“Here we are, Sir.”
Spencer takes his wallet out and hands cash to the cab driver.
“Thank you,” Spencer says.
The cabbie nods and smiles. I open my door, get out and Spencer slides across the back seat and follows. He closes the door and I wait for him to start up the walkway to his mom’s house.
It’s a nice house, nothing like Spencer’s… but compared to the rest of the houses in the neighborhood it’s seems refined. There are two pillars, one on either side of the red front door. Windows line both the floors of the white house. It has a certain charm that reminds me of what I would expect to see in the typical American neighborhood… I like it.
Spencer presses the doorbell and I hear it chime on the other side of the door. He told me once during the flight, and twice during the cab ride, to relax and that coming here was fine, but I still feel nervous about meeting his mom and I’m not sure why. When I think about it logically he’s right, we are just friends, but for some reason I feel like a girlfriend that is being taken to meet her boyfriend’s parents for the first time… and I’m nervous.
The door opens and his mom is standing in front of us with a big warm smile and I instantly feel relieved, my stress evaporates before she even opens her mouth.
“Hiiiiii!”
I can see where he gets his infectious smile from. She steps forward, wraps her arms around me and pulls me close. I put my arms around her and hug back. It’s nice, a warm feeling passes through me that I hadn’t felt in a long time… the warm embrace of a truly loving parent.
She pulls back, puts her hands on my shoulders and stands back as she looks me up and down.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Thomas,” I say.
She smiles, lets go of me and waves my comment off.
“Please, call me Brenda… and it’s very nice to meet you, too, Amy.”
“Hi, Mom.”
Spencer puts his arms around his mother and they share a brief hug that ends with her kissing him on the cheek.
“Come on in,” she says.
Brenda steps aside and we go inside. She follows and closes the door behind us. The house is nice inside, again, not decorated the way a house in L.A. would be, but more in sort of a middle of the country way that works perfectly with the exterior… it’s cute.
“You have a beautiful home, Mrs. Th… Brenda.”
“Where did you find her, Spencer?”
I let out a nervous laugh as I start to blush. The playful tone in her voice makes me think that Spencer hasn’t really explained to her who I am and that she might be thinking I’m his girlfriend or something.
She smiles at me again, turns and walks down the hall. I look to Spencer and he nods in her direction, so I follow her. I can hear Spencer walking behind me as his sneakers squeak with each step he takes on the wood floor.
“I made some sandwiches,” she says. “I hope you guys are hungry.”
I’m definitely starting to feel hungry, finally, after not really eating today. We walk into the kitchen and there is a plate of stacked sandwich halves that have been cut into perfectly equal triangles.
Spencer grabs a sandwich, puts it on one of the plates sitting on the counter and hands it to me. I smile and lift the sandwich to my mouth. Peanut butter and blueberry jelly. It’s so good that I’m already on my second bite before Spencer has his own.
“So, Spencer, how’s the movie going?”
He finishes chewing and sets his plate back on the counter.
“Do you want to sit down?” Brenda says, looking at me.
“I… I’m fine… we were sitting for the last three hours.”
She smiles and nods before turning her attention back to her son.
Spencer answers his mom, but by that time I’ve got another bite of sandwich in my mouth and I’m not paying attention to them. Well, I’m looking at Spencer and Brenda, it’s just my thoughts that are miles away.
Without a second consideration I start thinking about how many other girls Spencer has brought home to meet his mom… I wonder if it’s been a lot. She seemed excited to meet me, which I guess she could have just been acting that way to make Spencer happy… but I really doubt that, I didn’t get a weird feeling from her at all. I quickly push the silly thought out of my head. I’m still upset about Logan, even though I buried those feelings deep down, so I don’t know why I would think about Spencer like that. Not to mention I know he would never be interested in a girl like me.
“Amy?”
I nod and realize that Spencer and Brenda are both looking at me like I’m supposed to answer a question.
“Sorry,” I say, “I was… I got distracted.”
Brenda laughs and puts her hand on my arm.
“It’s fine, dear, I’m sure you're tired from the flight. Do you two want to take a nap before dinner?”
It’s funny to think about dinner… I just quickly polished off a whole sandwich, but a nap… a nap sounds amazing. I’m still not feeling great from last night and I know the only thing that’s going to fix that is sleep.
I turn to Spencer just as he covers his mouth and yawns. I guess I’m not the only one who is thinking about sleep.
“I guess that might be a good idea,” he says.
Brenda smiles and turns to me.
