Chapter Twenty-Five
Valerie
Even with my excitement over the new car, after I left Shawn’s mom’s house, I couldn’t wait to get home to tell mom. She was ecstatic to hear that he wanted to come home, even just for dinner, and went right to the calendar.
Unfortunately, even though Shawn’s schedule was clear, that didn’t mean that everyone else’s was. While my mother made it clear that Shawn was always and would always be welcome to eat over whenever he wanted, a formal dinner could not be arranged until a week later.
Nonetheless, I was enjoying the possibilities of our life together. Throughout that week at school even though everything had changed, it seemed like everything had actually gone back to a sense of normal that we had not experienced together in a long time.
We started having lunch together again, and even though we didn’t tell anyone about our relationship, we made it a point to spend every minute we could together. I picked him up for school and in return, he had even kept the smart remarks about my new car to himself.
For the first time in a long time, we were actually having a great time together and I couldn’t wait to see where the new possibilities would lead.
Still, the week dragged on since I was so excited about him coming over, but finally, tonight was the night.
So, instead of dropping him off at his mother’s house, who still hadn’t returned home more than once since he had last seen her, I brought him back to his family home.
I had to admit though, when we pulled in the driveway, it was a little strange. So much had changed and so much time had passed since the last time we had done this, that it seemed almost awkward.
Yet, I was too excited to allow it to be anything less than exhilarating.
Staring at the house alongside of him, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before my mother rushed out to meet us. She was happy about having the two of us home and like me, she had looked forward to the dinner and talked about it all week.
I only hoped that Shawn felt the same. Even though he seemed to be happy about the whole thing, today, he was particularly quiet.
I wanted him to be as overjoyed as we were. But the fact of the matter was, he seemed as though he was doing this just to make me happy, or perhaps to make my mother happy.
At first, he seemed to have been into it, but throughout the week, I was always the one to bring it up. And when I looked at him now, staring through the passenger’s side of the windshield, I couldn’t quite pinpoint his expression. There was a slight amount of intrigue in his eyes, but there was also a sense of reservation and I wasn’t sure why.
However, I knew that it was probably better not to ask. After all, if I brought attention to his nervousness, or whatever it was that was bothering him, that might only make it worse. I doubted highly that he wanted to talk about anything, since we were sitting in the driveway, and there really was no turning back.
I touched his arm lightly, and when his eyes broke away from the hard stare he had with the house, I gave him a comforting smile. His lips curled up in a twisted grin, but then ticked down, just as quickly and I heard him sigh.
“Are you all right?” I asked him.
“Yeah…This is going to be fun,” and without giving me a moment to respond, he shoved the door of the car open and got out.
I followed him up the driveway, and as though she was looking on from behind the curtains, just as I had suspected, my mother ran outside. She threw her arms up in the air and embraced Shawn eagerly.
“Hello Shawn! I have missed you so much!”
He laughed somewhat nervously. “Hi…I have missed you too.”
“We are so happy that you decided to come to dinner tonight,” my mother replied, stepping back from him and looking him over. “And it seems like you need a good, home-cooked meal. Honey, you look as though you’ve lost a good amount of weight. What is that woman feeding you?”
Even though Shawn just smiled, I averted my eyes. I hadn’t told my mother what Shawn had told me, because I didn’t believe it was my place. Besides, if I had repeated any of Shawn’s experiences living with his biological mother, my mom would probably have busted down the door and dragged him out of there.
That probably wouldn’t have ended well.
Thankfully, my mother didn’t pry too much. When no one answered her about the food, she shook her head and turned back toward the house. “Well, it’s almost ready. You know how your father likes to have dinner at a specific time.”
My mother was almost back at the front door so she didn’t hear, but I heard Shawn reply in a malice-stricken voice, “Yes…my father,” before rolling his eyes. That was the beginning of the end of the idea that we were going to have a nice evening.
The meal was strained from the start and it wasn’t completely Shawn’s fault. Even though we were certain that Paul had missed Shawn, you would have never known it by the way he was acting.
Every question he asked his son was pointed and borderline, if not blatantly inappropriate, while each answer that Shawn gave was curt and usually sarcastic.
My mother and I just sat across from one another, giving one another eyes of what was going on. Neither one of us could understand what was happening between Shawn and his father. Increasingly, we were growing slightly concerned.
With each word exchanged between father and son, it became even more obvious that this was not going at all the way that my mother and I had planned. Yet, when our efforts to lighten the tension failed, we believed that if we tried anymore, things would turn even uglier.
As it turned out, our input was not needed to make anything worse.
When Paul brought up the new car, we were sure this dinner was over. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there.
“So,” Paul exclaimed, almost as though he was taking pride in the awkwardness that he helped to create, “did Valerie tell you about her new car?”
“Paul!” my mother hissed, glaring at him.
Paul shrugged. “He’s a man. He should be able to take it. He should also be happy for Valerie…if he is as good of a friend as he claims to be.”
“Yes,” Shawn answered boastfully. “In fact, if you noticed when you drove up, she was the one who brought me here.”
“What’s the matter? Your car didn’t hold up?” he replied, almost as though he was truly aiming to taunt Shawn.
“Well, it definitely would have held up better had I had a nice car given to me, but since I had to work for mine and was limited in the selection that I had to choose from, then yes, it does come with its challenges.”
“Well, if you weren’t so lazy and I didn’t have to push you toward every inch you make in your stride, perhaps things could have been different,” Paul shot back.
“Maybe if you would give me some credit around here instead of trying to make everything I do seem horrifically wrong, then I wouldn’t feel the need to give up so quickly.”
“Are you kidding? You give up on everything.”
“Because you treat me unfairly.”
At this, Paul slammed his fist down of the table. “I treat you like a man! I taught you to take care of yourself!”
“Yeah, by the very obvious favoritism. I hope if I ever become a father, I am nothing like you! I want my children to know that they’re worth something,” Shawn hissed back.
“Well, I hope your children are worth something and actually apply themselves. Then they will have my respect.”
Shawn landed a low blow that spiraled everything out of control. “What the hell, Dad? Do you think I’m jealous of that stupid car? Do you think I care? You might think I’m worthless and that’s fine, but what I don’t like is being compared negatively to some asshole who treats his woman like crap.” At that, he shoved himself away from the table and stormed to his feet. “Why don’t you be more like Zachary? Zachary is the wonder child. He can do anything you can do but better…that’s what you’ve always said, right? Well, guess what he can’t do better…be with Valerie.”
“Shawn!” I screamed, getting to my feet as I felt my blood pressure rise. Immediately, I thought I was going to be sick.
Shawn glanced around at all of the confused expressions and went on, now far too angry to quit. “Oh yeah…I don’t know if Valerie told you, but Zachary cheated on her and do you know where she came? She came to me and we fucked. We’re together now.”
At this, I heard my mother gasp as I screamed an outraged, “Shawn, shut up!”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Paul demanded, now getting to his feet, immediately red in the face.
“I know exactly what I’m doing, Pops! I’m fucking your princess and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
Our parents’ eyes grew wide and I was sure that I was going to be sick. I was about to sucker punch him in the jaw, just like Dalilah had done, just to shut him up; but before anyone could fully react, he stared at me and spat, “I’m sorry. As you can see, this didn’t go well.”
Shawn pushed off of the table and stormed out of the house, ensuring that he slammed the door behind him.
“And don’t come back, you ungrateful little shit!” Paul screamed, running after him until he reached the front door.
However, with Shawn gone, the attention of the parents then fell on me and I had absolutely nowhere to run.