The Truth Told
Diana came out of the store holding her bags looking up at the store marquees figuring where she wanted to shop next. She was in a great mood which meant the desire to spend money. Matt had kicked her out of the house for a couple hours so he could have private time with Cindy to finally explain everything and tell her how deep his feelings for her were. Diana had full faith in her son to pull it off and win the girl of his dreams. Smiling, she decided to get some coffee next when she heard a loud, shrieking "NO!"
She looked to her left to see Cindy running at her tears streaming down her face.
"Cindy? What?"
"He lied to me. That ...jerk... HE LIED TO ME!" Cindy slammed her fists into Diana's chest, startling her.
"What? I don't understand?"
"Look at you! Look at your tan. He took you to Jamaica. He told me he went with his two boyfriends and his mother. Not you. His mother! He lied about you to keep it a secret! I never want to see either of you or your damn secrets ever again." And with one more push on Diana's chest that knocked her down, Cindy spun and ran down the hall crying.
Diana picked herself up looked down at the scattered, crushed packages and then at the retreating girl.
"Shit!" and she took off running after her as fast as she could leaving everything behind, her purse slapping her side as it hung from her shoulder suspended by it's strap.
Diana slammed open the mall entrance doors and scanned across the parking lot frantically. Finally she found Cindy twenty feet from her car already fumbling for the keys in her pocket.
"Fuck" Diana took off like a shot watching as the girl rounded the car and reached for the lock. She would never make it around the car before Cindy would be in the car locking the door without listening. Without thinking about what she was doing with a final mad burst of speed Diana leapt up, her jeans encased butt sliding across the hood and windshield of the car flying off the other side to crash into Cindy knocking her back making her drop her keys.
The startled girl looked down at her keys and then at the bent over panting woman leaning against her car door. "Did you just... How did..."
"Look Cindy, I am so sorry. God, please wait and listen to me. I promise you no lies. Please." Diana gasped between pants.
Tears were streaming down Cindy's shocked face "Go ahead."
"Thank you. Sweetie, Matt didn't lie to you. He would never lie to you. He loves you so much. If you leave without talking to him it will kill him again."
"Kill him again? Again? I don't understand?"
"No, you couldn't easily. You don't know us. Look at you," Diana reached up and wiped a tear from Cindy's face. "You love him a lot too don't you?"
"I thought I did..."
"Oh honey, he really is who he appears to be. He never lied to you. I don't think he ever could as he loves you so much already it would destroy him to hurt you."
"But what about taking his mother to Jamaica? He never said anything about you. Why would he do that? What is it about you two, what is the big secret you won't tell me? Why lie?"
"Oh, God. Cindy. He didn't lie. I ... I am Diana Hughes, honey; ...I AM Matt Hughes' mother."
"WHAT! But the panties on the table, the kisses, you guys are in love love."
Diana and Cindy looked around the parking lot at all the people staring at them murmuring.
"Please, I beg you. Just come with me where we can talk in private; I will explain everything. You really are in no shape to drive, let's go to my home. I will tell you anything you want to know, honestly. You can ask me anything," Diana tentatively held out her shaking hand open to Cindy. "No secrets I promise. Please honey."
It might have been that no one in years had called her honey with such passion or even any emotion, or even held out a hand to her. Maybe it was because this woman that night at the restaurant was the first person in years to give her a real hug that she still couldn't forget about, but without truly knowing why she was doing it, Cindy burst into tears again and grabbed the offered hand letting Diana lead her through the parking lot towards her own car.
As Cindy was strapping in she looked over at the other woman. "What about your packages in the mall?"
Diana looked at her and her face lit up with honest love, "Oh honey, I could replace any of that stuff in an instant. You, we could never replace."
This silenced the quietly sobbing Cindy who looked out the side window until the car pulled into the familiar driveway.
Diana led the sniffling girl through the living room into the kitchen. Cindy couldn't help but peek at all she could see about their lives. This was their house. A normal home where a mother and son lived.
Diana waved a hand at the table, "Please, have a seat. Would you like coffee, soda, wine, anything?"
"Coffee, please."
After the coffee machine was brewing Di sat next to the quiet girl.
"It's a real long story are you ready?" Di watched as Cindy nodded her head.
