Archive of Our Own

1.

Lucille knew her son would start dating at some point. Really, she did. It’s just the general course of nature – a parent’s whole job is to raise their child to grow into a mature adult. And part of becoming a mature adult involves testing the waters of the dating world.

Still, she felt completely blindsided the day her sixteen-year-old baby boy came home and nervously asked to borrow the car that weekend. Even before he said why, she knew that his nervousness meant the request would be more than just driving over to hang out at Chad’s.

“There’s kind of this girl I kind of wanted to ask out.” And there it was. Troy’s eyes toed back and forth between his parents, but he didn’t hold eye contact with either one for long.

Lucille’s mouth fell open slightly at the request, but when she looked to her husband to gauge his reaction, he couldn’t seem more unbothered. He looked at her and shrugged, oblivious and unhelpful to her internal plight.

“Please,” Troy begged, bringing her back to the request. He laid on the puppy dog eyes and everything.

What could she do? She had no reason to say no. They’d always agreed sixteen was the okay age for him to date, even if he was still just a mere sophomore; Troy’s grades were fine, so no grounding excuse; and the girl was a decent enough girl, according to Jack’s insight from working at the high school.

She relented and promised Troy her car keys any day that weekend.

.

“Any day” became Saturday, and it was upon them much sooner than she would have liked.

She was happy for her son, at least. He tried to play it cool, but a mother can read her child like an open book. He’d spent most of the day working on homework in his room, as opposed to the living room where he normally worked, and when he was out and about, he’d been restless and fidgety all day.

Lucille found herself just as restless.

Troy was supposed to pick his date (his date!) up at six, and as the time grew nearer, mother and son both grew more restless. Jack told her to quit worrying so much, but that was a tall order. She was torn – the one half of her hated watching Troy go off on his first date, but the other half wanted to make sure he had a good time. She just wanted to reassure her baby that it’d be okay and he’d have fun tonight, but the little voice in the back of her head told her that would probably serve to mortify him more than reassure him. She opted to quietly stew instead.

As the clock ticked to five thirty, Troy jumped off the couch and grabbed her car keys from her. She told him to be safe and have a good time when all she really wanted was to forbid him from going and keep him there forever. It was tough for a mother to watch her son grow up.

Oblivious to her thoughts, Troy nodded, said a quick goodbye, and was out the door.

She barely ate at dinner. Jack gently placed his hand on hers as they ate and rubbed it soothingly. He tried to comfort her as best he could, but his words that it was just their son growing up just echoed the worries that had been repeating in her head.

It really wasn’t that she didn’t want him to date. Truly. But in her eyes, Troy would always be the two-year-old toddling around the house, the six-year-old with the toothy grin, the ten-year-old trying to match his dad at basketball. Never would she see him as a sixteen-year-old old enough to date and kiss and do whatever else with sixteen-year-old girls.

But that was the reality she was facing.

She never understood parents that said their children weren’t allowed to date until they hit their thirties, but she was suddenly understanding it now. It was about protecting the innocence you see in your child. It was about still seeing your child as an extension of yourself, not wanting to accept that they are their own person.

She could accept it – she had to, she knew – she just didn’t want to.

She voiced all this to her husband as they sat in the living room together that night, and to his credit, he comforted her better now by staying quiet and just listening.

.

Troy ended up coming home quite a few hours before curfew, to Lucille’s surprise. He didn’t look too happy, either – he seemed almost annoyed, she thought. He threw the car keys on the table by the door, gave his parents the classic “I hate my life” glare, and marched out of the room.

Sure, she had been uneasy, to say the least, about Troy going on his first date, but she still had wanted him to have a good time. The only thing worse than watching your baby boy grow up was seeing him in pain.

She gave a brief glance at Jack and then quickly padded after her son. He was right where she expected him to be – in the backyard shooting hoops. He saw her approach – there was no way he didn’t from the direction he was facing – but he didn’t acknowledge her. She stood off to the side and said nothing. She was his mother, and she would stand here all night if need be just so he wouldn’t stew alone.

He ignored her for a good five minutes, making (and missing more often than usual) back-to-back free throws. She let him be silent.

“Well,” he finally said, “I can never go to the Thai place on Osuna Road again.”

That was something.

“Yeah?”

He grabbed the ball mid-bounce and turned to glare at her. She tried not to take it personally.

“She yelled at the waitress for getting her order wrong,” he said flatly. “She forgot what she ordered. I remember ‘cause she got the same thing Chad always gets.” He rolled his eyes. “She was yelling about how she ordered some fish thing, and let me tell you,” he said, huffing at his mom, “Defending the waitress was apparently not the right thing for me to do.”

He turned away from her and went back to shooting baskets.

She contemplated what to say for a moment. “I think defending your waitress shows character. There’s no reason for her to yell at someone like that, even if the order had been wrong.”

