Shifting Tides

by Caitlin Ricci

  “Oh, honey, you don’t have to get one if you’re not ready,” Aunt Amy said. Adam hadn’t even heard her come up.

  Seth shook his head and reached out to push his fingers through the chain metal door. The puppy, who couldn’t have been more than three months old, bounded up to him and licked his fingers. “I want him. I’m ready for another dog. It’s just going to hurt a little. I know that. Winter was amazing. And I had fourteen years with her. It’s time. I think.”

  Adam gave him a giant hug and kissed him on the back of his head, which made Seth groan as he pushed Adam away and right into Blaine, who steadied him so that he wouldn’t fall down.

  “Can I?” Seth asked his parents, who both nodded.

  Adam wasn’t sure Summer was a great name for a dog, but that ended up being what Seth wanted to call him, and no one was going to argue with him. Summer sat proudly on his lap the whole ride home and Adam leaned into Blaine. With Seth being like a real friend for once and not the idiot he saw only on holidays, and with Blaine as his boyfriend, and Aunt Amy and Uncle Seth pretty much being the awesome parents he was finding out that they were, it felt like everything was coming together in his world.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Blaine gripped the Nintendo wireless remote and leaned it forward, causing the fabric cow on Seth’s big screen TV to lean slightly and pick up speed. It failed to dodge one of the scarecrows that moved around the track and Adam’s cow passed him.

  “Gotta be better than that!” Adam shouted and moved his remote down. His cow, a black and white one, rounded the final turn and skidded across the track. It bounced off a fence, giving Seth’s cow, a mottled brown one, the opportunity to win the race.

  “And that’s how it’s done!” Seth crowed.

  Adam laughed and sank into the couch. “When you guys were talking about boy’s games I figured things like Call of Duty, Skyrim or Guitar Hero. You know I’m really good at Call of Duty.”

  Seth nodded as Blaine started another game. “Yeah, I know you are. I watched you play the other night. I figured you’d kick my ass with that one. It’s one of the reasons why we’re doing cow racing.”

  Blaine sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that explains it.”

  Summer bounded in, wagging his tail frantically. He managed to knock Seth and Blaine’s sodas off the coffee table.

  “Summer! Calm down!” Seth shouted, dropping his controller to run for the kitchen.

  “Chill, dog.” Adam caught Summer’s collar and gently moved the big puppy away from the table. Summer reward him with a quick face bath and made Adam laugh.

  Blaine didn’t bother finishing the race that they’d started. Over the past couple of weeks he’d found that Adam’s laugh, still a fairly rare thing, warmed his heart. It was something that he had never really expected to experience. He’d always thought folks were weird who said that the sound of someone laughing, or just the sound of their voice could bring happiness, but he’d discovered with Adam that it was the case. “You’re really good with him,” Blaine said, just as Seth rushed back in with a roll of paper towels and began frantically sopping up the spill.

  Seth threw the roll at Blaine after ripping off a fair number of towels. “Here, help me with this. Mom and Dad said he’s my responsibility. I’m in charge of housebreaking, feeding and cleanup.”

  Blaine unrolled a few towels and knelt next to Seth. “And I’m your friend and that’s why I’m helping you with this.”

  “Right. That’s what friends do—clean up after each other’s dogs.” Seth grabbed more towels and continued to attack the spot he was working on.

  Adam leaned back on the couch and Summer crawled up in his lap, which prompted another round of laughter. “You know, with the number of messes he makes, and accidents he has, I think puppies should all come with a year’s supply of paper towels.”

  “I think they should come with their own maids,” Seth grumbled as he wadded up the dirty paper towels and reached for the ones Blaine had.

  “Nah.” Adam rubbed Summer’s head and the big puppy wagged his tail even more. “I think this is fine. I never had a dog before. Mom and Dad always had excuses as to why we shouldn’t have one. I think he’s great the way he is.”

  Seth returned from the kitchen. “Just remember, he’s my puppy—you only get to help out with him.” Seth pointed at the floor. “Summer, come.”

