Bear
I’m glad I let Erin coax me into going to semi-formal with her. More than half of my brothers are here and my theory about the girls looking hot as fuck turned out to be extremely accurate. I’m not a fan of putting on a tuxedo by any means, but for a non-Omega Chi party, this shit’s not bad.
Matt excuses himself from our group, murmuring something about bagging Jess as he cuts toward the bar just as my phone pings. Frowning at the all-caps text from my mom, I quickly call her.
“I’m outside.”
“What?” I yell against the noise, plugging the ear opposite my phone.
“I’m outside, Clinton.”
Scanning the room, I find the opening that leads out into the lobby and across to the large glass doors at the front of the hotel.
Sure as shit, my mom is standing just beyond them.
Her slight frame looks even smaller under the grand doors with gold trim, her over-sized t-shirt hanging nearly down to her knees.
Ending the call, I shove my phone back in my pocket and briskly cross the room. I’m trying to calm down, but I’m pissed. Why the fuck is my mom showing up to the KKB semi-formal? Why is she in Florida, period?
The chilly air immediately hits me as I push through the outer doors, cooling my hot skin. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s the first thing you have to say to me?” she asks, her face falling a little. She looks strung out, her skin ashen and her hair a mess. I have no doubt she’s been using and the first thing I think of is my little brother.
“Where’s Clayton?”
She sighs, shaking her head. “Your brother is fine. Well, your younger one, anyway. He’s staying with some friends in Pittsburgh.”
“Which brings me back to my first question.”
My mom waits for sympathy to show on my face, but it’s nowhere in sight. I can’t feel sorry for her anymore. That passed after I turned sixteen.
“Clinton, I need some money. Carleton is in the car.” She turns, pointing back to an idling, beat up piece of shit Cadillac.
“We’re in some trouble and we need a way out.
Now I know what you’re thinking,” she says before I have the chance to cut her off.
“And I’m telling you, we’re getting clean after this.
Carleton wants his baby boys to have a father they can look up to and I’m tired of this shit ruining my life.
But we aren’t going to have the chance to get clean if you don’t help us, you understand?
” Her eyes hit me hard with that last line and I understand all too well.
“What the fuck, Mom?!” I run my hands over my head, frustrated. “What the hell did you do?!”
“I’m not getting into that with you. You don’t care, anyway.”
“Oh? And what, you don’t owe me an explanation for having to ask for money from me… again? Or how about for the fact that you haven’t talked to me one fucking time since I sent you money last time?”
“We’ve never been close, Clinton. Stop acting like I’m the big bad mom in this situation.”
“The big? The?” I laugh, my hysterics reaching an all-time high as I try to repeat what she just said but fail. “Do you hear yourself?”
“Please, Clinton,” she begs just as the doors open behind me.
“Bear?” It’s Skyler, and now I’m even more pissed. My life at Palm South is not my life back home. In fact, the person I was before college doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t want anyone – especially not Skyler – seeing where I came from. Or who I came from.
“You need to go,” I say firmly, my jaw hard.
Mom nods, at least having enough common sense to not push the subject now that Skyler is present. “Just please, help your family, Clinton. Consider what will happen if you don’t.” She swallows and I shake my head in warning. “We’re staying at the Motel 8 down the road.”
With that, she turns and jumps back in the car and I’m left with Skyler. I know she wants to ask what happened, but she doesn’t – she just walks up and leans her head on my arm. After a moment, she asks, “That your mom?”
I nod.
“You don’t look anything like her.”
I don’t know why, but for some reason, hearing her say those words makes me smile.
Skyler shivers a bit against me and I pull her into me, wrapping my arms around her shoulder and burying my nose in her hair.
She smells like nothing I’ve ever smelled before, something too clean and put together for my life.
“You can talk to me, Bear. I know it may seem like I won’t understand, but I might surprise you.”
Sighing, I don’t even try to fight it anymore.
I spill everything. I trust Skyler more than anyone else at this school and she’s done nothing but prove time and time again that she’s a great friend.
