Lupine Dreams Pt. 07 Ch. 22-24

Author's note: You definitely will need to have read the previous chapters first, FYI. Enjoy (:

~~~

Chapter 22

10:38am

hey

10:40am

Hey (:

10:46am

thats backwards

11:02am

Nah, that's my thing, that's how I make them. Then you know it's really from me and not an imposter (;

11:05am

hmm

thats not how you smile anyway

11:08am

Haha how do I smile?

11:22am

:7

sorta

kinda

11:31am

7:

11:33am

see now you're frowning

11:33am

Nah. Don't think I could if I tried today : P

11:51am

I'm the coolest teacher in school today, btw

11:57am

hmm wonder why that could be

12:09pm

kinda weird last night tbh

without Da Vinci I mean

12:22pm

Yeah he actually told me the same thing this morning. He kinda got used to you being there I think

12:25pm

yeah same

12:31pm

are teachers allowed to text in school? don't you have teaching to do?

12:47pm

Nah, we have an understanding. I assign reading, then they pull out their Chromebooks and just look at porn. Class teaches itself

12:52pm

no wonder they think you're so cool

1:01pm

You chilling at home today?

1:07pm

watching a shitty scifi movie

it came from vortex 9

*vordox

fucking autocorrect

1:09pm

Are you serious??

1:09pm

almost always

1:10pm

Dude no way!

1:10pm

dude yes way

1:10pm

Dude I love shitty scifi!

1:10pm

dude me too

1:11pm

whats your go to

1:14pm

Probably Winter on Zavallian Shores. Just love the dialogue in that so much haha

1:16pm

that's acceptable

in the tongue of old mother Pluto I bless you, traveler from the great beyond

VENETRAAAAAAASSSSSSS

*plonk*

1:19pm

Bahahahaha omg, I like to believe the actor wasn't actually supposed to hit him but they just rolled with it

1:20pm

lol

1:22pm

I haven't seen Vordox though

1:23pm

I've seen it a bunch but gram doesn't have wifi so I can only watch what I've got with me

1:32pm

You're not back at your apartment? I thought you said yesterday Kendra was bringing you home?

2:02pm

umm good timing actually. no I'm at gram's. she wants you to come over for dinner sunday

I know its way fast but I think she wants to make sure you're not a cult leader or something

you can feel free to say no

2:03pm

really

sorry for making it awkward

2:03pm

Sure, I'm game

2:03pm

shes just being weird but I had to ask you just so I can tell her I did

oh

ok

2:03pm

But... who's Gram? I've heard you mention the name but that's it

2:04pm

oh sorry. shes sorta like my grandma I guess. she took care of me as a kid

2:04pm

Well then yeah, of course :7

2:04pm

ok

cool

I know its a little much sorry

I had to tell her where I was staying

and that was a whole thing

and she just wasn't gonna let it go

2:04pm

I already said yes haha

5:11pm

What're you up to tonight?

5:37pm

nothing

hanging with gram

5:38pm

you?

5:40pm

Grading papers. Always grading papers

5:42pm

just give em all A's. you'll be even cooler

5:45pm

Nah, my boss caught on to that when their essays started to be about all the explicit sex scenes in Shakespeare plays

5:46pm

lol

6:37pm

watching queen on the verge of the universe

6:41pm

Oh man I love that one

6:41pm

lol I bet you do

6:42pm

Bahahaha what's that supposed to mean : P

6:42pm

hey I'm not judging. just because theres no air doesn't mean there shouldn't be nudists

6:42pm

That's always been my philosophy

6:42pm

lol

6:43pm

What part are you on?

6:44pm

they just beat the gas cloud at space chess

6:45pm

Hahaha that's so great. No one even questions how he's moving the pieces!

6:45pm

lol right

6:49pm

I love this when they're like "What is a human?" Then immediately are like oh yeah no problem, come back in like 20 minutes, we'll have that cure ready

6:50pm

lol yeah

the 60s must've been a wild fucking time

6:52pm

Eh, it was ok

6:52pm

shut up you're not that old

6:59pm

I'm pretty sure that's the same guy from that one about the praying mantises who are galactic communists? You ever seen that? Shit I can't remember his name though. Or the movie... He's been in tons of these I feel like though

7:00pm

... ok you might actually be that old

7:00pm

Bahahaha

7:24pm

this is my favorite part

hands down

7:25pm

Mine too

7:25pm

the way she just like, rips off their obviously cardboard wings and uses them to fucking fly into space

like its the most reasonable thing to do

cracks me the fuck up every time

I think its the look on her face that gets me

7:26pm

whatever they were smoking then, I wish I could still get that shit now

7:54pm

you still watching

8:02pm

Yeah sorry, I'm still grading too

8:21pm

Clearly they blew their entire budget on this fight sequence : P

8:22pm

lol right

def didn't spend it on stunt men

8:23pm

Haha yeah I'm pretty sure that guy definitely broke his arm for real there

8:23pm

gotta sacrifice for your art

8:39pm

we should watch vortex 9 sometime, I bet you'd like it

*vordox goddammit

8:50pm

I bet I would :7

12:42am

you asleep

12:55am

No. You?

12:56am

yeah

12:56am

Wow. Maybe leave the dad jokes to the old guy : P

12:56am

you're not old

or you'd be asleep

12:57am

Haha got me there I guess

12:57am

just wanted to let Da Vinci know I was thinking about him

12:58am

Funny you should say that, he was just telling me he was having trouble getting to sleep without you here

12:58am

yeah same

1:00am

I don't really wanna go back to my apartment

1:00am

When do you go?

1:00am

monday

1:01am

Do you have to?

1:01am

I mean no but yeah

can't stay here forever

1:03am

Why don't you wanna go back?

1:04am

I dunno

1:06am

maybe if I'm there it'll be like it was before

I know it doesn't work like that

but it sorta does

1:07am

I get that

1:07am

do you

1:08am

Yeah. There are some places I just can't go

1:10am

like where

nevermind

you don't have to tell me

1:13am

Giles Pier. Mal proposed to me there

1:13am

she proposed to you?

1:13am

Yeah haha. Got down on one knee and everything

1:14am

thats cute

I mean I get it tho

1:14am

Also the Applebee's on 17th

1:14am

sorry its probably not cute

wait she proposed twice?

1:15am

Haha no I just can't go there either! But that's just because I'm banned

1:15am

what for

1:16am

Kept taking too many napkins. They get real touchy about that kinda thing

1:16am

oh thats why I thought you looked familiar. musta seen your pic there

1:16am

Hahaha yeah I'm kinda notorious, what can I say

1:16am

I knew you were a bad boy deep down

1:17am

They call me the Napkin Bandit

1:17am

hmm

thats really dumb

1:17am

Yeah you know how it is. The press comes up with these things, I can't even get it trademarked

1:17am

lol

1:38am

does mal call you andrew?

1:40am

Yeah

Just you and my mom call me Henry. I wasn't exaggerating

1:43am

You have to work Monday too?

1:44am

yeah

1:44am

Maybe we can watch Vordox afterward at your apartment?

1:47am

maybe

1:49am

yeah

that sounds good

1:50am

:7

1:50am

:7