He rolled his eyes. “Well, clearly she didn’t think so. Pretty sure that was our first and last date.”

“Would you have wanted another date with her?”

He tossed the ball back and forth between his hands for a moment and then looked back over at her. “No, I guess not.”

She nodded. “So it sounds like you dodged a bullet and kept your integrity.”

He rolled his eyes – much more dramatically this time – and turned back toward the hoop. “Whatever. I don’t really need the life lesson, Mom.”

“I know. Just offering you another way of looking at it. Sometimes things don’t work out and it’s for the best.”

“Can I just shoot some baskets out here alone, Mom?”

She’d overstepped. The way he said “alone” told her as much. She knew she should have kept her mouth shut, but she was proud of her son for sticking up for someone like that. She just wanted him to know that.

.

He thanked her the next day for the conversation and apologized for his attitude. She just smiled and told him not to worry about it, and all was well between them.

She made a promise to herself to try to have more tact with her son’s emotions in the future.

2.

Troy’s second date went better than the first, at least. It had been a few weeks since the first disaster, and Lucille was happy that the bad experience hadn’t turned him off relationships entirely.

She had started to warm to the idea of him dating. Well, maybe not exactly “warmed,” but she’d become a little more comfortable with the idea after further conversations with her husband.

She knew it was all a part of growing up, and the more she thought about it, the more thankful she was that these dates were still occurring while he lived at home. Just like anything else, her son needed practice navigating relationships. At least this way, she could keep a watchful eye on the progression of things, and gently guide him if things went awry. If she’d banned him from dating altogether (which a not-so-tiny part of her still wanted to do), then he’d be all on his own for these first few dating experiences.

The thought made her grateful that she’d made the choice to give him that freedom.

And he’d exercised that freedom tonight. A girl on the cheerleading squad had been dropping hints for a while, according to Troy, and he’d taken the leap and asked her out a few days ago.

Lucille tried to push away the stereotype of just exactly what cheerleaders were willing to do with basketball players. Some things were better left for her husband to handle.

As stated before, the second date went better than the first, but Troy still came home looking less enthusiastic than she had hoped.

When she followed him to his bedroom, he explained that it was nice and all, but he just didn’t think it would work out. Evidently, his date spent most of the night talking about her role on the cheerleading team, her plans for the rest of the weekend, her classes at school, her makeup, her hair, her… well, her everything.

“I mean, yeah, I wanted to, like, get to know her,” he awkwardly confessed to his mother, “But I only said, like, ten words all night.”

She sat on the bed next to him and didn’t say anything – she’d learned her lesson last time. She was going to do a lot more listening this time and just be a presence to talk to.

“At least she didn’t yell at the waiter.” He said it with a shrug, like it was supposed to be a joke.

Lucille smiled and ran her hand up and down his back. “That’s good.”

“I mean, she was interested in the basketball team, I guess. She kept asking me about that, but that was, like, it. That was all she let me talk about.”

She nodded, saying nothing.

“I don’t know – what are you supposed to talk about on a date?” His voice was quiet and he was looking away, his face scrunched up in confusion.

She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to answer. She wanted him to let him talk and was afraid to say the wrong thing.

Troy ended up talking again before she could have said anything anyway. As the clock ticked, he kept offering more details about his night, and she merely interjected an “mm-hmm” or a “that’s too bad” as he spoke.

His venting seemed to do the trick. By the end of it, he’d come to his own conclusion that he was glad he went, but he didn’t want to go out with her again. He even said, more to himself than to her, that he would let her down nicely, and talked himself through how to do that. It made her proud to hear.

All part of the “growing into an adult” process, she thought. The fact that her son was this open in front of her made her think maybe they were doing something right in raising him.

As they finished their talk, she patted his leg and stood from the bed. “I’m glad you had a good night,” was all she said. She resisted the urge to tell him that things would get better – he seemed happy with the outcome even if it didn’t go as planned, and she didn’t want to sour the mood by drawing attention back to the negative.

Right before she stepped out of the room, she felt Troy tug on her arm. She turned and let him wrap his arms around her in a hug. “Thanks for listening, Mama.”

That thanks was all she needed to hear.

3.

A couple months later, and Troy was set for a date with a girl he’d already seen three times before. A possible steady relationship? Lucille wondered. He still seemed so young for that. She wasn’t quite sure what constituted “steady” these days – she hardly remembered from when she was his age – but at the very least, they were on their way there.

Lucille hadn’t met the girl herself yet, but she made the conscious decision to trust her son’s judgment. She kept reminding herself that it was all a part of growing up. Trusting your child’s judgment, and more importantly (and much more difficult), letting them risk making mistakes.

Those first two dates with the other girls were definitely mistakes (no, not mistakes – learning experiences, she reminded herself), but the three he’d been on with this girl seemed to go well from the limited information he’d shared with her. (Evidently, their heart-to-hearts from the first two dates were not going to become a regular occurrence.)

