A Rose by Any Other Name

Chapter 8

I unfolded my scarf, feeling flushed and hot. "Fuck." I said, "Is is hot in here or is it just me?"

We had bought the paints and materials from home depot and were heading to Mike's parents' place. I was nervous to meet them, what it meant for Mike to suggest meeting them. My seat belt felt like a vice across my chest.

Mike laughed, looking at me briefly, "I know it's been a while but that's not the best pick up line."

I touched my neck, "No, seriously Mike." The past week I had been having some hot flashes where I suddenly felt like I was sweltering. I wasn't some menopausal old lady so I didn't understand the sudden fevers. And I'd been more tired than usual lately, a little weaker than I should have been. My physiotherapist said progress could come in hills and valleys but I was beginning to suspect something was wrong. But it happened so fast, I almost always forgot about it after it happened.

In the next few minutes, we reached a large house, something like a small mansion with a wraparound fence and a sprawling garden.

"This is where your parents live?" I said in a stunned voice.

"Yeah, and my abuela and abuelo. Some of my cousins. We all help out."

"What do your parents do?" I just contain my surprise.

"My mom's a surgeon, and my dad's a professor." he said it so casually, smoothly checking his rear view mirrors and then turning into a crescent.

"Wow, so you come from money money." I bit off.

"Yeah, I was lucky, a well-off family decided to adopt me. I was in foster care for a bit and it was fucking traumatizing." he gave me a look as he turned off the ignition and stepped out of the car, "I don't know how you went through that until you aged out."

"What happened when I aged out?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

Mike almost sounded angry."You did something stupid."

We started walking down the lit path to the house, "What?"

"You didn't tell me. You were homeless for like a month, first year of uni and you didn't tell me."

"How-" I started, but Mike didn't let me finish.

"Our tuition came with gym memberships and lockers, you managed to get multiple lockers, and you spent the month living at the library, doing laundry in dorms after sneaking in after hours and showering at the gym. You had 99 cent noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner."

"The struggle is real," I quipped, not at all surprised I would do something that crazy.

"No Derrick." Mike stopped briefly to glare at me. "When you need help, you should ask people. You should ask me."

"Well, it all worked itself out, didn't it?"

Mike started to protest but we had reached the house and I could hear latin music vibrating from inside. The door opened before either of us could knock.

A black woman opened the door, hair in soft curls around her face and she made an excited noise when she saw me and Mike. She came towards us and hugged Mike, rocking him from side to side before noisily kissing him on each cheek, and talking to him in Spanish. "Miguel!" she exclaimed.