"Why?" I asked.
"Look what you did to Kristen, and you hardly know her."
"I do know her," I corrected Patty. "You remember Patrice? She’s one of Kristen’s gang. She used to be a friend before that."
"Oh," said Patty quietly.
"Something wrong? Did I go too far?" I asked.
"Um… I don’t think so… But do you think…" Patty’s voice died off.
"Think what?" I asked.
"Maybe we can do a reenactment. With Patricia playing the part of Kristen…?"
We were getting close to my house. "Will I see you tomorrow morning?"
Patty grinned. "Of course."
"I have a question: What if I ordered Patricia not to come over in the morning?"
Patty thought for a moment. "Then she wouldn’t. But I’d be unhappy. I really like visiting you in the morning."
I nodded. "I thought so. So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then. Let me try to give you a call tonight."
I let Patty pull up in front of my house. I gave her a kiss on the cheek as I left the car.
As I went up my sidewalk, I saw the front curtain move.
And then an odd thought went through my head: I had stood up Marla at the mall this morning!
Well, it wasn’t like Marla was my girl friend, was she? If she was mad, I might be able to smooth it over with my tickets, just like I had done for Jack. Right?
My mom was waiting for me when I came in the front door. "Who drove you home?"
"That was Patty," I answered. "She’s a senior and gave me a ride home."
My mother continued. "I saw you kiss her."
"On the cheek," I answered. "Least I could do for a free ride."
My mother stared at me, and then decided to drop the subject — at least for now. I knew that I was going to have to have a long discussion with her later.
Dinner was unusually quiet. My mother and I didn’t talk much, and it was apparent that my step-father and step-sister knew that there was some tension in the air.
My step-father tried to break the ice. "So, Jim, what did you do today?"
"Went to the mall," I answered. "Met some friends. A senior named Patty gave me a lift home."
"That all?" my step-father asked.
"I guess."
My mother looked daggers at my step-father, and he dropped the subject. Supper continued in silence.
I went upstairs after dinner, knowing my mother would be coming up to have a "talk." She was quite direct like that.
As expected, she came up, knocked on my door and let herself into my room.
My mom looked around my room with a disapproving look on her face. I wondered if I was going to get the "your room is never clean" lecture or if she would get straight to the point.
My mom got straight to the point. "What’s going on with you, Jim?"
I tried the innocent ploy. "What are you talking about?"
My mom wasn’t buying it. "You came home late the other night. And now you have a senior driving you home. You’ve been acting a bit strange. I want you to tell me what’s going on."
I decided to grab the bull by the horns. "I have this new friend…"
"I see," my mother said, with a superior look on her face as her suspicions were correct. "Is it this Patty?"
"Well, there’s Patty. She has two friends, Wendy and Camille. We’re all good friends."
"Three girl friends?" my mom asked, incredulous.
"Well, they’re friends — good friends — who happen to be girls. Patty is a bit special." I decided to hit my mom with the big gun. "She’s teaching me about sex."
This almost gave my mother apoplexy. "Sex?" she blurted.
"Yeah. I mean, we haven’t done it together, I mean… you know…"
My mother almost definitely didn’t foresee this turn of events. "You’re only fifteen!"
I turned on my mother. "And how old were you when you first did it? Dad… my real dad… said the two of you were going out since early high school. And I know you were sleeping with Merry’s father before you got married. Are you going to tell me the rules are different for me?"
My mother was speechless.
I am not sure what had gotten into me. Perhaps it was knowing that I could probably smooth over anything that went wrong with some tickets, even though I was loathe to use them on my mother. Or maybe it was the rush of power that I felt when I had Kristen hold my penis in her mouth. I just knew that I wasn’t going to let my mother bully me, especially when I thought that she was being hypocritical.
My mom tried to explain, "Still, things like that have consequences."
"Mom," I said, giving her my best grown-up boy voice. "Patty is on the pill, and I can tell you without lying that I have no intention right now of having intercourse with her. Maybe later, if we both want to, but neither one of us has made that decision yet. Right now, I don’t think she’s the right girl for me, and she doesn’t think I’m the perfect one for her. But… if we decided to go all the way, the decision would be between Patty and me."
My mother sputtered, "But when you are living in my house…"
"When I’m living in your house, I will live by your rules, and I will follow the example that you have yourself set. I know that you yourself spent the night here many times before the two of you got married. Did you once hear a complaint from me? Huh?"
"That’s none of your business!"
"And Patty isn’t any of your business!"
"But you are my son…"
"And you are my mother. Mom, I am not judging you. I am living my own life. I’ve let you live yours. Let me learn things my way."
My mother was speechless.
"Mom. I love you. I really do. If you really want me to stop seeing Patty, sight unseen, just tell me."
My mother looked at me. She had no idea that if she uttered those words that I just challenged her to, that I would have had my bag of tickets out before she could blink. Patty was special, promise or no promise.
"You are growing up, son," she said, quietly.
"I know. It’s not easy for me, either," I smiled.
"Will we be meeting this Patty?"
"If you want, I will introduce you tomorrow morning."
My mom looked at me. "She was the girl here this morning?"
It was my turn to be surprised. I had no idea that my mother had known that Patty was here.
"Yes," I admitted, keeping the location of my bag of tickets foremost in my mind.
"Jim, you must think I was born yesterday," my mother said. "You have just argued that I should treat you like an adult. However, just this morning you had a girl in your room, maybe even your bed…"
"Mom…"
"Don’t interrupt me! I was suspicious when you got up by yourself so early this morning. And I saw a girl running around outside this morning, running into the bushes on the side of the house. She had red hair, so it wasn’t Meredith.
"When you went outside after skipping breakfast, I saw you through the kitchen window heading in the same direction as that girl did. So, it’s obvious to me that you knew about her, and she was the person you were hiding in your room."
I eyed the bag where my tickets were, then forced my attention away from it, lest my mother’s keen eyes notice.
I had been so close to getting my mother to understand about Patty… well, maybe not completely understand, but at least not ask too many questions. And then, what happened?
Of course, my mother changed the subject. Well, sort of. She was using the same technique that I had been using on her! Hitting her with slightly related things and putting her on the defensive.
I decided not to get defensive. "Mom, the reason Patty snuck out this morning was because you wouldn’t understand. You guys both still treat me like a kid. I’m gonna be going into high school in less than two weeks."