So far, the two teens had eaten dinner together a couple times, gone bowling, and they were set to catch a movie tonight.

Lucille noticed that Troy seemed less anxious the more dates he went on. She wasn’t sure if that was because of the girl herself, or the fact that he was becoming more comfortable with taking a girl out to dinner in general. For most teenage boys, she thought to herself, taking a girl on a date is their top priority in life. As much as it scared her, she was glad that he seemed more comfortable with the prospect.

That didn’t mean his nerves had gone away entirely – he still had that shy ten-year-old kid afraid to sing in the Christmas pageant inside him. He still paced the kitchen the hour before his date, but he’d also found enough composure to sit in the living room to watch TV and work on some homework instead of staying in his room all day.

Lucille didn’t mention noticing all these things. She didn’t want to make a big deal about it.

Just like all the previous nights, the clock showed it was time to leave, and Troy made a beeline for the door, hardly remembering the goodbye to his parents.

.

Maybe Lucille had been wrong earlier when she’d thought their post-date heart-to-hearts were over.

With Troy’s three earlier dates with this girl, he’d come home and eagerly shared details. Limited details, she assumed, but details nonetheless. It had actually surprised her – she figured he would have played it cool and kept it to himself, but she was more than happy to listen if he was willing to share.

And so, that was what she had expected tonight.

Instead, Troy had come home oddly quiet. He’d glanced toward his parents on the couch and looked at his mother, and she’d seen a vulnerable expression looking back at her. She’d cocked her head, and he’d broken eye contact and headed to his room.

She’d followed immediately after, and now they were sitting side-by-side on his bed once again.

His fingers picked at an imaginary hangnail, and after a moment, he asked her if it was wrong that he didn’t want to kiss even after four dates.

That hadn’t been what Lucille expected to hear.

To be perfectly honest, she had assumed they had already reached that point. Or maybe that Troy had reached that point with some other girl by now. She knew he was a popular boy, and he’d hung out with girls on unofficial dates before. But, maybe she had been wrong. Maybe she really was out of touch with the teenage dating scene. Or maybe Troy (and his date, for that matter) were taking things slow. She felt oddly happy at the thought, though she didn’t know why. She knew kissing would come at some point; she just thought he still seemed so young.

She chose to overlook the fact that her own first kiss took place at the age of fifteen, younger than her own son was now.

“I liked her, don’t get me wrong,” Troy added hastily, bringing her right back to his question, “But… I–” he stopped talking abruptly. Lucille desperately wanted to know the rest of that thought.

He met her eyes for a split second, and she nodded at him to continue.

“I guess I just want it to mean something…” She nodded in understanding. “Like… she just wanted us to kiss so she could go tell all her friends.”

Oh, god.

“It seems like there should be more to it than that.”

She couldn’t keep her opinion to herself entirely here. “I think that you’re right.” She had to reassure her son, even if she was just echoing his own thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Mm-hmm. Kissing is a big step in any relationship.” She did not want to be talking to her boy about kissing girls, but that’s what he needed in the moment. More than anything, she was angry at herself for not thinking to have this discussion earlier. Maybe it could have saved her son the self-doubt right now. “It’s something you can’t take back, and it should mean something to you. To both of you.”

“How do you–” He looked away from her. “How do you know when you’re ready to kiss someone?”

She closed her eyes tightly and pursed her lips, and she found herself grateful that her son was looking away and didn’t see her reaction. Well, at least now she knew her son hadn’t had a first kiss. That seemed like something a mother should know. She dropped her face back into what she hoped was a calm, reassuring expression. “You just know. I know that’s not incredibly helpful, but trust me, you’ll know.”

He rolled his eyes.

At his expected reaction, she changed her approach slightly. “Tell me,” she said, “How do you know when you want something else, in general?”

He looked up and seemed to really consider it. He sighed and answered her. “You just know.” She could hear the eyeroll he held back.

“Well, there you go.” She patted his leg comfortingly. “You’ll just know.”

4.

“I am never going on a date again.”

Lucille looked up from her book toward her son, who had just gotten home from an afternoon ice cream date with one of the girls in his class. It was a couple months into his junior year now, and Troy had gone on a casual date every few weeks since returning from summer vacation.

She saw the annoyed look on his face then briefly looked toward her husband sitting next to her on the couch.

She expected Troy to leave the room immediately, but when he instead plopped down on the couch beside them, Lucille spoke.

“What happened?”

Troy rolled his eyes. “Nothing.”

Jack and Lucille glanced at each other. They both raised their eyebrows in a silent “sure, yeah, ‘nothing’” look.

Then Jack said as much out loud. “If it’s nothing, then why are you never going on another date again?”

Lucille gently placed her hand on her husband’s knee, hoping he’d understand her silent plea to be gentle with their son’s feelings. He hadn’t overstepped yet, judging by the look on Troy’s face, but it was a fine line that she wasn’t sure Jack was used to treading.

