Moved In

Chapter 17 : Out to dinner

Chapter 17

A few days later...   

Riker POV

Dad left to go out to dinner with mom about an hour ago. I was really nervous for him to get back. He's going to ask her a lot of questions.

What I want to know is if she's really serious about staying sober or not. Why does she care about me and dad now all of a sudden? I'm just scared that if I tell dad I want him to get back together with her, he will, but then she'll break her promise and get drunk. And then he won't have Stormie anymore and I'll be stuck with a drunk mom.

I wish I could've gone with dad, but he said it would be better if he talked to her by himself.

I heard a knock on my door. I was kind of curious who it could be. Dad's not supposed to be back until later.

I got up from the couch and went to answer it. When I opened the door, I saw it was Rydel. She was standing on my porch with her arms crossed and she was crying.

"Rydel. Why are you here? What's wrong?" I asked.

"As if you don't know!"

She shoved me backwards kind of hard.

"I don't know!" I said, grabbing the doorframe to keep my balance.

"I saw your dad out on a date with someone else, Riker. I'm not stupid."

"It's not a date!"

She slapped my arm.

"Ow! Stop!"

"Then don't lie to me!"

"I'm not lying!"

"He's not on a date?"

"No!" I said, flinching away from her, scared she would try to push me or slap me again.

"Then what's going on? Because my mom asked your dad if you guys wanted to come over for dinner. And I gave you one of her rings because you said he was thinking of proposing! So tell me how he's not on a date when I saw him with another woman!"

"It's my mom, Rydel."

"Like... Your drunk mom?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, her," I said, sighing.

"Well why are they out having dinner together?"

I shut the door and brought Rydel to the living room so we could sit down and talk.

"My mom wishes she had a relationship with me. But my dad doesn't trust her," I said.

"Because she gets drunk?"

"No. Well... It's complicated."

"How?"

"I don't know what your mom told you about her or me, but when your mom and Ross were in Florida for an audition or whatever, I was there too. I flew there to go visit her for the first time since I was little."

"How was it?"

"Awful."

"Seriously?"

"She forgot to get me from the airport, so I had to walk all the way to her apartment. And turned out that she had a drunk boyfriend who didn't like me. He threw empty beer bottles at me. I fell in broken glass. There were literally a million pieces of glass in my arms and legs because I was crawling on the floor, trying to get away. Your mom ended up taking me to her hotel room and she spent like an hour picking out the glass from my skin."

"So that's why he doesn't trust her?"

"Yeah."

"Well if she did something that awful, why is he even talking to her about it? Why isn't he just telling her no?"

"I don't know. To be honest, he hasn't told me much about my mom or his relationship with her. I don't really think they've talked in years."

"Ok, well why couldn't you or him just tell us that? Why couldn't you just tell us what was going on?"

"Because it's complicated. My mom literally flew all the way out here last minute. Things are just crazy right now, ok? And it's really hard. I want to get to know her because she's my mom, but I'm scared she'll just get drunk again."

"I'm sorry for pushing you and slapping you. I didn't know. I was just trying to protect my mom."

"I know. I mean, it probably does look like they're out on a date. It's just complicated right now, ok? I don't know how long my mom is going to be in town."

"It's ok. I didn't know all that about the glass. I'm sorry that happened."

"It's fine. I'm just scared it'll happen again."

"I don't blame you. That sounds terrifying."

Rydel hugged me tight.

"I need to get home for dinner. Will you text me later when you know how it went with your mom and let me know what's going on?"

"Yeah."

"Ok. Bye, Riker."

"Bye."

Rydel left. I sighed in relief. I know I didn't really technically lie to her. But I still feel guilty. They're not on a date. But they're talking about more than just my mom having a relationship with me. They're talking about themselves maybe having a relationship. 

And honestly, I don't know what's going to happen. I need to wait and see what dad tells me when he gets home.