That was no lie. My father was an asshole who my mother wasted way too many years with, and I was sure a lot of that time was for my sake. Bill was a good guy who seemed to go out of his way to do all the little things for Mom that Dad never did. For the most part he was the opposite of my prick father, which made him okay in my book.
In the span of the half hour we were home together, Mom asked several times if I was seeing Jen. I was pretty sure she suspected I was glad she was going away for reasons other than her happiness. That suspicion was confirmed when Mom hugged me goodbye and said,
“I’m proud of you, Justin. You’re only eighteen but more of a man than your father ever was. He was already a dog in heat by your age. I don’t know what I was thinking when I married him. But you’re not like him, and I’m sure Jen sees that and knows how special you are.” She paused and with a sly smile added, “I think you’ve proved yourself a good man. Maybe it’s time you were rewarded for it.”
After she left, I did a few things around the house she’d asked me to do to get them out of the way, showered, and threw on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I figured I would just chill tonight and watch some TV. Lying there, I replayed Mom’s words and couldn’t help smiling.
I had no doubt that was Mom’s green light to go for it, without being awkward about it. Her words had put me in a better mood. Because of my father’s bullshit, I had promised Mom that I would be better and hold to values he never had, but she had officially let me off the hook.
Not that I wouldn’t have had Jen over tomorrow anyway, but Mom giving me her blessing removed any feelings that I wasn’t doing the right thing.
She was right. I had earned it, sitting home whacking off while all my friends had already been getting laid and having fun. Even Sam, the indifferent tomboy who didn’t give a rat’s ass what she looked like or what people thought of her, had found guys to mess around with.
I frowned at that last thought. It wasn’t a good one, especially seeing how good a friend Sam was. I’d never once thought I was better than her or anyone else, but that was what it felt like. It also sounded like something Jen would say when making fun of other people, which she did frequently.
Sam had made that remark today, that I was different around—
I jumped when my cell rang from the coffee table in front of me. Grabbing it, I saw it was Jim, who after Sam was pretty much my closest friend.
“Hey, what’s up?” I answered. “You got nothing better to do on a Saturday night besides calling a guy?”
“Hey, Justin.” He didn’t sound happy. “Hey, man, I need to talk to you.”
“What about? I—” I stopped when I heard several people laughing and yelling in the background. “Where are you?”
“I’m at Mackerel Cove in Jamestown.”
“Mackerel Cove? Hey, Jen was up there today.”
“She still is. That’s why I called you.”
“What’s going on?” I sat up on the couch.
“Look, Justin, this really sucks for me because you know you’re my bud, but I’d be an asshole if I didn’t say anything.”