“I just– We–“ Troy fumbled for words, and she noticed he kept shooting quick glances at his dad. She gently nudged her husband’s leg and nodded her head toward the other room.

Jack rolled his eyes but took the hint, and he came up with a weak excuse to leave mother and son alone to talk.

“So?” she asked.

“I just– I feel like there’s… no point.” His tone of voice drifted upward toward the end, as though asking a question. Almost as though he was unsure if that was what he wanted to say. “Am I missing the point or something?” he asked directly.

Lucille wasn’t quite sure what he meant, though.

But the way Troy was looking at her, he seemed to expect an actual answer.

“Well,” she began, “what do you think the point is?”

Troy was quiet a moment as he thought. “I mean, isn’t the whole point of a date to, like, find a girlfriend? A lot of the time, I just feel like I’m hanging out with a friend or something. Like, I have fun and all, but…” he was quiet another moment, “I feel like half the time I’d rather be home or with Chad and them. It seems like all I ever end up doing is having half-assed–” he tripped up as he swore, but Lucille figured now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. “Um, we just end up having, like, pointless conversations. Like this last date, I know nothing about her that I didn’t know yesterday. Aren’t we supposed to talk and stuff?”

Lucille nodded slowly, taking time to process and consider her son’s words. There was a lot to address with what he just asked, though quite frankly, she wasn’t entirely sure what exactly he had asked. She was pretty sure she got the gist of it, though, so she tried to give him a half-decent answer.

“Well… a date doesn’t necessarily have to lead to a girlfriend. A lot of people just go out on a few dates, somewhere between friends and dating, and they enjoy that. There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s a good way to enjoy someone’s company and get to know them. But,” she added quickly, “I think that you have a good mindset.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

She sighed. If she was being perfectly honest with herself, she didn’t entirely know what she was trying to say. Why do people date, exactly? Yes, adults usually dated to find long-term partners, but was that really what teenagers needed to be focused on? When Troy had started dating the previous school year, she’d told herself how it was practice for the adult world, but she found it hard to agree with that thought process now.

She wanted her son to be happy, she reminded herself, even if the thought of him being in a long-term relationship scared her. She wanted to see her son with the right girl, and if he was doubting himself this much, maybe none of the girls at East High were right for him. Maybe he was too mature for high school girls, she proudly thought – her maternal optimism kicking in. Maybe he would find love outside of school – at work someday or at college.

She just didn’t want him to have to wait that long to find the happiness of a relationship if that’s what he wanted.

Maybe at his age, there wasn’t anything wrong with dating casually, but she didn’t want him to be reckless with his own emotions. How was she supposed to explain these chaotic thoughts to a sixteen-year-old boy? She could hardly explain them to herself.

She came back to her senses when she remembered Troy was staring at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue her thought process.

“You have to remember, Troy, and it seems like you’re finding this out yourself, that not everyone you go on a date with will end up going somewhere. I know it’s not a whole lot of fun to go on a date where you don’t really click, but isn’t it better to find out on a first date than after a few months?” She ran her palms up and down her own lap. “It doesn’t mean it was a waste of time, though. You said you had fun, right?”

He nodded.

“Well, then that means it wasn’t a complete loss. Stop thinking there’s all this pressure to have the ideal date – that won’t happen. Just enjoy it for what it is.”

Her son stared back at her, brows furrowed as though he didn’t know whether to believe her.

“A girlfriend will either come or she won’t, but you can’t try to force it. Things will play out the way they’re meant to in the end.”

5.

At quarter past midnight, Lucille was woken by a sudden sliver of light poking into her and Jack’s bedroom from the hallway door. She squinted at the intrusion and spotted her son peeking in the room.

“Troy?” she whispered.

He whispered back. “Hey, um, I tried to knock, but…” He took a small step into the room. “Did I wake you?”

Well, yes. It was after midnight. Of course he’d woken her. But she couldn’t remember the last time Troy woke them up late at night like this, so emergency bells were going off in her head. Was he sick? Was someone hurt? Did something happen?

She ignored his question. “What’s wrong?”

He stepped over slowly next to her side of the bed, no doubt fumbling in the dark. “I just wanted to talk to you.” She could only see his silhouette, but she could tell something was off by his hunched shoulders and the way his head looked toward the ground. “You know what, never mind. It wasn’t important anyway.”

“Whoa, hey, no.” She tossed the covers back and sat up a little in bed. “What’s wrong?”

Troy didn’t say anything for a second, but she could see him shifting back and forth on his feet. Her husband, however, did say something, apparently woken by the noise. “Troy? Is something the matter?”

“No, uh, Dad. I just wanted to talk to Mama.”

Satisfied by that answer, Jack grunted and went right back to sleep, but Lucille still took it as a cue to move their conversation somewhere they could talk alone. Clearly Troy had something he wanted to talk about without his dad hearing, and if she could help with that, then she would.

