I kick off my shoes and put my feet up on the couch. Mom just went to her room to rest and I want to take the chance to text Spencer. It's late afternoon and we just got settled at the new apartment. The good mood my mom was in this morning seemed to continue, but she seemed tired by the time we got here. I have a feeling she's trying to push herself to do things even though she really just needs to be resting right now.
I glance around the living room before texting Spencer. The furniture is nice, I like how it looks. I didn't buy that much, so it looks a little sparse… but I was worried about accumulating too much stuff since I don't really know how long we'll be here. I look down at my phone and text Spencer.
Just getting settled in the new apartment. I know you’re probably busy, but I wanted to let you know everything worked out on this end.
I hit send and look around the room. It’s kind of strange to be somewhere that’s technically my apartment—it just doesn’t feel like it at all. I’m sure part of the reason for that is the total lack of things other than the furniture I bought. Homes have paintings… rugs… those kinds of things, but I didn’t even think about that while shopping. I guess it’s a good thing because I really didn’t want to spend any more money. I look down at my phone as a text from Spencer arrives.
Hey… I’m kind of surprised you actually convinced your mom to go to the apartment. She didn’t freak out or anything?
I quickly respond and hit send.
Yeah… it was actually kind of surprising. She freaked out when I first told her about it… but this morning when I went downstairs she was all happy and normal… it was kind of surprising, but I’m not going to complain. She seemed totally fine with moving and we just packed up some clothes and stuff and drove here.
I get up off the couch and walk to my mom’s door. I press my ear against it, but I don’t hear anything from inside—she must still be sleeping. I wanted to go to the bank this morning and get it out of the way. I head back into the living room. There’s nothing to leave her a note with… no pens or paper. Maybe if I hurry I can be back before she wakes up… she could always call my phone if she’s that worried about me.
I grab my purse and head for the door. I check my phone to see if Spencer has texted me back, but nothing yet so I put my phone in my pocket. I head into the hallway and pull the door closed. My forehead wrinkles as I try to lock the door, but the key is sticking in the lock. I sigh and shake my head.
“Do you need a hand?”
I turn around when I hear the deep voice coming from behind me. There’s a twenty-something year old guy standing in the doorway of the apartment across from mine. He’s smiling at me as he steps forward. I stand aside and let him try his luck with the door.
“Did you just move in?” he says.
“Yeah….”
He turns his head and smiles at me as he manages to lock the door with a single turn of his wrist. He takes the key out and drops it into my hand.
“I’m David.”
“Thanks, David… I’ve gotta get going.”
I turn and walk down the hall. I can feel his eyes on my back as I walk away from him. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket just as I reach the sidewalk and start toward the bank. I take my phone out and smile when I see a text from Spencer.
Weird… that kind of doesn’t make sense, but I guess you’ve gotta just go with the flow. I’m glad she came around and that everything worked out. What are you doing today?
I think about the text as I walk. Spencer is right… it doesn’t really make sense that she so easily gave in and willingly went to the apartment. I expected her to resist with every fiber of her being… and she changed her mind without me saying a single word. I wonder if she might have some motive for doing so, but I’d rather believe she’s come to terms with me being here and doing whatever I can to help her. I stop and quickly text Spencer back before I continue walking.
Yeah… it was a little surprising, but I think she knows I’m trying to help and that’s why I did what I did. I’m heading to the bank right now and then I’m not sure what else. My mom was taking a nap when I left.
I put my phone back in my pocket and cross the intersection not far from the bank. It only takes me another few minutes to get there and I feel my phone vibrate as I reach the front door. I hesitate, but decide to get done in the bank and just text Spencer on my walk back to the apartment.
There’s a line of two people waiting for one of the tellers to finish with their current customer, but as I look around the manager catches sight of me and walks behind the counter. He makes eye contact with me and waves me over. I can feel the people in line that I just cut looking at me… and I kind of wish he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to help me.
“Welcome back,” he says, a smile on his face as I set my purse down on the counter.
“Thanks.”
“What can we do for you today?”
“I need to make a withdrawal.”
“Oh… right.”
I can sense a little bit of disappointment in his voice. I guess it kind of makes sense because the bank enjoys holding onto people’s money and using it to make more money. I can tell just by the tone of his voice and the look on his face that he saw how much I had just sitting in my checking account and would prefer if I didn’t touch it.
