinned. "I've got something in mind with plenty of room in the backseat. Maybe even enough for three."
"Kat!"
She laughed. "Okay, okay, but if I don't remind you I'm ready to initiate you into lady-love, you might forget."
"I don't think it's possible for anyone to forget you."
She looked quite pleased with herself. "Good. Now, when you going to get back in with your Mom?"
I blinked. That came out of left field. "Um, that's not your problem," I finally managed to say.
"Yeah, right," she protested. "See, Kay's bummed about it. When Kay's bummed, then I get down. When I'm down, Rach wants to cheer me up. Her idea of cheer means I get out of bed more tired than when I went to sleep if you know what I mean. And then I'm useless to Scott with the cars. It's hurting my business, so yeah, it is my problem."
The scary thing is her logic made perfect sense. "Kat," I said uncomfortably, "this is something I have to work out with Mom. And Kay needs to understand we both love her and this has nothing to do with her. It's us and we have to deal with it."
"Uh huh." Kat's expression expressed her disbelief. "That's exactly what parents say in a divorce, usually right before one takes off and is never seen again."
"That's not going to happen," I reassured her. Then it hit me. Beneath all of the exterior reasons and flirtations, Kat was here because she was worried about Kayla. Her friend was hurting and she was trying to do something about it. Well, miracles could occur. Who would have guessed Kat had a soft heart in there? "Mom and I will work it out eventually. But in the meantime, I'm here when Kay needs me."
"You better be," Kat said, standing. She looked like she was going to say something else, but left it at that as she sauntered away, making at least one alter boy forget where he was walking.
I leaned back on the bench, thinking. Maybe things did need to change a little. It had been over two months, and maybe I needed to relax. Breathe a little. Mom was doing something I didn't approve of. I had done a heck of a lot of things Zack didn't approve of, but he still loved me. I sighed. I needed to go to the library and do some research. But while I was there, I mostly was thinking about my family and what it meant to me.