  Summer paused, looking from him to Adam, then jumped off the couch and bounced over to sit at Seth’s feet and looked up at him with the happy adoration that only a puppy can have. Seth rubbed his head and smiled. “Good boy. See, he listens to me. He’s my puppy.”

  The doorbell rang.

  “I’ve got it,” Seth’s mother called out.

  Summer launched off Seth’s feet and headed toward the door.

  “Come here!” Seth shouted. “Summer, come!” He dashed after the dog.

  Adam laughed again. “He really is a sweet, goofy pup.”

  “The dog, or Seth?” Blaine grinned and sat next to Adam.

  “Summer.” Adam laughed harder.

  “Adam, it’s your boxes!” Mrs. Fleming shouted.

  Adam’s face froze in a look that Blaine couldn’t read. “My boxes.” He stood and headed for the front door. “It took Mom long enough to get them here.”

  “If I know Claire, she just put it off as long as possible,” Mrs. Fleming said. “Boys, if we all grab a box, we can make one trip up to Adam’s room with the stuff.”

  “Sure.” Blaine grabbed the first box. It was heavier than he anticipated. “Wow, what’s in this?”

  “My stuff,” Adam said hefting the next box. “Wow, she must’ve put a lot of stuff in here.”

  “Either that, or your shit’s heavy,” Seth replied as he held on to Summer’s collar until the front door closed and he was sure the puppy wouldn’t run out into the road.

  “Is this where I get to tell you you’re a bit of an ass?” Blaine asked as he started up the stairs. “If you’re going to change your image, you can’t be making statements like that.”

  A soft chuckle escaped Seth’s mom. “He’s got a point, Seth. I think it’s great that you want to make changes too, but this really is going to take an effort from all of us to keep you on track.”

  Blaine made it to Adam’s room first and stopped right beside the bed. “So where do you want all this?”

  “On the bed?” Adam didn’t sound real sure. “I think there’s room there for four boxes.”

  “Probably.” Blaine put his box down, then stepped aside so the others could do likewise.

  Once all the boxes were on the bed and Summer was sniffing them, Seth pulled his pocket knife out. “So which one do you want to open first?”

  “Why don’t you cut the tape on all of them and Adam can access all of them and you won’t have to keep whipping that thing out,” his mother suggested.

  Seth nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Just be careful to cut up, not down.” His mother touched his arm as he reached for the closest box. “We have no idea how she packed things.”

  Blaine glanced at Adam, who stood a couple steps away from the bed with his arms across his chest. There was a wild, scared look in his eyes. Taking a couple steps to close the distance between them, Blaine put an arm across Adam’s shoulders. “This is the stuff you’ve been waiting for, right?”

  Adam gave a short, almost imperceptible nod. “Yeah, but why do I really not want to open the boxes?”

  “Too much of the past?” Blaine suggested.

  Seth had the tape on the first box cut and moved to the next box. He hadn’t opened the box. It was an improvement from his past attitude. Back when he didn’t care if he was an asshole or not, he would’ve opened the box, not just cut the tape.

  Adam’s hands shook a bit as he reached for the box. He let out a little breath as he opened it. “Books. She sent my books. I guess that explains why the box was so heavy.”

  Blaine leaned over his shoulder. Ther
e were also CDs and DVDs in the box. They all seemed to have just been tossed in with no real order. “That’s a kinda careless way to pack things.”

  “That’s Claire,” Seth’s mom muttered.

  With quick motions, Adam pulled the books and disks out and stacked them on an empty part of the bed. On the bottom of the box was a laptop.

  “Why did she put that on the bottom of the box?” Adam wondered out loud as he pulled the computer out. “It could’ve been broken.”

  “Do you want me to fire it up and make sure it works?” Seth offered.

  “Sure.” Adam handed it over.

  Summer had taken an interest in one of the boxes. He had his nose pressed against it and whined.

  Blaine stared at the dog. “You don’t suppose she sent you food, do you?”

  Moving away from the first box, Adam shrugged. “I don’t think so, but Mom’s being more than a little bit flaky lately. I guess anything’s possible.” He opened the box and a heavy perfume smell rolled up out of the box. He frowned as he picked up a note on the top of the box. “I didn’t think you’d need these anymore, but couldn’t bring myself to throw them out. You’re still my li—” Adam’s voice broke and he thrust the note at Blaine.

