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“Alright,” I said. “Let me get dressed and I'll be on my way.”
“Hurry.”
I heard the fear in his voice, and it reminded me of the first time our mom went to jail. Trent and I were still teenagers, had no jobs, or money for food. Uncle Joe took care of us the entire six months she was away, and Trent and I took turns caring for Nick. I was angry with my mother for a long time after that. She didn’t seem to care though. All she cared about was getting free to do the same thing all over again.
Brayden was fast asleep when I left that night. It was late, the moon was shining bright, and the wolves were howling. It was a beautiful night, despite the call I got. I was still feeling relieved from the sex he and I had before Nick’s call came through, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t as upset as Nick was about mom being in jail.
When I got to him, he was sitting on the porch with his head in his hands, frantically shaking both of his legs. It was a pitiful sight; one I hated to see. I wished our mom could have seen how terrified her son was that night. Maybe then she would have thought to make better decisions.
“Hey.” I sat down next to him and placed my hand on his back. “This isn’t the end of the world, you know? She's been here before.”
Nick didn’t answer me. He was too far gone in a panic. I felt bad for him. Our mom was the only parent he had, aside from me.
“Nick,” I sighed. “I’m sorry this is happening. But maybe it’s a good thing this time. Mom has a lot of issues that she needs to sort out and maybe spending some time in jail to get clean and sober will help her get back on the right track. She's been doing this same shit for far too long. It's time for her to get it together.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. “But what about me? You're all the way in LA. Trent’s in prison. I don’t have anyone here or close. Mom is the only one I have and if she’s in jail, where does that leave me?”
I had no comeback for that. Of course, I would have taken Nick back to Los Angeles with me, no questions asked. But I knew that wasn’t where he wanted to be. He needed our mom. He needed her love as the stubborn bullheaded kid that he was. I couldn’t compete with that, but if push came to shove, he would have no choice but to pack it up and leave her behind.
“You’re always welcome to come to LA with me,” I said. “I have a nice home. There's lots of things to do there, girls to meet. You don’t have to stay here, you know that, right?”
He nodded his head at my question but didn’t look at me. I could see in his eyes that he was weighing his options. There weren’t many options to weigh in my opinion, because he had nowhere else to go.
“Are you going to bail her out?” he asked.
“Bail her out?” I frowned. “Does she have bail money somewhere?”
“Come on, Mia. She's your mom,” he said. “Don’t pretend like you don’t have the money. You bought this house, your house in LA, you travel all over the world. You can spare a few hundred bucks to get her out. She needs to be out.”
Nick didn’t understand the kind of relationship I had with our mother; how many times I bailed her out only for her to end up right back where she was. As hard as I worked for my money, I refused to throw it away on another bond for her.
“I’m not bailing her out, Nick. I've bailed her out countless times. It's a waste of money and never does her any good. She needs to sit for a while and think about her actions. Sitting in jail will get her clean long enough for her to have a clear mind and make a sound decision to stay sober for good.”
“So, you’re just going to let her sit in jail?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said sternly. “Unless you have the money to get her out or they let her out on her own freewill, she’ll be sitting there.”
“Then what did you even come here for?”
Nick jumped to his feet and glared at me like a young cub in a rage. I wasn’t afraid of him at all, but I was stunned by his reaction. I couldn’t believe he was angry at me like I was the reason our mom was in jail.
“Are you serious right now?” I scoffed. “I got out of my bed in the middle of the night to come here and make sure you were alright, and you’re mad at me because I won’t spend money getting mom out of jail for the hundredth time? That's really low of you, Nick. I don’t think you know what tree you’re barking up right now.”
“I’m barking up the one in front of me,” he shot back. “If you weren’t going to help, you should have never come here. I could have spent time figuring out a way to get her out instead of waiting on you to come and do nothing.”
A chill rippled through the air after his statement. I thought about Trent being in prison, mom being in jail, and felt so fearful for my little brother. I didn’t want to see him end up in the same position as they were. I almost broke my promise to myself right then and there, if it meant keeping Nick from going down the same road.
“I’m sorry Nick, but I can’t bail her out this time. Not again. Mom has to learn her lesson. Before it’s too late. You might not understand it now, but you will when you’re older. Don't do something stupid that will lead you to jail too.”
My words fell upon deaf ears. Nick was too young and too full of himself to digest anything other than what he wanted to digest. He wanted mom home. That was all that mattered to him. I wanted her healed and clean, that was the only thing that mattered to me. So, there we stood. At odds with each other because of our mom.
“You should go,” Nick said. “There’s no need for you to be here. I'll come up with the money to get mom out on my own and when I do, don’t come around trying to suck up the benefits.”
“Benefits?” I laughed. “You’ve got a lot to learn about life, little boy. There is no benefit here. The only one benefiting is her. Being bailed out every time she does something wrong only allows her to keep doing what she’s doing and if you want to be a part of that; allowing her to hurt herself, be my guest. Don't call me when it all backfires.”
Nick turned his back on me and went inside the house, slamming the door shut behind him. I didn’t care about being locked out of a house I had no intention of stepping foot in anyway, so I went to my car and got inside.
I hated that Nick and I didn’t see eye to eye about our mom. I hated everything about the situation, everything down to her being in jail. Of course, I didn’t want my mom to be in jail but in all honesty, I thought it was the best place for her to be. She needed a real wake up call. She needed to be forced to sit in the consequences of her actions, not set free to make the same mistakes over and over again.