~~~

Chapter 23

Seated at her dinner table, now mostly empty of the remains of dinner, Henry exchanged an amused look with Brooke when she reached over him to grab his empty plate and bring it back to the kitchen.

Callie had been chattering animatedly now for a solid five minutes straight, at least. Her two younger brothers had left the table long before that, off to play Fortnite or Roblox or whatever it was they did on a Saturday night.

It wasn't that Henry wasn't interested in what his niece was saying -- he was. She was kind of a geek. Callie's mom's idea of a fun day was a hike up a mountain trail and pitching a tent at the top, and her dad's was a day of adult league basketball at the rec center followed by a night of watching football. So when Henry was around, she finally had somebody she could talk to about a Bradbury book she'd read or whether Deckard was a replicant.

That wasn't what she was talking about now, though. Or at least he didn't think so. She was a nerd, yes, but she was also 16. So the topic tonight seemed like it was a smattering of top teenage torments: teachers, frenemies, how unfair her mom was being by not letting her drive the SUV -- high drama. That really wasn't what was making his attention wander, either, though.

His eyes flicked down to the phone in his lap for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last minute.

He knew he was acting like a teenager himself, one who just found out his crush had a thing for him, too. And he knew it wouldn't -- and shouldn't -- last. The beginning of a relationship was always exciting.

Or at least, that was the common wisdom. Honestly, even though he was 36, he hadn't really had more than a few real relationships in his life. He'd met Mallory when he was 19, and they'd married at 24. So as much as he felt like he shouldn't react like this anymore, he knew it was actually a pretty new experience for him.

Cameron certainly hadn't seemed put off, though. They'd been texting a lot since she left his house to stay with Gram. And in shitty sci-fi movies, they'd finally found somewhere where they overlapped, too -- no matter how small a thing it was.

She seemed more talkative over text. Or maybe she was just more comfortable with him general, like she'd been the other night in bed. He'd never seen her so expressive, and it was like that carried over into her messages.

Except when his marriage came up, that is. Maybe she just didn't really know how to respond. He didn't have much experience dating as a 36-year-old, but as a 23-year-old, he definitely hadn't had any point of reference for what it was like to be married yet, much less divorced.

So once he'd told her that he was at his sister's house tonight to go over the settlement agreement, he didn't really expect to hear from her for a while. And he hadn't.

Maybe Callie should be giving me tips?

He smiled a little bit at the thought of asking his teenage niece for dating advice... then frowned when he realized Cameron was way closer to Callie's age than his. That got him to finally keep his eyes off his phone for an extended period. Just in time, apparently, too.

"--but Kelly was like 'no, you don't need a doctor for an abortion, I met this guy online who'll do it for free as long as you let him take some pictures of you first!'"

Henry snapped his attention back to his smirking niece, wondering what the hell he'd missed.

"I knew you weren't paying attention!" she said smugly, more pleased that she'd caught him rather than mad his mind had been wandering.

His niece's eyes and straight, long hair were the same matching brown he and his sisters all sported, and she had Brooke's same sharp features. From a distance, she would've looked just like his oldest sister when she was that age, if not for the glasses and baggy purple sweatshirt.

He gave her an embarrassed smile. "Guilty! You got me. But I think I got the gist. You're pregnant with Kelly's baby and your mom won't let you drive yourself to your teacher's house for an abortion."

She nodded, not missing a beat. "Okay, so you were listening."

Brooke came out of the kitchen again, eyeing the grinning pair suspiciously.