She ushered him out of their bedroom into the hall. He tried to deflect when she asked again what was wrong, so she guided him to his own room where they could perhaps talk more comfortably.

“Troy, what’s wrong? You don’t wake me like this every night – something’s on your mind.” She ran her fingers gently through her son’s hair, appreciating the rare moment he let her baby him. She hoped it brought him some comfort. He scooched under the covers, sitting up against the headboard, and she stayed sat on the edge of the bed.

He shrugged in response to her question. “It’s not important.”

“I’m your mother. Everything is important.” Her tone left no room for arguing.

“It’s nothing. I’m just being stupid.”

“Troy…”

Lucille wasn’t going to give in. Not when her son needed her. They went back and forth a few more times before Troy finally relented.

He slumped his shoulders and looked away from her. “No one at school really likes me.”

That took her by surprise. By all accounts she heard, her son was the most popular kid in school. She even saw it for himself at his basketball games – all the kids cheering his name, congratulating him on a game well-played. For him to say no one liked him, that caught her off-guard. “Why do you say that?”

“Because they don’t,” he said dully.

Well, really, what kind of answer had she expected? She nodded and rephrased her question. “Why do you think they don’t like you?”

He still refused to look at her. “No one knows me. No one there knows two things about me. They only like me because I’m the captain of the basketball team – none of them actually like me. They just like Troy Bolton, the basketball captain.”

She nodded again. She was starting to get a little insight. “There are people there that like you,” she reassured. “Chad’s been your friend since preschool. And Zeke, and Jason, you all were friends long before you started basketball together.”

“Yeah, but none of them are girls.”

Ah.

She couldn’t argue that.

“You think none of the girls at school like you?” It broke her heart to ask. She was trying to echo his thoughts back to him, to make sure she understood everything correctly. And the way Troy turned to her, looking completely lost and dejected, told her that she was most definitely understanding him correctly.

“They don’t,” he reiterated glumly.

She reminded him of a couple old childhood friends and asked about them.

He rolled his eyes. “Not what I meant, Mama. I’m not, like, interested in any of them. I’m talking about girls to go on a date with.” His face fell again. “None of them are actually interested in me.”

It was so rare to hear him open up like this to her. Yes, he sometimes shared details and asked her opinions from time to time, but she hardly ever had him open up about his insecurities like this. Every word he said broke her heart a little more. She was afraid to ask her next question, fearing what kind of answer he might have. “What about your date on Saturday? I thought you had a good time.”

He turned away from her. “The next day at school she was bragging to everyone about how she got to go out with me. But it was all just for bragging rights. She made a bet with a friend of hers about which one of them could get a date with me and I guess she won.”

Lucille wanted to punch both of those girls.

“We barely even talked about anything. Like, all the girls that are willing to go out with me don’t want an actual conversation. And I don’t know anyone else to ask out ‘cause all the other girls in school avoid me ‘cause they think I’m just the basketball guy. They think I just want to, like… you know.”

She did know. She was glad to hear that wasn’t what her son was after, though.

“So there’s all these girls willing to go out, but none of them actually want a relationship. And all the girls that would want a relationship, they aren’t willing to get to know me.” He looked like he was near tears. She wanted nothing more than to just crawl in bed next to him and hold him while he fell asleep, just like she did when he was a little boy having a nightmare.

If only it would do any good the next day.

She instead placed her hand gently on his knee through the covers and patted it comfortingly. “Do you want that, Troy? A relationship?”

He barely nodded, still turned away.

“Why? You don’t need a girlfriend, you know. A relationship should add to your life, not be something to stress over. It’s something that will come naturally.”

“That’s what you said last time,” he said.

“It’s still true.”

“I just see all my friends with their girlfriends, and I just think, if they can get a girlfriend, why can’t I? I mean, even Chad’s managed to get to second base with Haley.”

Okay, well that wasn’t something she needed to hear. She wasn’t even entirely sure which, ahem, stage in a relationship was second base, but she still didn’t need to hear it.

Troy, for what it was worth, seemed to immediately regret saying that. “Um, I mean–” She’d give him a pass since they were still half-asleep, and hopefully she’d forget that detail in the morning. At least she knew that he was comfortable being completely open with her, she consoled herself.

She tried to refocus the conversation. “Would you consider Chad and Haley to have a serious relationship?” she asked.

“…No. Not really.”

“Do you think Chad and Haley have the kind of relationship you want?”

He shrugged. “No, I guess not.”

“So why are you comparing yourself to that? Why be jealous of a relationship you wouldn’t be happy in?”

Troy looked like he considered her question, but he came up with nothing in response. “I know,” he said. “I just wish it was different. I hate being the popular kid.”

