Chapter 16 #3
“She’s coming here? Now?” I pull out my phone and check in my camera to make sure I have nothing in my teeth. At least my hair isn’t as frizzy as I feared.
“Of course,” says Felix, surprise in his voice. “She’s not going to be able to check in for a few hours, so she may as well come see us before we have to go get ready.” He stands and scans the room, then waves slightly. “There she is.”
I can’t believe I’m going to have to tell Ronnie she was right. She is going to give me so much shit.
The blonde woman walking toward us is all color and pattern. Bold orange and green stripes make up her long dress, which clashes slightly with a bright yellow canvas purse. This is clearly not someone who is used to sitting off to the side, but prefers being the center of fun.
“Hi, Mom.” Felix hugs her and kisses her on the cheek. He gestures to the chair recently vacated by Calvin. “Do you want to join us?”
The last parents I met were Ronnie’s, the day we moved into the dorm freshman year, and they were already there when I arrived and they came over to introduce themselves to me.
Should I introduce myself, or wait for Felix to introduce us?
I’m not sure if I should stand to greet her, to show respect?
Would that make me look a little too eager to make her like me?
Or make it seem like I’m more important to her son than I really am?
“Good morning, gentlemen,” she says, slowly moving around the table and hugging each of the guys in turn as they stand and greet her.
I fidget with my napkin, waging an internal battle with myself over what I should be doing.
“Would you like us to get you something to eat?” offers Felix.
“I didn’t stay here last night, so that wouldn’t be appropriate,” says Felix’s mom. She indicates me, still sitting paralyzed by nerves and indecision. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friend?”
“This is Rebecca,” says Felix.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Rebecca. I’m Summer,” she says, and I force myself to snap out of it and stand up.
I’m thinking I’ll just shake her hand, but she pulls me in and hugs me just as warmly as she’d hugged each of the guys before taking the vacant chair across from her son.
“What events are you competing in this weekend?”
“Oh, no, I’m not a speedcuber.” I’m surprised that anyone would think I’m here to compete. I mean, I know I’m smart, but if I had to say what sort of smart vibes I give off, I’d say book nerd. Definitely not math genius. “I’m just here for fun, kind of last minute.”
I try to pass it off as if it’s no big deal that I’m here watching these guys compete for a national championship.
That I’m skipping a full day of classes to spend time with them and support them.
That I’m meeting their parents and cubing friends like I’m someone who might ever see any of these people again after this.
“Yikes, last minute,” says Summer, making a face. “Where did you end up getting a room? When I dropped off my bag to be stored at the desk until check in, they said they were completely full. There’s some sort of business conference happening this weekend too.”
“Oh, um.” I glance at the guys, but none of them offers to help me out, so I guess I’m on my own. “I’m just … crashing with the guys.”
Felix’s mom freezes for a moment, and then she smiles like she just won the lottery. “Of course, yes, that makes sense. Even if you could get a room of your own, there’s no sense in paying for multiple rooms if you don’t have to.”
“If you don’t want to eat, would you like anything else?
” ask Lukas, checking his watch. I don’t think he realizes that he’s saving me from the inevitable word vomit that would follow Summer’s response to my staying with her son and his friends, but I am so grateful that I don’t have a chance to embarrass myself.
“We have a few minutes before we have to go back to the waiting area before our event.”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind one of those fancy city coffees,” Summer admits.
Felix is already opening the map app on his phone and searching up the nearest coffee places. “There’s a café about a six-minute walk down the road.” He looks torn, and I’m betting a twelve-minute round trip plus time to order is cutting it too close for his liking.
“Think we can make it there and back in fifteen minutes?” asks Sebastian, also checking his watch. “Maybe if we place a mobile order now so it’s ready when we get there?”
Felix’s mom waves a hand. “Oh, you guys go do what you need to do. I can go get coffee and I’ll be back before your first event.
” She takes her son’s phone from him and glances briefly at it before handing it back, apparently memorizing the café’s location in a matter of seconds.
Maybe Felix comes by his affinity for patterns naturally.
“You shouldn’t be walking around the city by yourself,” Elliot says. “Even if it is probably fairly safe this early in the morning.”
