John Hughes Movie

Chapter 29

Peter

"Oh honey, I'm so happy to have you home." My mom's nails squeezed into my shoulders. I was sitting at the kitchen counter while she finished prepping dinner. I asked to help and she promptly brushed me off. "Your brother is driving me crazy with this robotics stuff. He got home from his competition an hour ago. I keep finding all these metal do dads all over the house. Your hobby was much cleaner. "

"You're saying you'd take smelly laundry over smart robot things?" I leaned on my elbows. I tried to smile but didn't know if I was pulling it off. Today was the first day I wasn't drunk for almost a week. I was nursing a monster headache but couldn't let my mom know. She was so looking forward to tonight, it would break her heart if I cancelled. I didn't want to explain why.

"Hmm... never mind." She smiled and went back to stirring her pot of sauce. My mom was too nice. She gave everything she could to everyone else before taking care of herself. She was an actual angel for dealing with my dad and Owen and I. I knew that it took a toll though. Sometimes this would lead to full on breakdowns. She never did that in front of me though. She would send us off to my aunt and uncle's so she could get it all out of her system for a long weekend. I admired how strong she was for everyone else, but knew how hard it must be to put on a happy face. "I'm so sad that Lara Jean couldn't come tonight."

I felt sick to my stomach to hear her name. After all that I'd done, I still wanted her. Not that I deserved her in any way. I had lied to my mom and said Lara Jean was sick. Food poisoning. No one would question that she was in sick when you said food poisoning. I told Lara Jean that I cancelled tonight. I don't think I could see her right now without fully breaking down.

Seeing her texts come into my phone made my heart break a little more each time. I wrote a hundred messages to her but deleted every one. I don't think she wants to hear from me. The only message I could muster was this one, telling her not to worry about dinner tonight. I knew she would come if I didn't tell her it was cancelled. She would put on a happy face and pretend we were good just to be in the good graces of my mom. She hated letting anyone down.

I hated the idea of my mom having a bad impression of Lara Jean. It made my entire chest tighten. If my mom knew what was going on, that we were on a break, she would hate her before she got to know Covey. She would hate her even though it was all my fault. I couldn't let that happen.

My not so baby brother bound down the stairs. "Hey O." My brother had stretched a few inches since the last time I saw him. He was tall and lean. He wasn't into sports or working out like I was. He was much smarter than me.

"Hey." He threw his arm over me.

"How'd your competition go? Destroy all the other robots?"

"3rd." he shrugged. "I asked the team in first how they managed to code the 4th bending option to use for next time though. They used a second reverse channel to trigger it. So brilliant. I'm so jealous I didn't think of it."

"Do you have any idea what he just said?" My mom smiled brilliantly. I think she was just happy to have the two of us home.

"Not a clue."

"And there we go." I put the final cup in the dishwasher and closed it shut.

"Thank you for doing this, hun. You didn't need to. You're the guest." My mom wiped down the counter behind me.

"Have I been away for that long that I don't even live here anymore?" I rolled my eyes.

"You will always have a home with us." She kissed the side of my head. My mom was tall for a woman, 5 foot 10. Between her and my dad, no wonder we were large kids.