3. Making Decisions

My mother was never like most other mothers. Well, I guess that's the most obvious statement ever, considering most mothers don't have their kid at the age of 15 and then have to do things like celebrate their 21st birthday at the beach with a 6-year-old. But I feel like it was more than her age that made my mother different from my friends' parents. She was really like my friend as well as my mother. We were a team. A lot of my friends' parents would make big life decisions without even consulting them; they would just say, “this is what you're doing,” and that would be it. But my mom always asked my opinion if the decision affected me. The final decision always lied with her, but at least I knew that she cared and considered what I thought before she decided. It didn't always help, of course. For example, the decision to move to Los Angeles was made despite the fact that I, 6-year-old that I was, made it vehemently clear that I didn't want to go. But the fact that she asked and took a week thinking about what I thought was nice, and I was never bitter about the decision she made. I could never understand why other people's parents didn't do that. It seems like basic human courtesy to me.

So you can imagine how shocked and downright furious I was when she told me that we were moving in with Justin without even asking me what I wanted first. She told me about two weeks after I'd overheard her conversation with Justin, presenting it to me as though this were the only way she'd be able to keep her job. Of course, there was no way she could have known that I knew better, and when she told me I was so thrown off by the fact that my mother, who had always gone to such lengths to treat me like an equal, was not only making decisions without me, but also lying about it, that all I could manage to say was, “Okay, fine.”

It wasn't until moving day came that I finally exploded. I remember driving up to Justin's enormous home as we had a thousand times before, realizing that I wasn't going back to our small, far more humble house ever again, and inwardly freaking out. It wasn't like I was so attached to the part of the city we lived in – I'd only made a few friends and it never really felt like home to me – but like most kids, I was never so great with change.

“You're very quiet today,” my mother observed as we pulled into the driveway in front of Justin's house. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, whatever,” I responded with a shrug before adding under my breath, “Like you even care.”

“What was that?” She turned off the car and pulled the keys out of the ignition and sat them in her lap, glancing over at me.

“Nothing,” I muttered.”

“What?”

“Nothing!”

Mom stared at me incredulously after the word burst out of my mouth much louder than I had really intended. “What, are you already entering your sullen teenager years? I thought we still had some time before that happened.”

“No, I'm not sullen, I just don't feel like talking, okay?” I snapped back at her. For some reason I couldn't tell her why I was angry with her, and so my feelings just come out as random rudeness.

“Okay. So sorry, your highness.” She put her hands up in surrender and shook her head at me, clearly having no idea what my problem was. Turning away from me, she rolled down her window as Justin approached the car.

“Hey,” he greeted my mom with a smile. “Do you guys need help bringing some of this stuff in?” He gestured to the boxes in the back seat of our car. We hadn't brought most of our furniture with us – the guest house we were moving into was already fully furnished which much nicer things than we had at our house – and the few things we had brought had already been moved in a couple of days earlier. All we had left were dishes, books, and things like that.

“Yeah, that would be great. Thanks,” she accepted his offer graciously and he moved out of the way so that she could open the door and step out of the car.

“Hey, punk,” Justin greeted me once my mother was out of his line of vision. “How's it going?”

“Ugh,” was all I could manage to respond. And with that, I opened the door on my side of the car and headed for anywhere that I wouldn't have to be around the adults who were making decisions about my life without me.

“What's with her?” I heard Justin ask my mother as I walked away.

* * *

“Hey, Kal, have you seen my jacket?” Justin called to his maid, who he was fairly certain was in the kitchen. She was paid to clean the whole house, and she did, but somehow she always seemed to be in the kitchen.

“You're gonna have to be more specific,” her voice responded, predictably, from the kitchen. “You have approximately five million jackets.”

“The dark blue one. I was wearing it yesterday.” He began making his way from his current position in the den to the kitchen to avoid having to yell this entire conversation.

“Oh, I think it's on one of the chairs outside,” Kali told him as he entered the kitchen where she stood over the stove, stirring something the smelled delicious. “I actually need to run over to my kitchen and get something, so I'll check on my way back. Can you come over here and stir this for a minute?”

“Sure.” Justin nodded and took the wooden spoon from Kali, his long fingers replacing her smaller hands.

“Thanks. I'll be back.” She dashed out the door, not wanting to leave her food alone with Justin for too long. She didn't particularly trust him not to screw it up, even when he was only doing something as simple as stirring.

