Full Count

fourteen

It's Friday.

AJ hasn't told me whether he wants to go to his moms or not, but just in case he chooses to Mom took the day off tomorrow anyways. She likes spending time with Anna or so she told me. I want to bring it up with him, but I don't want to bother him, but I feel like if he knows where his mom is, he should get the chance to see her again. It could be good for him. Potentially good for Anna too if it goes well. Yet all of it's up to AJ and if he even wants to go see his mom.

"I have a question." I blurt at the table with AJ.

He looks up from his English homework. "Go ahead."

"Have you put any thought into going to see your mom at all?" I ask dropping my pencil ontop of my math binder.

He sighs and drops his pen. "Yeah I have."

"Okay and?"

"I wanna go." He confesses.

"Okay good. Mom already took the day off just in case you said you wanted to go." I tell him hoping he won't make some stupid joke.

"That's very Katie of you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You overthought the situation in about seven different ways, minimum, and then you assumed that I'd say I wanna go."

"Well I was right." I interject.

"Besides the point." He says rolling his eyes.

"I'm just saying I was right."

"Yeah yeah."

"So what time do you wanna go?"

"Well I was thinking we could leave around eleven. We'd get there around two if I drive how I normally do."

I laugh. "Do you even have a game plan for when we get there?"

"Well uh parking in the driveway would be a start."

"We don't have to go if you don't want to." I tell him. "I just think you deserve it after, well you know. Hear her side of the story versus what you saw and all. It's been six years. That's a long time."

"I want to go. I want to see her. See how she's living. I want to know if she's in a better place than she was with Pops. And yes, I'm aware that six years is a long time."

"Imagine if we showed up with Annabelle. She was like two when your mom left? She'd be shocked to see a little grown girl." I say trying to lighten the mood.

"Little grown girl?"

"She's smart for her age you know. Sometimes she has conversations with me and I forget that she's eight because she notices so much more than we give her credit for."

"Sounds like you're getting closer to Anna than you are me." AJ says with a hint of a smile.

"Yeah because I'm definitely kissing your sister occasionally." Did I just? I didn't say that out loud.

"Occasionally." AJ repeats.

Well it's occasionally because we don't know how to have conversations about things that we do. We kind of just leave them be and act like they don't happen until we do it again. I couldn't even imagine talking about- yeah no.

"Yes occasionally."

"Anyhow my moms name was written as her maiden name. Venessa Adams so I don't think she got married to the dude she ran off with."