Drawing from her own experience, Lucille couldn’t relate. She was the antithesis of the popular kid when she was in school, but she still could feel nothing but empathy for her son. She was angry at herself for not realizing how unhappy Troy was before this. Maybe it never came up? Maybe he hid it well? Or maybe she was just oblivious. Either way, the thought that she’d been doing nothing to help her son absolutely killed her.

“Chad should be the popular one,” he continued. “He’s got the attitude for it; he loves the attention. I don’t even want to be the stupid team captain. Chad has way more team spirit than I do – I don’t even know why everyone voted for me.”

She patted his knee again. “They voted for you because you were the best player on the team. Anyone can force a little team spirit; not everyone can play like you. Plus you get along with everyone on that team. There’s something to be said for that.”

“Whatever…”

Her son hardly ever opened up to her like this. He was always more open with her than with her husband, but it still wasn’t a common occurrence. Still, she’d rather he didn’t have things like this to even share, even if it meant he would have no reason to confide in her. She’d give anything to spare him these concerns.

She was shaken from her thoughts when Troy leaned forward to hug her. He thanked her for sitting and talking with him, and she rubbed his back and told him to wake her any time he needed to talk.

That was the end of their talk for the night, and it was the last time Troy went on a date for a while.

+1.

Then, one day just after his second semester had started, Troy came home oddly… giddy. Her son was generally a pretty happy kid, save for the occasional emotional heart-to-heart, but this was something else. He had a dopey grin on his face all night, and when she asked him how his day was, he blushed and changed the subject.

That blush was not lost on his mother.

This went on for a few days. Lucille briefly worried about him one day when he came home angry and upset, but by later the next evening, he was back to that state of blissful happiness.

As long as he was happy, she would try not to pry, no matter how curious he unknowingly had her. She figured it would only be a matter of time before it came out – her son was never that good at keeping secrets.

.

It was actually her husband that clued her in on what had her son in high spirits. Apparently he’d known the whole time and didn’t even think to clue her in. In fact, even when he did clue her in, it wasn’t even on purpose. He was venting about how distracted Troy had been during practice “all because of that girl.”

That girl.

Her son had a crush on a girl.

Troy didn’t really get crushes on the girls at school – at least not to her knowledge. She’d certainly never seen him like this before.

Even the girls he’d asked out in the past, none of them had ever seemed to grab his attention like this. Come to think of it, she never really questioned before what prompted those dates. Was he just picking girls he knew through mutual friends? Or girls he thought were good looking? She remembered him saying that one of those girls was dropping hints for weeks – was that the case for all of them? One thing she knew for certain – none of them had had him in a state like this before.

What made this new girl so special?

She pressed Jack for details, and though he seemed a little confused by her urgent tone, he told her what he knew about her. And that wasn’t much – new transfer student, bit of a nerd, got Troy detention, and roped him into auditioning for the school musical. When asked, he said that sure, the girl was pretty, but no more so than some of the other girls at school. If anything, Jack seemed to be annoyed that Troy missed practice a few days ago than that he had a crush on this girl.

Either that, or more likely, he didn’t even notice.

She loved her husband, but she could easily admit he had a one-track mind when it came to certain things. He was a good dad undoubtedly, but during the four months of the basketball season, he lived, ate, and breathed basketball. And he expected that of their son as well. Nothing else mattered, not even if that something – or someone – was turning their son into a lovesick fool.

She cut him off mid-rant to ask the girl’s name. Jack stopped talking and a look of realization came over him. He knew what she was thinking. She knew he knew, but she didn’t care. “Lucille–”

“I just asked her name is all.”

He gave her a pointed look. He could probably see the wheels turning in her head already. “…Gabriella.”

Gabriella.

She asked for more details, but her husband wasn’t all that much help. Like she thought earlier – he had a one-track mind, and all he cared about right now was their son being distracted during practice, no matter the reason.

She sighed, knowing she wouldn’t get anything more out of him. She left, but not before making a small request of her husband. “Just go easy on him. He’s only a teenage boy for so long – let him enjoy it.”

.

The Boltons hosted the after party at the end of the basketball season every year, one of the many roles of Jack being the coach. Lucille dreaded it every year. Well, she didn’t mind the party itself – it was the cleanup the next day that she could do without.

Still, Jack had called right after the game to announce they had won, and she couldn’t help but catch the excitement radiating off him.

Her husband and son were the first two to arrive after the game, and they were soon followed by the rest of the team, the cheerleading squad, and most of their families. More students and parents trickled in as time went on until their backyard didn’t have a spare spot to stand.

Lucille spent most of the night catching up with some of the other boys’ parents and some of her husband’s coworkers. Mrs. Danforth – an old friend – came up to her at some point asking where Troy was so she could properly congratulate her. Lucille had, of course, lost track of her son shortly into the night. He was the man of the hour (voted MVP – she was so proud), so he had been quickly stolen away by friends and students to talk all night.

