The Families in Rossford
ELIAS CAME HOME ELATED, and Paul and Kirk looked at their son.
“I just met the coolest people,” Elias said, simply. He hugged Kirk, and then he hugged Paul. And then for good measure he hugged Matthew too. He ran upstairs to find Bennett.
The door was open and Elias was surprised to find Bennett crying, quietly.
“What the hell, Ben?” Elias closed the door and went to his brother.
Bennett looked up at him, but his face was happy.
“She lied,” Bennett said. “She told me everything. Told me the whole truth.”
“Well, that’s good,” Elias said, touching his shoulder.
“It’s bad, El,” Bennett said. “It’s real bad.”
Bennett continued to cry quietly.
“It’s bad that someone could lie like that, do that to another person.”
He shook his head and took a deep breath.
Eyes still wet he looked at Elias.
“How can people be like that?”
Alex sat in the large room of the house Laurel and Caroline maintained outside of downtown. It had never felt so old or so empty or, for that matter, so strange. He looked forlorn and flat. He had been a good boyfriend to her.
“I don’t know what’s happening to you,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening to us.”
Then he said, “No, I do.”
“You do?” she said, quickly, wishing he would tell her something good, something she wanted to hear.
“Nothing,” he said. “That’s what’s happening. I feel like I haven’t been a part of your life, a part of your story, for a long time.”
Well, there it was. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him, really.
“Is this Moshe guy better than me?” he began, and then he said. “No. That sounds whiney. That’s not true. I don’t feel that way. I feel like you have something going on. You have something going on that’s not a part of me.”
Laurel nodded, sadly, acknowledging this.
“Are we done?” he said.
“You say we are,” Laurel told him. “You came to tell me that.”
“No,” he shook his head. “That’s not enough. You owe me that much. I need to hear from your own mouth that it is done.”
“You’re right,” she agreed.
Laurel opened her mouth to prepare to say those words, but she couldn’t shape her mouth around them. It was just too much.
“I need you to tell me,” Alex said.
“It’s over!” she said quickly.
“And not for Moshe, either,” Alex surmised, standing up.
Laurel shook her head.
“I guess it’s done because it’s done.”
Alex kissed her on the cheek, and then he said, “Well, I guess, I’ll see you, Laurel.”
“You can always see me,” she said.
There wasn’t anyone else. There was the idea of Moshe, and that might not work out. As of now, he was only an idea.
Alex nodded.
“Maybe I’ll take you up on that,” he said.
He left the large living room. Laurel was too stupid to see him out, which is how she castigated herself some time later. She heard the door close and sat there, feeling very alone, waiting for the approach of evening and Caroline to return from the shop.
She thought she would feel bad, but suddenly she wanted to call Moshe. She didn’t know what she would say to him. We’re free? I’m free? Let’s make a go of it? She just wanted to talk to him. Anything she said would have something about Alex in it, and though she couldn’t explain it, she was ashamed of that. It seemed embarassing to call this boy who wanted her and tell him that her relationship was over. Would he think he had ended it? Had he ended it? It was too much.
“Maia,” she decided.
She got up and went to the old phone. It seemed to take forever to get there, turn the rotary for the number, and hear her friend pick up.
“Laurel,” Maia’s voice was anything but thrilled. No, it was excited to hear her, but… she was unhappy.
“Yes?” Laurel used her expectant voice, the voice that put away all of her issues in order to hear someone else’s, the voice Dylan told her she used too much.
“Now, you know how much I hate bitches who cry,” Maia began, sounding like she might rapidly be turning into one such bitch. “But I need to come over. Or have you come over.”
“I’ll be right over. I’ll leave a note for Mom and put the foyer light on. I don’t feel like sitting around here right now.”
“Great,” Maia said. “I’ll… I’ll put some tea on.”
“Tea?”
“That’s what women are supposed to do. That or eat lots of ice cream, and I don’t want to be fat so I guess I’ll put some tea on.”
Laurel didn’t argue with this, she just said, “I’ll be over in ten minutes.”
“So, he’s not the father?”
“No.” In her bedroom, Maia shook her head.
“So this girl put him through a pregnancy scare, and then it turned out she was lying.”
“Exactly,” Maia said.
Before Laurel could speak, Maia said, “And so you may be thinking, what’s the problem, then?”
“No, I’m not,” Laurel said, soberly. “You thought he was yours. He was supposed to be. You had an understanding. Everyone knew that. And he went and had sex with this girl. I get it.”
Maia nodded.
“I always thought I would be with him,” she said. “I counted on that, and now I am. But…” she shook her head.
“You know,” Laurel began, “he didn’t have to tell you. He could have kept it from you.”
“I wish he had!” Maia burst out. “Why did I have to know that?”
Next, she sounded more as if she was speaking to herself than Laurel.
“But then I wouldn’t want to not know it. No, I would want to know. I’d have to know! I wouldn’t want someone who kept things from me.”
Maia’s face went flat.
“I don’t know.”
The girls sat there quietly, and Laurel said, “I know he loves you.”
“Yes, I know it too.”
Laurel took a sip of her tea and said, “I’m not really into tea.”
“Me neither. It was a sophisticated idea. I don’t know,” Maia continued. “Maybe that’s the problem. Too much sophistication. After all, I’m sixteen, what does all this matter?”