"I don't think I even wanna know what you two are up to," she said. Then she clapped Henry on the shoulder. "I gotta steal your partner in crime here for a bit, sorry," she told her daughter. "You can have him back after you finish your homework."

Callie gave her mom a 10-out-of-10 eyeroll. "I did it already. And it's Saturday, God."

"You can just call me, 'Mom,'" Brooke said, a little bit of an edge to her voice that quickly dissipated. "But fine. You can have Uncle Andrew back when he finishes his homework, then."

Henry waggled his eyebrows at Callie and stood up, following his sister to her study.

It was a cozy space, cabinets stacked with years of teetering piles of papers and files kept as neat as could be in a room that was bursting at the seams. A massive wooden desk took up the entirety of one of the walls, filled with spillover clutter in front of family photos lining the back of it.

Brooke closed the door behind her brother and gestured for him to take a seat on the old couch.

"I hope you're sticking around after this, by the way. Callie would probably never speak to me again if you left right after dinner," she said as she took a seat in the swivel chair in front of the desk, scooting closer to Henry. Then she paused for a second. "For a day at least. Of course, she's a teenager, so, 50/50 odds she'll just do that anyway."

"Callie?" he said, settling into the couch. "She doesn't seem like that."

Brooke gave her little brother a pitiable look meant to remind him he'd never had any kids.

"Someday, Andrew, you too shall have a teenage daughter. And then," her face shifted to relishing the future she was conjuring up in her mind, "ohhhh and then, my dear brother, you'll see. I will delight in coming over to your house, watching movies with her, bringing her crap she doesn't need -- and then leaving so she can scream at you for ruining her life when you ask her if she absolutely needs super expensive new headphones, because, what's wrong with her old ones? Can't she just wait for her birthday?"

Henry gave her a blank look. "I mean... why are you trying to ruin your daughter's life, Brooke, she brings up a good point."

They laughed and Brooke rolled her eyes. Then she was ready to get down to business.

"Okay," she said, "before any respectable young lady is gonna knock you up, we gotta get you divorced first. So. Whatdya got for me little brother."

Henry had asked for this meeting, one they hadn't had in the three years since he filed for divorce. He'd never truly been ready for it before. He wasn't totally sure he was now, either -- but he wanted to find out.

Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out the folded-up settlement agreement he'd left untouched on his kitchen table for too long. He unfolded it and handed it over to Brooke, the last page signed and dated.

Brooke looked pleasantly surprised... but also gave him a glance that made him think he'd done something adorably dumb without knowing it.

"That's awesome," she said, smiling in a way that made him think a "but" was coming. "But... you know you gotta sign these in front of a notary, right?" She started to laugh.

He... did not know that. But in hindsight.... "Oh... well, okay, but still, I'm ready to do that then!" he said, determined to stay upbeat.

The beaming look she gave him said she was still happy about the sentiment. "That's good. Really, Andrew, that's awesome. I mean, okay, I have to speak as your attorney for a second -- we're not outta the woods 'til her signature is on this, so I gotta check again with her counsel to make sure she'll still sign it." She mimed taking off one hat and putting on another. "But as your sister now -- Andrew, that's great. I'm proud of you."

She patted his knee and he felt himself blush a little. Brooke always heaped praise on him for the things he should've just done in the first place... but that didn't mean it didn't still make him feel good.

"So... I'm not trying to look a gift horse in the mouth, but..." she looked at him curiously, hesitating to ask, "was there something that changed your mind? Not that there needs to be!"

When he came here, Henry still hadn't been sure he was actually going to tell Brooke what had happened. But with an invitation like that, he felt like he had to -- so he took a deep breath, deciding to just do it before he could change his mind.

"She... came to see me," he said.

All the light and playfulness drained out of Brooke's face in a flash, her lips snapping into a straight line.

But he wasn't done. He wanted to tell her everything, to get it all out so he didn't have to feel ashamed about it anymore.

"And... we, umm, slept together," he finished, not able to make eye contact.

Henry could tell his sister was trying to hold in her rage. But the first words out of her mouth weren't furious. Instead, she put her hand on his, trying to muster up as much tenderness in the touch as she could.

"Are you okay?" she said, her voice softer than he thought it would be.

He nodded. "Really. Yeah. I wasn't... but... I really think I am now."

Brooke searched his eyes, trying to suss out if he was lying -- either to himself or to her. He couldn't tell what she turned up, but he was pretty sure what he'd said wasn't a lie to either of them.

"All right," she said, grabbing a spare notepad and starting to scribble -- all business. She looked back up at him, the eyes of his sister replaced by the professional gaze of his attorney. "I know your thing about a restraining order--"

"I don't want things to get that messy--"

She held up a hand. She knew already. "Yeah, I know. Because they aren't--" she took a deep breath, cutting off whatever sarcastic remark she was going to make. "Okay. Honestly, Andrew? I don't think I should be handling this anymore. I wanna turn you over to my partner, Nathan, okay? He's got plenty of experience with exactly this type of--"

He waved her off. It was already questionable -- at best -- that she was his divorce lawyer in the first place, but this is what she did for a living and she was very, very good at it. He felt comfortable with her. Trusted her, even when he hadn't trusted himself. And prior to this, there really hadn't been too much complicated about their divorce. It just... had taken a while.

"No," he said. "I don't want anybody else, especially when we're at the 5-yardline here. I just..." he took a deep breath of his own, "I just wanna get this over with, okay?"

