by Elena Aitken
“You don’t understand! If I don’t hand in my homework, Mr. Muldoon is going to freak out.”
Cam held the phone out from her ear and shook her head. “Well, I guess you do have a bit of a problem.”
“Mom!” Morgan’s exasperation oozed through the line. “I need you to bring me my binder.”
It was the third time in the last few weeks Cam had received a similar call. She’d told Morgan the last time that she refused to act as her messenger service any longer. She was going to have to get more organized. It wasn’t Cam’s job. She repeated as much to her daughter and said, “I’m on my way to work. I can’t run to the school right now. I’m sorry. You’ll have to run home at lunch.”
“You’re such a bitch!”
It took Cam a second to process what Morgan had just said. “Pardon me?”
“All you care about is yourself. It’s not like I’m asking for much,” Morgan yelled into the phone. “It’s just a binder. You’d think you would want to help me after ruining my life.”
“Excuse me, Morgan?” Cam’s voice shook with barely contained anger. She couldn’t afford to lose control. “You cannot talk to me like that,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Whatever.” Morgan spat out the word and the line went dead.
Cam was left staring dumbly at her phone. What had just happened?
Cam’s shift kept her busy, and fortunately for her, Tommy wasn’t at the End of the Road so she didn’t have to deal with his almost constant advances. Evan popped in briefly under the guise of a routine check on local businesses, but when he snuck her a kiss before heading out, Cam knew the real reason and his attentions kept her going until her short shift was over.
She was still only working lunchtime shifts and occasionally a late afternoon or evening, but Tommy still wouldn’t let her work the night shifts. She’d asked about it more than once because that’s where the good tips were and she knew it. It definitely wasn’t her dream job to be serving drinks while naked women gyrated behind her, but it was paying the bills at the moment and it would be nice to have a few extra dollars in her wallet to buy Morgan the new jeans she knew she wanted, or maybe even get something nice for the dance that weekend. Despite the fact that her daughter had just gone off the rails with her attitude, it would pass and maybe it wasn’t the best parenting move to reward her behavior, but it felt like it had been so long since there’d been anything positive between them. It probably wouldn’t hurt.
At any rate, Tommy hadn’t budged on letting her take a late shift, and Cam was pretty sure she knew why. Evan. His concern was sweet, sure, but it wasn’t helping her pay the bills.
Before leaving the bar, she checked her phone and wasn’t surprised to see a text from Morgan.
* * *
Sorry I freaked out.
* * *
It was pretty much how things went lately. A freak-out by Morgan, followed by an apology, usually because Morgan needed something. In this instance, that something was a new outfit for the anniversary party this weekend. Cam had promised her weeks ago that if she agreed to go, she’d buy her something nice to wear. She hadn’t really expected her daughter to either agree to the dance, or accept the offer of a new outfit that wasn’t completely black, but that was before Morgan had met her new friends. Obviously there was some peer incentive to go to the party.
Not that Cam was complaining. Despite Morgan’s unpredictable mood, she did seem happier generally and Cam was pretty sure it had a lot to do with the kids she was hanging out with.
* * *
It’s okay. Try to remember your books aren’t my responsibility. Cam texted back.
* * *
I know. I’m sorry.
* * *
Cam smiled and tapped in another message.
* * *
Still on for shopping?
* * *
If that’s okay?
* * *
Just leaving work. Cam responded. Meet you downtown in 5?
* * *
She tucked her phone in her purse, counted her tips one more time and did some rough calculations on how much money she had left for the rest of the month. There should be enough to get Morgan something nice. She hoped.
“It is not cute.” Morgan grabbed the top her mom was holding out and stuffed it back on the rack. “And don’t say cute.”
“Okay…it’s cool?”
“Mom!” She rolled her eyes and stormed to the opposite side of the store. Shopping with her mom was such a pain in the ass. Well, most of the time anyway. Sometimes it wasn’t so bad. But Morgan couldn’t remember one of those at the moment. She shoved a rack of black silky tops to one side. At least she might get something new to wear out of it.
If she could find something.
There were only like three stores in Timber Creek and from what Morgan could tell, none of them had anything worth even trying on.
Except maybe that last top her mom had picked out. But there was no way she was going to go near it! Not if her mom liked it.
Morgan tried to swallow her anger and take a breath the way her therapist in the city had told her. It wasn’t her mom’s fault that she couldn’t find anything. Not really.
Still.
“I’m just going to be over here,” her mom called from the other side of the store where the slightly dressier clothes were. If her mom thought she was going to get anything like that, she was crazy. Morgan refocused her efforts on the racks in front of her. There may not be much to choose from, but she had to find something. After all, it would be her first dance in Timber Creek. Hell, her first dance ever. She’d never bothered to go to the dances at her last high school, they were so lame.
But this one was different because Trent had asked her a few days ago if she’d be there. Jess answered for her before Morgan could tell him that she hadn’t really thought about it.
