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“Did you remember to pack all your clothes?”
Kenta groaned from his computer seat. “Yes!”
“Sunscreen?”
“Yes.”
“Bathing suit?”
“Of course.”
“Towel?”
“You literally dropped it off in my room. Yes.”
“Deodorant?”
“Who do you think I am?! I won’t stink.”
“Hmm… What else?”
“I got it all, mom. Seriously, stop worrying about it.”
“I know.”
You smiled at him, but you still couldn’t help the feeling that he might miss something. As smart as your son was, he was still your son. Human memory is a malleable thing. If you had told him to pack something enough times that he assumed he did when he didn’t, then he might be in serious trouble!
You walked toward Kenta’s suitcase, bulging and tightly zipped shut on his bed. “Is it okay if I just…”
Kenta stood up from his chair. “Hey! Get away from that! I’m old enough for you not to have to sift through my underwear!”
“I wasn’t going to—”
”Freak,” he muttered under his breath.
You threw your hands up in weak surrender. “Alright, alright. I’ll trust that you’re a big boy and know what you’re doing, then.”
“Yeah,” Kenta said, sitting back down. “Because I do.”
“Yes, of course. How could I ever question my smartest son?” You replied somewhat sarcastically, but there was still clear love behind it.
You turned to leave, but when you got in the doorway, you paused.
“Ah, wait, I realized what you forgot!”
“What?”
You rushed back over to him, squeezing him tightly in your arms. “You’ve got to bring all my love,” you teased, kissing him several times on the top and side of his head.
The feeling of your lips on his scalp tickled him a bit. “Agh! Mom!” He moved a bit, but even though he could probably easily overpower you, he didn’t try at all to push you away or break out of your hold. “You seriously had me thinking that I missed something!”
You just laughed, leaving a few more kisses to the top of his head down to his bangs on his forehead. “Aww, I’m sorry. It’s just going to be so hard with my baby boy vacationing so far away from me! I have to get it all in so that you don’t get sad and miss me.”
He melted a bit into your touch, allowing you to continue kissing him. “It’ll only be a few days. You’ll live.”
“I know, but is it really a life without my darling son?” You brushed up his bangs, messing up his hair quite a bit in the process so that you could lay your lips on his bare forehead.
“Ugh! Mom!” He complained. “I’ll be back before you know it, okay? I’ll send you and dad tons of pictures, I promise.”
“You really promise you’ll be safe out there?” You tried your best to fix his hair back the way it was.
“I’m not an idiot. Besides, we have tons of teachers going. They’ll be watching us the whole time. We probably won’t even be allowed to do anything.” He leaned into your touch without realizing and it made him look a bit like a cat.
“Well, that’s good. I’m sure they’ll tell me if you’re misbehaving.”
“I swear I’ll be a good boy.” He rolled his eyes.
You squeezed him tighter. “Of course you will.”
“They’ll literally kick me out if I’m not.”
“And I’ll kick anyone who tries to mess with you, okay?”
“You won’t even be there.”
“I know! That’s why I’m making sure that you’ll still be good and safe when I’m not there!”
“You probably could’ve chaperoned.”
“They’d probably do a background check on your dad.”
“Right.”
“Yeah. So, anyway, just remember that I love you very much, okay?”
“Okay.”
“And you love me too?”
“I do. I love you too, mom.”
You gave him one last squeeze before finally leaving his room. Surely everything would turn out okay!
—
A day into the trip, you sat with Kanata on the couch. You had told him about how hard you had gone with preparing Kenta for the trip, and you were both excited to see the first batch of photos that he would send.
The photos poured in in a few bundles, a bit delayed because of the lower quality connection with Kenta not being on any wifi. You went through each of them together, saving your favorites to potentially print out for the photo album.
The sight of Kenta smiling made you smile. It looked so much like he was having a good time, and he seemed to, at least somewhat, get along with some of his classmates. At the very least he wasn’t always alone.
After looking through them all, you leaned closer to Kanata, but then you got one more unexpected message from Kenta.
Hey mom. I forgot my charger. Can you send me a couple dollars so I can buy one here. Thanks.
You sighed and looked at Kanata.
He looked down at your screen. “How did he even forget that?”
You exhaled. “I tried.”