Chapter 24 Avalon
twenty-four
Avalon
Idon’t know why I thought Thanksgiving would be different this year. I guess part of me thought that since my mom was sober, we might actually have a Thanksgiving meal together, but it was na?ve of me to believe that. I don’t think we’ve had one since my dad.
But my mom’s been doing so much better. She’s been paying me back whatever she can after she pays the bills, and I haven’t seen her come home drunk or high in about a month.
She’s really been sticking to her meetings.
I think this is the longest she’s been sober since I was in middle school, which is why, instead of doing something for Thanksgiving, she’s at a meeting. And I’m home alone.
Like usual.
If Jay didn’t have a shift today, maybe we would’ve gone to his place. The three of us have been spending a lot of time together recently. It almost feels like I finally have the family I always craved.
The doorbell rings, forcing me to pause my homework and check who’s at the door.
“Hey.” My shoulders soften when I see Zeke standing on the other side. “Are these unplanned visits going to be a thing now? This is the second one this week.”
“I was in the neighborhood.”
I smile. “No, you weren’t.”
“Okay, maybe not this neighborhood perse, but I was in a neighborhood. And it got me thinking that I should stop by.”
“And if I wasn’t home?”
“I knew you would be.” He brushes past me, setting a paper bag on the kitchen counter and shaking his coat off his shoulders.
“Sure, come right in.”
“It’s cold out there today.” He ignores me, digging through the bag and pulling out one container after another. “I thought my car wasn’t going to start when I was heading down to see my mom. It kept making this sputtering noise when I tried starting her up. Thankfully, it got me there.”
“I can take a look at your car,” I begin. “See what’s going on.”
“The sputtering stopped,” he replies. “She does this every winter when it gets really cold because she’s such an old car.” He folds the bag and then turns his body toward me. “You’re full of surprises, though, you know that? You just know cars now, or?”
“I’ve known cars since I was fifteen.” I walk toward him, find an empty space on the counter, and hop onto it. “I worked in an autobody shop all of high school.”
“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any more attractive.” He shakes his head.
“So, why are you here?”
“I thought the food I just organized on your counter would be a dead giveaway.” He gestures toward the spread sitting in front of me.
“Why’d you bring me food?”
“When I was here the other day, you said you don’t do anything for Thanksgiving.”
“That wasn’t an invitation for you to come over.” I laugh.
“I just thought you might want a home-cooked meal,” he continues. “One of my best friends, Declan, his sister, is a phenomenal cook. She made this huge meal for our Friendsgiving and always makes extra, so I have some to bring to my mom.”
“That’s really nice,” I reply. “Sounds like you surround yourself with some good people.”
“I like to think so. I think you’d really like them.”
My eyebrow pops up, and Zeke rolls his eyes.
“Alright, before you read into it, I don’t mean I’m going to bring you to my house and introduce you to all of my friends. I just think you’d get along really well because you’re also a good person, Avalon.”
I bite my lower lip, my cheeks heating up, but I shake off the feeling. “You’re right. I am a good person. Don’t know why we all put up with you.”
“I guess I’m just lucky.” He pops the lids off the containers. “Everything should be warm. I heated it up before I went down to see my mom, but these containers are crazy good at keeping things hot.”
“Looks good.”
“Hopefully, you like everything, but don’t feel bad if you don’t like stuffing or cranberry sauce.
I promise I won’t judge you for not eating something.
” He grabs a couple plates from the cabinet next to the stove.
“Do you like stuffing? Do you want a little bit of everything? Or are you just a turkey and mashed potatoes girl?”
“I don’t know,” I mumble.
“What?”
“I’ve never had any of it.” I shrug. “I’ve never done a proper Thanksgiving meal.”
“Never?”
“No.” I laugh. “When I was little, we always ordered Chinese food. It was just easier.”
“We can order Chinese if you’d rather have that.” He starts to close the containers.
“No,” I argue. “I miss getting Chinese food, sure, but I’m not gonna give up the opportunity to have a real Thanksgiving dinner.”
“I don’t know if I’d call it a real Thanksgiving dinner. I think it varies depending on your family. This is just how we do it.”
“Then I’m interested to see how the hockey guys do it.” He laughs, scooping out a bit of everything on a plate for me to try.
“Here.” He hands me a plate, and I study my choices.
I take a bite of the mashed potatoes because they’re safe.
“Holy shit,” I groan. “These are the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had.”
“They’re Brin’s specialty. She has like a million different mashed potato recipes.”
“I like this, Brin,” I mumble through a mouth full of mashed potatoes. “She’s the blonde one?” I swallow. “The one dating Jaxon?”
Zeke laughs.
“Brinley and Jaxon aren’t dating.” He scoops some mashed potatoes for himself. “Brinley is Declan’s little sister.”
“Ah,” I nod, “so she’s off limits. Does he know that? They seemed awfully cozy at the first party of the season.”
“They’ve always been like that. Jaxon’s a flirt, and Brinley, well, unfortunately, Brinley’s always wished for something more.”
“They spend a lot of time together for people that are just friends. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them running on campus together.”
“They don’t hang out that often anymore,” he says, shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. “I don’t know why; I think it’s because Brin’s dating this guy.”
“Blonde guy?”
“Yeah,” he hesitates, “why do you know so much about my friends.”
I chuckle and then take a bite of turkey, “I saw her with him at the Halloween party. I was confused, but he was wearing a hockey jersey, so I assumed he was one of the million hockey players living in your house.”
“First of all,” he begins, “I live with five hockey players, not the whole fucking team.”
“And second of all?”
“I actually don’t have a second of all.”
“Of course you don’t.”
“You know, I didn’t bring you a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner, so you could disrespect me.”
“I’m not disrespecting you.” I chuck a roll at him, but it lands perfectly in his hand. Like this happens all the time.
“When’s your mom gonna be home?” He takes a bite of the roll. “I’m gonna leave the food; maybe you guys can have dinner together.”
“I’m eating right now.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t eat again later. It’s Thanksgiving.”
“I’m not sure when she’ll be home,” I begin. “She went to this meeting at the last minute. Said something about holidays being hard and needing an extra meeting.”
“You don’t seem too sure about that.”
“I don’t know. Like I’ve told you, I want to believe my mom will stay clean this time. That we don’t need to check her into rehab because she can get clean through AA,” I continue. “Jay helped her detox, and he’s been taking her to her meetings, but he’s working today and—”
“And you’re worried she’s not actually at a meeting but out getting high?”
“I don’t know. Does that make me a bad daughter?”
“No.” He smiles. “It means you care.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, pushing the food around my plate as Zeke practically licks his clean.
I glance at my phone, which reads 5:43pm, but for some reason, I don’t feel the urge to rush Zeke out of here like I usually do. Because deep down, I feel like my mom won’t be walking through that door at six-thirty but stumbling through the door at two am.
And even though Zeke says that doesn’t make me a bad daughter, I can’t help but feel my lack of faith in her makes me exactly that.