My Blood Approves (6 page)

“
You better.” She sounded a
little surprised that I had complied so easily, and I wondered if I
spent a lot of my time arguing with her just for the sake of
arguing. I was probably a very bad daughter. Maybe even a very bad
person. “And if I decide that I don’t want you to see this boy
anymore, then that’s it. Do you understand?”

“
Completely,” I nodded
again. Of course I would see him anyway, but that wasn’t something
I would tell her.

“
Good.” Mom got up,
grabbing her purse off the table. “I’m going to go the casino now.
I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.”

She was apparently satisfied with the
conversation, and she hadn’t even really screamed at me. It was
actually a pretty good talk, as far as our talks go.

Mom brushed past me on her way to the door,
smelling thickly of cigarettes and cheap brandy, but she paused at
the door, turning slightly towards me. “I am glad that you’re home
safe.”

“
Thanks,” I said, unsure of
how else to respond. Then she nodded once and walked out the
door.

Milo apologized as soon as she left, but I
assured him he had nothing to apologize for. He always looked out
for my best interest, and I knew that. Besides, I was too tired to
worry about anything else.

I decided to get it over with and text Jack
to ask if he could meet my mother. When he messaged me back a few
seconds later, I realized what exactly he’d done with my phone. He
had bought the song “Time Warp” and put it as his ringtone, so when
I got a text message or call from him, that’s the song I would
hear.

Thankfully, he agreed to come over for
supper the next night at 8 pm sharp, and I tried not to think about
how terrifying that prospect was.

First thing when I got up, I briefed Milo on
Jack’s arrival, but Mom was still asleep. For some reason, Milo had
been gifted with everything domestic, meaning he was the cook in
the family. I let him make supper, but scurried about trying to
help him and straighten up the apartment.

We actually had a nice apartment; it was
just very small. It was important to me that we impressed Jack with
where we lived, and I didn’t know why.

I didn’t know why I felt anything I did
about him, but I pushed that out of my mind. That wasn’t tonight’s
problem.

Then the unthinkable
happened. Jack arrived
early
.

- 5 -

“
Jack,” I said breathlessly
when I opened the door. He had found my place without me telling
him the apartment number, but I couldn’t mention that in front of
Milo.

“
Hi,” Jack beamed at me. He
wore a simple tee shirt with Dickies, but it was the first time I’d
seen him in pants. I suspected that this was his attempt at
dressing up, and it made me smile.

“
You’re early,” I told him.
I held the door open, but I hadn’t let him inside yet, so he stood
in the hallway, giving me an odd look. Milo had been behind me in
the kitchen, noisily preparing something, but he hadn’t made a
sound since we’d heard the knock at the door.

“
Is that a bad thing?” Jack
asked.

“
No, not really,” I
admitted, and finally took a step back so he could come inside. He
smiled at my brother and his eyes quickly scanned the apartment.
“My mom’s just not awake yet.”

“
Oh.” He glanced at the
clock on the wall, noting that it was after seven. “When does she
get up?”

“
I’ll go get her now,” Milo
offered, wiping his hands on his jeans and stepping away from a
pan.

“
Oh, sorry,” I fumbled,
realizing that I hadn’t introduced them. “Jack, this is my brother
Milo. Milo, this is Jack.”

“
Nice to meet you.” Milo
did a little half wave/half nod combo, and then darted off to get
my mom.

“
I think I make him
nervous,” Jack told me quietly.

“
Everyone makes him
nervous.”

We stood rather awkwardly in the kitchen,
although I did feel slightly better now that he was around. He had
a kind of calming effect on me, but I didn’t know if that was good
or bad.

My mother squawked things rather loudly at
Milo, so I decided to make conversation to drown at the sound of
her.

“
So, are you hungry?” I
gestured to the pans of some kind of Italian creation Milo had been
making on the stove. “Milo’s making something delicious. He’s a
really good cook.”