She dropped her pen on the pad and looked meaningfully at her brother, weighing what was best for him, no doubt, regardless of what he thought. Finally, she slowly nodded.

"Fine. Then I think you should at least change your phone number. Really. Clean break."

He let his skepticism show. "I don't... I don't think that'll be necessary, Brooke. I don't think she's gonna contact me again, really."

She cocked her head and her expression softened. "Shit, sorry, I didn't even ask how you... how you left things." Concerned, she turned her attention to what he had to say instead of whatever strategy she was thinking up.

He sighed, his fingers playing idly with the wall behind him while he regrouped. "She... apologized," he began, and could tell Brooke was already having to stifle an eyeroll her daughter would have been proud of, "and... she just really seemed like she understood what had gone wrong, you know? Like... like she was different -- we both are -- but also... also still the same person."

Henry looked to his sister like he always seemed to, knowing she wouldn't necessarily understand him, but that she'd take him seriously anyway.

"We picked up right where we left off," he continued. "It was easy. Fell right into our old rhythms." He couldn't keep the wistful smile from his face, recalling their walk under the stars, even though he knew how it ended. "It was pretty great, honestly."

"But...?" she prodded gently.

"But... yeah," he said, shaking away that night in favor of what was in front of him right now. "She hasn't changed. Neither have I." Brooke was about to protest that last one, but held her tongue. He shrugged. "We probably both thought we had. I'm pretty sure she really did think she'd changed."

Brooke's face mirrored the pain he felt on his own, but she couldn't see into his mind, couldn't see his wife in that bridesmaid's dress, couldn't feel her body writhing against him while he felt her neck pulsing for breath in his hand.

"And she... she seemed to get it, after the fact. I think she did, anyway," he said. Once again, he didn't feel like he was lying. "I think she realized she... hurt me. Again."

His sister squeezed his hand, giving him a second to emerge from the memory and back into the comfort of her familiar eyes.

"We just... don't work when we're together, I think we probably both get that now. I really think she still loves me under there, I do. And I know I still love her." Brooke hated to hear that, he was well aware. But like everything else he'd said, it was true. "So I think she'll leave me alone. I'm actually kind of glad it happened, really."

Now he was lying. He wasn't happy it'd happened. With Cameron out of his house, too many moments were spent alone, without enough distraction to drown out the echoes of the emptiness he'd felt that night, the feeling of worthlessness that had taken over when he saw how content, how satisfied Mallory had been after the same experience had left him feeling so lost and adrift.

"At least I know now instead of doing something even stupider for even longer." A justification meant to explain the lie.

Brooke nodded weakly. She probably knew he wasn't being honest, and could also probably tell he wasn't doing it to hide anything -- from her, anyway -- but for what he at least thought was his own good. She leaned over and hugged her brother, all the fury she'd been feeling gone from her expression -- or perhaps just put on hold for the time being.

As he wrapped his arms around his big sister in return, Henry was a little surprised he wasn't crying. He'd been known to cry at particularly poignant insurance commercials. But not now.

Then again, he didn't exactly feel sad. The emptiness inside him was just an echo of what Mallory had left behind when she'd walked out of his house that night -- a threat of it, not the real thing. With time, he began to hope, maybe even that much might fade away, too. Maybe.

"I'm glad you told me," Brooke said, separating and sliding over to take a seat next to him on the couch. "And I'm still proud of you."

Henry scoffed. "For what? Backsliding by doing the exact things everyone, including myself, kept telling me not to do? Or for not telling anyone about it afterwards?"

She shook her head, not finding any amusement in what he'd said. He didn't find much either, frankly.

"For coming out of this better," she said seriously. She put her arm around him, and he leaned against her shoulder. It was bonier than it used to be, but felt as safe as ever. "I believe you are, really. You're not in the same place you were when I gave you those papers," she said, pointing to the sheaf she'd left on her chair.

"I know you're hurting inside," she continued, patting over his heart and squeezing him a little tighter to her. "I know you are. But you're doing the right thing. For you." She kissed him on the head, and they sat like that for a minute or two, like they had so many times over the years -- Henry in the forgiving embrace of his older sister after he'd screwed up.

She made no move to release him, but eventually he slid out from under her arm and stood up, stretching.

"Okay," she said, looking up at him and then getting up herself. Despite their age difference, she didn't seem to need a stretch. "Don't respond to her texts if she texts you, okay? Please? Just tell me instead -- day or night," she pleaded with him.

He nodded. "Yeah. I don't think I'll hear from her anyway. Really."

Brooke didn't seem like she wanted to let him out of her sight. Not necessarily because she was afraid of what Henry might do, but because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't control what the rest of the world might do to her little brother when she wasn't watching.

"You don't have to actually hang with Callie before you go," she said, a non-sequitur as he was reaching for the door. Maybe she was just trying to find some topic of conversation to keep him in the room a little longer. Or maybe she had something else on her mind. "I wasn't serious."

Freezing, he gave her a quizzical look. "Why wouldn't I wanna chill on a Saturday night with the Calligator?"

Brooke crossed her arms, snorting, and gave him a warm smile that said he'd done something else adorable without knowing it. She shook her head and her smile got more lopsided.

"I don't know how I gave birth to someone who likes science fiction and spends her nights glued to her laptop, but I blame you, ya nerd," she said playfully.