As she stepped out into the Los Angeles sun – which was still showing itself despite the fact that it was nearly Thanksgiving – Kali spotted the jacket in question on one of the lounge chairs on the patio, and picked it up, throwing it over her arm. Striding towards the small guest house that she occupied with her daughter, she stopped in her tracks when she spotted said daughter standing next to an unfamiliar car with an unfamiliar boy and giggling in a most unfamiliar manner. Like most mothers, one of Kali's biggest fears was teenage boys, and since Miriam had not mentioned this one to her, her protectiveness instantly rose inside her and she changed her pathway to approach the two teenagers.

“Hi, Miri,” she greeted her daughter as she approached. Miriam's face instantly went red as she turned to face her mother.

“Hi, Mama.”

“Who's your friend?” Kali directed her attention to the boy in question. He was tall, with blond hair and chocolate brown eyes, and he had to have been at least two or three years older than Miriam was.

Miriam just sort of sputtered instead of answering, but the boy had enough composure to give her a charming smile and offer his hand for her to shake.

“Max Applegate, ma'am,” he introduced himself.

“Kali Coloblong. And please don't call me ma'am, I'm not your mother,” she replied, only half teasing him. The hand he'd shaken rested on her hip and she couldn't help eyeing him suspiciously. “How old are you Max?”

“Uh, sixteen,” the boy responded. His initial instinct to charm her seemed to be giving way to the more practical uncomfortable feelings.

“Really? Do you drive?”

“Yes.”

“Safely?”

“I haven't gotten a ticket yet.”

“Fab. Hey, Miri, can I talk to you for a second?” Kali turned back to her daughter, who was beginning to look completely miserable.

“Mom,” she hissed in protest.

“I, uh, better go anyway,” Max intervened, reaching into his pocket for his car keys. “I'll call you later, okay?”

Kali raised her eyebrows at him and he reconsidered, adding a quick, “Maybe” to the end of the sentence before hopping in his expensive looking car and pulling out of the driveway.

“Cute boy,” Kali commented as they both watched him drive away. There was no response from Miriam, so she continued talking. “How do you know him?”

“He's Alisa's older brother,” Miriam replied, referring to one of her friends from school.

“Really? So was he just giving you a ride home from Alisa's house?”

“Not exactly,” Miriam mumbled, her eyes glued to her feet.

“What do you mean, 'not exactly?'”

“Well, Max and I have kind of been...hanging out.”

“'Hanging out'?” Kali repeated. “What does that mean?”

“Mom!”

“What?”

“Stop!”

“Stop what?”

Miriam opted to let out an exasperated sigh in lieu of an actual response to the question, folding her arms across her chest.

“Look, Miri,” Kali altered the tone of her voice to sound more calm than she was feeling. “If you're dating this boy, you can tell me that. It's okay. I'm just kind of surprised that you didn't tell me already. I thought you told me everything.”

“I do tell you everything,” Miriam confirmed, her gaze shifting back up towards her mother's face. “It's just...this is different. You're always telling me how happy you are that I'm not that into boys yet, and I didn't know how to tell you.”

“Well, you can tell me this stuff,” Kali assured her.

“So you're not mad?”

“Oh, no, I'm definitely mad. And he's way too old for you, and the car's kind of fruity, but you can still tell me.”

“Thanks a lot, Mom.” Miriam rolled her eyes, but Kali could see a smile playing at her lips.

“And you're going to have to tell me when you're with him and stuff, okay? I'm not going to tell you you can't see him, because we both know that's not how I like to operate, but you have to be honest with me. Okay?”

“Okay.”

* * *

“There you are,” Justin's voice broke the silence of the room around me as he entered and I swiveled in my chair to look at him briefly before turning back around to stare into the sound booth where he did much of his recording.

After storming out on him and my mother, I had come to the recording studio Justin had had put into his home a year or two earlier. I knew no one would be up there, so it was a good place for me to be by myself. Until he decided to interfere with my brilliant plan, of course.

“Do you want to tell me what's going on?” he asked, sitting down in the chair next to me when I didn't respond.

“Not really,” I muttered in response. I wasn't feeling particularly communicative that day, in case you hadn't noticed.

“Tell me anyway?” he requested, giving me a little nudge of encouragement. I sighed, sinking back into my chair and letting my feet lift up off the ground.

“No one even asked me.”

