Chapter Fourteen: In Which I Have the Best Mom

"Hello?"

In just that one word I can practically see my mom holding the phone to her head, brown curls cascading down and over the device. I can picture her standing next to the staircase where the land line sits on a small end table we got at Goodwill. She's standing there in her dress slacks and a well fitted top ready to go into work late as she does most weekends. I used be right beside her as we would go into the city together before going our separate ways. Her to work, me to the library, mall, or to Gwen's. We would meet up later and grab dinner out as we did almost daily. Mom has never been much of a chief and I can only do little things without catching something on fire. So take out is our main food supply.

"Is someone there?" her voice breaks me out of my memories and I take a breath.

"Yeah mom it's me." I smile even though she can't see it. I can feel her smile through the phone.

"Sarah! How's my baby doing?" her tone is instantly motherly and I can't help but internally groan. Mom is more like my best friend than a mother, but she can get seriously overprotective/worried mom when she wanted to be.

"A little old to be called baby, but otherwise okay."

"You will never be too old until you're older than me. Anyway how's the camp? Is it fun? Are you making any new friends?"

"In order still too old. Fine. Kind of. Yes."

"You actually made friends?"

I put my hand on my hip. "Yes I made friends, geez mom, way to be blunt. I'm not a total social pariah."

"Sorry, but you only ever hang out with Gwen around here. So what are they like, what are their names?" she sounded way too excited which made me realize just how little of a social life I really did have back home. Gwen was really my only friend back there and when we didn't do things together I hardly did anything at all.

I leaned against the wall and propped my right foot against it. "Well there's Gwen, obviously."

"Obviously."

"Then there's Sophia, she's a daughter of Aphrodite, but she's totally kick ass."

"Language." she quickly chastised, but it had no real bite to it.

"Sorry. Sophia is great and she, Gwen, and I really get along. Sometimes I go see a girl named Rachel and we nerd out. Then there's Annabeth (Athena kid) and her boyfriend Percy (son of Poseidon) who spars with me from time to time. Some of the Hermes kids are great. A new guy we brought back to camp a while ago, Nick, on a quest and before you ask we did fine and came back in one piece. Pollux...well he's my half brother." I stopped and waited. Pollux wasn't who I should be talking about, but I felt like I should stall as long as I could.

"Half brother?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. He's nice and looks out for me." though I don;t need him to.

She's quiet for a moment before her voice picks up. "That's great honey. I'm glad you have someone to have your back. Let him know he is always welcome here whenever he wants."

Another thing I love about my mom is just how accepting she is. Maybe that might just save me after I tell her the next part.

"I will." I pulled the phone away and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. "Mom, I called for a reason."

I heard her sigh. "This isn't just a 'I miss you call' is it?"

I shook my head before realizing she couldn't see. "No. Mr. D made me call, told me I had to tell you some things."

"Are you two getting along?"

"Mom one major thing at a time please." my frustration towards the man seeped into my voice.

"Alright, but at some point we will talk about this kid. So what did he want you to tell me?"

I swallowed a lump in my throat and it sounded like the loudest noise in the universe. "I forgot to tell you about another friend I have here, well, he's here most of the time."

"He?" her voice questioned and I knew she knew something was coming.

"Yes mom, he. His name is Nico, son of Hades."

"That's great hun."

"He's also my boyfriend." I said quickly. Hoping this would be like ripping of a band aid. The other end of the phone was silent. "Mom? You, uh, still there?"

"Yeah I'm here. It's just, wow, a boyfriend!"

"A boyfriend." I confirmed.

"I thought you'd be in college before you even thought about boys like that."

"Mom!" my cheeks blushed "I'm sixteen,"

"Yes, but come on Sarah you've never been like other sixteen year olds. He must be something to get your attention."

"No, I mean yes, sort of. He wears a lot of black."

"Is he hot?"

"Mom!"

"What? Can't I ask questions?"

"No!" This was really not the conversation I wanted to have with her.

"So your father made you call to tell me you have a boyfriend?"

"Uh...more or less."

"Why do I get the feeling you are leaving something important out?"

