Whitmore Prep

Chapter 19

     "Do you want to get any presents for your friends back at school?" Mom asks while she picks a cart at the store.

    "Hmm, well, I won't see them until after New Years, but yeah, I think they'd like that." I take out our shopping list and add some notes. "Delilah's always complaining about the price of make-up, so she'll like that. And Ash is the biggest book worm; I already know what series she likes. I'm not sure about Adrian though..."

    "And Parker?" My mom asks casually.

    "I have no idea. What do teenage boys like?"

    "Teenage girls." She laughs, and I chuckle with her. "Georgia and I already got presents for him, and even Jerome picked out a movie for him."

    "Really? Thank you so much for helping him out." I sigh, as we enter the make-up department.

    "It's Christmas." Mom looks a bit sad, "No one should be alone on Christmas."

    "Yeah. Even though Parker's half Jewish, so I'm not sure if he wants to do Hanukkah or not?" I shrug, looking at the different eye-shadow colors. I pick a gold one that matches the dress Delilah wore at Winter Formal and toss it in the basket. "Oh, Delilah said something about Adrian's favorite restaurant; we can get him a gift card for it!"

    "That'll be nice." Mom nods as I toss in two more eye-shadows, lilac (her favorite flower) and green (like Adrian's eyes).

    We move through the store, getting presents for my friends and hers. "So you really like Whitmore?" She asks a while later.

    "Yeah, I love it." I flip through different posters to find the right one for Jerome. "Why do you ask?"

    "I don't know," She tilts her head, "I miss you a lot, and sometimes I worry if it was the right decisions to send you away..."

    "Mom." I turn to her, lightly putting my hands on her shoulders, "Sending me to Whitmore has been the best decision you have ever made." I try to emphasis the importance without letting her know what makes Whitmore so important.

    "Something about you has changed." She looks me over closely, "You seem to be more self-confident, more sure of yourself, well, since we've seen you after the accident."

    "Yeah, I am." I nod, thinking of the big thing I learned about myself. "There's one thing I've been wondering though... About myself..."

    "What is it?" She asks warily, trying not to show how concerned she is.

    "Who's my dad?" Mom takes a deep breath, turning away from me.

    "I'm not asking because I feel like you and Georgia aren't enough, because you guys are more than enough! I just was wondering because half of my past is with him, and I want to know about him. Not so I can meet him, just so I can understand more about myself." I ramble, desperately trying not to freak out my mom.

    "I understand." She says quietly, not looking at me, "It's just that I've been fearing the day that you might ask." She wrings her hands together.

    "You don't have to tell me if you don't want."

    "I don't." She finally looks at me, "But you deserve to know."

                                                                                                 ~~~~~

    Okay, it's kind of a long story, and it took me a while to process it, but now I can tell you.

    My mom was 20 years old when she met my dad, finishing up her second year at university. She went to a party with her roommate, Missy. It was packed, and they got pretty drunk.