Waves 18+

seven

"Luca honey," I said as he walked into the hallway, he came into the living room smiling.

"Yes?"

"Can we talk to you for a second?"

"Oh..." he mumbled.

"What?" Lucy asked.

"I know that talk."

"Oh, God no honey," I said walking over to him. "Come here." We sat on the couch and Lucy sat on the coffee table.

"So, your social worker called."

"Ya."

"And school starts next week."

"Really?" He asked sitting up.

"Yes, so tomorrow we're going to go school shopping."

"I'm so excited to finally start so close to everyone else. How long have they been in school?" He asked.

"A week or two," Lucy said and he smiled.

"Do you like school?" I asked.

"Yes, well I try. Some people picked on me before because once they find out I'm adopted or whatever and I start in the middle of the year they try to bully me."

"Well, you don't have to tell them that you're in foster care."

"I won't... I hope the teachers don't say anything." He mumbled. "Kids are mean." I smiled and put my arm around him.

"They are, but I promise if anyone bullies you I'll kick their buts." He giggled lightly.

"Thanks." He hugged me back and I smiled up at Lucy and she smiled at me.

Lucy had some work to do so me and Luca coloured and watched Spiderman again, before I realized it the day had passed and Luca was gone to bed. Lucy took my hand in hers and pulled me onto her lap as I walked into the living room. She had a bottle of wine open and two glasses of wine poured up, she kissed my neck lightly and I smiled.

"You ok?" I asked and she nodded.

"Well you wanted to talk about stuff, of I figured wine and dime lights."

"Ok." I took a glass and sipped it.

"So my psychologist suggested us talking about this stuff too. I uh..." She thought for a second and sipped her wine. "I know how you feel about weed." She said.

"Yea." I nodded.

"But I wanted to start smoking it again."

"Lu-"

"Wait a second." She took my hand in hers but I pulled away. "Kitten." She said and I lifted my eyes. "Listen to me." I sighed. "Additude."

"Sorry."

"We talked about it for a while now, and sometimes complete sober doesn't work. And he told me that as long as your around when I do it's ok. Keep me... ya know."

"But it's a drug," I mumbled.

"Kitten." She said sternly.

"I'm sorry, I just don't get it."

"Can I be blunt?" I just looked at her as I finished my wine.

"I've wanted to relapse. So either I start doing coke again or I smoke weed sometimes."

"That scares me," I said quietly.

"Me too. I don't want to get that bad ever again, it was hell."

"I'm sorry... I feel like it was my fault."

"Kitten, it was me. Not you."

"I should have seen how bad you were."

"I'm good at hiding it."

"You better not be anymore." She wrapped her arms around me tightly and kissed my head.

"I'm trying my hardest, I love you so much. I can't forget the look on your face when you came into the clinic the first time."

"You scared me."

"Scared myself." She mumbled.

"I wanteded to be angry when you called me."

"I'm sorry." We were quiet for a few minutes. "I always thought when you had money there was a specific... thing you had to live up to. I thought you had to like... wolf of Wallstreet. Drugs, girls, booze. But once I fell in love with you, I could picture wine on a porch swing in Italy. I was money crazy when I met you, I liked bringing girls back to my penthouse to make them question their worth to me. But that first night I brought you up, you didn't look at me like I was money. You looked confused and when you signed the contract?" She shook her head. "I genuinely didn't think you would. You looked like a deer in headlights."

"I didn't want to sign it," I said looking up at her. "I never had sex before and the last thing in the world I wanted was to be treated like... an object."

"Why'd you do it?"

"I can't say no to you," I said quietly.

"I'll keep that in mind." She smiled and I smiled back at her.