Page 95 of Catching Sparkles

Scoffing, I nearly threw my hands up in frustration. “What the fuck do you want from me, Benjamin? I’m staying in fucking Cherryvale for him. I’m moving into his apartment. I came out to my fucking lawyer five fucking minutes ago.”

His features softened, but only fractionally. “You’re moving in with him? Already?”

“Only if we have your blessing, Father,” I retorted flatly. “Give me a fucking break, you lunatic.”

The front door of the house swung open, Mom rushing out with a pissed off look on her face.

“What in God’s name are the two of you yelling about out here? You-” She cut herself off the second her eyes landed on me, the blood-soaked tissues I still had pressed against my face, and all the blood that had made its way down to my shirt. “Rhys! Oh, honey, what on Earth happened to you!? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” I responded impassively. Despite the assertion, she rushed over to me, pulling away the tissues and wincing at the damage.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s bruising already. Get inside and let me put some ice on it. What happened?” She asked again.

My lip was zipped. Benjamin and I had never narced on each other, no matter how bad the fight was, or bad of trouble we’d gotten in. When she turned to look at him for answers, he gave her a similarly guarded expression. Unfortunately for us, she’d gotten pretty savvy to our bullshit over the years.

“You did this!?” She asked, and he shrugged, staring off in another direction.

“Benjamin Jacob Kensington, get in the house. And you too,” she ordered, poking a finger into my chest. “Go!”

We slunk into the house with our respective tails between our legs, Mom guiding me onto a bar stool in the kitchen and shoving me onto it.

“Unbelievable,” she muttered, before wrapping a bag of peas from the freezer in a hand towel and handing it to me to put on my face. “My grown sons fighting in the yard like delinquents. You’re a father,” she reminded Benjamin sharply. “I cannot imagine what could possibly be so terrible, that you would act like such a bonehead. Take these,” she said, setting a bottle of pain relievers in front of me, along with a glass of water.

“Is, uh, everything okay in here?” Dad stuck his head in from the den, glancing around with some confusion.

“Your sons have taken it upon themselves to act like cavemen in front of all of our neighbors.”

“My sons,” he repeated, letting out a light sigh. “That always spells trouble.”

I let her fuss over me and chew Benjamin out for a bit longer, mostly because I was feeling petty and my nose really, really hurt, before taking in a deep breath.

“There’s, um… something I need to talk to you guys about. Something really important.”

Benjamin looked surprised at my statement, like he hadn’t really expected me to tell them. I supposed I couldn’t totally blame him. He only had my word to go on when it came to my feelings for Kendall. All I could do was show him with my actions. When they urged me to go on, sensing my nerves and assuring me I could be honest with them, I took a deep breath and forced the words out.

“I’m… moving out.”

“I knew it!” Mom said, giving my dad a look that let me know they’d already talked about this behind my back. Great. Like that wasn’t totally embarrassing. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you moved in with that girl you’re seeing. Now you’ll have to introduce her to us.”

“Ah, yeah, so… you’re half right. Kind of,” I tacked on, trying not to grimace at the instinctive way I was stalling. I was so nervous I wanted to throw up. “I am moving in with the person I’ve been seeing. But it’s, um… Uh… I…”

My dad gave me a concerned look, silently reaching out and giving my arm a supportive pat. I wondered if he was thinking about that conversation we’d had, about how you knew when you were with the right person.

“It’s Kendall,” I finally managed to shove out his name, even though my throat felt like it was clogged with glue. “I’m, uh… moving in with Kendall.”

The silence that fell over the room felt like an eternity, but could probably be measured in just a few frantic beats of my heart.

My mom spoke first, blinking a few times like it would help clear her head. “You’re moving in with my Kendall?”

“You mean my Kendall,” Benjamin piped up.

“Uh, no,” I said, a bit sourly as I shifted the bag of peas to the other side of my swollen nose. I hoped the ibuprofen would kick in soon. “I was actually referring to my Kendall. My boyfriend, who I’m moving in with.”

“Hold on just a minute,” Dad said, raising his palms up to illustrate his need for everyone to focus on the important parts of the conversation. “How did this happen?”

“You know what?” Benjamin said, before I could decide how to start. “I actually need to get home to Josie and the baby. I only came by to pick something up for her.” I had a feeling he was going to get his own version of the story from Kendall, anyway.

“Well, who the hell is going to tell me why you punched your brother in the face?” Mom asked, planting a hand on her hip to show she was still annoyed with him, even after my big reveal.