Chapter Twenty-four
Claire
I sat across from Mom at a table in the hospital cafeteria. Rogue wasn’t with us, because he’d volunteered to buy the food for us while the two of us waited.
“I hope you weren’t too bored,” Mom said, smiling at me as she braced an elbow on top of the desk and rested her chin in her hand.
“We were fine,” I said with a shrug. “It’s not like we’d have anything to do at home, anyway, so it’s better to be nearby, right?”
Mom hummed, but didn’t reply, looking away, toward where Rogue was standing, purchasing food for us.
Since I didn’t have a job anymore, and I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to be looking for a new one just yet, I’d been appearing at the hospital with Rogue pretty often. Not that we always went together, but it was rarer for one of us to show up alone, so this was something Mom was growing used to. It did bring its own complications, though.
Rogue and I had mostly been walking around outside the hospital, since we would only be in the way if all three of us ended up in Richard’s room at the same time all the damn time. Now that I was showing up often, along with Rogue and it wasn’t just Mom coming around anymore, he nurses were getting a little strict with visitation so we didn’t disturb the patient. He might have been getting better, but Richard’s position was still pretty dangerous.
Mom was still allowed to stay overnight sometimes for Richard’s sake, but there were times when we weren’t all three allowed in the room.
The three of us had been in the room with him for the morning, but when the nurses arrived to check on him, Rogue and I had gotten kicked out, and we’d ended up touring the hospital’s garden as we waited. Then Mom texted me— even though phones were technically not allowed in hospitals—and we decided to meet up in the cafeteria to eat. Then Rogue and I would probably head home after seeing Richard for a bit more, and leave Mom there.
It hadn't been that long since I’d quit my job, but it was already becoming a habit. Sometimes it was broken by Rogue staying at the hospital instead of Mom. Richard was at least awake a lot of the time and I got to see he was happy to see Rogue out of prison, and the two of them talked plenty, too.
Rogue had changed a lot in the time since he’d been staying with me. Every time I watched him, it felt like my heart was aching, and not necessarily in a bad way.
“You and Rogue seem to be getting along really well,” Mom said.
I was startled, and I turned back to her with slightly wide eyes. She had her head tilted and she was watching me intently, and I felt my face warm up as I struggled not to look away.
Rogue and I were still sleeping in the same room, the same bed. Now that work wasn’t taking up all my time, and I had days with not much to do, Rogue wasn’t holding back. There were nights when I didn’t even get to sleep thanks to that asshole, not that I ever said no or anything. We hadn't had that talk yet, and I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to happen, or if we were both just running away from it as we fell deeper into each other.
I was trying to keep it from Mom, but I wasn’t good at this. Outside of work, I didn’t keep secrets from Mom, because before she met Richard, it had been just me and her for a long time, and we were really close. There were some things about me she could just tell, even when I tried to hide it.
“He’s not as bad as I used to think,” I said quickly, looking away. “He…he’s actually trying not to get himself in trouble. His parole officer keeps dropping by to check up on him, but he hasn’t stepped out of line.” Well, technically, he did that one time, but it wasn’t like it was illegal for him to get drunk or anything.
Still, I was proud of him for going straight, even though I hadn't thought it would be possible in the beginning. Even Ms. Brent had admitted to being surprised during one of her visits. Though she’d also said a bunch of cryptic things that made me wonder what people thought about my step-brother staying with me, because she probably had the same thoughts about us that Simon had. Not that they were wrong, but if we were going to keep it under wraps, then people suspecting it wasn’t a good thing. But then I realized that I didn’t know that many people anyway, and two of them suspecting wasn’t so bad since neither were in a position to say anything.
The problem would come in if Mom figured it out, though.
“Sorry for the wait, ladies,” Rogue crooned as he came back to the table with a couple trays. He set one in front of Mom then sat beside me, the two of us sharing a tray of food. “I hoped you didn’t get bored waiting for me.”
I wanted to speak up, say how he wasn’t helping with Mom being suspicious already, but in the end I didn’t say anything.
“We didn’t wait too long,” Mom said, waving at him.
We dug into the food, chatting lightly among ourselves, though the mood was somewhat subdued. Mom was keeping a close eye on us, though, and it made me self-conscious. It also made me realize exactly how Rogue and I acted around each other that gave us away without us even realizing.
When we ate, or talked, we were almost always looking at each other, and Mom had to speak up at times as if to remind us she was still there with us. Rogue and I would eat from each other’s plates, and when I got food on my mouth, Rogue wiped it away with his thumb, then he licked it. I didn’t even notice anything off about, because it happened a lot now that I got to eat dinner with him at home every day, with him doing most of the cooking. But I noticed Mom staring and realized what happened.
After lunch was over, Rogue went to toss the trash and get us some drinks. There was a vending machine a distance out of the cafeteria, and I almost begged him not to leave me alone with Mom as he left.
I had my head ducked down, eyes on the table as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world, trying to ignore Mom’s laser eyes boring into me.
“Claire, what exactly have you been doing?” she asked, voice several degrees lower. I hadn't heard Mom sound so clod in a while.
“Hmm?” I hummed, because I couldn’t bring myself to lie or act stupid.
Mom sighed. It was a simple, light sound, but the disappointment in it pierced my chest. “Claire, the way you and Rogue are carrying on…you don’t need me to tell you that I’m not happy about it, right? Or you would at least look at me while I talk to you.”
Tentatively, I raised my gaze. “But I thought you wanted us to get along instead of trying to kill each other?”
“You shouldn’t be messing around with that boy. I love Rogue, but you know what kind of trouble he gets up to. You’re smarter than that, Claire, so I thought you knew better.”
She sounded frustrated, and right then, I got my first good look at Mom. Before, I’d been distracted, then trying to avoid looking at her out of guilt. But looking at her right then, I realized just how awful she looked when she wasn’t trying to pretend that everything was all right with a smile on her face.
“Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked immediately.
She sighed and dropped her face in her hands for a moment, then looked up at me. It was only a short moment, but it seemed like she aged a few years right in front of my eyes. The crow’s feet and lines on her fate looked more prominent, and the underside of her eyes had dark bags that told me she wasn’t catching much sleep. Not to mention how pale she was.
Nothing else could worry her so much in the current situation.
I thought Richard was doing well?
“What’s going on?”
I looked up, surprised Rogue had come back without me noticing. His eyes jumped between Mom and me as he handed us our drinks and sat down with us. We both looked to Mom, but for a long time, she didn’t say a thing. Then, she looked up at us and stood.
“Thank you…both for worrying,” she said. “But it’s nothing.”
Rogue and I shared a glance, neither of us convinced at all. But she spoke again before either of us could.
“I want to thank you, too, for coming today. But if you both don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone with Richard for the rest of today, so can you both just go home, please?”
I’d wanted to see him at least a bit more before we left, since we’d only had about an hour this morning before Rogue and I got kicked out. But as I saw Mom turn to walk out of the cafeteria, I didn’t call out to her or try to follow her.
If she wanted alone time with her husband, as her daughter, I wasn’t going to stand in her way.