Colorado Game - 45. Chapter 45

CHAPTER *45*

"Why do you always pull this crap?" The words entered the loft before my mom was actually inside. "I swear, sometimes I wish you had a little less of your father's genes. He was a putz and guess what; people's exhibit A."
She jabbed a finger into my chest.

"Why don't you come in?" I answered sarcastically. "So you heard, huh?"

"Yeah," she said, smacking on the chewing gum. "Queen Sofia filled me in."
Uh-oh. So Sofia knew. That wasn't really a surprise but a sudden dread ran up and down my spine.

"She's mad at me, huh?"

"No. I am the mad one. We're playing good Queen, bad Que... of course she's mad, you cockjuggling thundercunt! What were you thinking!"

"Ma..."

"Don't you ‘ma' me. I should give you a good smack, for ruining the one good thing you had going for you. You know what's funny?"

"Well, I heard this joke about a priest and a goat..."

SMACK

"Shut up," she continued, without missing a beat, "what's funny is that if I ever pulled a stunt like this, I wouldn't hear the end of it. What? If my mother were still alive, you'd be looking at a woman with a three inch heel sticking out of her forehead, for giving birth to the densest twit in town. Tell me what happened."
I sighed.

"I screwed up. As usual."

"Ah, self pity. Wonderful stage. You get to wallow and feel sorry for yourself, and console yourself with chocolate ice-cream." SMACK "What the hell happened?"
It didn't take me all that long to tell her the main points.

"Oh, where does this guy live? I got a three inch heel with his name on it. What a piece of work."

"Yeah..."

"Still, it does confirm what I actually already knew..."

"What's that?"
I held up my hands in case she wanted to smack me in the head some more, but she smiled.

"That you're a good kid. An incredibly stupid one, but that's part of my gene pool, so I can't really trash you about it. So what are you gonna do?"
I shrugged.

"Did you call Ross?"
Only about a thousand times.

"Yeah, he doesn't wanna talk to me."

"Gee, I wonder why." She ruffed up my hair affectionately. "Sorry. Okay, so you're one hundred percent sure that nothing happened between you and that guy?"

"Oh come on, ma. I may be the densest twit in town but you know better than that. I love Ross. That jackass doctored those pictures to make it look like something that didn't happen."

"Did you tell Ross that?" I nodded.

"Yeah, but it's not about that. I think he actually does believe that part. It's about me lying to him, and continuing to see Kyle after making a promise not to do that. They warned me about Kyle, a gazillion times. I just thought he wasn't the guy they were making him out to be. I was wrong."

"Tell him that!"

"No ma, it's over. The sooner you accept that, the better. I have. Well, not entirely but when Ross doesn't want to even speak to me, what use is there in waiting? He won't come around, I know that much. So, I think I'm skipping town for a while. I got some opportunities..."

"Skipping town?" she echoed, her eyes widening. "What... Mark..."

"I have a few offers from Canada. Some producer called me about a new TV-show. I was thinking of heading up to Vancouver and see if that's something I can do."

"Vancouver? Christ kid, if you wanna see Santa, buy a Hallmark card. You don't have to actually go live with the guy."

"Mom..."

"I know, I know, I'm just trying to get my head around the idea. How long would you be gone?"
I winced a little, not daring to look her in the eye.

"Umm, that would be... umm... like per-cough-ma-cough-nent."
Her hand came up and I got out of the way before it connected.

"Exactly your dad!"

"Listen ma, if the job is great, why not move there? This could be my big break!"

"I got a big break right here for ya," she growled, picking up a decorative rolling pin.

"Please wait, dear. At least until I'm done," a familiar voice spoke up behind me. Great. Just what I needed.

Sofia Forester.