“How much did you need to take out?” he says.
I take my wallet out of my purse and swipe my card through the reader.
“Twenty thousand.”
He pauses for a moment and then finally nods. I can tell he’s not excited to part with the money, but it’s mine after all… I can do whatever I please with it.
“I’ll be right back.”
I put my card away as I watch the manager disappear into the vault. He comes back a minute later with two stacks of hundred dollar bills. They are still bundled in paper and he sets them down on the counter.
“Do you want me to count it out?”
“No… I trust you.”
He gives me a faint smile and pushes the bills toward me. It occurs to me that if I was in L.A. I would have most certainly asked him to count them where I could see, but I have more faith in people when I’m here. I’m not sure if it’s because I grew up near here… or because it’s not Los Angeles. I have a feeling it’s a bit of both, but weighted heavily toward the latter.
“Thank you,” I say.
He nods and waits at the counter while I put the money in my purse and zip it up. I walk out of the bank and sit down on the metal bench outside. I want to text Spencer back, but I’d rather not try to do it while walking. I read his text and it brings a smile to my face.
That’s good… I hope she continues to get some rest. I know she’s had her moments, but she’s your mom… and family is really one of the only things you can count on. Well… you can count on me, too. I miss you terribly and I can’t wait to see your cute face again.
I read the text a second time before replying with a text of my own.
She’s the only family I have… for better or worse. I know I can count on you… it’s one of the only things in my life that I’m sure about. I really miss you too… I’m really looking forward to seeing you once all of this is over.
I put my phone in my purse and stand up from the bench. I pick up the pace as I walk back, trying to make it back to the apartment before my mom wakes up and starts to wonder where I am… not to mention I’m not that excited about walking the streets of Salem with twenty thousand dollars in cash on me.
I’m feeling warm by the time I get back… I walked as fast as I could and it took me a few minutes less than the walk there. I guess it’s still not that bad considering it could be a longer walk… or far enough that I would have to get a taxi or a ride from my mom.
The lock gives me some trouble as I try to open the door. I tilt my head back and sigh. The key gets stuck as I try to pull it out. I’m going to have to talk to Rachel because this is one of those things in life that seem so small, but could drive a person crazy the longer it persists.
I push the key back into the lock and jiggle it around some. It’s still stuck. I feel like I want to scream. I raise my hand to knock on the door… if my mom is still asleep hopefully she can hear me knocking and will get up to let me in. Just as I’m about to knock the door swings open.
Standing in front of me is not my mom, who I’m expecting to see… instead it’s David with a stupid grin on his face.
“Need some help?” he says.
I don’t find it that hilarious considering how irritating the whole key thing was. For some reason that’s the first thought in my mind… even though I should probably be asking why he’s standing inside my apartment. He stands aside and I walk in. David closes the door behind me. My mom is sitting on the couch and she smiles at me as I walk toward her.
“Hi, honey, how are you?”
“Fine… why is David here?”
Before she can answer he steps around me and sits down on the other side of the couch from her. They are both looking at me like I’m the one who should explain why I’m in the apartment I paid for. That and the only place left to sit in the apartment is a small space on the couch… in the middle of them.
“I invited him in,” Mom says, breaking the awkward silence.
I'm not sure why his presence is bothering me so much… I guess it's maybe because of my relationship with Spencer. David seems like an all right guy, but I don't know him at all and yet here he is… sitting on my couch, next to my mom, like it's totally normal. I have a feeling Spencer wouldn't be that excited if he knew there was a guy his age hanging out in my apartment when he's on the opposite side of the country.
“I'm going to my room,” I say, “I need to make a phone call.”
I walk out of the living room before either of them says anything. While I'm closing my door I can hear what sounds like my mom laughing and I try to ignore it. I sit down on my bed and grab my purse. There's no text from Spencer, so I decide to text Jess and see what she's doing.
Hey… just getting settled into the apartment. It's so weird though… when I was leaving I couldn't get the key to work in my door and my neighbor across the hall happened to have his door open and he helped me. I didn't think anything of it, but when I got home like forty minutes later he was sitting on the couch with my mom and they were both acting like it was totally normal that he was hanging out. I dunno… it was weird. Sorry to vent… I just felt like I needed to tell someone.