However, now that Mrs. Danforth had asked, Lucille did find herself wondering where her son had run off to. She did a quick once over of the backyard but didn’t see him, so she told her friend to wait there a moment while she checked in the house. She figured maybe he was in the bathroom or restocking in the kitchen, but instead she found him tucked away in the living room.

And he was not alone.

She smiled at the sight, and a somewhat bittersweet feeling washed over her. Troy was sitting on the couch, one leg tucked up beneath him, a girl sitting beside him knee-to-knee, and he watched with a contented grin as she talked animatedly about… a chemistry equation? She seemed to be quite interested in the topic, excitedly throwing around terms that went way over Lucille’s head. And probably Troy’s, too, if his chemistry grade was any indication.

But still, he seemed to hang on every word she said, nodding along eagerly as she continued.

It was a completely mundane moment, but Lucille somehow felt like she was intruding on something. The way Troy’s eyes twinkled as he watched her talk, and the way she grinned back as she finished her explanation. The way they gently linked fingers as their hands rested against each other’s laps.

This was definitely Gabriella.

And Gabriella was definitely what – or, rather, who – had had her son in a daze these past two weeks.

She should interrupt them. She should tell Troy to go out and mingle with his guests – it’s rude for the host to hide away. She should tell the two of them to at least chat outside –she could keep an eye on them out there, of course. She should tell him he could talk to this girl any time – this party would only last the one night.

But… they weren’t doing anything wrong. This was only an innocent conversation – about chemistry equations, no less – and after her last heart-to-heart with her son about how no girls liked him, she couldn’t bring herself to split them.

She ducked back outside unnoticed by the two teens.

.

Lucille wasn’t the least bit surprised when Troy asked to borrow the car the next day.

She said yes on one condition – Troy had to tell her who this special young lady was.

He resisted at first, smiling sheepishly and telling her not to make a big deal about it. She didn’t say anything back, just cocked an eyebrow at him.

He rolled his eyes, the smile never leaving his face. “Her name’s Gabriella. She just transferred here from Colorado. She’s insanely smart – she’s in all AP classes and she’s had straight A’s since kindergarten.” He bit his lip as he smiled. “She has a really pretty voice. We – oh, yeah! I didn’t tell you – we auditioned for the school musical together and got the leads.”

Lucille excitedly congratulated him. Now that she thought about it, she did remember Jack mentioning the school musical. She didn’t realize he would get the lead, though. Honestly, she didn’t realize her son was all that talented at performing – it wasn’t really something that ever came up. And she never expected him to be so excited over it either.

“That’s actually how we met was through karaoke. That’s how I knew she could sing.” The blush on his cheeks made her think he was embarrassed to be gushing over his crush – though he would probably never call her that – but the way he kept going on without prompting made her think that maybe he was secretly happy to share.

“Wait, did you say you sang karaoke? I didn’t even realize the school held karaoke.”

“Oh, they don’t.” He paused for a second, as if realizing something. “I guess I never told you – we met over New Year’s on our vacation! We got dragged onstage to sing together. And then I walked into school on Monday, and she was in my homeroom. What a crazy coincidence, right?”

Almost like kismet.

He went on and on, repeating himself occasionally and bouncing from point to point. His animated tone of voice told her just as much as his words did. She hadn’t heard him talk about a girl like this since his third-grade crush.

She had no reservations about letting him borrow the car this time around.

.

His date came around the following Saturday. It wasn’t the first time he and Gabriella were seeing each other outside of school – Troy had gone over to her house to rehearse after school a couple times that week under the watchful eye of Gabriella’s mother – and it seemed to make him less nervous in the time leading up to their date. Instead of wringing his hands all day, he wore a faraway smile on his face until he left to pick her up.

Lucille was excited for her son and wanted things to go well. She hoped the fact that they had hung out outside of school casually would help conversation come more naturally now when they were finally alone.

Was it normal for a mother to be this analytical about her son’s dates? She wasn’t so worried about it in the beginning, but after her son’s string of bad luck, she just wanted this to work out for him. She hadn’t properly met Gabriella yet, but from the way Troy talked about her, she seemed like a nice girl. She hoped the fact that Gabriella was new to the school meant she wasn’t just after Troy’s popularity, and overhearing her lively discussion of chemistry equations the previous week made her think that this girl might be a good influence on her son. A nice added bonus. Maybe what they say was true – opposites really do attract.

Still, she was anxious the entire time Troy was out. Honestly, she was probably more anxious than Troy himself. Parents always worry about their kids more than they worry about themselves, whether that’s falling off their bike, their first sleepover, or their first date with a girl they really like. It was only human nature, Lucille assured herself.

And her nerves grew as the night went on. The clock ticked past seven, then eight, then nine, and it was quickly approaching ten. Troy’s curfew on weekend’s wasn’t until eleven, but he didn’t approach it very often. Usually only when he hung out with Chad (and even then, he usually wound up calling and asking to just spend the night).

