Seven Minutes to Midnight

35

I was thoroughly sunburnt by the time I got home. My arms were painful to touch. I ripped off my t-shirt and dug through the medicine cabinet for the bottle of aloe vera wearing only my bra. It was as I was slathering aloe all over my arms, staring at my shirt—"Aloha from sunny Hawaii!"—that I came up with a plan.

I waited until dinnertime (okay, so I fell asleep all afternoon—sunburns do that to me) before approaching my mother.

She seemed to be in a good mood, singing along with the radio as she drained the pasta. I took a deep breath and said, "Would you be mad at me if I said I wanted to go live with Dad for a while?"

There was a clatter as she dropped the strainer into the sink, but she recovered quickly. "What brought this on?" she asked carefully.

"Well, um... I just think it would be good to get away from things for a while," I said.

"Are things still not going well with Veronica?"

"Yeah."

"You don't need to move out just because you and Veronica are growing apart," she said. She brought the pasta to the table without looking at me. "That happens to everyone. You'll find new friends."

I didn't know what to say to that so I continued setting the table.

"Or is there something else?"

I shrugged. I hadn't thought about what lies I would tell her. I didn't want to say anything more about Lane.

"Is it... something to do with me?"

"No! No, it's not, Mom, I swear."

Her eyes narrowed. "Is it that boy? Did he do something to you?"

I supposed, in some vague way, that he had—but not what she was thinking. "We broke up," I said finally.

She put her hands on her hips. "Are you going to tell me that you want to move out just because of some boy?"

"No..."

I hadn't wanted her to take this personally, but I could see that she was. I took in a deep breath and tried to explain in a way that would make her let me go. "Look, Mom, I know you want to start dating again, and I'm just holding you back. I thought maybe if I lived with Dad you could do what you wanted without worrying about me."

"Oh, Amy."

She swooped in for a hug. I stood with my arms at my sides and bore it.

"Don't ever think that you're a burden for me! I love you and you don't ever have to move out, okay, honey?"

"Please, Mom, it's okay. How about for the rest of the summer? That's like, a month."

"You don't have to go. Really. You want to meet Kevin? I've told him all about you."

She was clinging to me at this point, and I could feel that she was crying.

"Mom..."

"I mean, have you even spoken to your father about this?"

"No, but..."

"He has his own life now. He's got two little kids, a wife. You didn't even go to the wedding."

"The wedding was in the Caribbean!"

"Still. When was the last time you talked to him?"

"He sent me a card on my birthday."

My mother stood up, patting my shoulders and wiping at her eyes, smearing her eyeliner everywhere. "Well, you'll have to call and ask him, okay?"

I could tell she didn't think it would happen. She recovered far too quickly.

But I made it happen. I called my father (after Mom went to work, of course), and told him what I'd told Mom, but I made it sound like she was ashamed of me somehow, and told him it'd only be a month. I also mentioned that I could baby-sit whenever needed. He said he had to talk to Laurie (my stepmom) about it, but he called me back less than an hour later and said it was okay.

So, I was all set.

Now I just had to make it until that day, two days away, when I would go to live someplace where I hadn't already invited Lane in.