After locking up the classroom, I left the school and headed for home. Since I didn’t have a car, I was lucky home was only a twenty-minute walk from the school. Since I’d moved back in with my mom, I could use the family car.

Sometimes, I liked to walk; it wasn't like the city. The air was cleaner, and everything was greener. At times, memories of being home flooded through my mind as I walked home. There was only one problem -- Ross. If I could just stop thinking about Ross, then my move back home would be a lot better.

After how we’d parted in the afternoon, just a little over an hour ago, I kept thinking about our interactions from back then, and from the time I got back to town. No one could blame me for how I’d reacted when I was a teenager and had my dreams ripped apart by some careless boys’ pranks. But more recently, I should have tried to act more like an adult. A lot of time had gone by, almost a decade, in fact. I should have been over it.

But could I forgive him?

When I arrived home, it was to an unlocked door, and that could only mean my mom was home. Sure enough, when I walked into the kitchen she was seated at our little dining table with a cup of tea in front of her. She looked up at me with a smile as I walked into the room.

“Honey, you’re home,” she said with a chuckle.

I smiled, though it had an edge of sadness, because I knew she used to say that to my dad whenever he came home. After his death, she said it to me. I didn’t begrudge her such small comforts, though a part of me did feel uncomfortable.

Of course, she noticed, Mom noticed everything!

“Don’t mind this old woman.”

It was my time to chuckle. I set my bag down and moved to sit down opposite her.

“Come on, Mom. You’re not that old. I am surprised to find you at home, though. What happened to the diner?”

“Your Aunt Hayley is staying around for a few more days. She told me to stay home while she and the other workers take care of the diner.” She scoffed as she picked up her cup for a sip of her tea. “Honestly, she keeps babying me when she’s the little sister in the family.”

I smiled at her disgruntled tone. “She’s worried for you, of course she wants to coddle you.”

“You better not get any ideas into your head,” she warned me. “I can take care of myself just fine.”

I sighed but didn’t say anything. As much as she said she was okay, I knew she was still stricken with grief, even months later. Hell, so was I. I moved back home after the funeral because I was worried about her staying alone. My aunt couldn’t come and live with her when she had her own family waiting for her.

“I would never, Mom.” I got up to boil some more water for my cup of tea. “But there’s nothing wrong with relaxing now and then.”

There was an awkward silence as I waited for the water to boil. Then I made my tea and took it back to the table. We both took it black, and I offered her more before I sat down.

“So,” she started.

I barely held back a groan.

“What is it, Mom?”

She smiled knowingly. “I saw how well you got along with Cecilia’s granddaughter when they came to the diner over the weekend.”

I winced, already guessing where this discussion was going. “She’s in my class, Mom, I’m supposed to get along with her.”

“She calls you by your first name, though,” she pointed out. “Do all your kids do that?”

I pursed my lips, knowing the truth was that, no, they didn’t all call me that. It was Ross’ fault to begin with, since he called me by my name and she simply copied him. The one time I tried to get her to refer to me as all the other students did, she nearly cried, and I felt bad.

“I know what you want to talk about, Mom, and it’s not just Sophia. The two of you were busy gossiping, weren’t you? Do I even need to guess what?”

Mom shrugged, unashamed. “We were talking about you and Ross, of course.”

I sighed, taking a sip of my tea. I hadn't realized just how stressed I was, until I had that one sip and my shoulders relaxed as I slumped back into my seat.

“How have the two of you been? I know he brings Sophia to school and picks her up every day. I’m sure you’ve had a chance to talk.”

I tightened my lips and looked away from her intense gaze. “If you know already, then why are you asking?”

“Because, honey, I’ve been waiting for you to mention him to me since you got back, and you haven’t. Not once.”

I shrugged. “I didn’t feel like talking about him.”

“Are you still mad at what he did to you back when you were in high school?” she asked blankly.

No one had ever outright asked me that. And with the thoughts that had been going through my head for the past hour or so, thinking seriously about her question…

“No,” I replied, surprising myself. “Not that I forgive him—I’m still a ways from that—but I’m not still mad about it. I mean, we were both kids. We’ve both obviously matured since then.” I winced. “If anything, I regret how I’ve been treating him like a bastard since I got back.”

I looked down at my tea, watching the steam rise from it. I thought back to every glare, every curt word. When he offered to take my car off my hands to fix it up, I wasn’t nice even then. He almost always had his daughter around him, though, so I’d had to play at being civil. But it took me a few weeks to bring myself to agree to the offer, and a week after that, regretting the decision, because I knew it meant we would have to converse at some point—as if I didn’t already talk to him almost every day because of his daughter.

“I might have been… just a little too harsh,” I murmured. “If not out loud, then in my thoughts, in how I treated him. He didn’t deserve that.”

There was a moment of silence, broken when I heard my mom sigh, and there was some relief behind the sound. When I looked up, it was to see her smiling at me, looking happier than she had in a while. I just watched her, confused.

“You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that. Ever since that incident happened with the two of you in school, I watched my little girl turn into someone I didn’t know. You became so quiet, so irritable. Your father and I worried so much about you.”

My eyes widened the more she kept talking. Yeah, I had tried to pretend the whole thing didn’t happen while I was at home, but I probably didn’t do a good enough job of it. Not that it was a surprise my family could read me so well.

“It was why we let you leave so readily when you brought it up,” she continued. “We would have rather you stuck closer to home, but we made sure you had the money you needed to leave town.” Then she smiled sadly. “We never expected you would stay away so much, though. Barely visiting…”

“I called often,” I murmured guiltily.

“Calling was never enough, though.” She pursed her lips, seeing how her words were affecting me. As they should, because everything she said was the truth. I chose to run away and it wasn’t fair, but then she changed the subject. “Anyway, what have you and Ross talked about? You know, to get rid of the bad blood between the two of you, you need to talk things out properly, right?”

“I can't say we’ve talked all that much about anything important,” I said with a twist of my lips that mimicked a smile. “I guess you could say I just realized it.”

She smiled, that knowing look back again. “Because of Sophia, right?”

I nodded. “He’s so good with her. He’s a good dad, though I never thought of him ever having children back when we were teenagers, and so young.”

“Ever since her mother left, he’s been everything to that little girl.”

“I know. She’s a very bright girl and good in school. I used to think it was just natural talent, or she was good at listening in class. But it turns out, he closes work to pick her up and spend the afternoon with her. And sometimes he helps her with her homework and teaches her ahead of the class. And because he prefers to pick Sophia up and spend time with her, I’m pretty sure he’s losing out on some work that would make him earn more from his garage.”

Not to mention how long he’d been working on my car. I hadn't passed by since I dropped it off to see just what he was doing with it that it took so long. No matter how cheaply he valued his work, I knew it would be much more than what he claimed.

“He’s working on your car, isn’t he?” my mom asked, like she could read my mind.

I sighed. “Yeah, he is. It’s a terrible car. I can't tell you how many times it’s broken down, but he said he could fix it for me.”

“And have you gone to the garage to look it over?”

She said it suggestively, and I took it to mean that, if I hadn't, I should. I didn’t think I could, though, not that quickly. After all, I’d only been truly nice to him for the first time today. I would feel too embarrassed to suddenly show up at his garage.

If he invited me again, however…

I needed to do something about our relationship, though. It wasn’t the best at the moment; though he was obviously more than willing to be nice, I just had to meet him half way.

“Hey, Mom?”

“Hmm?” she looked up at me.

“Can I take you to the diner early tomorrow, before I have to get to school? I’d like to pick something up for breakfast.”

I didn’t have to say out loud that it wasn’t for me, and she smiled again as she nodded.