So, I tell her about my shitty past – about my mom, my brother, the drugs, the money, my little brother caught in the middle of it – everything.
When I finish, she pulls back, crossing her arms over her chest.
“They need money again?”
“Yeah. Who knows how much this time.”
Skyler chews her bottom lip so hard I think she might draw blood and then quickly reaches for her clutch. Pulling out a slender wallet and a pen, Skyler scribbles out something and tears the small sheet of paper away, handing it out for me to take. “Here.”
When I pull it under the light shining from inside the hotel, I realize it’s a check.
For two-thousand dollars.
“What the fuck, Skyler?” I shake my head, thrusting it back to her. “No. Hell no.”
“Bear, hear me out.”
“No! First of all, who even has checks anymore?”
Skyler laughs. “I send money home to my family all the time. Checks are the easiest and safest way to do that.”
At that, my hand drops to my side, the check still firmly grasped between my fingers. “What? How often?”
“At least once a month.” She shrugs. “They don’t ask me for it, but I send it anyway.”
I don’t have words for that little nugget of information. I knew Skyler had a strange family situation at home, I knew she entered poker tournaments all the time for a reason, but I had no idea she was sending money home that frequently.
“Give that to your mom, Bear. Tell her that’s it, that’s all she’s ever getting from you again, and call it done. They’ll get themselves out of whatever trouble they’re in and you can breathe easy knowing you don’t have to drain your savings.”
“This is too much,” I say, shaking my head and staring down at her neat handwriting.
“Psh,” she says, waving her hands. “I can make that back in a weekend at the downtown casino. No sweat.” She winks and I know she’s lying, but she’s trying her best to make me feel okay with this situation.
“Why Skyler?”
“Why am I helping you?” I nod. “Are you kidding, Bear? Your family may be fucked up, but what you don’t realize is that you’re my family now, too. And families help each other – always. That’s why you have always helped your mom and your brother, and that’s why I’m helping you now.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say anything. Call your mom, have her come back to pick up this check, and then get back in there and drink with me.”
Still staring at her like everything she’s saying to me is completely ludicrous, I pull her in for a crushing hug. She laughs against my chest and wraps her small arms around me, too. “I love you, Bear.”
“I love you, Sky.”
“Hey,” she says, pulling back. “What are you doing for Thanksgiving?”
I shrug. “Probably staying on campus with some of my brothers.”
“Will you come home with me? Meet my parents and my older brother? Please?”
“What is this, Bear Charity Case Night?”
She chuckles. “No, I just want them to meet my new brother.” At that, I return her smile and kiss her forehead.
“You have a knack for making a big guy feel really small, you know that?”
Skyler opens her mouth to respond just as the doors beside us fly open and Jess tears across the parking lot. Skyler calls out after her but Jess doesn’t stop. She hops into one of the waiting cabs and before we have the chance to digest it, she’s gone.
“Well shit,” Skyler says. “Wonder what that’s about.”
I sigh. “Omega Chi parties never have this much drama.”
Skyler barks out a laugh and punches my arm. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Call your mom and come back inside.”
After Skyler leaves, I do call my mom back.
I make Carleton get out of the car with her and I stare both of them in the eyes when I hand them the check and threaten that this is the last time they better ever contact me for money.
They both seem insanely grateful, but I know it’s just temporary.
As much as I want to believe they won’t ask me for money again, I know they will.
But tonight, I don’t let that thought hold me down. After their car leaves, I make my way back inside and Erin slides me a new drink as soon as I reach our table.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
I cock a brow. “Yeah?”
She smiles, her light brown eyes shimmering in the soft light of the ballroom.
Her dark blonde hair that’s usually hanging to her shoulders is pinned up in an organized mess of curls and it accents her slender face.
She always looks classic and traditional, but tonight she looks royal. “Yeah. I want to dance.”
“Well, it is your ball, princess.” I wink and chug down the rest of my Hennessey before letting her drag me to the floor. And then I dance and drink and laugh until I forget everything else.
Everything except Skyler.
I’ll never forget that girl.