"It's just-" but I don't know how to say it, to tell her what happened, what didn't happen, what almost happened. And the aftermath of just one stupid night.

"Sarah, honey, you know you can tell me anything right? I'm your mom and I will always be here to listen. I won't judge you." she says in the most honest, warmest voice. The same one she used to assure me there were no monsters underneath my bed, that school wouldn't be so bad, that I was pretty when Erica Marshall called me ugly in third grade, that I had a dad and he did care about me, and when she told me she loved me more than anything.

That tone broke me and I told her everything. I started from the night we met and the circumstances around it. I told her about our talks and the times we spent together. I told her how we met up in the Underworld and stole from his dad's vault. How he kissed me after. I told her how he whisked our group back to camp after our quest and how we became officially a couple. When I told her about his numerous absences is when the anger and sadness crept into my tone. I explained what had happened when Mr. D caught us that first time and that it was totally innocent. Then I ended telling her about last night. About how Nico wanted to go further and how I was just so happy to see him that I almost let him. How I didn't let it happen, that I might have wanted it to, and what really went on. How Mr. D found out and this is where everything ended up. My eyes leaked a few tears, some in frustration, some in anger, and some in sadness that I was feeling so weak and stupid. No sixteen year old girl should have to go to their mom, they were way too old for that.

And through this whole explanation she was silent, never once making a peep. Her breathing was the only indication that she was still there and listening to my ranting.

I took several deep breaths to stop from breaking down into full blown sobs. This was way more emotional than I thought. "Mom please say something."

"What could I say to calm you down?" she asked in a neutral voice.

"I don't know! Anything! That I'm not in over my head, that it's okay to want to do those things, that you're not-" ashamed of my choices. Because to me, her opinion meant everything. But I couldn't say it. Luckily I didn't have to.

"Sarah. I'm proud of you, I always have been. You could never do anything to make me not proud of you."

"Uh huh." I mumbled.

"I mean it Sarah! You're a good kid, better than I was at your age. You think things through before you act. I would give anything to have been that smart when I was young. But honey, you're a teenager. You're allowed to be this way, crazy and illogical. It's normal." Huh, so she agreed with Nick. "I'm happy you found someone, but if you're not happy then you need to say something to him. You can't just pretend like everything's okay again when he decides to show up. I don't want you to be that kind of girl."

"Okay. You're right, it's just hard."

"That's being in a relationship honey, if it were always easy then it would be worth nothing. But I feel like I need to be clear with you on somethings." I could feel her psyching herself up."I'm not going to tell you not to have sex."

I let that sink in before I risked talking. "What?" Surely I must have heard her wrong.

"You're a teenager Sarah and I've been where you are. I'm not going to forbid this from happening because I'm not stupid in thinking it will never happen."

"Then what are you telling me?"

"I'm not going to tell you a thing. I'm asking you to be careful. I'm asking you to think before anything happens and to be sure it's what you want. If you are going to have sex I just want you to have all the facts."

"You know I'm pretty sure Mr. D wants you to yell at me or forbid me from even having these thoughts."

She snorted through the phone. "That man can be over bearing and hypocritical. We got together just after I turned eighteen. You're going to turn seventeen soon enough. If he gives you a hard time about this call tell him he is more than free to talk to me about it. But more importantly, if you ever need to talk about this, you call me okay?"

I nodded and wiped my face with my free hand. "Okay. But I do have one question. Have you ever- did you ever regret getting together with Mr. D and having me so young?"

"I can't believe you asked that. Sarah while I admit it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, it was one of the best decisions of my life. I know you can't see it, but he is a really amazing guy. And he gave me you. I have no regrets. Not a one. Well, there was that bad perm in middle school I got, but besides that none." Leave it to mom to fix everything with a dumb joke.

"Thanks. I got to go, but you know, love you." I said feeling better than I had all day.

"Love you sweetie. Call me whenever."

"Whenever." I agreed.

I hung the phone up and found that I couldn't stop smiling. Even as I left the big house to go back to my cabin and face the wrath of a god, I never stopped smiling.