“It’s fine,” she tells him. “I’ll be back in no time, and when I get back I’ll find your parents to sit with them.”
It takes a lot of concerted effort to keep moving my hands naturally as I eat my granola and yogurt.
All of their parents. Will be here. Where I am.
And I’m going to meet all of them and they’ll all realize that I’m sleeping with their sons.
I should run. Maybe to the train station.
How much will a train ticket to Boston cost?
Felix must sense how panicked I am because he reaches out and places his hands on my knee under the table, stilling the leg I didn’t realize I was bouncing. It calms me a little, but not enough. Maybe I can put off meeting the other parents for a few minutes longer.
“I could come with you.” I regret it as soon as the words are out of my mouth, but I can’t back out now, and it’s probably the lesser of two evils.
Fancy coffee sounds way better than the sludge they’re serving here, and if I stay here, we are just going to go find the other parents and then the guys will have to go to the competitors waiting area and I’m going to either have to find a way to excuse myself from sitting with their families or I’ll be trapped with, well, their families.
At least Felix’s mom is just one person, and she seems nice.
I can walk to get coffee with her and then when we get back I can stay I need to run up to the room and tell her I will find her inside the competition, and then I can just …
not do that. I can hide for a few minutes and then pretend I looked for her and couldn’t find her, and then I won’t have to sit with the guys’ families and have to pretend I’m not having an internal meltdown for the next few hours.
Felix seems to like the idea of me accompanying his mother to the café.
“It is better to never walk alone,” he agrees, an eagerness in his eyes that makes me wonder if I’ve made a terrible mistake.
Maybe now is when I should have pretended I need to go to the room.
I could hide before I have to spend any time with any parents at all.
Too late now, though, because Summer claps her hands together and stands, looking as delighted as her son at having me tag along.
“That sounds wonderful.”
I silently beg for a sudden disaster to get me out of this, an earthquake or meteor strike or rabid polar bear attack, but no such luck.
At least I’ll have a fancy coffee at the end of it. That’s something, I suppose.
“All right, I’ll see you in there,” says Summer, and all of the guys stand up automatically. She walks around the table again and hugs every single one of them as if they were her own son. “Good luck, you’re going to do great.”
“Good luck,” I say, waving awkwardly at them. I’m not about to hug them and give anybody any opportunity to try to kiss me or anything. They agreed to avoid any PDA this weekend, but I can’t risk them slipping up, especially not with Felix’s mom standing right there.
“We’ll take care of your tray,” Lukas tells me, and I thank him before hurrying after Summer.
As soon as I make it to her side, she links her arm through mine. Wow, didn’t expect that, but okay. “My, it’s busy in here. We don’t want to get separated.”
This is it. Here comes the interrogation. She’s going to hold me hostage until I tell her exactly what is going on between me and her son.
Maybe I can distract her and put off having to answer questions for a couple minutes longer. “Do you remember where the café is?”
Already, I’m not sure I can do this for our entire walk. Small talk is not my favorite thing.
“Looked like we just turn right out of the hotel and we’ll come to it eventually,” she says with a shrug, jostling my own arm.
I keep my eyes straight ahead because I don’t want her to see how completely shocked I am that she’s just going to walk in the general direction of the café and not use GPS to make sure she does actually know where she’s going.
I want to pull out my own phone to guide us, but I don’t want her to think I don’t believe her capable of getting us there.
I’m trying to make a good impression on her, after all.
“Is this your first speedcubing event?” she asks as we walk out of the hotel into the brisk winter morning.
“No, this is my second.” My response is reflexive, and I immediately wish I’d kept my mouth shut lest she start to ask more questions about how I know her son.
“Ah, so you haven’t had time to be jaded by them yet.” She laughs and pulls me closer for a moment as if we’re old friends sharing a joke. This is something Ronnie would do, but I’m not prepared for it coming from my new friend’s mom.
“No.” I try my best to smile but I’m not convinced it doesn’t come out as more of a grimace. I’m so nervous, even though she’s being perfectly nice and normal and not asking uncomfortable questions. “I went to a local one in Boston, and this is a big difference. A lot more people.”