The Summer I Learned to Dive - By Shannon McCrimmon Page 0,62
the top of our lungs. It was fun and it helped me get my mind off things.
“Dance off!” Meg shouted above the music. I looked at her confused.
“Each of us dances alone, showing our stellar moves,” Hannah said.
Meg changed the tune to another classic, which was all that played in the juke box, per Grandpa. He believed that music after the 1960’s was crap: his words, not mine.
“Stop in the Name of Love” by the Supremes played. We each took turns dancing. When it was my turn, I moved to the music, without a care in the world. I didn’t realize that Jesse was watching me until I saw Meg and Hannah’s expressions. I turned three shades of red. We all laughed, me laughing more than anyone. I was thankful for them. They had become good friends to me. And having this moment, it helped me get my mind off of things.
“I’m sorry, we’re closed,” Meg said in between laughs.
“I’m here to pick up Finn,” my mother said. I abruptly stopped dancing and turned around to face her.
I played with my hair nervously. “Hey,” I said.
“Are you ready?” She asked trying to smile. I could see that she was nervous.
“Give me a minute,” I said. I motioned to Jesse to follow me into the kitchen.
“You okay?” he asked standing next to me, his voice a near whisper.
“Just dreading our talk,” I said. I looked at him and tried to smile. He lightly touched my face and didn’t say anything. I hugged him.
“I’ll call you later,” I walked out of the kitchen and grabbed my purse from the locker. My mother was talking with Hannah and Meg. She stopped speaking and looked at me.
“All set?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I shrugged. “See you guys later,” I said to them and they both hugged me, knowing it was exactly what I needed. I walked with my mom outside and got into her car, sitting in the passenger seat.
“They seem nice,” she said.
“Yeah, they are,” I mumbled quietly. I didn’t want to talk with her. It felt forced and fake.
“I know you’re still angry with me. I hate that you are. I want us to be close again, Finn, like we were,” she said. I didn’t respond. She sighed heavily and turned on the ignition. We didn’t’ speak the entire ride home.
She pulled into the driveway. I immediately got out of the car and walked inside. I had promised my grandfather that I would forgive her, but it was too hard. Everything she said felt like a lie to me. I walked upstairs to take a shower. I let the water run for several minutes, spacing out, thinking about nothing and everything all at once.
I walked downstairs. My mother was sitting in the kitchen, drinking water. She looked up at me. “Finn,” she said almost questioning.
“I’m ready to hear why you lied to me all of these years,” I said with a hint of resentment.
“Well, you’re not going to make it easy are you,” she said. She took a deep breath. I sat across from her, my arms folded.
“I met your father when I was very young. I wasn’t even sixteen. The moment I saw him, I was smitten. He was gorgeous and could do anything. He was popular, every girl wanted to date him and every boy wanted to be like him,” she said looking at me. “So when he became interested in me, I couldn’t believe it. I was shy and awkward and certainly not popular but he didn’t seem to notice.” She stood up and poured more water into her glass. I watched her, my arms folded, still angry, and still confused. “We were very much in love. We were each other’s first loves, like you and Jesse,” she said trying to smile. My face turned red, but I said nothing. “We went everywhere together, never apart for a long period of time. Neither of us could stand it. We decided to get married after we graduated from high school. I wasn’t going to college and he had decided he didn’t want to. Your grandparents weren’t happy about that. He could have gone to college on a football scholarship or on his grades alone, but he had decided he wanted to run the diner. So, we got married and lived in a tiny apartment. I worked at the grocery store and he worked at Lilly’s. We weren’t making much money but that didn’t seem to matter, we were so in love.”