Together We Heal (10 page)

MAX CALLED HIS
mom before we went to dinner and I could tell things weren’t going well. She was having a hard time letting him go. He thought I didn’t really know a lot about his situation, but I paid attention. I could read between the lines, probably better than a lot of people.

He had a frown on his face when he finally hung up. I didn’t like it.

“Everything okay?” I asked tentatively.

“Yeah, I guess. She’s just being super demanding. I mean, I went home for Christmas and break and everything and now she wants me to come back again. I told her I’m busy, but she knows how to push my buttons and get me to agree to things.” He sighed in frustration. I wanted to wipe the frown off his face, so I kissed him. I didn’t really know what else to do.

“It’ll be okay,” I said, messing with his hair. He gave me a tight smile and it dawned on me that I wasn’t the only one who had issues that I bottled up. Granted, our issues were very different, but still. We were quite an interesting pair.

MY MOM WAS
being nutty. Her new strategy to try to make me come home was to offer me a car. A motherfucking car. My parents didn’t have money to buy me a brand-new car like that. I wondered if it was her idea, or Dad’s. It sounded more like something he would do, but who knew?

It was crazy and I wasn’t going to fall for it. I was staying in school and I was going to figure out what the hell I wanted to do and then I was going to do it. And hopefully, if everything went right, Trish would figure out what she wanted to do and then we’d ride off into the sunset or whatever. I didn’t care where we rode, or how we got there as long as she was next to me.

It was probably a little premature to think about that kind of stuff. College relationships seemed to come and go because life was in such a state of flux. One minute you were an education major and the next minute you were making money as a nude model for art classes. Things changed so fast. People changed so fast. I didn’t want that to happen to us.

“Max?” Trish said, getting my attention. We were parked at Stryker’s and I’d checked out.

“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about my mom and other stuff.” I unbuckled my seatbelt, but she put her hand on my arm.

“You know, this talking and sharing stuff goes both ways. If you want to share things with me, I’m all ears. Granted, I’m not so good at the advice and so forth, but I can listen.” She was much better at advice than she gave herself credit for. She’d helped each and every one of her friends at one point or another.

The problem with Trish wasn’t that she didn’t feel things. It was that she felt emotions more than most. She cared so fucking much, but couldn’t handle it. Not a bad quality to have, but not very easy on her.

“Thanks, hun,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Anytime, babe,” she said and then made a face. “Ugh, no. I thought I would try that out, but it made me feel gross saying it. I want to have a nickname for you, but I don’t have a good one. I guess I’ll have to try something else.”

“My Lord and Master has a good ring to it,” I said and she pretended to punch me in the face but pulled back at the last second. I wrapped my arms around her and held her to my chest.

“You’re an asshole,” she said into my chest.

“Only sometimes.”

“NO. WE ARE
not naming our child after a day of the week,” Stryker said as we all sat in the living room and ate grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon and bowls of Lottie’s salsa soup.

“Tuesday isn’t bad,” Katie said.

“I veto that name,” Stryker said, putting his empty bowl on the coffee table. “Do you want some more, sweetheart?” Katie shook her head and he took her dishes with his to the sink.

“Look, I’ve grown up with a weird name,” Trish said.

“It’s not easy. Every time you’re in school or at the DMV or anywhere you have to use your full legal name, it’s a fucking nightmare. So please don’t name your child something weird or ‘creative’. But don’t name them something like John or Jessica. Because that’s just too mainstream,” Trish said.

“So we should have a unique name, but not too unique?” Katie asked.

Trish pointed her spoon at Katie.

“Exactly.”

“And don’t give him or her a long name that’s hard to spell,” Lottie said, raising her hand.

“And if you have twins, don’t give them matchy-matchy names,” Zan said. His full name was Alexander, but since his older brother was named Zackary, he got the nickname Zan. It totally suited him over Alex, but the correlation with his older brother was unfortunate.

“And don’t give your kid a name that’s the same as, like, someone famous, because then everyone will ask them if they’re named after said famous person,” Will said. “And don’t name your kid after a dead writer.” He was named after the one and only William Shakespeare and Lottie was named after the spider in
Charlotte’s Web
. Since their mother was a librarian, it made sense, but it was kind of cringe inducing when people asked the origin of your name.

I was named after a name my mother liked in a baby book. Nothing special. At least I had a decent nickname. Maxwell just made everyone think of coffee or something.

Stryker came back and sat down on the couch and gathered Katie into his arms.

