How To Be Straight

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Important author's note at the end of the chapter :)

CHAPTER 22

     [ Calvin ]

My mom was released from the hospital on Sunday morning and I made it my duty to stay by her side at all hours of the day. So much so, that I even got Derek to help babysit her. He didn't really like that and she didn't really like that either.

I stepped into the living room with a cup of tea in my hand. Mom was sitting on the love seat with her eyes glued to the television like she was genuinely intrigued by it, but she couldn't have been because the volume was set on mute. Deciding not to point it out, I carefully lowered myself into the empty seat beside her and handed her the mug.

"It's chamomile," I notified her. "It should help you sleep. The doctor said you weren't sleeping."

She nodded promptly and took a tiny sip from the mug, wincing at the heat. "Thanks, baby."

I watched as she drank the tea, sip after sip. I noticed that there were dark circles underneath her eyes and her face was redder than usual. We had hardly seen each other at home, so I never really noticed that she was hurting. If I had known, I could have done something to help her. Now that I was aware of her condition, though, it came to my attention that I needed to be a more attentive son. I refused to lose another parent.

"Mom," I began, "why weren't you sleeping?"

Her stormy grey eyes flicked to mine. She stared at me for quite some time before she glanced at Derek who had obnoxiously spread himself out across the couch, typing away on his cell phone.

I placed my hand on hers. "You need to tell me. I was scared out of my mind when you went to the hospital. If there's something that we can do to prevent that from happening again, then you need to tell me."

She gave a long sigh, finally giving in. "It's your dad."

"Dad?" I questioned, grimacing at the sound of his name on my tongue. "What about him?"

She set the mug down on the floor and leaned back in the chair, sighing. "He got remarried."

I swore my heart shattered into a million pieces at the sound of those words. My dad had invested twenty years of his life with my mom and spent fifteen of those years raising me. I would have never thought that it would be so easy for him to move on from us like we didn't mean anything to him in the first place. Even if he didn't approve of me, he didn't have to do that my mom. She did nothing but love him, and he broke both of our hearts without having a single remorse.

"I'm sorry, Calvin," she continued when she realized how much that piece of information impacted me. "I didn't want to tell you, but now I'm realizing that I should have. I stayed up all night thinking about him and trying to get through it by myself. I should've told you so we could get through it together. I'm so sorry."

Wrapping my arms around her and pulling her closer so that I could nuzzle my face into her neck, I said, "Don't be."

She returned the hug and hummed softly into my ear. We stayed in that position for what felt like forever before I heard her whisper into my ear. "You two are friends again?"

She was talking about Derek. I didn't tell her about the Nicolas situation or that Derek and I were something more than friends. I wanted to, I really did, but I figured that she might be able to rest easier without knowing.

So, I just nodded. "Yeah, we're friends."

She pulled away from the hug and averted her attention to him. "It's so nice to see you around here again, Derek. I'm glad you finally came to your senses and rekindled your friendship with my son."