"How you holding up without her?" Lindsay asks, smirking as she stood in her eldest son's doorway.
Matthew looks up from the book he's reading and gives his mother an unamused look. "It hasn't even been a day yet."
"I know, but you two are attached at the hip," Lindsay comments. "Are you reading that for school or for fun?"
"'The Odyssey'? Definitely not for fun," Matthew comments as he flips the page.
"Oh, come on, it's not that bad," Lindsay says. "I read that one in college."
"For school or for fun?" Matthew asks with a smirk on his face.
Lindsay rolls her eyes. "Okay, for school, smartass." She smiles. "I'll leave you alone for the night. Goodnight, honey."
"Night, Mom," Matthew responds.
Lindsay walks over to Oliver's door and tries to listen to make sure he's not on the phone, which he's not. However, she hears him sniffing.
She knocks on the door. "It's me. Can I come in?"
"Oh, um, yeah, sure."
Lindsay opens the door to find her son's eyes all red and puffy, as though he had been sobbing for hours. Of course, he must have just wiped the tears away from his face. She can always tell when he's been crying, though.
"Oh, Ollie." Lindsay walks in and sits on her son's bed, embracing him as he begins to sob again.
She rubs his back as she feels her eyes start to well up, too.
"I miss him, Mom," Oliver manages to get out.
"I know, baby." Tears are now spilling out of her eyes as well. "I do, too… so much."
They continue crying together for a few minutes. Eventually, Lindsay pulls away from him.
"I know it's not fair," she tells Oliver. "And I know it's never going to not be difficult… but we're going to be okay.
Oliver wipes his eyes and nods hesitantly.
Lindsay sadly smiles. "It was his idea to name you Oliver, you know that?"
"No," Oliver admits.
"Well, you know your dad, he wasn't much of an academic," Lindsay says with a small laugh. "But he told me he got the name from Dickens… Oliver Twist." She pauses. "So I asked him if he was a big fan of Charles Dickens or something, and he says 'no, don't you remember?'" Her voice quivers. "I guess it was the book we had to do a group project on in our English class. It was how we met."
"Really?" Oliver asks. "How come I never knew that?"
Lindsay shrugs. "I don't know. I never really thought about it until now."
"What about Matthew?" he asks. "Does he have a cool story?"
"Not really," Lindsay says. "I picked the name Matthew and his father agreed that it was a good name, so we chose it."
"Huh." Oliver sits up and wipes his eyes.
"He'd be begging you to tell him all about your girlfriend," Lindsay tells him. "You were his best friend, you know? He'd get so excited to go to all of your games and he'd tell everyone in the stands that you, number nineteen, were his son."
"I didn't know that," Oliver says. "I've been thinking about joining the baseball team when I get to high school."
Lindsay smiles. "He'd love that… but you actually want to do that, right? You never seemed into it when he suggested baseball before."
"Yeah, I like baseball," Oliver comments. "I haven't really played the actual game but we'd always go to the games in the summer."
"He'd ask if I or Matthew wanted to go every time," Lindsay remembers. "I'm not a big baseball fan, anyways, but I knew that the Tigers games were your thing, you and your dad." She puts her arm around him. "Well, you've got a couple years until high school. Think about it until then. He'd be proud of you no matter what you decide to do."
"Yeah," Oliver says sadly. "I know."
Lindsay sighs. "I know we never had quite the relationship that you and Dad had," she says. "But we can change that. You can talk to me about anything. I'm always here for you."
"Okay," Oliver says. "Thanks." He hesitates. "Mom, you aren't gonna, like… start dating someone else, are you?"
"What?" Lindsay asks, taken aback. "No, honey, no way. At least, not anytime soon, I promise you that."
"Good," Oliver says. "That'd just be…"
"Weird," they say in unison.
"Yeah, I know," Lindsay says. "No, I'm in no way, shape, or form ready for anything like that and I won't be for a long time. You and your brother are the only men I need in my life." She ruffles his hair and stands up. "I'm gonna take a shower. Are you gonna be okay?"
"Yeah," Oliver says.
"Call your girlfriend," Lindsay teases. "I'm sure she'll lift your spirits."
Oliver rolls his eyes as Lindsay exits his room.
…
It's entirely too hot out, however, Justin has spent the entire day outside with Oliver. Around four, he finally decides to head back home and grab something to eat. It's not like his dad is gonna cook dinner or anything, anyways.
He walks in the door and kicks off his sneakers.
"Where you been?" his father asks, his voice echoing from the kitchen.
"Out," Justin says casually as he walks down to the kitchen. "With Oliver."
"Yeah?" Daniel asks. He's smoking a cigarette, Justin notices. His mom would never let him do that inside if she were home. Daniel puts the cigarette out in an ashtray and notices Justin looking at it. "Our little secret, okay?"
"I thought you quit," Justin says.
"Yeah, that's only what your mom thinks," Daniel mutters.
Justin goes to one of the cabinets and pulls out a box of cereal. He pours himself a bowl and sits back down to eat. "Are you and Mom gonna get a divorce?" he inquires, his mouth full of Apple Jacks. "I mean, if she finds out you smoke."
Daniel stifles a laugh. "Kid, you think cigarettes are gonna end our marriage, after all we've been through?"
Justin shrugs. "It's just that you guys have been fighting."
"When?" Daniel asks. "We've been getting along great lately."
"The last week or so, yeah," Justin says. "But before."
"Mom and I are fine," Daniel insists. "Don't listen to her about that crap, okay?"
Justin puts his spoon down. "What crap?"
"She just… she makes it seem like we have all these problems when we don't," Daniel says. "Not anymore." He looks at his son. "I don't want you worrying about that anyway. It's not gonna happen and it shouldn't concern you right now."
"I'm not worried," Justin says. "I'm just wondering." He thinks for a moment. "It's just… Oliver just lost his dad, and I don't want, like, some sort of chain reaction of bad things happening. I… I don't want to lose, like, one of you or anything."
Daniel shakes his head. "Don't worry, kid. It's never gonna happen." The phone begins to ring and he stands up and walks to the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi, it's me," Jackie says on the other line.
"Speak of the devil," Daniel says, and eyes his son to see if he notices. "How's it goin', babe?"
"Oh, it's fine," Jackie responds. "We're having a decent time. Alex and I visited my dad today and that made him pretty happy."
"Yeah?" Daniel asks. "Good. Tell him I say hey if you see him again."
"Of course," Jackie says. "How's Justin?"
Daniel looks over at his unaware son again. "He's just fine. Spent the whole damn day outside, I think, even though it's humid as hell out there."
"Yeah, it's pretty bad here, too," Jackie admits. "Well, we're about to eat dinner, so I'll talk to you tomorrow, maybe. I just… wanted to hear your voice."
Daniel cracks a smile. "Okay, babe. I miss you. Keep havin' a good time, alright?"
"Will do," Jackie responds. "Love you."
"Love you, too. Bye."