Henry shrugged. "Maybe you just had a kid who's cooler than you. Sometimes it skips a generation. Even in siblings," he made a funny face at her and she laughed, her features softer than they'd been all night.

"You know, I'm sure she's never said it," Brooke said more quietly, "but the summer you spent here meant so much to her." She paused for a second. "Callie... doesn't have a lot of friends. She's...." Her eyes studied him thoughtfully. "She's sorta like you, actually."

He scrunched up his face in mock offense. "I don't have any friends??"

She laughed. "No. She just... sometimes doesn't wanna let the people who care about her actually care about her," she said, then sighed. "But what do I know, I guess, I'm just her mother."

Henry nodded, his smile replaced by earnestness. "It meant a lot to me, too. I don't know how I would've gotten through... everything. Not without you. And Callie, too," he said, the ghost of a smirk on his lips. "But I think... I think maybe I'm starting to learn how to, umm, you know... what you said."

Brooke gave him a wide, warm smile and patted him on the shoulder. "Yeah, now just get her to figure that out before she's your age, please."

Henry nodded, his gaze on the wall but seeing somewhere else entirely, slowly smiling back. "I'm trying my best."

~~~

Chapter 24

[vibe track: fantasy - alina baraz, galimatias ]

Cameron braced as Gram launched into yet another story. They all featured Cameron, naturally, usually as a little girl or a rebellious teen. At first, Henry had seemed a little on edge during dinner, but Gram had apparently warmed him right up as the night went along.

They were still here, sitting at the little table in Gram's kitchen where Cameron had spent so many nights as a kid, dinner long over.

All in all, that made Cameron... happy. Happier than she probably had any business being. So she didn't mind the embarrassment she felt as Gram worked her way through another Young Cameron story that, just like all the others, seemed like it had undergone some questionable rewrites over the years. But Cameron wasn't going to spoil their fun.

"Now this wasn't the first time they called me down to the school, even though she was only 7," Gram recounted to Henry, who sipped his water. It was surreal to see him here, worlds collided. But he seemed to fit in just fine. "I figured somebody tried to kiss her again and she fed 'em more woodchips!"

Henry stuck an unobtrusive finger into the air. "Ooh, let's bookmark that one for later," he said with a grin, looking back at Cameron. Gram laughed and Cameron shook her head.

I don't remember that woodchips thing happening at all. Is she making that one up entirely, or is that just something I don't remember because I was 7?

"So I get there," Gram continued, "and sure enough, there's my girl with the nurse, that little scowl she always has on her face, I'm sure you've seen it, Henry -- mhm that one right there!" Cameron blushed again and rolled her eyes. "She got her arm in a sling, scrapes and bruises on her knees, and I say to her, 'Cameron, come on now, you gotta stop doin' this!'"

Still seated, Gram put her hands on her hips as if she were scolding 7-year-old Cameron all over again. "And the nurse looks at me, shocked." Gram opened her eyes wide, imitating the nurse. "'She's done this before?' But Cameron's over there shakin' her head. Well, I'm not gonna let her get away with that, so I say, 'Oh yes you did, you got into a fight just last week with Jimmy Preston, don't you try and pretend you didn't!'"

"Gram, I never went to school with anybody named Jimmy Preston," Cameron interjected, now more and more skeptical of how tall this tale was going to get.

"You hush now, who's tellin' this story, hmm?" Cameron snorted and put her hands up in surrender, letting Gram tell it how she wanted. "Now then, the nurse says 'Oh, no, she didn't get in no fight, she jumped off the top of the swing set!'"

Henry laughed, looking at Cameron like she'd just done it yesterday. She shook her head again, letting a smile grow a little. Henry always seemed to look at her a beat longer than usual when she was smiling.

Gram kept going. "I say, 'Cameron, is this true? What'd you do that for!' And she says to me, 'Well, we found this cardboard box at recess, and we cut it up into wings,'" Gram flapped her arms like a bird, making even Cameron laugh out loud, "'and some kid bet me I couldn't fly over the fence!'"

Henry laughed, knowing what came next. So did Cameron. Unfortunately, this was shaping up to be a mostly true story.

"So," Gram said, "'I asked her, 'Well... did you make it?' And she holds up the arm she's got in the sling, and she says -- real serious -- 'my wing did.'"

Henry and Gram exploded into uproarious laughter and Cameron chuckled, her cheeks heating. "Thought it would work," she muttered in her defense, shrugging and locking eyes with Henry. "Saw it in a movie once."

They were both beaming at Cameron now, which they seemed to do after every story Gram told. She didn't actually mind it.

I guess she hasn't really had a chance to tell them to anybody before.

Henry certainly didn't either. He'd been grinning nonstop. That made Cameron smile, too.

This was apparently the last one Gram had at the ready, though.

"Well, I think that does it," she said with a sigh that turned into a cough, sliding her chair back and getting up. She had to lean on the table when she got up now. That had surprised Cameron a little bit when she'd come to stay here a few nights ago. But it probably shouldn't have. People got old. Even Gram.

"Can I help with the dishes?" Henry said, getting up, too.

Gram grinned at him, then looked to Cameron. "Hmph. How come you didn't offer? Gonna make him think I didn't raise you right!"

Cameron rolled her eyes, but started stacking their plates and silverware with the same beginnings of a smile that felt like had been on her face all night. Everything just seemed... worth smiling about tonight.

Gram took Henry's elbow and directed him to the living room instead. "No, no, you ain't doin' dishes, you're comin' with me, because I've got a photo album ain't never been seen by nobody. You let her do the dishes," she waved dismissively in the general direction of Cameron, which made her snort in amusement again.

