"CJ, I need to talk to you."
"Just a second mom," I said, not taking my attention away from the online game of Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled I was playing with my friends. "Yes! First place. I got this in the bag! What the...? Who the fuck...? Oh you bastard! NO! Oh my god, I hate you!"
I had been sitting in my room playing with my friends online for the last half hour. I heard the front door when my mother came home, and I heard her footsteps on the stairs. However since I was engrossed in the game, and was in first place I kept my attention focused on the game. One of my friends hit me with a powerup, knocking me out of first place allowing him to pass me and win. He was laughing at me.
"I'll get you next time. Look guys I gotta go. My mom needs to talk to me." I said, "I'll catch you assholes later."
I logged out of the game, took my headset off and turned my attention to mom.
"So what's up mom?"
"You know that guy Dean I've been seeing?" she asked, sitting down on my bed.
I guess I should give a little background here. My mother Donna and my father Ethan had gotten divorced seven years ago when it came out that my father was having an affair. He had managed to keep it a secret from mom and I for almost two years. Then one day dad left his phone unattended and unlocked (which he almost never did) and his mistress texted him. I happened to be in the room when the text came in so I grabbed the phone and walked into the kitchen where my parents were, where I unknowingly exposed my father for the cheater he was.
"Hey dad, who's Christina and what does she mean by 'Have you told her yet?'" I asked, "Oh wait, another message just popped up, 'I can't wait until you're all mine. Divorce that bitch already'."
Dad tried to snatch the phone out of my hands, but mom was standing closer to me, and beat him to it.
"CJ, go to your room." she said, looking at the phone before staring daggers into my father.
I was only fifteen at the time, so I did as I was told, but I wasn't stupid. I knew full well what those messages meant. Even if I hadn't, I could clearly hear the shouting match (well, mom shouting) even though I was upstairs in my room with the door closed. My mother demanded the truth and eventually my father broke down and admitted everything. He had been seeing Christina behind my mother's back for almost two years. She was also married, but she was ready to divorce her husband (in fact, she had already set the wheels in motion) and marry my father. All he had to do was divorce my mother. When he didn't immediately comply with her demands to leave my mother, Christina gave him an ultimatum, either he tells my mother about them... or she would. Once he confessed to the affair my mother immediately kicked my father out (the house was in her name) and filed for divorce the next day.
I was old enough to decide which parent I wanted to stay with, and since I had always been closer to my mother, I opted to stay with her. Don't get me wrong, my father didn't neglect me, in fact he was a very good father. When I was little, we did all the typical father/son bonding things. He taught me how to ride a bike, played catch with me, taught me how to swim, and things like that. But my mother was the one who would do things like take care of me when I was sick or hurt, comfort me whenever I had a bad dream, help me with my homework, would take me to meet my friends for things like birthdays or sleepovers, went to all the parent/teacher meetings at school, took me to the park, the zoo, and things like that. If I had to break it down to percentages, I'd say it was a 60/40 split in favor of mom.
For the next few years it was just mom and I. After a rather ugly divorce, dad only stayed in touch to pay the alimony, but that was pretty much it. My parents mostly talked through their lawyers, and that was only when they had to. Once everything was settled the only contact we had with him were the monthly alimony checks, and a couple of birthday cards. My parents haven't spoken to or seen each other since I was sixteen. Last I heard Christina went through an equally ugly divorce with her husband, and she and my father eventually moved out of town. I have no idea if they actually got married or if they're even still together, nor do I care. My mother was my main concern, I did my best to be there for her when she would bounce back and forth between angry, depressed and hopeless. She often told me if it wasn't for me, she wasn't sure she would have made it through with her sanity intact.
Mom decided to get back into the dating scene just before I left for college. While I was away at school, we would talk on the phone about 2 or 3 times a month and of course when I came home for vacation but she didn't really talk much about her dating life. She would occasionally mention some nice guy she'd met, but things never seemed to work out. Until she met Dean. She admitted it was love at first sight, and had sent me a couple of pictures of him. I had to admit, Dean was a pretty good looking guy, and I had to laugh when my mom would talk about him like she was a teenage girl instead of a middle aged woman with a college aged son. She had started seeing him full time a few months before I graduated college.
After college, mom let me move back in with her until I could get a job and move out on my own. I was actively looking, but nothing had come up just yet, and mom wasn't rushing me to get out on my own. She had gone out several times on dates with Dean since I had come back home, but I had yet to meet him.
"Yeah, what about him?" I asked.
"Well, I figured it's about time you met him. So we're having dinner at his place tomorrow." mom said.
"Wow, you're really serious about him aren't you?" I asked, "I mean you've been with him for what... eight months now?"
"Nine," mom corrected me, "But yeah, I am pretty serious about him. This is the longest relationship I've had since the divorce. He's got a daughter your age too."
"Yeah, I remember you mentioned her a couple of times before." I said, "Sheila? Shirley?"
"Shelby." mom said, correcting me again.
"Right, Shelby."
"She's going to be there too." Mom said, "So I hope you don't have any plans."
"Well you know, I was gonna sit around, watch some TV, maybe play some video games, surf the net and scratch myself, but I can cancel."
Mom laughed, "If it's not too much trouble."
"I'll pencil you in." I said, also laughing.
The next night we found ourselves outside Dean's house, mom seemed a little nervous as she knocked on the door. I guess she was hoping I'd like Dean, she hadn't actually said as much, but her body language gave her away. Dean opened the door with a big smile on his face.
"Hi babe," he said to mom, giving her a quick hug and turned to me, extending a hand, "And you must be CJ."
"Nice to finally meet you. I was beginning to think you didn't exist. I figured mom just took a stock picture of a guy off the internet and photoshopped herself into pictures with him." I said, shaking the offered hand.
"CJ!" mom said, laughing and giving me a good natured swat on the arm. Dean just laughed.
"Nice to finally meet you too," he said, "Your mother's told me a lot about you."