“Of course she’ll be there,” Jess said. “The whole town is going to be there.”
“Cool.” Trent nodded and then turned to smile at Morgan. “I’m not a very good dancer, but that doesn’t stop me.”
“Same here.” Same here? Morgan still couldn’t believe she’d said that. It made her cringe every time she replayed it in her head. Which had been a lot.
Still. Trent was going to be there. Which meant, she was going to be there. And she was going to look good.
She picked up a black tank top that looked like most of the black tank tops she already owned but put it back when her phone beeped.
Hey. Whatcha doing?
Her stomach did a little flip. She responded to Trent right away, not caring whether it seemed too eager.
Shopping.
* * *
For the dance?
* * *
How did you know? Morgan grinned. Are you watching me?
* * *
Nope. Lol. Just a guess.
* * *
“Morgan? Find anything yet?” Morgan lifted her head from her phone to see her mom standing with a woman she vaguely recognized from some old photos and shook her head. “Well, keep looking.”
“As if there were another choice,” she muttered. An idea popped into her head, and she quickly texted the question before she could chicken out.
* * *
What’s your favorite color?
* * *
There was no response for so long Morgan started to think she might have made a mistake. Maybe it was too forward? Too much to ask. She didn’t want him to think that she—
* * *
Blue. Like your eyes.
* * *
If Morgan was a squealing type of girl, she might have done just that. But she wasn’t. Instead, she did a little dance on the spot and refocused her search for an outfit.
“Just grab a few things to try on,” her mom called. “I won’t even give you my opinion.”
She shot her mom a look across the store, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care—she was too lost in her conversation with h
er friend.
Whatever. The sooner she found something, the sooner she could get out of there and away from her mom. She tucked her phone into her back pocket and went on a mission through the racks, until she found a silky royal-blue tank top. She normally would choose the black, but…Trent had said blue. She snagged a pair of skinny black jeans and headed for the changing room, completely ignoring her mom as she walked by.
Cam did her best not to be annoyed by her daughter’s attitude. After all, it was almost always how shopping trips with Morgan had gone for the last few years. If Cam suggested something, even if she knew without a doubt it was something her daughter would like and look good in, Morgan would avoid it as if it were a floral, paisley, plaid combination and not the basic black Cam knew her daughter preferred.
Most of the time she didn’t even bother offering an opinion, but sometimes she forgot herself.
“Is she okay?” Drew asked after Morgan stormed past them into the changing room
Cam laughed and nodded. “Be thankful Austin is still little. And a boy,” she added. “I obviously don’t know, but I can’t imagine boys are ever this hard on their mothers.”
“I sure hope not. But we have a few years before the hormones will hit.”
“At least you’ll have Eric to help you out,” Cam said. “I think a partner in solidarity would definitely help.”
The light in Drew’s eyes dimmed and she turned away. Cam put the skirt she was looking at back in the rack and touched her friend’s shoulder. “Hey? Is everything okay with you and Eric?” The store wasn’t really the place where Cam wanted to talk about Drew and what she’d guessed were some marital problems, but Cam had been meaning to say something. The other night at Christy’s, she’d noticed how Drew had avoided talking about Eric or answering any real questions about him. It wasn’t too obvious, but Cam had picked up on it and considering that next to Christy and Mark, Drew and Eric were the cutest and most completely in love couple she’d ever known, there were all kinds of red flags going up.
Drew ducked her head and picked a dress off the rack. “What do you think of this one?”
“Drew?” Cam reached out and gently pushed the dress to the side. “Is Eric going to be coming for the dance?”
Her friend’s eyes filled with tears and she shook her head softly.
“Oh, Drew. I’m so—”
“Here.” Morgan crashed between her and Drew and shoved an arm full of clothes in Cam’s hand. “I like these.”
“Morgan!” Cam took a step back from her friend and spun to face her daughter.
“What?” Morgan shrugged, exasperation all over her face. “You told me to pick out an outfit. I did.”
“That’s not what I was talking about.” Cam glanced over at Drew, who’d averted her gaze and was pretending to look through some dresses. “I was talking to Drew. You interrupted.”
“I interrupted? Well, excuse me.”
Cam knew well enough to know when to pick her battles, and it had already been a touchy day with Morgan, but she could not excuse her daughter’s rudeness to her friend. Especially when Drew was clearly going through something. “You’re not excused, Morgan. Get back here please.”
Morgan had already reached the other end of the store and had her phone out in her hand. She paused and stared at Cam.
“I’m not sure what you’re so upset about today, Morgan. But if this is about me not bringing you your books when you asked, you need to—”
“That’s not what I’m upset about.”
With great restraint, Cam held back the sigh of frustration. More and more, dealing with Morgan’s unpredictable moods tested her patience in ways she never could have imagined. “Then what, Morgan? What did I do? Because I don’t deserve to be treated this way.”