“No one even asked you what?” Justin's brow furrowed in confusion, and I couldn't help rolling my eyes in frustration. It seemed pretty obvious to me and I couldn't figure out why the adults in my life were having such a hard time understanding.

“No one even asked me if I wanted to move. You guys just decided without me. Mom never decides stuff without me!” I clarified.

“Ahh.” His fingers drummed lightly on the table, a habit I'd noticed he did when he was thinking. “She didn't talk to you about it first?”

“No! She just told me we were moving, like what I wanted didn't matter at all. Since when does what I want not matter?”

“I dunno, Miri, maybe she just made the decision that she thought was best for you. You know, the schools are better here, and this way you won't have to wait around after school, since you'll already be home and-”

“That's not the point!” I interrupted him rudely, rocking back forward in my chair in my fervor. “I know it might be better for us here, I'm not stupid! I just...she should have asked me first. She always asks me first! Just cause I'm a kid doesn't mean I can't help make the decisions!”

“You're right.” Justin nodded, his eyes falling on me as he rubbed my arm sympathetically.

“Yeah, you are,” my mother's voice echoed the sentiment and both Justin and I looked up to see her standing in the doorway. I had no idea how long she'd been standing there. “I'm sorry, babe. I should have asked you, I just felt kind of pressured to make a decision, so I made it and figured you'd be okay either way. I don't know what I was thinking. Forgive me?”

“I guess,” I grouched, my lips forming the signature pout that would get me through my teenage years in the future.

“Good.” She walked over and wrapped her arms around me, bending down so she could hug me properly. I felt Justin's hand on my head, ruffling my hair affectionately, and as quickly as I had become so mad at the both of them, I forgave them for their stupid, adult centered ways.

* * *

“So, I have some interesting news for you,” Kali greeted Justin upon her return to the kitchen. She'd never made it to her own kitchen, having forgotten about what she needed and turned right back around to return to the main house after her encounter with Miriam and Max.

“Oh, good. Tell me,” he replied eagerly, stepping aside to let Kali take back over with the stirring after she handed him his jacket.

“It seems that Miriam has a little boyfriend,” Kali confided, glancing back quickly over her shoulder to ensure that Miriam had not followed her back into the house. She hadn't. Justin's eyes widened in shock.

“No way!”

“Yes!”

“Who is he? Do we like him? Do you think I need to kill him?” The questions came quickly and almost instinctively.

“His name's Max, he's her friend Alisa's older brother, I'm not sure if we like him and...maybe. I dunno. He's sixteen.”

“Sixteen! Jesus! What a little cradle robber!”

“I know, right? I dunno, my first instinct was to tell her to stay away from him, but that's what my parents did with me and Miriam's dad and clearly it didn't work out the way they planned, so I just asked her to be honest with me. Do you think that's okay?”

“Sounds fine to me.” Justin shrugged. He was a little thrown off by the mention of Miriam's father, as Kali almost never mentioned that mystery man. All he knew was that she'd gotten pregnant a few months before her fifteenth birthday and the dad hadn't had anything to do with Miriam's upbringing. Everything else was a little hazy.

“You know...they're the same ages her dad and I were when we met. 13 and 16.” The tone of her voice was somewhere between wistful and worried, Justin couldn't quite pinpoint it.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, it's official, I have to kill him. And in the meantime, you should maybe lock Miriam in her room and not let her out.” Justin's protective nature took over as it often did when Miriam was involved.

“No, she'll be okay,” Kali laughed. “She's a lot smarter than I was at her age. Plus she's spent her whole life listening to me lecture about waiting until you're ready and being safe and all that. She'll be fine, as long as she doesn't break any of my rules...in which case you can totally kill him.”

“Nice, I look forward to it. And on that note, I have to go meet Lindsay for dinner.” He threw on the jacket that Kali had brought him from outside in preparation to leave. Kali frowned.

“You're going out?”

“Yeah, I thought I told you.”

“Then who the hell am I cooking for?” She gestured with her free hand towards the food she was stirring. Justin just shrugged.

“You and Miri just eat what you want and leave the rest in the fridge for me. I'll definitely need a snack when I get back.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“You could always invite Miriam's cradle robbing boyfriend over for dinner!” Justin suggested with a devilish grin as he inched his way towards the door. Kali scowled at him.

“Get out of here, you troublemaker!”

“Okay, you don't like the idea, I get it!'

“Out!”

“Going! See you later tonight!”