Page 43 of Under the Influence

He smiles, “Yeah, she’s here. Come on, you can meet her.”

I suddenly don’t think I can move, my body feeling heavy.

What if she doesn’t like me?

Drayton opens my door, and the horror on my face must be obvious.

“Lainey, it’s fine. I promise. She won’t grill you about your life. She’s not like that,” he grabs my hand. “We aren’t like that.”

I shake my head in agreement, walking up the sidewalk to his house. Honestly, I pictured a place a lot like Nash’s, since his dad is married to Drayton’s mom, but it’s not at all like that. It’s small, cozy even. A quiet one-level rancher with a picket fence.

Dray pushes the front door open, and an aroma of sweetness fills the air. Brownies, if I had to guess.

“Mom, you here?” he yells, dragging me in by the hand.

“Yeah, I’m in here!”

He rolls his eyes, leaning down to whisper, “She thinks she can cook. Whatever it is, just say it’s good.”

I smile. It’s sweet that he wants to make his mom happy. We round the corner and I quickly tear my eyes away from the purple burn scars on her arms, not wanting to be rude. She’s beautiful, short dark hair that grazes the top of her shoulders and flawless makeup. It makes me wonder, what happened to her?

“Dray, who’s this?” she chirps, pulling the brownie pan from the oven.

“This is Lainey.”

“Oh wow, Dray, she’s way prettier than you described. It’s nice to meet you, sweetheart.”

“You’ve been talking about me?” I tease.

“Yeah, I told her about how you’ve been sneaking into the Valley parties, so I had to scoop you up before my teammates.”

I push his arm a little, his mom chiming in, “Lainey, don’t let him lie to you. He never goes to those parties, and he saw you the first time he went and made sure he was there at the next one to talk to you.”

“Mom!” Dray whines, “Could you not.”

I laugh, “Is that so?”

“Maybe,” he agrees. “We’re gonna go to my room and watch the Discovery channel.”

His mom laughs, “Is that what they call it these days?”

Dray pulls me by the hand down the hall. “Yeah! Knock first,” he teases.

His mom yells something I can’t quite understand, but it’s followed by Drayton’s laughter.

I like their relationship.

I wish I had that with my mom. Instead, we just exist together.

He opens his bedroom door, and I follow him in. It’s weird seeing someone’s room for the first time. It’s like getting a glimpse into their life. I take it all in, my eyes bouncing off the furniture, the pictures, the trophies.

Baseball.

“I forget that you are a baseball star, but seeing the shrine, I remember that I’m in the presence of greatness.”

He rolls his eyes, “I’m not that good.”

I snatch an MVP plaque off his dresser, “Yeah, they just hand these to everyone.”