Texting Spencer to tell him about it had crossed my mind, but I had decided against it… more because I didn't want to bother him with my problems. I feel like lately I'm always texting Spencer with whatever is going on in my life… and he has so much going on I worry he'll see me as some kind of incompetent person who can't take care of anything without help or at the very least complaining about it. My phone buzzes as I get a text back from Jess.
That's kind of weird lol. Is he cute?
I shake my head and roll my eyes. I’m not sure I’m surprised, but she’s the one who would gloss over the rest of my text and glom onto the fact that there’s a guy in my apartment. I text her back.
I didn’t even look at him that way, so I’m not sure. I felt uncomfortable in the living room so I just went into my room to be alone and text you.
I hit send at the same time someone knocks on my door. I sigh, set my phone down on my bed and stand up. I wish I could ignore it because I’m really hoping it’s not David—he has no reason to knock on my door and it would be so awkward. I open the door, but it’s my mom standing in front of me.
“Yeah?”
“Where were you?”
“Is David gone?” I say, trying to keep my voice low in case he’s still in the living room.
“Yeah… for now.”
“For now?”
“I invited him to come back for dinner tonight.”
I open my mouth to protest, but decide it’s not a good idea—I’m not in the mood to argue with her and I have a feeling she’ll just get mad and freak out if I tell her I don’t want to have dinner with David.
“Oh… OK.”
“I mean,” she says, “you don’t have to join us… if you don’t want.”
That strikes me as a weird thing for her to say. Would she really have him over for dinner if I said I wasn’t going to be here?
“I’m not sure what I’m doing… Jess said she might want to hang out.”
I’m not sure why I lied to her, but it was the first thing that came to mind. I guess I could always see if Jess is free tonight… it would at least give me a legitimate way to get out of having dinner with them.
“Fine…whatever you decide. I wanted to also let you know that I’m leaving to go to the store right now to shop for dinner.”
“Oh,” I say, “before I forget….”
I walk back to my bed and take the cash out of my purse. I hand it to her and her face lights up.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes… I’m very sure. I want to help in whatever way I can. Right now one of the ways I can do that is paying for your treatment… so I’m more than happy to do that for you.”
“Thank you… it means so much to me. I’m going to pay you back one of these days. I’m going to get better and get my life back together and….”
She looks down and swallows. I reach out and put my hand on her shoulder. We’re both thinking the same thing, but neither of us can say the words—the chance of her beating cancer is so slim that making plans for the future is pointless.
“I love you,” I say.
“I love you, too.”
She lifts her head again and I can see on her face that it’s taking everything she has to not cry. She forces herself to smile before turning and walking back toward the living room. I stand at the door and wait until I hear the door into the apartment open and close. I walk back over to my bed and pickup my phone. I need to text Jess and see what she’s doing tonight. There’s no message from her, so I just text her back and sit down on my bed while I wait for a response.
Hey… I know this is going to sound kind of crazy, but I was wondering if you were doing anything tonight? I just found out my mom invited the neighbor over for dinner and I don’t really want to be around for that.
I shake my head and look around the room. I still can’t believe she invited him over for dinner. My phone chirps and I pluck it up instantly to read the reply from Jess.
Lol, that’s funny. I actually picked up an extra shift at work, so I’ll be there pretty much all night. If you really want to get out of the house… I do have a suggestion. It’s not going to be that busy at work tonight… you could come hang out and sit at the end of the bar and we could talk or whatever when I’m not busy. Just think about it.
I set my phone down. To my own surprise I am actually thinking about it. The idea of that is totally out of character for me… but maybe that’s what I need. I want to not be here… and right now hanging out with Jess is really my only option for that. I send her my response.
I guess that sounds like fun… I just don’t want to get you in trouble.
It doesn’t really sound like that much fun, but it’ll get me out of the apartment and I’ll have a chance to catch up with Jess. I get a text back from her just a few seconds later.
Yay! I can’t wait to hang out. My shift starts at 7… so pick you up at 6:30?
I text her back and tell her that’s fine. I figure if I head outside at around six I shouldn’t have to wait that long for Jess and I should be able to avoid David.