“
Actually, I just ate.”
Jack smiled sheepishly and put his hand on his stomach. “Sorry. I
figured that since we were meeting so late, you’d probably already
have eaten. And Mae insisted on feeding me.”

“
Oh, that’s okay.” But I
felt more nervous.

I wasn’t that hungry and I could really care
less if he ate or not. Without the distraction of eating, a
conversation with my mother would be much less pleasant.

Then a tantalizing idea occurred to me.
Maybe we could just turn this into more of a meet-and-greet kind of
thing, where Jack could say hello to my mother and then just sweep
me away.

“
So… do you wanna go
someplace or something?” I asked.

“
I thought I was meeting
your mother.” Jack looked confused and pointed to my mother’s
closed bedroom door, where Milo was trying to convince her to put
on some pants to see Jack.

“
I mean, after that,” I
clarified. “Since you’re not eating. It would be silly to sit
around here and watch them eat.”

“
Aren’t you
hungry?”

“
I’ll live.” There were
like ten million places to eat in the Cities, and this was the only
one that included strained dinner conversation with my mother. I’m
sure that I could find somewhere if I really had to.

“
Alright,” he shrugged and
leaned back against the kitchen counter. “What did you have in
mind?”

“
Pretty much anything, as
long as it’s not here.”

“
I’m up!” Mom shouted, and
a few seconds later, Milo rushed out of her room, looking rather
frazzled.

“
She’ll be right out,” Milo
said.

He went back over to the stove and stirred
something simmering in a pan, looking relieved to be back cooking
instead of with Mom.

“
Do you need help with
anything?” I offered.

Freshly washed vegetables sat in the sink,
and he had two pans on the stove boiling with food, not to mention
the oven was preheating for something.

I felt guilty about him making this massive
feast on my behalf, and I wasn’t even going to eat it. Well, later
on tonight, I’d dig into the cold leftovers and watch cartoons, but
that wasn’t the same as sitting down to it.

“
You can slice some of the
vegetables if you want,” Milo glanced back at me.

“
What are they for?” I
pulled out the cutting board and a knife, setting them on the
counter next to where Jack leaned. Grabbing a tomato and green
pepper from the sink, I repeated the question to Milo, who’d become
distracted by seasoning a red sauce bubbling in a frying pan. “What
am I cutting the vegetables for?”

“
The salad.” He tasted the
sauce, which must’ve satisfied him, because he flipped off the
stove, and pulled out a cake pan.

I think he was making some kind of special
lasagna with all types of homemade everything, but I couldn’t be
sure because when he explained things to me, he always used
culinary terms that I didn’t understand.

“
Everything smells
fantastic,” Jack complimented him.

Milo had his back to us, but I could see his
cheeks reddening a little as he laid out noodles in the pan. Maybe
Milo wasn’t completely immune to Jack’s allure either.

“
I have bad news though.” I
lowered my voice, afraid my mother might hear me. She had yet to
emerge from her bedroom, but I decided that was a good thing.
Carefully slicing a green pepper, I saw Milo’s shoulders tense up
and he looked hesitatingly at me. “We’re not actually gonna eat
here.” His face fell, but he quickly looked away, trying to hide
it.

“
It’s my fault really,”
Jack said. As he talked, his voice worked its magic on Milo, and he
relaxed a little. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to eat here, so
I went ahead and ate at home. And then I made plans for us in a
little bit. I’m really sorry, though. I can tell I’m missing a
fantastic meal.”

“
Its fine,” Milo said, and
he sounded almost like he meant it.

He put the pan in the oven, and he’d already
set the table, so he went over to clear the extra two places for
Jack and me.

“
Milo-” I turned to
apologize to him further.

He had this way of looking like a little boy
when he was sad, and it just broke my heart. Unfortunately, I
decided keep cutting the green pepper as I turned, and that wasn’t
the smartest move ever. The knife sliced sharply into the index
finger of my left hand, and I yelped painfully.

