Forever Yours

When I showed up at my mom’s house with Matt, my mom was very curious as to what was going on. She started asking a lot of questions, but nothing I wanted to answer in front of my brother. So, I told Zack to take him up to my room and keep him occupied while I talk to my mom. He gladly helped.
“What’s going on here, Rain? Why do you have Matthew?”
“Mom, I have some bad news. Maybe we should sit down.”
“What’s going on?”
We sat down on the couch.
“Mom, dad and Rachel were in an accident.”
“Oh my goodness. Are they okay?”
“No…they didn’t make it.”
“What?”
“Mom, dad…dad and Rachel are dead.”
I could see the sadness show up in her face. But she quickly wiped it away. She put her hands on my knee and then helped herself up from the couch. Quietly, she walked away and went into the kitchen. I followed her.
“They put me in their will,” I said, walking into the kitchen. “They gave me custody of Matt.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll do a fine job,” she said, wiping the counter with a wet rag.
“Mom, we need to stay here for a while.”
She looked up at me. “Excuse me?”
“Yeah, our apartment isn’t big enough for the three of us and Matthew needs his own space, like he had with dad and Rachel.”
She cleared her throat. “Well, there’s plenty of room here. You and Zack can sleep in Jenna’s old room, it’s bigger than yours and Matthew can sleep in yours.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” she said with a fake smile. “It’ll be great to have my boys here again.”
“Your boys?” I asked.
“Zack is practically my son, too.”
“Right,” I said with a smile. “Thanks mom.”
She came around the counter and gave me a hug. “How are you doing?”
“You mean dad?” She nodded her head. “My feelings are so up and down, I don’t really know.”
“I know that you had a complicated relationship with your father.”
“I didn’t want him to die,” I said. “I just wanted him to leave me alone.”
I could feel tears coming and my mom knew they were coming as well, so she wrapped her arms tightly around me. I ended up crying on her shoulder.
“It’s okay to feel sad about your father, Rain. He put you through a lot. He hurt you—abused you. But he was still your father.”
“What about you?” I asked. “You loved him, didn’t you?”
“Any love I had for your father left me the moment that he hurt you. I’m fine,” she said.
“I love you, mom. If I don’t tell you enough, I’m sorry.”
“I love you, too Rain. But you have a child to take care of. You need to get yourself together. What’re you gonna do?”
“Well, I don’t wanna have to, but it looks like I might have to talk Matt to San Francisco.”
“What?”
“My apartment there has two bedrooms. It’s the only place I have room for him.”
“Rain, you can’t just uproot him. He has family besides you, ya know.”
“I know, mom. But we can’t live in my apartment here—there’s no room—and we can’t live here forever.”
“Can’t you get another apartment here?”
“No, I can’t afford a bigger one. It wouldn’t be right away. I’d have to close up some loose ends here.”
“What about Zack?” She asked. “He won’t be able to just pick up everything and go. He has a job here.”
“I know,” I said. “If he can’t come, then…Matt and I will probably just have to go without him.”
“Rain…he love you…you love him. You know that if he had the choice of picking you or his job, he would pick you.”
“I don’t want him to have to pick. Zack likes what he does. I can’t do that to him.”
“Shouldn’t you discuss it with him first?”
“I am going to discuss it with him, but right now my main priority is Matt.”
“Maybe he can help you make this decision. He is your partner after all. How about I take Matt out to the beach and give you and Zack some time to discuss it?”
“That would be great, mom. Thanks.”
I called Zack and Matt back downstairs. Mom took Matt out to the beach like she said she would. Zack and I sat next to each other on the couch. He wrapped me in his arms.
“We really need to talk, babe,” I said.
“What about?” He asked.
“It’s about this living situation,” I said. “We can’t live here forever and we can’t go back to our apartment.”
“I agree,” he said.
“My apartment in San Francisco has plenty of room, but…I don’t want to uproot Matt and I know that you have a job here in LA.”
“What’re you saying?”
“I have to move to San Francisco with Matt. At this point it’s my only option.”
“Rain, I can’t just move to San Francisco. My job doesn’t work like that.”
“I know and if you wanna stay, then you can stay.”
“Rain, I wanna be with you.”
“Don’t worry, it won’t be right away. I have some loose ends to tie here.”
Zack was visibly upset. He let me go and sat forward on the couch, rubbing his hands against his face.
“Why can’t we just get another apartment here? I make enough money.”
“Not for three. At least I can afford to pay for that apartment in San Francisco alone. If we stay here, we’ll have to pay so much more.”
“Rain, I can’t move to San Francisco.”
“Then don’t. My first priority is Matthew. I need to take him to a place where I can afford to give him a good life.”
“How did you get such a cheap place in San Francisco anyway?”
“I know the landlord. He gave me a deal.”
Zack sighed. “Rain…I don’t know what to do.”
“I don’t want you to have to choose between me and your job.”
“I choose you, Rain. But I can’t quit my job, Rain. It’s how I make a living.”
“So don’t quit. I told you that you can stay if you want.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Maybe we can talk about this later. After all, I’m not moving tomorrow.”
“Sure,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. “Let’s go join your mom and brother at the beach.”
I smiled and we walked outside.