And Our Parents

Part 15 ( We Should Definitely Not Have Sex Right Now)

Stress is not good for one's health.

As any doctor will assert, stress compounds all other health issues and also makes individuals more likely to turn to unhealthy coping habits which in turn bring more problems.

Becky is well aware of this. It does not stop her from falling hard into bad habits.

Her brief lapse into smoking turns into a fully reignited habit. A pack a day for every day she hasn't heard from Freen since the softball game. Today makes seven. She tears open her seventh pack and lights up her first cigarette of the morning while she waits for Kenny and Elena to come out and get into the car.

It's a family shopping trip today: finally time to get clothed for the wedding. Under normal circumstances, Becky would dread this trip enough due to Carolyn's inevitable assault of judgmental looks and comments, but now she has to cope with the added danger of seeing Freen for the first time since that fateful moment after the game.

Becky doesn't know what to do. She hasn't bothered reaching out. She knows well enough by now that endless texts won't get a response, so unless Freen gets sick for a second time in her life, within a few weeks, allowing Becky to take care of her in her infirmity, Becky's not getting off the hook so easily this time.

And so, she takes a long drag.

"Do you have to do that in here?" Kenny asks as he buckles his seatbelt.

"My car, my rules," Becky says. But she feels like a bit of an ass, so she rolls down the window. Then she shifts into drive, beginning in the direction of the formalwear boutique Carolyn had booked an appointment with for the family. Kenny falls silent, for the time being.

However, when Becky merges onto the highway and lights her second cigarette, it merits some shifty glances.

"I take it things are still tense between you and Freen," Elena comments.

"Can we please not do this now?" Kenny whines. "I've told you, I don't want to hear about it."

"It's Becky's car," Elena quips.

"Yeah, it's my car," Becky says. "You don't like it? There's the door."

"We're on Route Nine, going forty-five!" Kenny protests.

"Anyway," Becky says. "Tense doesn't begin to cover it. Last time she was this distant, reaching out didn't help, and this is um, probably worse than that time." Then she pauses to consider, and thinks aloud: "Is it worse, actually? Is calling someone a vibrator better or worse than siccing Boston cops and drug sniffing dogs on them?"

"What?"

"Oh, shove it, Kenny. If you 'don't want to hear about it', you don't get to judge."

"I've changed my mind, I'd like to judge, please!" Kenny says indignantly. "Speaking of which, are you back to smoking full-time, then?"

"No more comments about smoking in my car!"

Kenny silently rolls down his own window, and turns to breathe in the fresh air.

"So you haven't reached out at all?" Elena asks, returning to the topic at hand.

"The ball is in her court," Becky insists. "She knows I have feelings, it's up to her to decide if she's okay with that or not."

"Does she really know, though?" Elena prods.

"She saw the texts!" Becky snaps. "She asked, 'is that really how you feel?'"

"But did you really talk about it?" Elena says. "It's not that I don't have faith in you, except that I really, really don't have a lick of faith in you when it comes to communicating clearly."