Had he ever stayed out even past nine on a date before? Maybe with that one girl from months ago – the only one he’d dated more than twice. But on a first date? She couldn’t remember for sure. She hoped it was a sign that things were going well.

She nonchalantly asked Jack if he thought Troy was having a good time. He didn’t look away from the TV, but he at least shrugged and told her, “The way they’re always making heart eyes at each other at school? Yeah, probably.”

Jack hadn’t mentioned Gabriella in almost two weeks when Lucille first asked about her, when he’d complained that all she did was earn Troy a trip to detention. Now, his opinion seemed more like… unbothered indifference, which she supposed was an improvement. She casually pressed for more information, and Jack shrugged again, still not prying his eyes away from the darn TV. “She’s a nice girl. They like each other and they don’t really make a point to hide it. They’re probably having a good time.”

She rolled her eyes at his lack of interest, though his statement did reassure her a bit. She sat tight and redirected her attention to the television, trying to stop worrying about her son for once.

It was only another fifteen minutes before Troy walked in through the front door. He glanced their way briefly. His eyes were beaming, though his lips were pressed together, as though trying (and completely failing) to hide his smile. Lucille smirked at his attempt at trying to play it cool, and as Troy kicked off his shoes, she asked him how it went. His face did nothing to hide the fact that he had a good time, but she wanted to hear it come from his own mouth.

He turned their direction, quickly making and breaking eye contact. “It was nice.” He shrugged. The smile he’d been trying to hide grew as he talked. “We had dinner, saw a movie, got ice cream. It was really fun.”

And that was all he said. Of course – he’ll spill all the details on a bad date, but a good one? That he keeps all to himself. She wasn’t upset, though; it amused her more than anything. As long as Troy was happy, she would be happy. And she’d never seen him this happy. Not this dopey, lovesick kind of happy. He had an almost whimsical smile on his face like he was living out a fairytale. Young love was a beautiful thing.

Wait, love? She quickly backtracked her thoughts. This wasn’t love, of course. She hadn’t actually meant love. Just a crush – that’s all she meant. A month or two ago, her son was near tears over the thought of never finding a girlfriend – things didn’t change like this just over the course of a month. That’s what she told herself at least.

Would it be a bad thing if Troy was in love, maybe sometime in the future? The thought made her feel melancholy, and she couldn’t place why. It would be a good thing, right? If Troy found someone he really cared for and who really cared for him? What more could a mother want? But… the thought of him finding someone like that meant he was growing up, and that would always be a bittersweet thing for a parent to go through. It was the whole point of having children, after all, to see them grow up, but she longed for the days when he was still just her little boy she could still hold in her arms.

She felt herself tearing up and shook her head to clear her thoughts. She was getting ahead of herself. He had one date. He was not in love. She was just projecting her thoughts onto her son, and that wasn’t fair to him.

But… there was that smile on his face again, straight out of a fairytale. “I really, really like her,” he said to her. He bit his lip and looked at his mother sheepishly.

Was that lip gloss on his lips?

She stood up under the guise of giving him a goodnight hug (it was about time for her to head to bed, after all) and got a good look at his face.

Oh, that was definitely lip gloss.

He apparently wasn’t exaggerating when he said he “really, really liked her.” Not that she kept tabs on her son kissing girls – she tried to stay involved in her son’s life, but not quite that involved– but based off their conversation quite a few months back, coupled with the fact he’d had zero successful dates since then, she was pretty sure he’d had his first kiss tonight.

The thought made her uncomfortable, really. She shouldn’t know that fact. She didn’t want to know that fact. That’s something a mother should figure out in hindsight, not when her son is standing right in front of her.

Then Troy’s phone went off – a text alert. He glanced down at it and grinned, a blush spreading across his face. “It’s her,” he explained.

Lucille had gathered as much.

He pulled up the text and his smile widened as he read it over. He bit his lip as he typed up a response. He paused halfway through typing to tell Lucille, “She said she had fun too.” He was blushing hard and refusing to make eye contact, and that dopey smile was back on his face. “Um, would I be able to borrow the car again sometime?”

Maybe she had been onto something earlier. Maybe her son wasn’t necessarily in love, but boy was he falling fast. Three weeks was a short time to know someone, but the way his eyes lit up as he spoke about her, the dreamy smile on his face when he received her texts, and the way he bit his lip whenever he thought about her. (Yes, he had a “thinking about Gabriella” face. A mother notices these things.) The fact that they stayed out until ten o’clock on their date and he already wanted to plan their next one. There was definitely something between them that she was sure Troy had never experienced before.

At that realization, the funniest thing happened.

She didn’t have that anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach anymore. That bittersweet feeling she’d felt just a bit ago was much more sweet than bitter now. All those bad experiences Troy had been through the past year, she was sure it was all worth it for what he was feeling now.