“Does anyone else have any opinions on our child’s name? Don’t be shy,” he said, but there was a scowl on his face.

“Hey, it’s okay. They just don’t want our baby to get made fun of when he or she goes to school,” Katie said, brushing his hair back from his forehead.

“I’m just looking out for my niece or nephew’s wellbeing,” Trish said, putting her hands up.

Stryker just shook his head and started playing with Katie’s hair.

“So how is this joint baby and wedding shower thing going to work?” Lottie asked.

Katie snorted.

“I have no freaking clue. It sounds insane, but that’s what she wants to do. I mean, it makes sense to do it all at once since we’re getting married soon.” She hadn’t told everyone the date, so this was new information.

“How soon?” Audrey asked from her place under Will’s arm. Everyone was coupled up. It was crazy how that had worked out.

“Well…” Katie said, looking at Stryker, “we talked it over and we’re thinking just after school gets out. June 3rd.” This caused all the girls (and Simon and Brady) to leap to their feet and rush to give Katie hugs.

There was lots of excitement and exclaiming. Sometimes all these people could be overwhelming. They just had such strong personalities, it was hard to deal with all of them together sometimes.

“You think you’re ready for that, big brother?” Trish said, going to give Stryker a hug.

“I’m gonna have to be,” he said, hugging her back. They didn’t show affection very much, but it was easy to see they loved one another deeply.

“So, with that said, I think I’m going to need some bridesmaids and a certain Maid of Honor,” Katie said and there was more squealing.

“Can we be bridesmaids? Please?” Simon said and Brady nodded and clasped his hands. “I mean, we’ll still wear tuxes and everything, but we want to be in the bridal party. Oh, and if you are in the market for a hand-carved arch to say your vows under, I might know someone who would be able to come up with one.” Simon was crazy good at building things. He was saving up money to rent a workshop where he’d have room to work on his furniture. The plan was eventually to start selling his one-of-a-kind pieces online.

“We’ll talk about it,” Katie said, laughing.

“I swear to God, if you make me wear an ugly dress, I will end you,” Trish said to Katie.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to let everyone pick their own style of dress and the colors will all be different shades of pink. Because, well, it’s me.” She shrugged and just about everyone rolled their eyes.

“Hey, if I have to wear a pink tie, you have to wear a pink dress,” Stryker said to Trish, grabbing her under his arm and messing up her hair. They wrestled for a moment, but she got herself free, looking a little disheveled. I ran my fingers through her hair to smooth it for her.

“Thanks, Max,” she said, softening when she looked at me.

She sighed heavily.

“Okay, okay, I
guess
I can wear the pink dress.” Katie clapped and gave Trish a hug.

“You’re going to look amazing. Promise.”

The talk quickly devolved into wedding plans including locations, food and songs.

“Now the music is something that’s not going to be a problem,” Stryker said. “The Band is going to have their very first gig.” That would be awesome. It was going to be one hell of a party.

Stryker and Zan started talking about song selections while Katie, Lottie, Audrey and Simon were talking about releasing doves or some shit. Will made a snarky comment about it and Lottie threatened to box his ears.

“What does that even mean?” he asked.

“Do you want to find out, William?” she said, holding her hands up, as if to demonstrate.

“Be nice to my boyfriend,” Audrey said, putting herself between the twins.

Lottie just narrowed her eyes and pointed at Will.

“I will get you. When you least expect it. Bam! I’ll be there,” she said.

“And I’ll know you’re coming,” he said, rolling his eyes. He tapped his head. “Twindar, remember?”

I wouldn’t have believed in it, if I hadn’t seen it in action. They could practically read each other’s minds. It was freaky.

“Break it up, break it up,” Simon said, stepping between them. “If you kids don’t cut this out, I’m going to separate you and take away your video games. And books.” Lottie and Will whined at the same time and I couldn’t help but laugh with everyone else.

“You’re ridiculous,” Audrey said, tugging on a lock of Will’s shaggy hair.

“And you’re beautiful,” he said. Simon made gagging noises, but it was like the pot calling the kettle black. He and Brady were the sugary-sweetest couple I’d ever witnessed. I’d thought that maybe they were just in the honeymoon phase, but they still acted like they’d just met and were hopelessly obsessed with one another. They set a high relationship bar.

MY FRIENDS AND
family were downright ridiculous. Between the happy couples and the wedding stuff and the baby news, it was like being around people who were on mood enhancers all the time. It was hard to be bitter and surly around them. I got contact happy.