Cameron felt like she was learning more about Gram tonight, too, seeing her in this completely new context for the first time.

She kept pictures of me? Where did she even get them? I don't remember her ever taking photos... did she?

Turning on the water, Cameron started washing the few dishes they'd used. There weren't many, but she was in no hurry. The opposite, even.

She couldn't hear what they were saying in the living room, just an occasional guffaw from both of them and a few of Gram's hacking coughs. But there were more laughs than Cameron had heard from Gram in a long time. She took that as a very good sign.

The whole night had been going really well, actually. She'd been so anxious about it. First, that Gram had made her do this at all. She and Henry were barely dating, if that's even what they were doing. They'd certainly... skipped a few steps, so she wasn't really sure where on the relationship spectrum they stood, not that she would have known anyway. All of this was new to her.

I know if he'd asked me to meet his mom, I would not have been as cool about it.

Now that she thought about it, though, she did wonder about Henry's mother. She felt another pang of guilt that she still hadn't shown the same interest in his life that he had in hers. Here they were at Gram's place for dinner, after all.

I wonder if his mom is kind, like he is. Like how Gram is sorta like me. Is that where he gets it?

After he'd said he would come to dinner, she'd been even more nervous, she thought as she scrubbed away at a plate. What if Gram did something rude, or stupid, or embarrassing... like, more than the acceptable amount of embarrassing, I mean. Or what if Henry did?

Or what if Gram didn't like Henry?

That thought tugged at the thread that threatened to unravel more than just tonight's dinner. When Cameron looked at Henry, she knew she -- to some degree, at least -- only saw what she wanted to see. But Gram? Nobody could tell Gram what she had to see. She'd look for herself. And she always looked carefully.

What if she could only see the shit Cameron didn't really want to dwell on?

You know, like how our personalities are completely different, how we barely know each other, how we don't really have anything in common, and -- oh yeah -- how he's still fucking married.

Cameron had told Gram that beforehand. She would've found out anyway -- she always did -- so better to head it off. Gram had actually taken it a little better than Cameron had expected. She'd stressed to Gram that, as much as the older woman might be concerned about it and feel like she'd be trying to protect Cameron or something, it was a completely forbidden topic. It was a really sensitive situation that she wasn't even all that clear about herself, just that Henry was struggling with it.

So far, Gram hadn't brought it up, which was a relief.

Eventually, Cameron couldn't pretend to still be doing dishes. She sauntered into the living room in Gram's tiny, two-bedroom condo. It only seemed tiny to Cameron now that she'd moved out and seen other homes, including Henry's. When she was a kid, nothing about it had seemed small. Not even Gram.

Sitting down next to Henry on the couch, she wasn't really sure how much she was supposed to touch him. They hadn't... they hadn't actually sat on a couch together before, had they?

What a weird fucking milestone, she thought to herself. But that didn't help her know what she was supposed to do. We haven't done anything, like, mundane together.

She decided to just curl her legs up underneath herself and rest her head on her knee, removing any pressure to do something with her hands, and tried to put all that bullshit out of her head. Tonight, that was easier to do than usual.

They talked in the living room for a while longer, and through Gram's questions, Cameron learned more about Henry, too. He had three sisters, two of whom had kids. The sisters had the same dad and mom, but only shared a mom with Henry, not their dad. He always wanted to be a teacher, he told Gram. And he got married to Mallory when he was 24. She hadn't known that. He'd brought that up himself, and Gram hadn't pushed, much to Cameron's relief.

Geez, that's basically my age. She couldn't imagine getting married next year. Which was part of why she had such a hard time knowing what to say whenever Henry's marriage came up.

Maybe... maybe Gram could help. Cameron wasn't sure how she could, but she didn't put anything past Gram.

After a while, their conversation petered out, and they called it a night. It was a school night for Henry, so he had to get back home anyway. If tonight was anything like the past couple of nights, they'd text each other before he fell asleep.

Gram rested her hand on Henry's shoulder after they got up and told him she was sure they'd see each other again.

"I hope so," he said in return. Cameron couldn't help but let her smile out a little more.

She led him to the door, just off the kitchen. While he slipped into his jacket, they both just smiled at each other. They didn't need to say much. Cameron was actually glad he'd come, that Gram had forced this to happen. He looked like he was, too, although he seemed a little awkward now, as unsure as she'd been about what kind of physical contact was appropriate.

"Umm... I'll see you tomorrow, right?" he said, giving her that self-conscious half-smile.

She smiled wider. "Yeah."

"Okay... well, bye," he said, still smiling and reaching for the door. But she stopped him, moving her hands up to his neck to pull him into a kiss. It was a little more than a peck on the lips, held just long enough so that it made her want more, but she pulled back.

"Bye," she said, her grin all the way across her face now. His cheeks were a little flushed, but he was grinning too as he left, and she closed the door behind him.

Cameron carried her smile with her back into the living room, where Gram had opened the window and was lighting a cigarette with another cough. Her hair looked thinner than it used to, and more creases were etched into her face than Cameron remembered.

