The Lies We Told On Thursday Nights

31. Tuesday Failing Truths (Emery)

Emery

Tuesday 3:35 pm

I walked in and I knew something was wrong. I knew something was wrong because my mom opened the door for me. The door opened with a creek and my mom's feat nearly on the threshold. She gave me an odd look, studying me. I mean, at the moment I was a bit leaned over because of my heavy backpack and in my slightly trembling fingers I was dangling my keys.

But she wasn't looking at that. She was looking at something else.

"Mom?" I tried to sound indifferent, but my voice was rather quiet. "What's wrong? Is Nay alright?"

I knew it was a stupid question to ask because her and I both knew if it were my sister we wouldn't be on the stoor step, she wouldn't be trembling, and she wouldn't have that judging look.

"Nay," she said harshly. "Is fine."

Deny, deny deny.

"Okay. What is possibly wrong?" I asked, my vocal cords betraying me, despite trying to sound calm, my voice was panicked.

"Emery, your math teacher, called me this afternoon," she said intimidatingly. "The teacher said you didn't do that well on your math test."

Shoot. I thought back to the heart-breaking paper I got today. A test with a big C-. While others may occasionally get C, but not me, it's funny because when he handed me my paper, he had that worried look. What is more curious is he is typically the coldest, unsympathetic teacher...and he looked at me that way.

I swallowed hard. "Ya," I mumbled, speaking slowly to gather my lie. "I had, like, 3 other tests that day, I uh, prioritized APUSH and AP Bio."

She stared at me and sighed. "He also noted you often spend lunch in the library."

(ANYONE KNOW THE TV REFERENCE)

I pretended not to know where she was going with this. "So?"

She responded with another tense sigh. "There is no eating allowed in the library."

I was now full of rage; I clenched my teeth. I was angry mainly because I hated the whole idea of this discussion; she was interrogating about something she knows nothing about.

Now trying to suppress my rage, I retorted "I eat in my next class."

My mom does get mad, she yells somethimes and hits things. But she didn't hit things or yell this time.

Roaring like a lion, she cried, "Emery, stop lying to me!"

Her voice was not just a slap to the face, but a steaming hot frying pan was burning my face.

The burn was spreading, sealing my lips shut. I stayed silent. My head on fire but my body was shivering with cold.

She dropped her shoulders, falling illy seldom. Gently she placed her calloused hand on my shoulder, finally leading me from the porch into the warm house.

The house wasn't warm though, it was cold, too cold.

I figured if she was going to sit me down and tower over me, saying the same lecture I was used to. But something about this lecture was different, this was going to end bag.

"You are the smartest, most driving person I've ever meant. And I'm not saying that as your mom, I'm saying that as a person. But right now you are being very immature.

All I could do was shake my head. She didn't understand. "No, no, no."

My mom suddenly hollered out, as if she made some progress. "I know. Is it the guy, Levi? Are you trying to impress him? Are you seeing him? Does he hurt you? Does he mock you"