Super Crush (BxB)

Mom's Outta the Bag (S2)

"No!" I point at Mom with such belligerence that I imagine making her disappear. I can't believe this. When did she find out?

    "Noah," Mom tries.

    "You need to go!" It makes no difference what she is going to say to me or what story she has of why she is in Dad's secret lair. My insides are melting. I hate that I ignored my hunch that something was up with her. But I hate it more that Mom is here and she didn't tell me. That nobody told me. If this isn't a new development, then it means she isn't the only liar here.

    When she doesn't budge, I shout, "Fine, I'll go."

    Simultaneously, Abe and Clay each softly take one of my arms as I turn to leave. I shake them off like a fish trapped on the deck of a shoreman's barge. But it's my ghost glass suit that helps me slide through them like butter.

    With my anger growing, I point my finger at Abe and say, "No!" He sidesteps away from me. Then I turn to Clay and give him a "No!" also. His head falls in shame. "You both knew, didn't you? You had to have known that she was talking to him."

    Double embarrassed faces are saved by my dad who has to pipe in. He calls my name and the crack in the dam of my psyche erupts. I turn to face him as my emotions flood through me. They need to way out and my words are the only path.

    "You get the biggest NO! I have no idea where one of your secrets ends and the next lie begins. You come back into my life and do nothing but screw it up more."

    A look like I physically stabbed him takes over Dad's face as he steps back against the kitchen sink.

Mom jumps in to deflect. "Whoa there, mister. You haven't been entirely truthful either. Why we are here in Italy."

"Figures you would stand up for him even after all this time. Him lying to you that he was dead. Leaving you on your own to raise me."

I am out of order now, and Mom knows exactly how to shut me down.

"No, honey." It's not care or concern. She has a Malfoy smile and the tone is full-power vindictive. "I have known the whole time your father wasn't dead. I know about everything."

I feel my own eyes bug out of my head. Sucker punched to the gut.

"Danielle," Dad says quietly.

But the damage is done. Mom's face droops knowing she crossed the line.

"You know," I manage to say before any tears streak my face, "It was better back when you were a shitty mom who didn't pay any attention to me and my life."

With a 180, I storm off to the elevator to get myself the hell out of there.

    ***

    Thirty-five minutes later, I am in the middle of aggressively eating gelato at a shop near the hotel when Abe rolls in and grabs the seat across the table from me. I saw him coming up the way, but I didn't look up from my graham cracker crunch cone when he arrived.

    "Noah," he breaks the silence after a few minutes of watching me go to town on my dairy dessert.

    "You have me tracked again?" I ask.

    A soft chuckle comes out before he tells me that my mom told him this is my favorite gelateria in Sorrento. She's not wrong.

    "You would find the one shop in Italy that carries your favorite ice cream flavor from home."

    I am unimpressed by his small talk. "What do you want, Abe? They send you as a peacekeeper? You pull the shortest straw?"

    "No, I volunteered," he tells me.

    "Oh, big move, considering you are wrapped up in all of this also." I munch down on a glob of chocolate and graham filling.

    "Yeah. I know. But I want you to know that Clay and I tried telling you. We weren't supposed to, but we knew we had to. Then it seemed like every time we were going to something came up."

    "I know," I tell him. And I do. I had already come to this conclusion on my ride back from the island. There have been a few times the boys had something to tell me about my mom and we were interrupted by whatever dramatic thing was happening in the moment.

    "She was the medic friend that you brought Clay to after Times Square."

    He nods, surprised I deduced this on my own. "He told you about Mexico."

    If I wasn't working so hard to be mad at him, I would have thanked Abe for all he did for Clay back when they had just finished being each other's nemesis.

    "Your dad told me the Hephaestus necklace was her idea. You thought she wasn't around or paying attention to you, but she had her own way of keeping an eye on you from a distance."

"But I didn't need her at a distance. I needed her beside me." It came out a bit more raw than I intended, but Abe knows that hiding my feelings on this topic from him has never been a virtue I possess.

    I put my cone down on a napkin, suddenly losing my appetite. I see Abe eye it. I fight a smile and push it to him. He knows my walls are coming down a bit, so he picks the gelato up and takes a big bite.

Germs? What germs? Life-long friends are gross sometimes.

"I am not standing up for them when I say this, but they are your parents and they care for you."

Through my lemon face, I ask, "Do they?"

"You know they do. And I should know. My parents don't give two shits about me. The moment they started getting royalties from me joining The Fleet, they only saw me as their cash cow."

    This new information shakes me. "Wait. What!?"

    "I have never told anyone, but my family got paid for every mission I went on as Crimson Kid. Half of my pay went into a trust that I can't touch until I am eighteen. And the other half went to them to 'support me in my endeavors.'  But that's not what happened. Unless them throwing big parties and taking me on vacation to ridiculous places were supposed to fulfill my natural human needs, I never got rightfully supported."

    I reach across the table and take his free hand in mine. It is a little sticky from the gelato, but I don't mind.  I had always thought Abe's snooty, rich parents had old New York money. This new information is hard to swallow.

"Even when I didn't want to go on a mission or I wanted to be at school with you instead or, fuck, when I was scared out of my mind that the task at hand was going to get me killed, they just saw dollar signs and told me to suit up."

He pops the last bite of the cone in his mouth.

"I had no idea. I am so sorry."

I already knew my battle was with my parents and not Abe and Clay, but Abe's confession made it even clearer.

"It was shitty of me not to tell you, but I just kinda became numb to the feeling. I put my attention to the sources of genuine care and positivity in my life."

His eyes capture mine.

" I kept it from you because I didn't need someone else giving me more hate fuel. I know you, Noah. You woulda been pissed and probably gone and knocked down their door. Or forced your mom to adopt me or something."

     I stand and walk over to him. "100. You know me well," I tell him as I lean down and kiss him on his cheek. He smells like a s'mores. I have to force myself not to move to his lips.

    Boundaries, Noah!

"Sorry, I didn't tell you before. About your mom. About my parents." His blue eyes find mine.

I shrug. "I am learning that the truth is sometimes harder to speak to the people we love."

     Abe nods sadly at first but gives me a cute wink when my final word sinks in.

Love.

    "Speaking of which, I need to fill you in on the shit that went down in Barcelona." We weren't speaking of it, but I want Abe to know he and I are all good.