The Search for Lily Myers ✓

36 | Breaking Point, Pt. I

Amelia had harbored mixed feelings about Thanksgiving for several years—really ever since her parents had gotten divorced all the way back when she was in middle school. The first year after it'd happened, they'd tried to do Thanksgiving dinner all together anyway so that she didn't have to split the day between separate houses, but it'd resulted in her parents arguing so much that she eventually ran off and shut herself in her room. She'd been going to two Thanksgiving dinners ever since, and with her committing to going to the Caruso-Myers get-together on Friday night, this year it'd be a record three.

Henry was kind enough to reciprocate the favor by accompanying her to her mom's house on Thursday afternoon. She was actually looking forward to the food—her mother's Thanksgiving dishes were much better than the spaghetti—but almost embarrassingly nervous about everything else.

She'd been informed all of two whole days ago that her mom apparently had a boyfriend now and he would supposedly be stopping by for at least part of the day. That piece of news alone was enough to make Amelia feel rattled for a few hours after hearing it. Neither of her parents had dated much since they split, so even though a whole decade had passed, she still wasn't very acclimated to the concept of either of them being with someone else.

Did she really want to spend her afternoon hearing about her mother's boyfriend's—sorry, Tom's—seventh and eighth-grade science students, or listen to them interject one another as they recounted the story of how they met by literally running into each other at the annual PTA back to school event? No, not really. Did she get to hear about all of that anyway? Of course.

On the upside, after quite a bit of scrutinizing him, Amelia eventually came to the conclusion that she didn't see any immediate issues with Tom as a person. It was truly just the concept of him, as well as the fact that she selfishly didn't love spending a family holiday having to meet someone new, that threw her off.

The portion of the afternoon after Tom and Henry had both needed to head elsewhere, leaving only Amelia and her mother together, should have been easier. Mom, however, apparently wanted to talk about Henry.

"So, what do his parents think about all those tattoos?" she asked cooly as she dished pumpkin pie onto both of their plates.

The house was warm enough while they'd been eating together that Henry had shrugged off his jacket, which obviously shouldn't have been anything to make a fuss about, and yet here they still were. Amelia would have asked her mother if she needed some pearls to clutch if the meaning wasn't going to fly over her head entirely.

"What about them? It's not like they're of naked women or something," she dryly noted instead.

"Don't be crass, Amelia."

"They don't care what their son chooses to put on his own body and you really shouldn't either."

"It was just a question," her mom quietly sighed as if to silently say that she wasn't mad, just disappointed. "I can't help but wonder what goes through young people's minds when they make these big, permanent decisions. Tattoos stay there for the rest of your life."

Amelia's mind uncontrollably jumped straight to the tattoo he had gotten for his sister, what he'd told her about it. I wanted something that was always going to remind me of her no matter where I went, something that no one else would ever be able to take away from me.

And she badly wanted to recount that story to her mother, to hopefully teach her a lesson about not being so damn judgmental towards people she barely knew. But his trauma wasn't something that she could just toss around and use as leverage against her mom, no matter how annoyed she was with her. It wouldn't have felt right.