Rayne and Alex

Chapter 21

Rayne - 1 Week Later

"Why didn't you tell me about this boy earlier?" Mom asks me.

Today Alex is coming over to meet my mom. I hadn't told my mom about him until the day after I met his family. I'm not exactly sure why i hadn't told her, if I'm being honest. I think maybe I just wanted us to keep to ourselves for a while.

Since I'm back in school, it's been hard finding a day we could do dinner with my mom. With my school and his college classes, we typically used the time we had to be with each other.

"I don't know," I answer my mom. "I haven't really been home as much and neither have you."

"I'm sorry about that, baby," Mom sighs. She's curled her hair at the ends and put on a little makeup. She wanted to make sure she looked as presentable as possible to meet Alex. She even went so far as to put on one of her fancy white peasant blouses.

I'm just wearing a tight, red, long sleeved shirt with a black scarf so it wouldn't look too plain. My boots are tall and my jeans are tight - the skin-tight Alex seems to enjoy. He not-so-subtly checks out my ass when I wear tight jeans.

I look to my mom and smile, "It's okay. I know they've been keeping you longer at work." It sucks. There are days where I don't see her at all. I think she might even be skipping meals. She looks thinner.

Mom sighs, "Have you been doing okay? How's Jenn? I haven't seen her in a long time."

"I'm fine. Jenn's fine," I reply honestly. Mom loves Jenn.

"You should have her over sometime," Mom tells me.

I give her a weak smile, "She's here all the time, Mom. You're usually not home then."

"Has Alex been here?" Her eyes twinkle mischievously. Okay, so this conversation took a weird turn.

"Um," I clear my throat. "Yeah, he's been here a time or two." Or five. There was nothing more to him being here than watching some movies. Sometimes he'd come over and all we'd do was homework. Even though our relationship so far was completely innocent, I know Mom would assume it was something more.

"Are you being safe?" She asks.

"Mom," I huff. "We haven't-"

I'm cut off by a knock on our front door. Mom drops the subject and immediately brightens. All her pearly white teeth are on display. I roll my eyes at her when she shimmies to the door. Sometimes her mood swings are very confusing.

I'm standing behind my mom as she swings open the front door. Alex stands there in a blue, checkered flannel and a cute smile that presents his dimple proudly. He holds a large bouquet of yellow flowers in his hands. I know they're for my mom because he'd asked me what her favorite color was. He gives me a quick wink before introducing himself to my mom.

"Hi, I'm Alex," he holds up the flowers and extends them to her. "These are for you."

"Well, aren't you just handsome," Mom gushes. I take my hand and use two fingers to rub my temple. "Come on in. You can call me Carol, by the way."

Mom closes the door when Alex is inside and leaves to go put her flowers in a vase. When she's out of sight, Alex grabs me by the arms and presses a soft, eager kiss to my lips.

"Hi," I whisper when he pulls away.

"Hey," he murmurs.

"I apologize now for how awkward and personally intrusive this dinner will be."

Alex laughs and brushes my words off as if I'm joking. Well, I tried to warn him at least.

"You know, you look absolutely nothing like your mom," he tells me.

"I know," I roll my eyes. "I'm still waiting for her to tell me I'm adopted. I'm guessing she's waiting until I turn eighteen."

I take him by the hand and lead him to the kitchen as his deep laughter fills the hallway.