It Wasn't Meant to Be Like This

Sunday came quicker than I had expected, all week I had been mentally preparing myself.
Jack and I got up early (well, kind of) and got ready to go to my Mom’s house.

Jack was driving in his car, a black Mustang. We were driving, mucking about until we got to the house. I jumped out and trotted up to the door, knocking which was weird as I use to live here.

The door opened and there stood my beautiful mother. “Finn!” she cheers, hugging me tightly, although she saw me last week. She acted like it had been years.

“Hi Mom, I brought Jack” I say, realizing how gay it sounded after. Jack smirked at me, then smiled at my Mom.

“Cathy” he swoons, and hugs her gently. Mom grins “Jack, my adopted son” she teases and closes the door behind us. We kick our shoes off.

“Is he here?” I hear a muffle voiced shout. Then, April runs out, dressed in dark jeans a red halter top. She looked pretty. Her hair in curls. She looked so much like Mom.

“Freak!” I say and I see her blush, obviously Dead-Man….I mean Ryan was here.

“Finn” she greets, kissing my cheek. She then smiles brighter, as she sees Jack.

“Beautiful!” Jack cheers and April runs to him and Jack hugs her, spinning her around.

“Handsome!” she teases and Jack winks at her, I glare him for being suggestive and walk into the kitchen. I see Ryan sitting there nervously, he looked okay looking, older looking too.

“Hi” he says nervous. I smirk.

“Howdy Ryan” Jack voices behind me.

“Um…you’re Finn?” he voices.

“That’ll be me” I reply and I notice Finn, pale slightly.

“I’m Jack and no I don’t like Titanic” he teases and I hear Mom laugh as she walks in, April follows and glares at me, she walks up to Ryan and kisses his cheek, making me even more annoyed.

“Rye, this is my brother Finn and my almost brother Jack. His best friend” April politely introduces. Ryan smiles “Nice to meet you” he says.

Jack muffled a laugh behind me, which made me smirk wider. “You nervous?” I ask suddenly and Jack hits me on the shoulder.

“Nah, why?” Ryan says, but his voice shook.

“You should be” Jack threats teasingly, standing beside me now, arms crossed.

“Why?” Ryan asks worriedly.

“Jack here isn’t allowed in certain countries anymore. Not what happened since….” I begin.

“Don’t say his name. Poor kid, he thought he could date April without asking us-”

“Guys! Stop it!” April hisses, blushing furiously. I couldn’t help laugh, but it sounded evil. Jack smiles widely “Aw April, don’t get so defensive. I’m sure Ryan here was about to ask us for permission. Right?” Jack teases and I could feel myself twitching with laughter.

Jack noticed “Ignore him, he twitches when he’s about to go insane.” Jack voices and Ryan looked about to faint.

“Umm…April-”

“So. Ryan. Want to step outside?” Jack threats and I couldn’t help myself. I started laughing, hysterically.

“Okay, enough! The poor boy will need therapy.” Mom warns, smiling kindly at Ryan who chuckled nervously.

Jack joined in my laughter and gave a genuine smile to Ryan. “Hi Ryan, nice to meet you. We’re just kidding, honest”

Ryan nods, shaking his hand “Um, good one?” he says confused. April looks at me expectantly to do something.

“Yeah, we’re funny guys” I tease, and lean forward, to shake his hand. He does, it was strong. Good.

“Don’t worry too much. We won’t hurt you” I say reassuringly. Ryan nods, almost sighing with relief.

“Unless we need too” Jack finishes and then walks past him, going into the kitchen and helping himself. Ryan looked shit-scared again and I smiled and walked past them, hearing April whisper furious apologies for our so called ‘behaviour’. I couldn’t help laugh again as I saw Jack’s face.

“Cheers man” I say appreciatively and Jack shrugs, smirking but it wasn’t attractive as food was in his mouth. Typical Jack.

---
The dinner went smoothly after, we interrogated Ryan nicely, found out some background information and made the conclusion that he could date my sister.

“So, Finn…how’s the love life?” my Mom asks me, as we were drying the plates. Jack, Ryan, April were playing the Nintendo Wii while I was helping clearing up…I had been forced.

“Nothing to report” I reply, stacking the plates and putting them away.

“Finn…I find that hard to believe. You’re young, handsome…”

“Mom, seriously. I’m going to blush” I cut in, teasing and Mom laughs slightly but shakes her head with disbelief.

“What about you?” I ask her, not really wanting to know but just out of politeness. I found it difficult to accept that my father would not be the person who grew old with my Mom. Mom had only been on one date since my father’s death and even then, it didn’t feel like a date she told me.

I had come to terms with his death, I knew he wasn’t coming back and I will always remember him. He made me the man I am today.

As much as I wished that he was still here, Mom deserved to be happy so if she wanted to fall in love again, she could.

“Some patient at work asked me out…bless him” Mom says, almost whimsically. I looked at her uncertainly.

“Why is that…funny?” I ask confused. Mom’s lips twitch into a smile.

“Finn, call me old fashioned but I believe that a 90 year old man, who can’t even chew his own food is just a tad too old for me” Mom teases light-heartily and I couldn’t help laugh in shock.

“Well, at least you can attract someone” I tease and Mom gasps, smirking and laughs.

“Cheeky!” she says sternly, but she smiled which told me she wasn’t angry. I smiled and took the dry cutlery off her.

“Mom, you can date you know…you just need to get out there. Let your hair down” I say in amusement but I was being serious. Mom sighs and puts the dishtowel down.

“I know Finn, just it’s hard…I haven’t ever thought of anyone else beside’s your Dad. It seems unfair to go off and love someone else”

“He would want you to be happy” I tell her softly. Mom half-smiles.

“I know. But Finn…” she says slowly, and I look at her. She looked good for the age of 47, slight laugh lines, no grey hairs to speak off. My friends use to tell me in high school that my Mom was definitely “hot”. Of course, I beat the shit out of those people, but still it was a compliment for her.

“I am happy” she reassures me, her warm brown eyes staring into my own. I felt a tug of emotion for her. I was only ever sappy around my Mom. What can I say?

I love her, she’s my role model and I aspire to be at least half a good person that she is. I leaned forward and hugged her, she was much shorter then me, her head reaching just the top of my chest. She hugged me tightly and patted my back like always as if ‘thanking me’.

After a minute of so, I released her, and kissed her soft, perfumed cheek. “Thanks for dinner” I tell her, I wanted to say much more that I did love her and I was sorry for everything bad thing I did in my teenage years. Yet, I was a man and couldn’t do it.

Mom seemed to realize my unspoken words and simply smiled, nodding and carrying on washing up. As we finished up, and suddenly hearing Jack’s victory cries and April’s over-enthusiastic cheers of “Loser” at Ryan, I imagine. April’s laughter was heard over the masculine voices and I couldn’t help smile to myself.
Most of the time. I loved my family.