Maia got up from the bed. She picked up Laurel’s cup and saucer, and then her own. She walked out of her room into the hall, and Laurel could hear her talking to Melanie in the kitchen.
When Maia came back in, she looked at Laurel.
“There is something going on with you. I’ve been talking so much, and something is going on with you.”
“I’m not ready to talk about it,” Laurel said.
Maia looked at her, cocked her head.
Suddenly, Laurel said:
“I broke up with Alex today. It’s over.”
Throwing her hands across her face, Maia burst out weeping.
Dylan Mesda sat open mouthed, looking at Elias.
“He gets home tomorrow,” Elias said, “so we better work something out.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“How was I supposed to tell you? In what way, in what method, at what time? We’ve been steady all of six weeks.”
Dylan put up a hand.
“I’m not mad at you.”
“You don’t get to be mad at me,” Elias was a little put out.
Neither one of them spoke immediately, and then Elias said, “I used to think you did, though. Both of you. But I’ve told you, and now I’ve got to tell him, and hit him with the double whammie.”
“I knew you’d been with someone else,” Dylan clarified. “I wasn’t so vain as to think I was the only one. I just… didn’t know it was Lance.”
“And he doesn’t know about you.”
“Fuck,” Dylan said.
“Well, what are we going to do?”
“What are you going to do?” Dylan said.
“Me?”
“Right,” Dylan told him. “I know what I’m going to do. You’re my boyfriend. Lance isn’t. He already cleared that up.”
“If I choose you, and you choose me, then what about Lance?”
Dylan looked at Elias.
“We can’t leave him out in the cold,” Elias murmured.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what I’m talking about.”
“Yes,” Dylan said, impatiently. “Only, I’m not exactly sure what we’re supposed to do about it.”
“We need to talk to him,” Elias said. “I love him. You love him. He loves us. We’re a family. Just like you said at New Year’s.”
“Alright,” Lance said over the phone. “Whaddo you need to talk about?”
“You sound so calm,” Elias said.
“Of course I’m calm. Why wouldn’t I be? Cept I’m excited to get home to you guys tomorrow.”
“You guys?”
“Yeah, you and Dylan.”
“You need to be quiet and listen to two things. Three things maybe. Possibly four.”
Lance chuckled, but Elias said, “No. I’m completely serious.”
“Alright, Eli,” Lance said, gently. “You got my ears.”
“I am dating Dylan. I am his boyfriend.”
“Really?” The sound of Lance’s voice was indescribable.
“Yes,” Elias said. “You can’t just have him and not have him.”
“I know that.”
“Or me for that matter.”
“I wasn’t expecting it.”
Elias didn’t believe that, but he continued, “The other thing is this: I am in love with you. The more I fall in love with Dylan, the more I am in love with you. I am in love with us.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
Elias shook his head, but realized Lance couldn’t see that.
“Look,” he said. “I’m not even sure. I’m just… ”
“Are you talking open relationship or something.”
“I don’t know,” Elias said, even though he realized this was exactly what he was talking about. “Just… Just think it over. Good night.”
Nervously, he hung up the phone.
“So this is your apartment,” Milo said, looking around.
Maggie nodded, and swung her joined hands behind her back.
“Yup,” she said. “This is it.”
“Nice.”
“Mom makes a fair amount of money,” Maggie explained. “And then I’m working at the drugstore too.”
“Great,” Milo nodded, walking around. “Great.”
There was an awkward silence, and then Milo said, “I’ve never had a daughter before.”
“Of course you have,” Maggie pointed out. “That Dena has one.”
“Cara is a baby. Almost a baby. My God,” he looked at Maggie. “You’re a woman. You’re like a grown up. And I never knew about you. How come I never knew about you?”
“I don’t know,” Maggie said. “I always thought Mom had a reason for not talking about it, so I didn’t ask. You could have been a murderer or a rapist or, I don’t know, her brother. Her father. Weird crap like that.”
“Well, then when did you ask?”
“About a year ago. And I don’t know why,” she headed off the next question. “I just knew I had a father and a family out there and I didn’t have a lot of family in New Mexico. Or anywhere. So Mom told me who you were, your name. I looked you up. Everyone is look-up-able now, and I just came to live here, see if I liked it. I needed to be away from her, but close to family. And so…”
Maggie shrugged.
“You’ve done a lot of damage.”
“That Dena—”
“Dena is my wife, and you can’t call her That Dena.”
“I don’t like your wife,” Maggie said. “She’s got an attitude.”
“She’s a nice woman.”
“No, she’s not,” Maggie said. “And neither am I.”
“You have so much family,” Milo said. “You’re an Affren.”
“I’d rather be a Biggs, no offense.” Then she added. “At least for now.”
“A’right,” Milo nodded. “You’ve got a little sister and a little brother. You’ve got cousins. Meredith lives in town. You’ve got a grandmother, my mom, but you might not want to get excited about that.”
“Why, is she a bitch?”
Milo looked like he was about to reprimand her, but then he said, “Dena doesn’t like her.”
“Then she might be my kind of person.”
“And,” Milo went on, ignoring this, “you have a great-grandmother who would love to meet you. That is, if you want to be a part of this family.”
“Do I have to like your wife?”
“You have to respect her.”
“Can we just settle for being civil?”
“Civil’s a good place to start.”
Maggie folded her arms across her chest, and then she shook Milo’s hand and nodded saying, “Daddy’s—little—girl.”