Page 67 of Bro Code

“And what about this Okafor?” said his dad. “Will you be pressing charges?”

Riley sighed. He didn’t know. He wasn’t sure why he felt so ambivalent about it.

“Horrible man!” said his mom, viciously shoving rice onto her chopsticks like it had personally offended her. “I hope they put him in jail for life!”

“They probably wouldn’t go that far–”

“Well they should! Is your agent going to make sure they prosecute him fully?”

“I don’t think it’s up to him, Mom, but I’m sure–”

“Well, he needs to be on top of it! Give me his number and–”

“Mom.” Riley looked at her across the table. “I don’t need you to get involved.”

His mom stared back. Then looked down at her plate and started eating without a word.

That night, they insisted on sleeping on the pullout couch, instead of their own hotel room. Riley argued with his mom for ten minutes before finally giving up. It was nice that they were here. He was grateful they were here. But they still never failed to make him feel like a child.

He took painkillers and checked his chin in the mirror. It was so badly bruised it looked like he was growing a weird yellow and purple beard. He crawled into bed feeling surprisingly tired, and swiped open his phone. He hadn’t heard from Louis since he landed.

How’s it going? he sent.

Nothing came back for a while. Eventually, Louis sent the shit emoji with the green water gun pointed at its head. Riley sighed.

Wow, that good?

Reply dots. Then: It’s nice to see my sister. Even though she’s kind of pissed at me

How’s your mom?

Pretending everything’s fine

And your dad?

Louis replied with the shrug emoji. Riley decided not to push it.

How are you? Louis sent. How’s your head?

Fine. My parents are here.

How are they?

He scoffed a laugh. I think my mom is gonna try to prosecute Okafor herself

Oh she’s a lawyer?

No, Rely replied. Just extremely protective of her little boy

There was nothing for a long time. Then: That’s nice.

A guilty sigh leaked out of Riley. He sat there staring at those words for a long time, then sent back, Yeah. It is.

They didn’t say anything for a while after that. The phone went dark and Riley stared at the ceiling. He wished he didn’t feel frustrated about his mom. But after everything he and Louis had worked on for the last month, he felt like he’d just taken a huge step backward. It had been working. When that fight started and he’d realized Liam was about to get involved, he hadn’t hesitated to try and stop him, because he wasn’t scared.

And now this had happened and his mom was here, and it felt like being that little kid who was smaller than everyone else all over again.

The phone buzzed and the ceiling lit up. He picked it up.