Chapter 32
June
“What were you telling me about Jasper?”
Jordan caught me off guard with that unusual question. Or maybe it wasn’t that unusual. After all, he was just a dad worried about his son. Maybe he wanted the opinion of a stranger who was in the dark about everything.
“Jasper is very smart,” I answered, remaining composed in my seat.
The man nodded, but then I remembered Jasper’s heartbreaking expression when James and I had started fighting on the couch.
He didn’t usually have spontaneous reactions, but in that situation he was so upset that he ran to his room.
“And he’s sensitive. Extremely,” I added.
I didn’t know Jordan, but from what little I had seen, I was surprised in a good way.
In his place, my mom would’ve given me the third degree just to find out why James and I had slept together.
However, he didn’t seem fazed in the least by that; in fact his only concern seemed to be Jasper’s well-being.
“Did James tell you something about it?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Yeah, he told me a bit.”
“What did he tell you?”
“He told me about Jasper. Is there something else he should’ve told me?” I forgot the meaning of discretion then. Jordan shook his head no.
“I’m just stunned by the fact that James told you about something that makes him suffer so much.”
His statement made me purse my lips.
“You must’ve noticed that it’s hard to talk with him,” he hinted with a note of bitterness.
“Yeah, I noticed,” I begrudgingly admitted. “Are you talking about Jasper or James?”
Only then did I realize that the man was crushed with clear anguish. His chest contracted like he wanted to take a desperate breath.
“I have two walls in front of me, June. My two sons don’t let me help them in any way.”
“Maybe they’re angry with you?” I hazarded a guess, before biting the inside of my cheek.
“I couldn’t have done anything else. When I found out their mom was still seeing her ex-husband, I decided to leave her.”
Jordan seemed like someone who was trying to absolve himself from a sense of guilt about a family that had been shattered.
“Do you think your sons have an issue with you because of that?” I asked.
“Our separation was necessary. We didn’t love each other anymore.
Jasper lived in New York with me for a period of time.
My only regret is leaving James alone with her.
She was untrustworthy. She always has been.
” The man slowed down when we got onto the street leading to my house.
In my mind, it wasn’t the time to make sarcastic jokes about why Jordan knew the way so well.
All my attention was focused on his story.
“If I think about how many times she forgot James in the car, and how many times he stayed at school until late because she forgot to go pick him up.”
My heart broke.
“But you left their lives.”
“She broke my heart, so I decided to go back to New York, where I reclaimed my career.”
“You chose your career,” I emphasized astutely.
“For a period of time I did, June. I chose my career over my kids, and now I’m trying to fix that as much as I can.”
“What about her?”
“She made tons of mistakes, but I can’t fault her for everything that happened. There are two people in a relationship, and both people make mistakes,” he stated in a melancholy voice.
“Does she ever visit them?”
“No, now she lives alone. She abandoned herself. James goes to her house every once in a while, but he never tells me about it.”
I remembered the photo Jasper had shown me of their families.
“What happened to her?” I asked when the car stopped in front of my house. Jordan gave me a dull smile.
“Tell your mom I say hi, June. See you later.”
Yeah, my mom. She incinerated me with her eyes as soon as I walked through the front door.
“Come here right now!”
Sure, if you say it with that furious tone.
“June!”
“Yeah, Mom.”
“Well, well. Let’s start with the first thing.”
“What first—”
“If you slept at Amelia’s why did Jordan bring you home?” she yelled, pointing at me.
Hell. That’s what waited for me. Mom, it’s not what you think.
Mom, I was walking home, and Jordan just happened to offer me a ride.
Mom, aliens took me while I was doing homework and dropped me right at Jordan’s house, more specifically in his son’s bed.
Any excuse would be more bearable to her ears than the truth. So I decided to use another strategy.
I put my backpack on the table and put both hands on my hips.
“So let me get this straight, your daughter disappears, and you didn’t call the police?”
I watched her raise an eyebrow, before waving a giant brush at me.
“Ah! So now it’s my fault?” she screamed sharply.
“I disappeared for twelve hours, and my mom didn’t report my disappearance. Interesting.” I continued to taunt her, stroking my chin.
“Don’t start, June!”
“You didn’t have time because you have an exhibition to organize, and judging by your hairstyle, preparing for an event was more important than looking for your missing daughter.”
“Look, young lady, I wasn’t born yesterday.”
She came threateningly close to me with that infernal brush.
“Okay, put down the weapon and we’ll talk,” I conceded, putting my hands up.
“June, I’m serious. Tell me where you were. Don’t make me ask Jordan.” I turned up my nose then my mouth.
“You look really pretty today, Mom. At least twenty years younger. Your rivals don’t have a chance. You have a lot of competition with Jordan, don’t you?”
“I told you, don’t start with me!” she yelled, now out of patience. At my old school, I was the head of the debate club, a quality that I never had much success with, seeing when it came to my mom because she was a tough nut to crack—a really tough nut to crack.
“You don’t understand the gravity of the situation, young lady! You’re never leaving the house again!”
Now she was serious.
“Besides, what kind of state are you in? Were you drinking? Were you smoking? Were you with”—her face contorted into a disgusted grimace—“boys?!”
And she said this like she just said the Antichrist’s name.
“And what do you care? Since you were with Jordan, I mean Melissa, yesterday, weren’t you?
” Just saying that sentence made me excruciatingly irritated.
My mom continued to talk to me, but I’d already stopped listening to her.
I took my phone out of my pocket, and was surprised to see a message. It gave me the shivers.
It was him.
Hunter: Are you alive, or did Psycho April already chop you up and put you in the freezer? Psycho April.
I started laughing like an idiot.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, Mom.”
“Who are you texting?”
“No one.”
I got a jolt of courage, I asked him.
June: Are you coming today?
Hunter: And who wants to see your giant ass today too?
What an idiot.
June: Suit yourself, all you have to do is not actually show up in your underwear
It didn’t take long for him to answer.
Hunter: Maybe your mom will paint my portrait.
June: Yeah, sure, we’re not anticipating anything but another still life at home, James
Hunter: There’s only one thing “still” when I see you, and anyway, as much as you like me, it’ll only end up in your room
June: Yeah, and I’ll throw knives at it to blow off steam
Hunter: The typical violent princess. See you later
My lips molded into an involuntary curve.
“What’s going on between you and James?”
My mom took the phone out of my hands, and I almost collapsed on the ground from fear. Terror was displayed my eyes, while my mind was already picturing scenes from the apocalypse.
“Mom! Gimme back my phone!”
My shrill tone betrayed my agitation.
“Why?”
She was scrolling down in the chats. I was dead. Literally.
The fear was extinguished when she put my phone on the table, ran her hand over her forehead, and looked at me seriously.
“Honey, don’t sleep outside of the house, especially not with a guy like him.” Damn it, busted.
“You think you know everything.”
“You’ll tell me I do in nine months.”
Her stern look only meant one thing.
“Do you think so, Mom?” I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle my nervous, possibly embarrassed laughter.
“He’s a degenerate who gets girls pregnant!” she added fervently. I frowned. Was that an assumption?
“Is that what Jordan told you? Wow, I bet that you two were like two old people with your hands crossed behind your backs looking at paintings and gossiping about your kids.”
“It doesn’t take a written declaration, June. I see what he’s like on my own.”
“Ah, those are your preconceived notions! Congrats, Mom. There’s so much theory you want to teach, but then when it comes to it being in practice, you parents are the worst.”
At that point I ran upstairs and slammed the door. I was finally alone in my room.