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I’ve never seen her glare such daggers into him, or anyone before. I’m genuinely scared for a moment, despite the fact that it’s not directed at me. He deserves it, though.
That girlfriend of his should run away now.
Said girlfriend stands abruptly. The energy in the room is enough to make everyone uncomfortable, of course it manages to make her lookevenmore distressed somehow.
We lock eyes for a total of one second, not long enough for her to see my attempt at an apologetic smile.
“I’m going to go, actually. Eat. I’m going to go eat. At home. Thanks.” She says the last words with a tight smile in my mom’s direction before heading for the door. I feel like I should say something, do something to let her know she doesn’t have to leave. We’ve all been in awkward situations like this before, it’snot a big deal to make something work out. Mom clearly thinks so. She tries to call her name and stop her, even takes a few steps in her direction, but it’s not enough. The girl is fast.
“You should have just listened to her,” Justin says.
“I’m so confused.”
“You didn’t need to make a big deal out of it.”
“I wasn’t just going to let her sit there while we stuffed our faces! It’s rude! I can’t believe you not only brought her here unannounced, but on alfredo night! How do you forget something like that, Justin?”
“We only hang out for like an hour every day at school. How am I supposed to remember this stuff?”
She looks torn between sitting down to eat and storming away. I don’t blame her, I want to storm away from Justin too.
But this pasta is fucking delicious.
“It would’ve been fine. Next time just don’t bother with all of your host shit.”
I want to hit him so hard that the bite he just took flies out of his mouth. Who is this guy and what did he do with my brother?
“I hope there’s not a next time, Justin. That girl should dump your ass if she knows what’s good for her.”Hell yeah, mom.“Go to your room, now. You’re grounded for speaking to me like that.”
He knows better than to say anything else, just scoops one more forkful of his dinner into his mouth and leaves the table.
I do the one thing I can think of and stand up to hug her.
She sighs when I do.
“I thought I raised you both better than that.”
“You did, mom. He’s just being…” I try to think of the nicest possible word to describe that little asshole. “Dumb.”
She pats my back and lets me go. “Let’s not let it ruin dinner. Eat up.”
I go after Justin when we're finished eating and cleaning up. The kid has a good life, a family that loves him, and now a girlfriend that tolerates his idiocy. It’s hard to imagine what’s triggered this mood of his lately. I know teenagers will be teenagers, but I wasn’t like that when I was his age. It doesn’t make any sense.
He’s playing video games when I walk in, and I grab the controller out of his hand instead of asking him to talk. I know how that would go, he’d tell me to fuck off. He says it anyway, and I shrug because I don’t particularly care right now.
“You’re done for a minute. We’re talking.”
“I don’t want to talk. Go away.”
“Not until you give me some answers, dude. Don’t you know you’re supposed to stick up for your girlfriend? Be the host that you wouldn’t let mom be? What the fuck was that?”
He tries to snatch the controller back, but I’m much taller than him and it’s pretty simple to raise my hand out of his reach. For extra measure, I go over to the tv and turn that off too. His game will still be there when it turns back on, but this way he won’t be distracted
“Talk to me, you idiot.”
“It’s stupid, okay? I shouldn’t have invited her over.”
“So that we wouldn’t know you're rude to your girlfriend? So we could live in blissful ignorance?” I ask, getting heated.
