LIE

Chapter 35

Jason:

I kept feeling this pit in my stomach. It made me want to puke.

Mom wanted to talk to me, seemed important. As if I wasn't nervous enough.

Whatever it was, we couldn't be in the house to talk about it. She had me go to her car.

I sat down in the passenger seat and leaned towards Mom.

"Are you about to tell me you're a secret agent and we're all in danger?"

Mom stared at me blankly. "No."

"Ok." I leaned back into my seat and put my hands on my thighs.

"So what's up? What was so important?" I asked.

"I mean, you dragged us into the car." I stated.

Mom stared at and ran her hands over the steering wheel. She looked a bit sad, and anxious, but I knew this was a serious moment.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's Luc." Mom answered.

"What's he done now? Did he pass out again?" I questioned.

"No. No." She said lowly.

She had on her thinking face. Her silence was scaring me.

"Mom-"

She cut me off. "Did Luc ever tell you where he came from?"

"You mean before Seattle? Before us?"

"Yes." She answered.

"He only said he came from an abusive household."

"What's this about?" I asked.

"Carte said it was once, but I have reason to believe it was more than that." Mom was thinking out loud.

"What? Carte said what?" I asked.

"At his former home, Luc was raped." Shit.

I tilted my head back and let that sink in.

"Get off me!"

"Stop grabbing me!"

The flinching, aversion to physical contact, the screaming.

"Oh god what did I do?" I dropped my face in my hands.

"Wait," I looked at Mom, "did I cause that? What happened today?"

"All because I sat on him?"

"I just wanted him to eat!" I exclaimed.

Mom put her hand on my shoulder to calm me down.

"No, you didn't cause that. It was that movie."

Mom clenched her jaw.

"What? I had to have caused something. What did I do?" I got in her face.

"Just some bad memories."

"Oh no...why would they do that to him?" I groaned. I feel sick.

"I don't know. Some people are just evil like that." Mom answered. I could hear the tears in her voice.

I opened the car door and stepped out. "I should go talk to him."

"No!" Mom yelled quickly.

I got back into the car and closed the door.

"Don't say anything about this to Luc. Don't even let him know that you know." Mom orderer.

"He'd be upset that I told you."