“If you want to follow me, I’ll show you to your room.”
I nod and walk out of the kitchen after her and back to the entry way. We head upstairs and turn right when we get to the top. She walks by an open door and extends her arm. I walk in and she follows me. It’s decorated like the rest of the house, but it has a distinctively feminine touch to it, especially with light pink walls. I wonder if it was a girl’s bedroom at some point, but Spencer never mentioned anything about having a sister.
“The bathroom is just across the hall, Spencer’s room is the one next to yours and mine is at the other end of the hall.”
“Thank you, so much, really… it’s so nice of you to let me stay here.”
She smiles and wraps her arms around me again. I already like her… she seems just so nice and lovely to be around. I might just have to scold Spencer for not visiting her enough because if my mom was like Brenda my life would have been so much easier.
“No problem… I’m glad Spencer came to see me, even for a short visit, and I’m glad that he brought you with him. It’s nice to have another girl in the house.”
She smiles at me, but it’s like something is wrong… it’s like a deep sadness has filled her eyes. Brenda nods, turns and walks out of the room. I wonder what could have possibly could have made her look that sad.
I close the door, set my purse down on the dresser and take my phone out before sitting on the bed. I lay back and look at the ceiling as I wait for my phone to turn on… I guess I forgot to do it after we landed.
I don’t have any messages, so I decide to text Jess since I haven’t heard from her since yesterday. I feel like she’s the only person in my life I can actually talk to and I really haven’t even known her for that long… it’s weird to not have anyone left from my life in Greenville. I guess my closest tie to my hometown is Dex, which is weird.
Hey, I meant to text you earlier, but today has been a little crazy…. hope you’re having a good day. Miss you.
I set my phone down on my chest and close my eyes while I wait to see if she’ll respond before I drift into sleep. I meant to ask Brenda when I should get up, but this bed is so comfy… there’s no way I’m going to get up now. I’m sure they will just come and get me whenever.
My phone vibrates.
Hey! I miss you! What’s going on? Did something happen with Spencer last night? Were you a bad girl?
I can’t help but laugh. Jess always sends me the most ridiculous texts and I love the fact that she’s questioning whether or not I did something bad last night, especially when she knows that I didn’t, but I’m sure she wishes that I was bad a little more often… I feel like she gleans some satisfaction out of it and not in a weird way, but in a she wants me to have fun kind of way.
No, I wasn’t bad. Well, I mean we went to a club and I had a couple of drinks, on accident, but that was kind of it.
On accident? How does that happen? I hope you at least made out with Spencer or something.
It hits me while I’m thinking about how to reply… I remember something from last night, something I didn’t think I would and maybe in part because I didn’t want to remember it. Did I really try to kiss Spencer? Ugh… I’m such an idiot. I’m sure he had a good laugh over that. He probably brought me here because he felt bad for me.
I sigh and type a response to Jess before she thinks I forgot about her.
No, I didn’t make out with Spencer. I accidently had a couple of drinks because I didn’t realize they had alcohol… I’m kind of dumb like that.
I shake my head. I do feel a little bad about skirting around the truth, with Jess. It’s true that I didn’t kiss Spencer, but I’m not about to admit to her that I tried and failed. It’s too much, I think I would rather die than admit that.
I’m sure Spencer won’t forget about it anytime soon… I just hope that he never brings it up because I have no excuse for how I acted. Hopefully he’s not mad at me or anything.
Boooo. You’re literally no fun at all.
I laugh and shake my head at her text. I hope that we can be friends for a very long time and she never changes because I love who she is.
I know, sorry to disappoint you. Maybe you can show me how to get in trouble once I get back to Salem.
I’m actually really looking forward to hanging out with her again. School is going to be whatever… I know it’s important to get my degree, but I feel like I’m grasping at straws to have some kind of meaningful friendships so I really can’t wait to see her.
You know I will. So are you back at Dex’s house now?
I smile as I read her text. I know she will and I’m actually kind of looking forward to it. I’m not excited to get in trouble, but the idea is kind of fun.
No… I’m actually in Colorado now. It’s kind of a funny story, but basically Dex wanted a couple of days off, so he let us have some time off. Spencer said he’s been meaning to visit his mom and he didn’t want me to be alone at Dex’s, so we flew here and just got in a little while ago.
I put my phone back on my chest and close my eyes. Jess should get a kick out of that. I’m sure she’s going to think there’s something going on between us now.
My phone vibrates just as I feel myself drifting off into sleep and I can’t bring myself to get it.