The next day my mom and John left for their honeymoon. Jack decided he’d move out two weeks later, when they got back from their trip to the Maldives.
We had a lot of long talks in his room. Long talks about what was going to happen next. How safe my mom was with him. I thought back to the time when my mom slipped on the ice. Had she really slipped and fallen? Or had she fallen victim to something far more sinister? Was there more to the fact that she started covering up, wearing long sleeves?
We also spoke about us. We had decided to make our relationship public. We’d start with close friends only, but we weren’t going to hide anymore. If people wanted to talk behind our backs, fine, they could talk. Jack and I were in love, and nothing was going to stop that.
When my mother got back from her honeymoon, I was a lot more vigilant about things. I paid far more attention to my mother. How she acted, how she looked. Whether there were any noticeable bruises on her.
One day Tina and Annie had come over, and we decided to have a study session for our June exams in the bright sunlight outside. After all, it was a gorgeous day, so why not.
I had told them both all about the wedding night, of course. They were shocked to hear about Jack’s story. And they had the same worry that I did, that my mom would have the same problem.
We had found a nice little patch of grass, surrounded by rose bushes. Anita brought us out some fresh lemonade and little cookies to munch on, and we started working on our separate courses.
“I swear, Art History is going to be the death of me,” I complained as I tried for the millionth time to understand the difference between Rafael and Michaelangelo’s paintings. “I mean, I know I should be able to tell different artists apart, but the Renaissance stuff just looks so much alike.”
“The key difference is that Michaelangelo is incapable of drawing women,” Tina answered for me. “Rafael is great at it. But if you look at the women Michaelangelo paints, they’re just men with orbs where the boobs go. I’m not even going to refer to them as boobs, they’re just orbs. It’s almost like he’s seen pictures of what women should look like but has never seen one in real life.”
I opened my textbook to his “Garden of Eden” and laughed.
“Oh my God Tina, you’re so right. Thank you!”
“Hey, that’s what I’m here for. Now if only you could help me with the accounting class that my mom really, really wanted me to take as my business elective.”
“Not a chance. There’s a reason I didn’t go into anything that had to do with math. Sorry.”
“Hey,” Annie interrupted. “Is that Jack over there?”
Sure enough, my brother was heading towards us. I wondered what he was doing here, I hadn’t seen him on the property at all since our parents came back from their honeymoon.
“Hey girls,” Jack greeted us as he noticed us.
“Hey Jack, what’s up?” I asked.
“Not much, going to get some stuff from the cabin down by the stables.”
“Oh, cool.” I had almost forgotten about Jack’s secret little cabin. I suspected he might have kept a lot of his pot-related things there, seeing as no one else ever seemed to give the cabin more than a cursory glance, since first impressions made it look abandoned.
“Well, see you around. I’ll text you later, Jules.”
With that my brother left, and Annie turned to me.
“How is he doing since the wedding?”
“He’s ok. I haven’t actually seen him here since my mom and John got back. I guess what he needs is important.” I hadn’t told them about the fact that he admitted to me that he sold pot to his friends.
“The two of you are really close now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. We’re actually… we’re dating, actually,” I admitted. After all, Jack and I weren’t hiding it anymore, so I may as well tell my friends. The way both their jaws dropped at once, it obviously wasn’t what they’d expected to hear.
“You’re… dating?” Annie asked.
“Yeah. We have for a while, since before our parents got married.”
“Well, if you’re happy, I’m not going to judge. Besides, it’s not like you’re blood relatives or anything,” Tina commented, grabbing her laptop to check on some notes.
“I guess so,” Annie replied. “It’s still a bit weird to me. I don’t think I could do it. But I’m happy for you, Julianne. It’s great you’ve found someone. Especially someone who’s so damn hot. I kind of suspected, but it’s still different to have you admit it. I guess I’ll probably get used to it.”
“Thanks, guys. It means a lot to me that you’re not being super judgemental about this.”
Annie shrugged. “You’re one of my best friends. Of course I’m not going to be super judgy. It’s your life.”
“Exactly,” Tina chimed in.
I smiled as we went back to our books. Maybe this whole ‘going public’ thing wasn’t going to be as hard as I thought.