I Own Nothing
AN:
CN: This Chapter is dedicated to Debbie
Title: Five Mothers
When he started hanging out with Michael he started making them again. It was mostly because his best friend said he should since Debbie did so much for him. It was probably guilt that got him to do the first one. She had protected him and kept him from having to go back home most nights. He barely saw his family unless his mother was demanding he come home. The days he practically lived there, nights too, were the best ones. He went to bed not scared he be beat on or woken up being shouted at.
The first card he'd given Debbie he thought something was wrong when she'd started screaming. Apparently it was more happiness that she had warranted a Mother's day card. He hadn't wanted to upscale Michael so he'd just put 'Happy Mother's Day' on the outside. On the inside he'd just put thanks with his name at the bottom. The words on Michael's was over the top and the odd looking drawings too. He didn't say that to Michael though, but it was all mushie and loving. He didn't add the love part either, those were words he couldn't say, wouldn't say.
He did the best he could never out doing Michael because that wouldn't be right. He even helped his best friend out when he got older having more money. He had even gotten Debbie a spa day once to be pampered. She had deserved it working the long hours at the diner, but Michael hadn't been able to do anything that year. He'd just started working at the Big Q and said he didn't have anything great to give her. He'd taken his gift giving it to Michael along with giving her a night out.
Debbie had known though that the gifts weren't from Michael. He had still been living with her at the time. She knew he'd been complaining just days before about wishing he could get her something really nice. She had gotten him alone and thanked him for the gifts. It wasn't the first time he'd heard her say she loved him, but it was one of the times he'd known it was real. She'd promised she wouldn't tell Michael that she knew he hadn't done it. They hadn't talked about it again either.
As the years past he didn't have to cover for Michael on Mother's day any longer, but things seemed to change too. It was always there really if he thought about it, but never looked. Debbie always put blame on him if something went wrong. He ignored it let her think of him any way she wanted. He stopped caring really and just locked his heart away once again. He wasn't going to let them get to him like his mother had once done.
He would let them think he was the asshole he was called. Let them believe he was only the Stud of Liberty Avenue. Let her think he just wanted to get drunk and high. She claimed she knew him too long and regrettably too well. She didn't really know him though not even his best gal friend knew him that well. He didn't need Debbie to make him feel loved or even alive like he'd once needed. Ever since the last falling out with Michael he barely even saw Debbie now. She wouldn't get to see who he had become as a dad to his own children, not having to share with Lindsay.
He was fine with that though because the ones that couldn't see how much he had changed. They'd probably think of him as forever the one they used to see, but that was no longer the case. He had one mom that really loved him. He'd found her when he found the man he loved because Jennifer always showed him love now. She might have hated him in the beginning, but she was the one that said once she wished he was her son in-law before he'd even asked Justin to marry him.
~TBC~