“I’ve gotta go, I’ll talk to you later,” she says, hanging up the phone and pushing a blond curl from her face. “Charlotte!” My mother, Eloise Peters née Reitman, stands up and holds her arms out to give me a hug. I step up and put my arms around her waist as the boys set my luggage near the door, the bags they bought me filled with dresses, shirts, and shoes from Rodeo Drive. Yeah, Rodeo freaking Drive. We went all Pretty Woman and went shopping. “I’m so happy you’re here.” She holds me back at arm’s-length, and frowns. “Although I’m still upset that you didn’t come sooner.”
“Mom,” I begin, turning back to indicate my friends … and boyfriends. I’m ignoring her statement on purpose, because there’s nothing I have to say. She’s abandoned me before, so I don’t feel she gets a lot of say in what I do now. “These are my friends from Adamson.” I swallow hard and exhale. “And also my boyfriends.”
“Boyfriends?” she asks, looking confused, and the twins exchange a look before stepping forward to introduce themselves, holding out their hands in unison.
“Micah,” Tobias says, which makes me roll my eyes.
“Tobias,” his brother adds.
Mom shakes their hands, but looks perplexed as hell. I don’t blame her.
“And this is Spencer,” I add as he moves forward and nods his chin in greeting. “These are the three I’m dating. And then this is Ranger Woodruff and Church Montague, the president and vice president of the illustrious Student Council.”
“Nice to meet you,” she replies cautiously, her brown eyes darkening slightly in suspicion. “I thought it was just going to be me and you, baby. I’ll take you out for lunch, and then we can swim in the pool at the new hotel I just started working at.”
“I was hoping we could all go out together,” I say, knowing this is only going to buy me so much time. Dad said two weeks here, and I’m determined to play along. If Church really does have an idea on how to get me back into Adamson, I’m going to need to foster as much goodwill as I can from the headmaster before then. “Do dinner, maybe?”
“It’d be my treat,” Church supplies smoothly, but mom is already frowning again.
“Actually,” she starts, exhaling and looking almost guiltily in my direction. “I’m having Charlotte meet someone tonight.”
“Someone?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, I’ve started dating again,” she begins, and my mouth turns down in a severe frown. Dating? My mom’s never dated anyone but my father, at least as far as I know. I’m no idiot; I’m sure during some of her worst relapses, she may have slept with other men, but she’s never had a boyfriend. In fact, I’m about ninety percent sure that Archie is still in love with her. I guess some stupid, silly childish part of me thought that maybe after she got better, they’d get back together again. “He’s a great guy, I think you’ll really like him.” She looks up at the boys and gives another small, half-smile. “So tonight doesn’t really work for dinner, but maybe we could do Friday?”
“Friday would be lovely,” Church supplies, even as the twins and Spencer exchange a look. Ranger narrows his eyes, but what can he do? This is my mom, my choice, and I do really miss her.
I turn back to look at them, and find myself tongue-tied yet again. I’m still not over the whole three boyfriends thing, or the sex … It’s a lot. My life is sort of crazy right now.
“See you guys Friday then,” I say, realizing then that it’s only freaking Tuesday. It feels like an eternity, sitting here in this hot apartment with its shitty window AC unit, and the roach traps everywhere.
“We’ll send the security detail back to check on you,” Church whispers as the twins give me a hug from either side, squeezing me so tight that it almost hurts. But then, it’s the best feeling in the world, so I don’t fight it. Spencer is next, hugging me and burying his face in my hair.
“See ya around, Chuck-let,” he says, and then I wave to Ranger and Church as they usher the other guys out of the room.
“You should get dressed,” Mom tells me as soon as the door closes, and I finally have a moment to look around. The carpet is brown and dingy, with only a square of seventies linoleum in the kitchen to break it up. There’s a bathroom on my left, a single bedroom on the right, and a depressed air to the place that makes me wish I could scoop my mother up and fly her away to somewhere else, anywhere else really.
“Okay,” I say, exhaling and shaking my hands out.
This is going to be a long-ass two weeks, isn’t it?