"Matt was born into an incredibly loving family. His father and I were madly in love. It showed in everything about us and what we did. We were honestly consumed by love. For six years that was all Matt knew and he grew into that. But then when Matt was six, my husband was diagnosed with Leukemia. It took two agonizing years of horrible pain before that incredible man died in my arms in the hospital. The day that heart monitor went still my whole heart died as well. I was so dead to this world I never noticed that it killed Matt's heart as well."
Diana stopped, got two mugs from a cabinet and filled them with coffee. "Cream? Sugar?"
Diana prepared the coffee and gave Cindy hers before sitting back down.
"We were both like zombies going through the motions and living a dead life. There was no spark in either of us. How long have you been at Tony's?"
"About a year."
"Then you must have seen us. Before that night with the delivery and later dinner did you ever notice us before?"
Cindy shook her head in a negative and watched as Diana got up left the room.
Diana came back with an album. "Here, take a look. About a month ago I saw these and realized what I think you will notice right away."
Cindy looked at the photos. She could tell it was the same two, but it wasn't them at all. Their eyes were dead black pools. They were pale. They barely smiled. No energy.
No love.
"What happened? You are so alive now." Cindy's voice was full of wonder.
"About five, six months ago, Matt shocked me by telling me he planned to finish school with lousy grades, keep a loser job and just live at home until Mrs. Right found him. Look at the pictures Cindy; think about how you never noticed us. He would have died a lonely man living with his mother."
Diana looked at Cindy carefully, "That day I realized just how dead we both had become. I knew I had to do something to, if not me, at least save my son."
Cindy nodded.
"We had a fight. Or at least as much of a disagreement that two emotionless people can have. More as a joke or a way to shut me up, Matt told me when I asked him what would motivate him that only a naked girl would do that."
First Cindy then Diana smiled at that, "Yeah, even the dead still have teenage hormones."
Diana reached over and clasped Cindy's hands cupped around her mug. Cindy could feel that her hands were as warm as the mug, it felt good. "Cindy, believe me when I tell you that what I did next was totally out of love and a mother's desire to save her son from a long lingering death of a life. I watched helplessly while my husband died slowly; I didn't want to watch my son die as well."
Diana stared deep into Cindy's eyes took a breath and said "Cindy, I became that naked girl."
"I don't understand."
"I made a deal with Matt, that if he quit the Pizza Shack and left that jerk boss Jim, got much better grades and agreed to go to college I would stop wearing any clothes around the house. He did it and then I stopped wearing clothes here."
Cindy looked stunned.
Diana chuckled sadly, "Yeah I know, really fucked up. But Cindy, it worked. Look at both of us. It was never intended as a sex thing or anything like that. It was two love lost people desperate to relearn what it was like to feel love again. To actually live again. We have come so far from that first morning when he found me standing by that counter naked. Matt became the person you now know and have come to love and is deserving of that love"
"Are you lovers now?"
"Well, we have done things that would disgust others and is meant for lovers only so, I am afraid yes, we kind of are. But we have never had intercourse. I swear. At first I set up a no touching rule which lasted until about three weeks ago."
"What happened?"
"I went out drinking with some friends and one of them drugged me. I left before the drug took hold and she could manipulate me into having sex with someone. I came home and, well, attacked Matt. I was on the high of the drug by then. I didn't know what I was doing. Believe me."
"I do, I really do. But what about Matt."
"Cindy. He could have had me that night. God, I desperately wanted him, I begged him to take me. I...threw myself at him. He wouldn't do it. He knew something was wrong. He tricked me into thinking about David, my husband. Matt held me while I cried myself to sleep."
Cindy shook her head smiling knowing Matt.
"When I got up the next morning well I knew that I could trust Matt with anything. The deal ended I told him he could have me any time if he wanted. I loved him and trusted him that much."
"Why didn't he do it then?"
Diana beamed for the first time since seeing Cindy coming at her in the mall, "Well it seems he had met a certain girl and talked to her all night on the phone while I was out being drugged. He can have me but he doesn't want me."
"Oh" Cindy said quietly.
Diana again looked at the now blushing girl "He wants you sweetheart. In Jamaica, we had our last fun but he didn't want to go further than we already had. He asked that we stop while we were down there as he is feeling guilty about you. Other than me still not wearing any clothes here, we haven't done a thing since we returned from Jamaica. Honest. All I just told you he was going to tell you tonight with absolutely no lies. That's why he invited you here to our home, to show you and tell you the truth."