“
What?” Milo instantly
stopped what he was doing and rushed over to me. He’d spent enough
time with me in the kitchen to know that I usually ended up with
cuts or burns. “What’d you cut?”

“
I just got my finger,” I
winced, squeezing my fingers around it to stop the bleeding. Milo,
being the smart one, grabbed a washcloth to put on it.

“
Maybe you should run that
under water,” Jack interjected, his voice sounding oddly
stiff.

Milo turned on the water, yanking my hand
under it, but I looked over at Jack. He had taken a few steps away
from me, and he’d gone pale. I guess the sight of blood didn’t
agree with him.

Milo examined my finger under the water, but
I kept my eyes fixed on Jack. He had looked away from me and taken
another step back. The sight of the blood, even the small amount
that it was, had really affected him, so I hurried to clean it
up.

“
It’s not that bad,” Milo
said. “I’ll get you a Band-Aid.”

He darted off to the bathroom to retrieve a
Boba Fett Band-Aid from the medicine cabinet. I left my finger
running under the water, even though I think it had stopped
bleeding.

With my other hand, I used the washcloth to
wipe off the cutting bored, pushing bloodied slices of green pepper
into the sink and down the drain.

“
What’s going on?” Mom
always had the best timing and chose just then to come out of the
bedroom. Her hair was its usually frizzy mess, but she’d put on
worn out jeans and an over sized sweatshirt.

“
I just cut my finger.” I
held up my injured appendage.

Milo came out of the bathroom and jogged
over to me. As if I were a complete invalid, he started drying my
finger with a paper towel before putting on the Band-Aid.

“
Milo, you know better than
to let her help you in the kitchen,” Mom said.

She went over to the coffee table to grab an
ashtray, and then lit a cigarette as she walked back into the
kitchen. Her eyes scanned over Jack, but she didn’t say anything to
him. Instead, she just set the ashtray on the kitchen table and sat
down.

“
Sorry,” Jack mumbled once
my finger was sufficiently bandaged. Whatever had gotten into him
seemed to be dissipating and the color in his cheeks
returned.

“
I’m the one that cut my
finger. There’s no reason for you to be sorry.” I looked over at
him, and he smiled at me, but it wasn’t his usual cheerful
grin.

“
We don’t really need a
salad anyway,” Milo decided.

He pushed past me, collecting the vegetables
that I'd cut and tossing them in the garbage. They all hadn’t been
tainted with my blood, but enough of them had where it didn’t seem
worth it.

“
So…” Mom blew out a smoke
ring and gazed intently at Jack. Her features still had that same
worn look they always did, but there was something extra in her
voice. “You must be Jack.”

When she accented his name, that’s when I
realized what it was. She wasn’t as overt as Jane had been, but the
look in her eyes and the tone to her voice… it was definitely
seductive. My stomach twisted nauseously.

“
And you must be Alice’s
mom,” Jack grinned at her, authentically this time. He leaned back
against the counter and crossed one foot over his ankle, bouncing
the toe of his blue Converse on the tile.

“
Anna.” This time, my
mother actually did a “casual” lick of her lips when she looked at
him.

I rolled my eyes, and then looked to Milo to
see if he noticed her being so ridiculous, but he was no help. He
just stood in the middle of the kitchen with his arms crossed over
his chest, staring at Jack.

“
Anna.” Jack repeated, and
my mother looked down, flicking her cigarette in the
ashtray.

“
So tell me about
yourself.” Her eyes went back up to him, and they had never looked
so young before.

My mother was only thirty-four, but she
usually looked much older than that. But when she looked at Jack,
this girliness underneath came through. I could see how beautiful
and radiant she must’ve been when she was young, before she had
me.

“
What do you want to know?”
Jack tilted his head at her.

“
Everything,” she asked,
coy.

“
Well, that’s an awful lot
to tell. Where would you like me to start?”

“
What do you with
yourself?” Her eyes had gone sultry, and I had to fight the urge to
vomit or take Jack’s hand or something.