The Bright Side

Chapter 14 - Part 3

SKY

Dreadful. It's the most dreadful breakfast I ever had. The huge clock on our kitchen wall is manically ticking away my time left in Seaford. Every time I watch it the hands seem to have leapt forward, rushing me to leave. For the first time ever, I'm entirely against leaving. Leaving has always been unpleasant. Not because I love Seaford so much, but because I really don't like college and I've only ever wanted to have a life with my family. I went though, knowing Jo would be there and thinking of how happy it made Mum. Now, though, everything inside of me rebels against going back to fricking Oxford.

Breakfast is also pretty great. Thinking of last night and this morning with Tristan makes me feel so good that I can't clear my face of the brightest smile it has ever shown and I try to hide it behind my mug. I have to. Mum is barely able to keep herself from grilling me; I can see it in the way her eyebrows twitch, like she wants to ask me a million questions just with her eyes but tries to stay casual. She manages for exactly seven minutes and 35 seconds. Thanks to our frantic kitchen clock, I know that.

"Soooooooooooo?" Her grin is just as stupid as mine.

"Mum... please." I don't want to talk to her about it. Just because she caught us in bed doesn't give her a free pass for shooting questions at me. It's none of her business. It's only mine and Tristan's. God, mine and Tristan's. Ours. We. Us. Those simple words make my heart flutter. There's an us. I still can't believe it. That he actually wants to be with me. That he's ready to be with me. Well, aside from that I'll be gone soon. Great.

"I just want to know if you're happy."

"Sure, Mum." I am and at the same time I'm not. How could I be, leaving Tristan now, when I just got him?

"Good. I'm glad." She grabs the newspaper and tilts her head down and starts reading. That was it? No further inquiry? No interrogation about what's going on? No pressing for details about what happened? I mean, I really don't want to tell her anything, but that she's not that interested kind of rubs me the wrong way, too. I'm so used to her overwhelming need to know about my life; I always thought about it as her way of showing me that she loved me and her sudden reservation somehow makes me feel unimportant.

"He came by last night." I start and then pause, waiting if she's still interested enough to take my bait. Mum slowly folds the pages together and although I can see that she's trying to hold it back, her grin distorts her features to a grimace. "He sat on the curb when I got back from the beach and then he kissed me."

"Are you going out now?"

"Umm, I guess." We haven't really discussed it. But I don't think that any other definition would apply to us right now. It's not a fling, it's not an affair, it's not just some casual dating – we're past that. So, although I'm not sure I'm allowed to, I'd say we're boyfriends now. My heart almost gives out at the thought.

"I knew he had to like you back," she says smugly. "Handsome and loveable as you are."

"Sure, Mum." I roll my eyes.

"I'm really sorry for just barging in earlier. I had no idea. Geez, had I known that you had a boy in bed, I..."

"Mum!"

"Shutting up now." She zips her lips shut. "I'm really happy for you, though. For both of you."

"Umm, one more thing?" I hope she gets how important this is, not only for me. "Please don't tell anyone. I mean literally nobody. Tristan's not out; this is all new for him. Nobody in this town can know. Not even his Mum."

"I don't even know his Mum."

"Don't tell Jen or Amanda or Leslie for that matter. Not even that I have a ...." The rest of the sentence gets lost. "This stays between you and me."