~MELODY~

11:27 28 May

“So, where do you want to go for lunch?” Mom asked.

“Uh… do they have an IHOP here?”

“I don’t think so, but we can drive around and check!”

That took roughly twenty minutes, and the verdict was ‘no’.

That’s small towns, I guess. After living in the big city for the last eight years, I’d forgotten what it was like.

We pulled into the mall parking lot, and Mom asked if I had any other ideas.

Hmm… there was a Wendys we’d passed earlier, but I wasn’t really feeling ‘burger’… did I see anything good in the mall when I was there? Mexican was good but maybe not again so soon… oh!

“Chinese? There’s a Chinese place in the mall.”

“Sounds good to me! Maybe we can take a look at some of the other stores while we’re there, I haven’t been to the mall here in ages.”

“Yeah, sounds great!”

We pulled in and parked by the mall; the Chinese place (‘Egg-Fu John’s’? Oookay then…) had a parking-lot entrance, so we went in that way. It was buffet-style, but for some annoying reason Mom stopped me from just loading up on egg rolls and made me get ‘some variety’. Lame.

We sat down toward the back of the restaurant, in a booth by the windows into the mall. Mom nudged me, grinning, and nodded toward a girl my age walking past the window. Mom raised her eyebrows in a ‘hmm?’

I groaned, shoving my face in my hands. “Mom!” I hissed. “Stop trying to set me up with every cute girl my age!”

“So she is cute!” Mom said, grinning. “I thought so!”

“Uuuuuughhhh! Straight people are the worst!” Okay, maybe it was worse when she did it every time there was an attractive guy my age, I was woman enough to admit this was technically preferable, but it was still awkward as heck.

Mom was pretty young when she had me, and I guess it stuck; since she looked so young still, people had a tendency to think we were sisters. Which was fun to play into, but… sometimes she acted like it as well, so the divide was a little blurry sometimes. Case in point.

“So, what’s going on with Jackie?” Mom asked, changing the subject and throwing me wildly off balance. I managed to contain my reaction, though just barely. I’m sure she doesn’t know anything… right? She’s just asking in a general sense. Yep. Nooo problems here.

“Oh, he’s doing good.” Well, other than dreaming a decade of the future don’t think about that Mel, moms are telepathic! “Although he’s been having some bad luck.”

“Mm?”

“So, I guess, he was going to hang out with Bailey and that other girl, Kelly, right? And then they crashed their bikes ‘cause they got chased by a moose!”

Mom’s eyes widened. “Wait, did that actually happen?”

I nodded. “Mm-hm! I know right? He’s got the bandages to prove it!”

She shook her head. “I thought my sister was messing with me…”

“And then, he stepped on a skateboard and ran into a wall when he went over to his friend Max’s house.” It was kind of funny if I didn’t think about all the pain he probably had. “But other than that, I think he’s been doing pretty good. We’ve been having fun watching movies, and he introduced me to some new music. Oh, and of course, there’s the band. Which I get to play in!” I added with a giggle. This summer was gonna be epic.

“I’m glad,” Mom said. “It’ll be good for you to have some fun with your cousin this summer. And how about his style choices?”

I lagged briefly. “Eh?” Please mean the fatigues, please meant the fatigues…

“You and Jack do have a couple of tells, kiddo. And he was still wearing the choker even after he took off the skirt.”

Glrk! I dropped a chopstick.

“So, was it a dare? Just for fun? Something else?”

“Um, well, the idea is that it’s a girl band. ‘Rebel Grrl and the Soul Sisters’, actually. So Jack is pretending to be a girl. Please don’t tell his parents.”

Mom pursed her lips. “Mmm, I see.”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘something else’?”

She waved it off. “Forget I said anything,” she said. “Wanna tell me how yesterday actually went?”

I would have to tell Jack she knew, but…

If she already knows, I guess there’s no reason not to at this point.

“Sure.”

I went over what we’d done and the stuff the girls and Jack and I had found at the thrift store, and then Hot Topic, and showed her some of the pictures I’d taken. Then we finished eating with ice cream, and then Mom headed into the mall for some window shopping. At least she was vaguely in tune with teen fashions these days, not like my friend Andrea’s mom-

…right.

Andrea.

I sighed. It was gonna be good to get out of the city for a while. Maybe I’d be able to get past some of that stuff. Maybe I could forget about the people I thought were my friends.

“Hey,” Mom said, nudging me. “Come back to me, hon.”

I shook my head and smiled at her. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry, kiddo,” she said, resting an arm around my shoulders. “I know you’ve had a tough time of it. Just don’t drift off too far, mkay?”