  There wasn’t much more to it. It finished with…little girl. Love, Mom.

  Adam pulled a dress out of the box. It was nothing but stripes of cloth and the perfume reek grew stronger. “What?” Adam’s voice cracked and he frantically dug into the box, throwing each of the stinking rags onto the floor.

  “Oh my God.” Mrs. Fleming had her hand over her mouth. “I never dreamed.”

  Blaine put his arm around Adam, as Adam collapsed to the floor, holding what looked like the remains of a blue T-shirt in his shaking hands. They ended up in a pile, sprawled on the destroyed clothes.

  “She really”—Adam sobbed in big gasping breaths—“does…hate…me.”

  “I don’t know.” Blaine struggled to find something to say, but he couldn’t wrap his mind around how a mother would do something so awful to a child.

  Seth’s mom was on the floor with them, holding them both in shaking arms. “Oh, sweetie, she never deserved you as her child. You’ve got a new family. I promise you that we’ll never do anything like this to you.” She kissed the top of Adam’s head.

  “But she’s my mother.” Adam collapsed in on himself. He didn’t even hold on to Blaine.

  “Just because she gave birth to you doesn’t give her the right to call herself your mother,” Mrs. Fleming continued softly.

  Blaine suddenly realized that Seth’s strong arms and Summer’s wet nose were part of their group hug. It wasn’t something he had ever expected of Seth. Summer’s previous exuberance vanished into a sad whine that was a dim reflection of the anguish flowing out of Adam. Words between them vanished as they all held Adam as he sobbed. Blaine felt like his heart was going to break. He’d never wanted to hurt another person before, but right then if Mrs. Marglasey had been there, he’d have hurt her for the pain she caused Adam. She was completely severing ties with Adam, even worse than Blaine’s parents had done when they sent him to live with Gran. He wanted to protect Adam and never see him cry like this again. It was worse than it had been the first night on the beach.

  The five of them sat there on the floor amid the ruins of Adam’s past for half an hour before Adam could stop crying. A soft hiccup was the first sign that things were ending.

  “Seth, go get some Kleenex,” Mrs. Fleming said. “And a couple bottles of water.”

  “Okay.” Seth got up and hurried out of the room without question.

  “Adam, let us get up off the floor.” She stood and held out her hands to Adam and Blaine. “Would you like to go into a different room and let me get this mess cleaned up?”

  Adam shook his head. “I’ll be okay.” He let out a ragged breath and hugged Blaine harder than he ever had.

  “I’m here, baby,” Blaine muttered into his hair. “I’ll always be here.”

  “Thank you,” Adam murmured, then reached for his aunt. “Thank you too, Aunt Amy, for being here for me.” He sniffled as Seth ran back in with boxes of tissue.

  “I wasn’t sure which one to grab, so I brought both.” Seth thrust the boxes at his mother and Adam.

  “Good job,” his mom said softly. Then she squeezed Adam’s shoulder. “Do you want me to go through the other boxes for you?”

  Adam shook his head. “I’ll do it. This is part of being strong, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” Mrs. Fleming hugged him as tight as she could, considering he still had hold of Blaine. “But you don’t have to be strong all the time.”

  “I know. That’s why I have all of you.” Adam stepped out of their embrace and went to the next box. “I need to get this over with.” He took a deep breath and opened the next box. It was more books and papers. Blaine breathed a sigh of relief, even if the box hadn’t been packed with any more care than the first one.

  The final box was half full of stuffed animals and what looked like things off his wall. The wall decorations were in various states of neglect, but they appeared to be more victims of carelessness than rampant destruction as the clothes had.

  “I’m going to go get a couple of garbage bags,” Seth’s mom said after it became clear that the final box wasn’t going to have the same reaction as the second one. “We’ll get this room cleaned up in no time.” She hugged Adam again and kissed the top of his head. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll do everything I can to make sure that it’s okay.”

  “We all will,” Blaine said. He’d let go of Adam, but hadn’t let Adam get beyond arm’s reach in case something set off another round of crying.