“You don’t deserve it?” Morgan shoved her phone into her back pocket and crossed the distance between them. Her eyes flared. “Do you think I deserve this?”
“What are you—”
“Do you think I deserve to have my whole life uprooted, to move to this shitty little town? My dad doesn’t even want to see me and it’s all your fault.”
Cam’s heart ached for her little girl. Despite the fact that she was raging and yelling at her, she knew Morgan was hurting and it killed her. But she needed to be strong. “You know it’s not my fault, Morgan. That’s not fair.”
“It is your fault, Mom. You had to go and ruin everything. It’s always about you. You never think about how I’m going to feel. Not about anything.” Morgan jabbed a finger toward Drew. “You can’t even go shopping with just me. Even that has to be about you, too.” Morgan was yelling now, with tears streaming down her face.
Cam couldn’t decide whether she was angry, upset, completely mortified at the public teenage tantrum, or simply exhausted.
She shook her head. “That’s not true and you know it.” She took a deep breath and stepped forward. “You need to calm down right now and get home. This is totally unacceptable behavior and not the time or—”
“It’s never a good time for you.” Morgan’s jaw was set, anger radiating off her in waves.
What had Cam done to cause her daughter to hate her so much? Not for the first time, she wished she had the answers.
“Morgan, go home.”
“No.”
Anger was the emotion that finally won out. “Go home right now or you’ll be grounded.” The words came out through clenched teeth.
Morgan opened her mouth to say something, but obviously thought better of it. She closed it again, squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment and took a few deep breaths before opening them again. Tears flowed down her face and Cam longed to wipe them away and take her baby girl’s pain away. But when Morgan opened her mouth again, it was like a thousand knives to her heart.
“I hate you.”
It wasn’t the first time Cam had heard the words, but they never failed to have an impact. A fact Morgan surely knew. She knew the right thing to do, the thing all the parenting books she’d read told her to do. Morgan was only crying out for help. She knew logically that Morgan lashed out at her because she felt safe with Cam. She knew her mom wouldn’t leave her. But knowing that didn’t make her outbursts any easier to deal with. Cam should reach out and try to pull her into a hug. Or at the very least tell Morgan that she loved her. But she couldn’t bring herself to do any of those things.
Instead, she nodded solemnly. “I know you do.”
Christy and Mark’s house had become the unofficial party headquarters for the big anniversary party, so Evan wasn’t surprised when he pulled up to see their driveway full of vehicles. His stomach flipped and his mood only got better when he saw Cam’s SUV.
They hadn’t talked about going public with their relationship. Or even if it was a relationship. In fact, they hadn’t talked much at all about what was going on between them beyond the fact that something was. Not that Evan needed to put a label on anything.
He lugged the giant helium container he was there to deliver from the back of his truck and up the front stairs to Christy’s house. He didn’t bother knocking, but walked in and called out, “Your hot air is here!”
Christy greeted him almost at once with a laugh from the kitchen. “You can leave it in the hallway.”
He did as instructed and went in search for the women, or more specifically, Cam.
He found Christy first.
“What’s going on today? I didn’t expect there to be so many cars out front.” He looked around, trying not to be obvious in his search. “Who all is here?”
Christy gave him a look that told him she wasn’t buying his innocent act, but she didn’t say anything. “Just the girls.”
“Hey, Evan,” Drew greeted him on cue as she walked into the kitchen, an empty wine bottle in her hand.
He raised an eyebrow at the bottle and gave her a hug. “Don’t tell me you’re day drinking? Isn’t that a sign of a problem?” he teased, but Drew didn’t smile.
“It’s been a trying day,” she said. “At least for some of us.”
“What’s going on?” Evan looked between the women. “Everything okay?”
Drew exchanged a glance with Christy, who only shrugged. “It’s Cam,” she said finally.
Evan’s body responded instantly. “Is she okay? What’s going on? Where is she?” He was about to push past the women to find her, but Drew’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“She’s just having a rough time with Morgan is all.”
Most of the tension drained from his body hearing she was generally okay. “What type of rough time?”
“There was an incident downtown at the shops.” Drew quickly gave him the overview of what had happened in the store and how Morgan had yelled at her. “I think she’s mostly just drained. Parenting can take a lot out of you at times, and I think parenting teenagers is just that much harder.”
“Teenagers aren’t easy.” He almost laughed remembering the hard times he’d put his own mother through, but neither of the women were laughing. “It could always be worse, right?”
Drew nodded, but hesitantly. “What’s going on with you two anyway?”
It surprised him that the girls didn’t already know all the details, but he tried not to show it. The teenage version of Cam would have told them everything as soon as she had a chance, but that didn’t mean that grown-up Cam would. He took a breath and tried to decide how much to say. “We’re getting to know each other again.”
“Right.” Christy rolled her eyes and laughed a little.