“Okay.” I leaned into her a bit more. “Thanks, Mom.” Sometimes the lines were blurred, but sometimes she was all mom.

“That’s my job. And remember, even after I head home I’ll only be a phone call away. Now, how about that top?” She pointed at a window, and I snorted.

“You’re just trying to make me laugh, aren’t you?”

She smirked. “Is it working?”

“…yeah. Thanks, Mom.”

We tried things on in a couple of stores, but hadn’t bought anything. We were just walking toward Abercrombie & Fitch – a little preppier than I usually went for but they had nice stuff sometimes – when I saw someone approaching us and froze.

That- that was Dad.

He saw us, and I gulped.

Dad was an asshole, and he and his bigoted friends were really… they really hadn’t been healthy for me to be around as a kid, and it was probably still true – he hadn’t been around often enough since we left for me to know one way or the other. I had no idea how Jack had turned out so darn good with how much time the two of them had apparently spent together while he was growing up.

He smiled. He wasn’t like some of his friends, crooked teeth browned by chewing tobacco, but that gold incisor was… a little cringy, now that I thought about it. He had an old beat-up camo ball cap on, and was still carefully cultivating that goatee.

“Melody!” he said, keeping the smile as if he hadn’t ignored his visitation rights for years. He nodded to Mom. “Cheryl.”

“Hello, Dane,” Mom said, her hands resting gently on my shoulders.

I sighed a bit. “Hi, Dad.”

“What are you doing back in town?”

“Just visiting,” Mom said tersely.

“I had to return a library book,” I added. “Way overdue.” I blinked. I’ve been spending too much time with Jack.

“Well, I was just heading out myself. Can I talk to my girl for a bit on the way to the parking lot?”

Mom glanced to me; I thought about it, then nodded. “Yeah, alright.” I mean, maybe I don’t like him all that much, but he’s still my father, right? And anyway if I talk to him now maybe he won’t decide to visit any time soon. Mom and I could always finish up after he left.

Mom stepped back a bit as we all walked toward the doors.

“So, uh, how you been, kid?” he said, holding the first door open for me.

Hmm… do I tell him the truth? The idea of his face when he found out I was a lesbian was honestly pretty appealing.

“Oh, alright,” I said airily. “You know how it is. Taking karate, all A’s in school, playing in a punk band, came out at school as a lesbian.” Some of those things were even true.

He almost tripped.

“You what? Cheryl, did you know about this??” he yelled, spinning around to look at mom as he pushed the outer door open with his back.

“Quiet down, Dane, you’re in public. Know about what?”

“Your daughter thinks she’s a dyke,” Dad spat.

Yep. Still an asshole.

“So?” Mom said. I stepped back a little and shivered; that was the tone of voice that meant ‘test me and you’ll regret it’ and got the principal to back off.

“So, so, uh…” he floundered for a moment. “So what are you gonna do about it?”

“Why would I need to do something about it?”

“You’re indulging this?”

“I’m pretty sure you gave up the right to make those kind of decisions about her life. In court, if I remember correctly.”

His jaw worked open and shut a few times, then he clenched his fists and stomped toward the parking lot as I giggled.

He drew up short on the sidewalk.

“What the fuck?” he muttered.

“Dane!” Mom scolded, as if I hadn’t heard worse on the school bus.

“Someone stole my fucking car!” he yelled, waving toward the parking lot.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m fucking sure! You think I don’t fucking remember where I left my car?”

Oh my god. Whoever you are, I love you! This was even better – maybe the greatest thing I’d seen all day. My bad mood from before was totally gone. Dad’s face was getting all red as he waved angrily at the parking lot. Maybe if I’m lucky he’ll hyperventilate and pass out!

“Calm down and call the police,” Mom said, though she was obviously also trying not to smile. Is this catharsis?

Dad paused and looked uneasy. “I, uh. I mean, it’s not that much of a problem… I’m sure it’ll turn up…” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Mom shook her head.

“Dane, someone stole your car. If you won’t call the cops, I will.”

“Alright! Alright. God, woman.”

Mom stood there with her arms crossed, tapping a foot until Dad had dialed.

“I wanted to, uh, report a stolen car? ... East side of the mall. ... Er, thanks.” He gave his name and address, and Mom and I stepped away a bit.

“Mom, am I a bad person for enjoying this?”

“If you are, then so am I,” Mom said with a smirk. “Should we go?”

I glanced back at Dad, who was staring at an empty space in the parking lot, and smiled.

“Sure!” I told her. “What were you saying about that skirt?”