  Adam looked up at them. His eyes were still puffy from crying, and there wasn’t a glint of happiness anywhere in him, but he gave them a thin smile. “I know you all will. You’re my real family now.”

  “Exactly,” Blaine said.

  They all had another group hug. Adam pressed tight against Blaine, and he realized he needed to pee really badly. When Mrs. Fleming headed out to get the garbage bags, he looked at Adam. “I need to pee. Will you be okay for a moment?”

  “Yeah.” Adam nodded.

  Blaine looked at Seth. “If anything upsets him, come get me.”

  “We’ll be fine, Blaine.” Adam shooed him toward the door. “Go pee. It already smells bad enough in here.”

  Without another word, Blaine hurried down the hall. As he was coming out of the bathroom, he paused at the sound of Mrs. Fleming’s voice raised in anger.

  “Claire, you really are just a complete bitch. Do you even care that your little immature stunt caused your son to break into tears for nearly half an hour?” Her voice was even more shrill than it had been at the beach the night Adam’s parents walked out on him. “Crying does not prove he’s still a girl. It proves he’s human which I’m now severely doubting that you are.”

  Blaine wished he could hear the other end of the conversation. He pressed himself against the wall near the stairs and hoped that Mrs. Fleming wouldn’t see him.

  “You’ve given up all rights to Adam. I don’t want you ever coming near him again if this is the kind of shit that you’re going to pull around him… If you want a real daughter, then go ask your preacher to put one into your shriveled-up cunt, and hope that it’s not your genes that made the mistake in making Adam a girl in the first place… He’s my son now. You’re not welcome here ever again.” Her voice broke and there was a crash that sounded like she’d thrown the phone across the room.

  For nearly a minute, Blaine stood there, afraid to move and alert Mrs. Fleming to his presence above her. The sound of heartbroken sobs rolled up the stairs and he didn’t know what to do.

  Seth appeared in Adam’s doorway. “Hey, did I hear a crash?”

  “Yeah.” Blaine pointed down the stairs. “I think your mom could use you for a few minutes. I’ll go help Adam.”

  “What happened?” Seth hurried past Blaine.

/>   Blaine shrugged. “I didn’t hear all of it, but she sounded like she melted down on Adam’s mom.”

  “She deserves someone having a meltdown on her.” Seth rushed down the stairs with Summer at his heels.

  Adam stood in the doorway before Blaine got there. “Now what’s up?”

  “Your aunt just told off your mother.” Blaine gathered up Adam in his arms and kissed him while hugging him tight. “If you ask me, I think she deserved it. But now your aunt is upset. Seth’s on his way down.”

  Adam shook his head into Blaine’s chest. “Mom’s really screwing things up right now, isn’t she?”

  “I think she’s scared and striking out, but it sucks that you guys are caught in the fall out.” He stroked Adam’s hair. He’d discovered recently that the action helped them both to relax and he figured they could use all the relaxing they could get after the afternoon they’d had.

  “So now what?” Adam laid his head on Blaine’s shoulder.

  “Now we clean up the mess, decide what of the rest you want to keep and what you want to throw away, and go on,” Blaine murmured, taking a big sniff of Adam’s hair. The subtle shift in the scent of it over the past month had surprised Blaine. Adam no longer smelled even remotely feminine, but it wasn’t totally masculine either. It was uniquely Adam and Blaine loved it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Adam, honey, get up,” Aunt Amy said the next morning. It was barely eight. He didn’t have to get up yet. Besides, the house was totally quiet. And it was a Friday morning. Clearly she’d lost her mind.

  He groaned and rolled over in bed. “It’s too early,” Adam whined.

  Aunt Amy came in and shook his shoulder to get him to wake up. It didn’t really help. “Wake up, sleepyhead. We’re going to go get you registered for Pharrell High. Class starts in two weeks and there’s no way I’m homeschooling you. And not just because Seth would insist on staying home and watching TV as part of his education.”

  That’s right. That was today. He had completely forgotten. Adam slowly sat up in bed and pulled his comforter around himself. “Is it just going to be us?”