Chapter Text
1 hr 47 mins since Ginny‘s departure
As she pulled up in their driveway, Ellen noticed the open garage door immediately. The next thing she realized was that her teenage son’s motorcycle, that he had just been in an accident with, was missing. Unconsciously, she checked off the family members one by one: Clint, who was at his friend’s house at their monthly manly-man man-meeting for male men, which was pretty much only a get-together of four middle aged deaf men drinking beer. Also, Clint wouldn’t steal his son’s motorcycle. Maxine, who had just been dropped off at her friend Norah’s house minutes earlier by Ellen herself. Also, Maxine wouldn’t steal her brother’s - or anyone’s, for that matter - motorcycle. Marcus, whom Ellen hadn’t seen since this morning and who was still recovering from his concussion that he got for illegally driving his motorcycle.
Marcus! He must have taken off again, this boy meant only trouble. Slamming her car door shut, she ran towards the house, fidgeting in her handbag for her phone in order to text Clint, or call Marcus, or 911. She opened the door, ran up the stairs and burst into Marcus‘ room. “Marcus!“ she screamed, and to her surprise, Marcus replied.
“What?! Why are you coming in here like a lunatic, yelling my name? What is wrong with you?”
“Marcus, you’re.. oh thank God, you’re here.” Ellen was out of breath after only one flight of stairs. Well, that and the fear of her son possibly lying dead in a ditch. But instead of a ditch, Marcus was lying on the floor, seemingly alive, looking up at his room’s ceiling. He didn’t look well, and Ellen noticed his puffy eyes.
“Your eyes are redder than a stop light. At least have the decency to try to hide that you’re smoking pot from me.”
“I haven’t-“, he tried to say, but she interrupted. “Oh don‘t you even dare lying, Marcus! I’ve had enough of your behavior! I am not stupid!”
“Oh you’re not?” He was yelling now, his voice fighting itself through his hurting throat. Under normal circumstances he would just roll his eyes at her and ignore her talking, but nothing about anything was normal anymore. “Then explain to me, mother, how you can mistake being high for having been crying for two hours straight!” It wasn’t a question, it was an exclamation, it was an accusation. His voice broke at the end of the sentence and tears started running down his face again like waterfalls.
Ellen just looked at her son in horror. The pain he felt ran through her like a sword. She hadn’t seen her son like this in a year.
“I just fucked up so hard. The thing with Ginny, it...” He could not go on, because his mother approached him and hugged him like only a mother could. Even though he was a tall young man, he seemed small in Ellen‘s arms that seemed to surround him completely. Ellen, overwhelmed with surprise and confusion, just stood there for a moment before she opened her mouth and whispered: “It is okay, honey. Everything will be okay. Just let everything cool down.” She pat his back for a while and then led him to his bed where they both sat down.
“In a couple of days you go talk to Padma, and I’m sure she-“
Marcus backed away and looked at his mother in disbelief. “Padma? You.. so, you think this is about Padma?”
Ellen‘s surprised face looked like a statue. “Well, I, I thought, ... didn’t you cheat on her with Ginny? I thought you and Padma..” Marcus interrupted again, this time a little calmer.
“We weren’t together, I did not cheat. Padma is great, she is a nice girl, but I was NOT in love, and I could ignore that, until I WAS in love.” He clenched his teeth while speaking.
It took Ellen a few seconds, but then she realized it.
“Oh. With Ginny?”
“Yeah.”
“So really.”
“Yeah. Really, I love her.”
“Oh well, love, isn’t that a big word? You‘re both just teenagers.“ Marcus looked at her in disbelief, but Ellen continued. “I‘m sure you like her a lot, but love is a really complex feeling, and it takes time.“
“So you‘re dismissing my feelings? Do I have to become as old - as ancient - as you to have actual feelings, huh?“
„Marcus!“, she exclaimed, but he wouldn’t let her take over the conversation.
„Let me ask you, when did you and dad meet?“
For a short moment, Ellen didn’t show any reaction, then she smiled. It was the kind of smile you have when you get caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar. Marcus repeated his question. “How old were you and dad when you met?“
“We were 16...“, she admitted.
“Oh right, only teenagers. How long did it take for you to start dating?“
“You are the worst, Marcus!“
“How long, mother?“
“Pretty mich immediately, and before you ask, I‘m gonna go ahead and also admit that I wrote into my diary that night that I wanted to marry that man. I get your point, Marcus.“
Both just looked at the floor for a while, then Marcus started talking again.
“I might not understand the love you and dad have now. There might be a difference in how teenagers feel love and how old people like you-“
A Pillow hit his head. Enough to shortly distract him, but not really hard. Ellen was cautious with her still injured son, after all. “Be careful whom you call old!”
He smirked and continued. “There might be a difference in how we feel, of how much intensity or depth we‘re capable. But what I am feeling now, it’s the most I am able to feel, and it’s more than I can handle, and if this gets worse, I’m not sure I’m made for all of this.”
“Oh, honey! When did my little boy become a man?” Ellen hugged her son again, but this time it was more for herself than for him. “Honey, I am so sorry. You are right, it was wrong of me to dismiss your feelings. I might not be super old, but old enough to sometimes forget what it was like to be a teenager. I promise you, things WILL be better. You WILL be happy! I am so sorry that you’re going through that.”
“It’s okay, mom.”
“So she doesn’t like you? She told you that?”
“Yeah, she does.”
Ellen’s facial expression showed that once again she didn’t understand what was going on, so he explained.
“I think she liked me from the beginning; I sure did. But then Max befriended her, she just took her over, and she set her up with that Hunter guy! And it was awful but we both couldn’t and wouldn’t stay away from each other. So at the recital, there was this situation. I just wanted to go to the bathroom and there they were, Ginny, Max, their friends and even Hunter, and they all yelled at Ginny and then they said they knew about us. I didn’t know what to do and what to say, I panicked. I thought I was helping, so I said that it was nothing and a mistake.”
“Oh shit, I hated being a teenager because of that stuff... But I’m sure if you apologize to her she will understand. If she likes you the way you like her, then you’ll get over this!”
“I did. I apologized. She said it was okay, but I could tell that something was off. She was just weird. And she hasn’t responded to any of my texts. When I call her it goes directly to her mailbox. She’s avoiding me.”
Ellen stayed for a while in his room. They laid next to each other in his bed and talked like they hadn’t in a really long time. She tried to convince him that Ginny just needed time, that her phone must have died while she was at the Mayor’s election party, that all would be fine. After a while she realized that Marcus started to relax and that he was almost asleep, so she stood up, covered him with a blanket and headed out of his room.
“Hey, mom?”, he said half-asleep.
“Yes?”
“Why did you burst into my room before?”
“Oh, nothing, hun. The garage door was open and I thought your motorcycle went missing again. I was just worried you took off again.”
In in instant Marcus was wide awake, sitting in his bed. “My bike is missing?!”
“I must have been wrong, I’m not even sure it’s gone. I just saw the garage door open, it’s dark and I just assumed...”
He jumped out of bed, heard his mother say “I’m sure it’s all fine”, ran down the stairs, out of the house right to the garage. No bike, it was gone.
In that moment he heard a car come to a halt right across the street, and Georgia got out of it. Their eyes met and with accusation and annoyance in her voice, Georgia yelled over: “Is my daughter with you?!”
Marcus turned his head back to the open garage door.
“Ginny...”, he whispered.