Severing Ties (Book 2. Ties)

26. Get Over It

I was unsure if Mike had wanted to create a tradition, but he was in my home the weekend before my birthday.

Thursday evening I was home at 7:30 after the practice with my level 2 kids. To my surprise, Mike was sitting in the dining room with my mom and Lucius. I went through the kitchen to get to the table where their voices were drifting from. They were engrossed enough in their conversation that they had not noticed my arrival until I was standing next to the table. Mike's smile was big and contagious. He stood up and enveloped me in his typical hug, bone-crushing and breathtaking. "You smell like sweat," he mumbled into my hair.

I pushed him away and scoffed. "Thanks for that, you jerk. It's nice to see you too."

My best friend laughed at me. "Hey, who would I be if I sugarcoated things?"

I could not help the need to laugh. It had been a year since I last saw him, and the visit had been brief. Sure we talked on the phone or skyped through the years, but it was not the same thing as having him there with me. "Did you grow again? You're so tall." I stared up at his face.

He rolled his blue eyes dramatically. "I am only 6'4. That's not so tall. But I bet you would think someone who is 5'5 is tall only because you are abnormally short."

I should have never mentioned anything about my height; I was not going to hear the end of it. And Lucius particularly liked making fun of me, so Mike and him were going to get right along picking at me. Wait... How did my mom explain Lucius' presence?

"I am not abnormally short," I retorted half-heartedly. There was turmoil in my head at that point.

"You are short though, Mars," Lucius butted in like I had expected.

Before I could respond with a snappy remark, Mike started talking. "Why are you so small? Both of your parents are taller than you; it's just you."

I gave him a sour look that probably made me look like I had to use the restroom.

My mom stood up from the table and looked at the males. "Stop teasing my baby," she chastised them. "Do you want to eat," she asked directing the question to me.

"Yeah, stop teasing me." I most certainly looked like a bratty five-year-old, but it concerned me not even a smidgen. "I can serve myself," I told my mom.

"Nonsense," she grabbed me by the shoulders and pushed me to my chair, "sit down and I will bring you a plate." My mother went to the kitchen while we stayed in the dining room, adjacent to the kitchen.

My eyes drifted back to Mike. "When did you get here?"

He looked away to think for a second. "Er, five something."

What could they have talked about the past few hours while I was at the gymnasium? I was suspicious and nervous. I had no idea if my mother had told him about the baby or about anything. "What did you do? Did my mom say something embarrassing about me?"

"Nothing embarrassing yet." He gave me a smirk. "But I have to congratulate you."

I stared at him with scrunched eyebrows. "Why?"

"I'm gone a year and your mom is changed." He threw his hands up like it was something remote.

He was not being clear enough for me yet, so I had to ask. "And why does that move you to congratulate me?"

Mike smiled at me brightly. "Because you get to be a big sister." My mom had told Mike. Neither her parents nor Lucius' parents knew, but Mike did. My mom's best friend had no idea either, but Mike did. That was funny.