Maybe it was because of that. Or maybe it was because of the trips down memory lane Gram had taken her and Henry on. Maybe it was finding out about all the photos of her Gram had meticulously kept over the years. Or maybe it was just that things were going so well that Cameron felt like a weight had been lifted off her.

Whatever the reason, she surprised herself by kissing Gram on the cheek, just as tenderly as she had Henry, leaving Gram looking even more surprised than Cameron was. But the old woman didn't say anything, just lit Cameron's cigarette with the hint of a smile on her lined face. That meant she was gonna make Cameron say it out loud.

"Well?" Cameron finally said, taking a drag. There was still a smile in her voice, if not on her face anymore.

Gram took a long pull, then blew the smoke out the window in an equally long sigh. "He's a real nice boy," she said finally.

Cameron felt her eyebrows come together in confusion. "You didn't like him?" She couldn't cover up how crestfallen she felt. She'd been sure Gram liked him, that everything was good.

"I didn't say that," Gram said defensively, but with an annoying calm. "I just said he's a nice boy. There ain't nothin' wrong with that." She took another drag and exhaled, letting her words linger in the air. "Is there?" Her thin, arched eyebrow seemed like a challenge.

What the fuck? Why... why the fuck is she saying that? She showed him fucking pictures, made him laugh all night, he answered her questions... what am I missing? What did she see?

"But... you... I thought you were having a good time? I thought you liked him?" Cameron sounded like she was grasping at straws now -- which she was.

"I did," Gram said with another lazy shrug. "He's a nice boy."

"Stop saying that," Cameron snapped. "Why are you saying it like that? What is that even supposed to mean? He is nice. So what?"

As Cameron got more exasperated, Gram seemed to get even calmer, every gesture a little more deliberate. She shrugged a third time, this time without adding any words, just more smoke toward the window screen.

But her eyes stayed on Cameron, watching the conflict roiling inside her as she tried to square her idea of Henry with her idea of Gram -- and how she'd thought those two had fit together.

Maybe they don't.

She shook her head. "Gram." She pleaded with one word that made her sound like the kid in one of the stories Gram had so animatedly told to Henry at the dinner table.

Gram dabbed ashes off her cigarette into the tray on the windowsill. The ashtray wasn't perfectly round, a little warped. Cameron had made it for her in a shop class. She turned to face Cameron all the way now, with a serious look to go along with it.

"What do you want me to say, hmm?" she said, an expectant expression on her weathered face. "That ain't rhetorical. What do you wanna hear from me?" She sounded patient, not challenging -- like she really wanted Cameron to ask herself what it was she wanted to hear.

They each took a couple more puffs while Cameron gave that some real thought.

I just wanna... I just wanna know I'm not fucking up, she admitted to herself. I just wanna hear her say that this guy is okay, and that.... She knew she sounded juvenile, even in her own head, and wasn't going to go any further down that path. She'd just end up sounding even stupider.

"I... I wanna know what you think, okay?" she said instead.

"Why?"

"What do you mean, 'why'?" Cameron waved her arms in irritation. "Your opinion is, you know -- you're important to me, Gram. Can't you just... tell me?"

So much for not sounding juvenile.

Gram narrowed her eyes. "You wanna know if I think he's good enough for you?"

"What?" Cameron blurted back. Of all the things she wanted to know -- no, that wasn't even on the list. It wasn't something she'd ever asked herself. There was no reason to.

With another tap of her cigarette, watching how Cameron reacted, it seemed like Gram could see what was going through her head and nodded ever so slightly, as if to say, why not?

Gram spoke again. "He just seems... a little..." She almost made a show of trying to find the right word. Whatever it was, Cameron knew already she didn't want to hear it. Gram blew smoke toward the window screen again while she took her time coming up with how she wanted to finish her evaluation, then turned back to Cameron with a verdict.

"Fragile."

Of its own accord, Cameron's jaw set itself. "Don't call him that," she said, all trace of juvenile pleading gone. Gram just looked at her, her eyebrow cocked. "He's not fragile, Gram. How the--how can you... how can you even think that?" The angry determination in her voice was replaced now by a complete disbelief, like something she'd been taught since she was a child wasn't actually true. And that's exactly what was happening.

If Gram can't see that... Cameron didn't want to finish that thought, either. Instead, she stamped her cigarette out into the ashtray and leveled her eyes at Gram.

"He's the strongest person I've ever met," she said, done begging. It no longer mattered to her whether Gram did see all the ways she and Henry didn't work. Cameron hadn't been ignoring them. She was well aware. She just saw more important things.

"So, whatever, Gram. Okay? I know he's 13 years older than me, but I don't care. I don't care that we don't really, like, I dunno, run in the same circles or whatever," she continued, using her hands even more spiritedly than Gram had when telling stories, "and I don't even care that yes, he's still technically married, okay? If all you got out of this was that Henry's a 'nice boy....'"

Cameron couldn't bear to complete the sentence, and it showed in her body language as she crossed her arms and shifted her weight, starting again. Gram just smoked a little more, watching quietly with an inscrutable expression.

"Is he good enough for me?" Cameron spat Gram's words back at her, feeling herself getting hotter. "Honestly, Gram, you know what? I don't give a fuck if you think he's not."

She hadn't cursed in front of Gram in years. Gram didn't like it, certainly not as often as "some hooligans" used curse words. Cameron was confident, though, that she wouldn't feel like taking it back -- some occasions did need stronger language. But Gram still appeared just as unfazed.

