Aaron didn’t pull away.
I just looked at my teenage boy, who’d somehow figured out something most adults spend a lifetime trying to learn.
“You’re a good kid, Aaron,” I finally said, my voice catching. “You’re a really, really good kid.”
He shrugged, as if he wished I wouldn’t make a big deal of it.
“I’m gonna head to bed. Long day tomorrow.”
“Are you seeing her after school?”
“Yeah. Coach gave me the afternoon off from practice.”
I watched him climb back upstairs, and I just stood there in the middle of the living room, blinking at the laundry on the floor.
“Are you seeing her after school?”
I felt full to bursting with so much pride!
It was one of the sweetest things I’d ever seen him do.
I thought that would be the end of it. I really did.
***
The next afternoon, I was sitting in the living room, drafting an email I didn’t want to write, when my phone buzzed against the granite countertop. Diane’s name lit up the screen. I smiled before I answered. I figured she’d already seen Aaron and was calling to tell me how sweet he was.
It was one of the sweetest things.
“Hey, you,” I said warmly. “Did he get there yet? I should’ve warned you. I almost dropped a basket of clothes when I saw him. How is Lily…?”
“Rachel,” Diane cut me off quickly, her voice flat and tight. Not like the Diane I knew. My heart beat faster.
“Di? Is everything okay? Is Lily?”
“Lily’s fine.” She paused, and I heard her breath shake. “Rachel, you need to come down here to the hospital and see for yourself what your son did. I don’t know how to feel about it. Please just come.”
The air left the living room. I gripped the edge of the counter.
“I should’ve warned you.”
“Done something how? Diane, talk to me,” I begged, feeling panicked.
“Just come. Please. I can’t do this on the phone.”
The line went dead.
I stood there with the phone still pressed to my ear, my mind already racing through every version of what could have gone wrong in a hospital room. I grabbed my car keys without my coat.
The whole drive over, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking against the steering wheel.
“I can’t do this on the phone.”
***
The automatic doors of the hospital slid open, and I walked in too fast, my car keys still clenched in my fist.
Diane was already waiting in the corridor, her arms crossed tightly against her chest, when I arrived. She didn’t smile or even say hello.
“Rachel. Come with me.”
I followed her down the hallway, past the nurses’ station, past a cart of folded blankets.
My mouth was dry.
“Diane, please, just tell me. Is Lily okay? Did Aaron say something? What happened?”
“He crossed a line,” she said, not slowing down.
“Come with me.”
“A line? Diane, my son
“Don’t do that, Diane. Don’t put this on him. He’s a kid trying to love your daughter through the worst thing that’s ever happened to her.”
She looked away, blinking fast.
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