Martin didn't look at his phone until Saturday afternoon. He'd been dreading it, expecting a slew of text messages and missed calls from Tommy.
When he finally looked at the screen there was just one message from Elizabeth.
Hey, I think Becka needs me for girl time. Mind if I rain check our weekend plans?
He texted back, np, and rolled over, pulling the sheets tight. He buried his head and tried to force himself back to sleep, but as he breathed in all he smelled was Tommy.
Fuck this.
He threw the sheets off and jumped out of bed. He was only wearing boxer briefs, but he didn't pause to grab any clothes as he started stripping the sheets, blankets, and pillow cases. When the mattress was naked, he bundled everything in a big ball and walked over to search blindly for the door handle.
He marched the bedding down the stairs and across the hall that connected the living and dining rooms in his mom's duplex. In the dark corner that led to the garage he turned to the laundry room and pushed open the door with his bare foot. The lid on the washer was up and the inside was empty so he dumped in the sheets, added the soap and started the machine.
A moment later he was standing in the hall, taking a deep breath of the clear air.
"Were you mad at your bed sheets?"
Martin jumped at the sound of his mom's voice. He looked over at the dining room. She sat at the table with a cup of coffee and her laptop, the light through the sliding glass door behind her making her long, nordic hair glow white.
Suddenly Martin felt naked and he awkwardly moved his hands in front of his underwear.
She scoffed and said, "Don't worry, I've seen it all before."
"Mom!" Martin groaned and crossed back to the stairs.
She called after him, "Do you want a coffee?"
He shouted back, angrily, "Yes, thank you!"
He found a clean t-shirt and some sweatpants, and then he came back down and sat in front of the coffee that waited for him on the table.
His mom smiled, but didn't say anything as she continued typing.
Nora was still in her thirties and worked as a bookkeeper for a small law office. She used to help the lawyers with financial cases, beyond just handling their expenses and taxes, but Martin hadn't asked her about her work since before they moved the previous summer, so he had no idea if that was still true.
"Did something happen to your phone?" she asked him.
"No. Why?"
She shrugged and kept working as she said, "It's just been years since I've seen a teenager without one. It's like a beautiful rare bird."
He rolled his eyes, "It's charging."
She said, "Ah," and nodded as she sipped her coffee in a way that told him she did not believe him.
He picked up his coffee and started to stand.
"Are you staying over at Tommy's again this weekend?"
"No. Why?"
"Not a good day for questions, huh?"
He caught himself before he said, 'No. Why?' again and shrugged. Standing at the end of the table, caught between impulses to go to the kitchen or back to bed, he felt out of sync with the world. This was also the longest conversion he had had with his mother in months, and he was starting to feel the spotlight.
She smiled at him for a moment over the top of her coffee and then said, "Would you like some waffles?"
Before he could consciously react his stomach answered for him.
"I'll take that as a yes," she said.
Martin hovered at the entrance to the kitchen while his mom cracked eggs into the standup mixer. It buzzed for a minute while it mixed and then she lifted out the bowl and poured batter into the waffle maker, which made a satisfying hiss as she closed it to cook. Then she took her coffee and turned to Martin.
He froze, suddenly realizing they had three minutes to wait with nothing to do. He wanted to run away, but he also really wanted waffles.
"So," she said.
"So?"
"How's school?"
It was a mess of final assignments and exam prep, and of course he'd been spending all his extra time fucking Tommy. "It's fine," he said.
"And how's Elizabeth?"
She was spending the weekend consoling the girl who got dumped because her boyfriend was too been busy falling in love with the boy who was fucking him. "She's good," he said.
"Have you talked to your dad at all?"
Not since they moved. He sipped his coffee and waited for the waffles.
"It's ok to talk to him, Martin."
"I know."
He could tell she wanted to push the issue, but she held back and drank her coffee instead. Silence dragged out between them as the waffle batter sizzled.
"Any basketball games coming up?" She asked.
The exhibition game was on Monday. He was supposed to be in the starting lineup with Tommy. His stomach clenched and he said, "No."
"Oh? I thought I heard something about an exhibit game on Monday."
"Exhibition."
"Sorry, yeah, that one."
"It's nothing."
"It didn't sound like nothing. Richard told me it's the kind of game they let the backup players play in. Do you think you might get to play?"
She knew a lot more than she had let on. Richard was her boss, and Richard's son was Barron, the captain of the team. Martin liked to think he and Tommy had gotten the spare slots out of the skill they showed in the tryout, but deep down he knew Barron had done him a favour. She'd probably asked Richard about the team and got the details, but she had still given him a chance to tell her himself. Clearly she was just interested in his life and was reaching out.
Martin grunted and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, I could probably take the day off and come watch."
"No! I mean... You don't have to come. I'm probably not playing."
She gave him a thin smile and said, "Ok, no worries."