"You're asking the wrong question," Cameron said, pointing a finger at the woman who'd raised her, but who suddenly seemed to have lost track of who Cameron was. "I'm better around him." She pointed to the door now, as if Henry were still there. Her voice kept rising, close to yelling, even while -- or maybe because -- Gram was just nonchalantly stubbing out her cigarette. "He makes me stronger. I... I like the person he sees when he looks at me."

She'd never said something so nakedly emotional about herself to Gram -- admitting in one little tirade that when she wasn't around Henry, she didn't like the person she was. Maybe she was starting to tear up, she thought, because it was also the first time she didn't feel ashamed about saying how she felt.

To Cameron's shock, Gram let a smile spread across her lips and she reached out for Cameron, giving her a long, gentle kiss on her forehead. Then she lowered her eyes to Cameron's, holding her face in her rough, bony fingers. "Me too," she said, and patted Cameron on the cheek before letting her go.

Cameron's mouth was hanging open, confused.

"What... what? Then... then why did you do that!" She had no idea if she was more relieved or angry.

Gram just shrugged, a clever smile on her lips. "Maybe I thought you needed to hear yourself say it more than you needed to hear me say it."

Cameron worked that over in her mind for a few seconds, then looked down at the carpet, sheepish -- especially because she... she still wanted confirmation.

"So you... you do like him then?" she said, looking back up at Gram hesitantly.

Gram gave her back a pitying look, her hands on her hips, then sighed. She sounded more tired than Cameron had ever heard her. "You know, Cameron, I really don't know everything. I've just lived a long life. But I ain't livin' your life, too." She put her hand on Cameron's shoulder. "I ain't never wanted to tell you what to do. I tell you when I see you makin' a mistake I've made before -- and I made plenty." Cameron averted her eyes to keep them from watering again.

"It makes me feel good you wanna know if I approve, and hey," Gram continued, tipping Cameron's chin back up to look at her. "I do," she said with a warm smile, so much more like the Gram Cameron had expected to see. "But that ain't magic. You don't see no husband around here, do you? So what do I know?"

Gram had never talked much about her marriage before, although Cameron had picked up over the years that she'd been married at some point. She didn't know how long, though -- or anything else.

Giving her an encouraging smile, Gram pulled Cameron into a side hug as they leaned against the windowsill, kissing her on the temple. Cameron hung her head and put her arm back around Gram, stooping lower so she could nestle into the leathery crook of her neck.

"I'm so proud of you Cameron," she said in a quiet voice, squeezing Cameron in closer. "Ain't nothin' ever gonna change that." Her voice was almost a whisper now. "But I ain't proud of you because you're doin' all the things I would do. I'm proud of you because you're doin' all the things I never coulda done."

Cameron felt the tears finally drop from her eyes and she sniffed back any more before looking up at Gram, surprised to see her eyes wet, too. She'd never seen Gram shed a tear in all the years they'd lived together. Not one. She didn't think there was anything that could ever make her cry.

Shoulda known it would be me.

Searching Gram's eyes like this, Cameron felt as pitiful as the little girl with the cardboard wings who thought she could fly. They both knew Gram had left out the ending to that story. She'd told Gram it was a bet that made her want to jump over the fence -- yes. But she'd been lying. And somehow, Gram had known it, just like she always knew.

Cameron had wanted to jump the fence to escape. To run away forever. From the kids on the playground, from the school, from the foster parents who should've come to pick her up, from the mom she barely saw, from the dad she never met, from the feelings inside her she couldn't and didn't want to understand -- and from Gram.

Gram hadn't gotten angry. She told Cameron she knew exactly what she was feeling. That's how she knew what the little girl was trying to do. Cameron hadn't believed her.

"Runnin' away don't gotta be physical," Gram had told her. Cameron could still hear her voice just as clearly, 16 years later. The eyes looking down on her now were just as caring as they'd looked in the rearview mirror then, watching her in the backseat when she was 7.

There'd been no reason for Gram to care. But she always did. There'd been no reason for her to tell Cameron about how she'd spent so many nights as a kid under the covers with a transistor radio, escaping the only way she could. And there'd been no reason for her to leave an iPod on Cameron's bed the night she tried to fly away -- Gram didn't even know how to use it.

From that night on, though, Cameron never felt like she needed to run away again. Escape was always only a click away.

When Gram spoke again, it wasn't exactly the same voice Cameron still heard in her head. It was a little older now, a little softer.

"If you know what you want," Gram told her back in the here and now, "don't let nothin' get in your way -- even yourself. Especially yourself." The tone of her voice said that's what Cameron usually did, and Cameron didn't disagree. "Not because he's too fragile or because you're too weak to handle it -- but because I promise you, Cameron," she said, pulling Cameron in tighter against her, "you won't ever forgive yourself if you do.

"Trust me."

Cameron wrapped both her arms around Gram, and felt a tear fall on her neck as Gram embraced her as tightly into her sweatshirt as she'd ever done. The sweatshirt felt billowy in Cameron's arms -- there was less Gram in it than she'd expected.

It only made Cameron clutch her tighter.

~~~

Much like a parent, an author probably isn't supposed to say they have a favorite chapter. But all the other chapters know there's one I read even when I don't need to do any revisions, just when I wanna feel a certain kinda way. Hopefully you felt a certain kinda way, too (:

As always, I appreciate how much thought and analysis some of you put into the characters and story, and I look forward to hearing from you all (:

Arcadia