Darren and Kyle hadn't seen or spoken to Debbie since their senior year of high school. That was ten years ago. It was a shock when Kyle saw her number come up on his phone. He still had her saved as "Mom."
He thought about making her leave a message, but that wasn't part of the plan. He answered. "Hello?"
Kayla, their younger sister, had given their mom his number. It wasn't entirely unwelcome. His mom--Debbie--and him chatted for a bit about nothing. He could tell that she had something to say. Then, she dropped the bomb.
"Your father and I are getting a divorce," she said.
"Really?" was all Kyle could manage.
"Yes. It's been a long time coming," she said, adding "It should have happened a long time ago."
Yeah, I bet, he thought to himself.
Their dad had kicked them out the last semester of senior year. They never really got along with the bastard--he was old and strict and scared of everything. They had just turned eighteen and, in the way so many dumb, white middle class people think, he had been making rumblings that it was time they moved out. As it turned out, the old man got his wish early. That March he walked in on one of Darren's teammates, Austin, going down on him. Their dad had a proper, evangelical shitfit. He booted him out then and there.
"I didn't even get to finish," Darren would say when he was in a joking mood about it.
Kyle had always known his brother was bisexual. He loved him and he accepted him and as his twin, he always had his brother's back (and vice versa). It was why Kyle wasn't sorry to tell the old man to go fuck himself. He grabbed his shit and moved out with his brother. First out of the womb, last out of the house. Neither of them looked back.
Also, it hadn't hurt that the teammate, had been sucking Kyle off, too. He was in an experimental phase. It was just bad luck that Darren was the one who got caught. (The results of the experiment was that Kyle liked girls more than guys. Darren came to the opposite conclusion.)
What pissed Kyle off--and his brother agreed--was that their mom hadn't said anything. She just let them go. It was one thing to be under a man's thumb, but did she have to give herself to such a weak one?
Luckily, they had each other and a handful of good friends who were willing to put them up. They had to work more in college than they would have liked, but it meant they were free. It meant moving out to Los Angeles and started, one where Darren got to see his guy friends without hiding it and it meant that Kyle could play the field with whatever women he wanted--and it also meant that they could switch it up whenever they felt like that.
You couldn't do that back home, Kyle thought.
Bringing their mother back into their life wasn't an option they had considered. Kyle figured she would stick with their old man until he was dead--and probably for a good long while afterwards, too.
"People can change, Kyle. I hope you can give me the chance, Darren too," she told him.
Who was he to deny his mother? And, besides, he agreed with her. He'd changed plenty over the past decade. For example: He didn't have to close his door anymore if he was getting blown.
"She's running late," Darren said.
Kyle broke from his revery. "You want to bet she flakes? Double or nothing."
"Double what? Besides, I talked to Kayla, she said mom and dad were serious, the divorce is real."
"You should have held that info to yourself. You could have made a pretty penny."
"Shut up, dude."
Kyle smiled. He knew mom wouldn't miss this. Sure, she might be finally leaving the lump, but she still needed male approval, even if it was from her estranged sons. Kyle figured that whatever happened, him and Darren would do what they always did: They were going to stick together.
"What if she's still the stuck-up churchy bitch she always was?" Darren asked.
"Does that matter?"
"It kind of does. You think it doesn't?"
"I think where we start is a lot less important than where we end. Give it a shot."
"I am."
"Then what are we arguing about?"
"I don't know, you're the feisty one. This is all your fault, too. Jeff Borges. I can't believe you let him blow you."
"You know what the bitch of it is? He was just starting to get good. I think dad spooked him off for good, too. He's married to some boring blonde now."
"It's a real tragedy." Kyle sipped his drink and looked at his brother in the backbar mirror. They weren't identical, but there was no confusing that they were brothers.
"Not too late to back out now," Kyle said.
"No way. In for a penny--"
"In for a pounding."
"Right."
They clinked drinks and sank them both. They had agreed earlier that they were taking a cab home. Only Kyle insisted that they get their mom to pay. Darren laughed him off. They couldn't start asking for money from her immediately, he said.
"Yeah, that'd be weird."
The door of the restaurant opened and a short brunette woman walked in.
"Here we go," Kyle said to his brother. Darren straightened his back.
It was Debbie, their mother. The woman whose goodbye to them was her looking away.
She looked almost exactly like the last time they had seen her. Maybe a little bigger, a little grayer, but she still had the same fair skin as Kyle and the same dark hair as Darren. She even wore the same pearl necklace that she had always worn. The only thing new was the dress she wore. It was a kind of cocktail dress. Simple and black with tasteful straps over her shoulder. It was risque in a midwestern mom sort of way. Like she had only heard of how to dress for something that wasn't either church, shopping, or a funeral.
She looked good.
"No bra," Kyle said.
"It's a cocktail dress. You can't wear a bra with it," Darren corrected.
"Yeah, but she wore a cocktail dress."
"You're getting ahead of yourself."
"Or I'm just catching up. Now, look smart. Let's make this count."
Kyle shrugged and got up to greet their mother.
"Our date has arrived!" Kyle said with a smile. He hugged her and put his hand to the small of her back and lead her over to their booth.
"Oh, stop it," she said, laughing. As much as they resented her, it was good to see her smile. It almost felt like things were normal between them. Just two sons having a drink with their mom. Except that wasn't it, at all. They sat down. Kyle on one side of her, Darren on the other.
"Why not?" Kyle asked. "You could pass for our date."
"I'm too old, for one. And I'm your mother."
"Nobody knows that," Darren said.
"Yeah, and besides, this is LA. Maybe you're our sugar mama," he said.
"A sugar mama," she said. Then she made a face. "What's a sugar mama?"
Darren laughed.
Kyle smiled. "A sugar mama is a like a sugar daddy."
Still no understanding. He explained.
"It's a woman, usually an older woman, that keeps a guy around, usually a younger guy, and she showers them with money."
"For reasons you can probably guess," Darren added.
"Oh," she said. "Oh no, I'm not that."
"No, you're just paying for the drinks," Kyle said. His hand wandered to the small of her back. She ignored it and laughed. Darren, begrudgingly, broke into a smile.
"You think that's funny?" Kyle asked
"Yes. I'm so much older than you. I could be your, well, I am your mother," she replied.
"I told you, this isn't that weird over here."
