Julie entered the Mercer's home and was greeted by the sound of Jack playing his guitar. He had been playing since he was twelve and he had gotten good at it. The sound was a comfort to Julie, the silence that filled the house the first few days after Evelyn's death was unbearable.
Bobby followed her through the door and dropped her workbag by the door. Once they were both rid of their winter coats they moved into the kitchen in search of something to eat. It wasn't until they reached the kitchen that either of them spoke.
"So Angle, Jerry, Jack and me went out today to see about moms will"
"Oh yeah? How did that go?
"Good," he hesitated for a second before saying, "there was something for you in the will."
"There was?" Julie was confused by this. The Mercer's didn't have that much, what would Evelyn leave her?
"Yeah there was some money." Bobby took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. Julie looked at the paper, it was from the bank and it documented a number of deposits that Evelyn had made every month of $300. All the money was in an account that was in Julie's name. She started to cry at the realization of what she was looking at.
"I paid her $300 a month for the room. I had to fight with her to take it. Fuck. She never spent a dime."
"There was a letter in her safety deposit box that told the bank that in case of her death you would be told about the account she set up for you. It said that she didn't want any money for the room, that she was just glad to have the company after we moved out, and that she wanted you to spent the money on yourself."
Julie was now crying harder then she thought possable.
"That stubborn woman. I should have know she would never take the money."
"Hey come on…." Bobby grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. She wrapped her arms around him and cried into his chest. One of his hands he rested on the back of her head the other rubbed her back. Julie tightened her hands around fist fulls of Bobby's shirt and clung to him with every ounce of strength in her body.
Once she reached the point where she felt it was impossible for her to cry anymore she finally let go of Bobby and took a step back from him. She suddenly felt really embarrassed.
"Sorry bout that." Julie said wiping away her leftover tears.
"Don't worry about it." Bobby smiled at her. "Fuck, when did you become a woman?"
"What?"
"Oh come on when you were younger you dressed like a boy, you acted like a boy, you hung out with boys, could easily kick the ass of about half the people on our block and were often mistaken as a boy "Bobby laughed.
"I could kick your ass." Julie said.
"In your dreams," Bobby said smiling at her again. Then his expression changed as he looked at her, really looked at her. He then said almost to himself, "no ones going to mistake you as a boy now."
He then walked past her to the fridge grabbed himself a beer and walked into the living room, Leaving Julie to wonder what just happened in the last few seconds.