Chapter 3: Aftermath

I had hell to pay when I got home Sunday afternoon. Jasmine and I both sent text messages to our parents telling them we were spending the night with each other. Then we turned off our phones. That had to be the weirdest feeling ever. It was like cutting off the world. All that was left was in that motel room, and it centered on Jasmine.

We had enough sandwiches and drinks in the cooler that we didn’t need to go out for dinner. We went next door to Denny’s for breakfast in the morning but ran straight back to the room and made love again. Then we made love in the shower.

Jasmine. Wow!

When we finally turned our phones on, there were a million messages. Half of them from our parents. Apparently, they didn’t believe we were spending the night together because half the messages from our friends were asking if we were really spending the night together and if we were ‘doing it’.

“I don’t feel like telling everybody yet,” Jasmine said. “I’m not ashamed or anything, but I just want to enjoy it being the two of us for a while, you know?”

“Yeah. I guess maybe that’s why newlyweds go on a honeymoon. It’s so they can just enjoy being with each other.”

“Jett, I don’t want to ... I mean, like you are my best guy friend, but I don’t want to change into boyfriend and girlfriend exactly.” I started to object, but Jasmine put a finger to my lips. “Shh. Wait. I don’t really know what a boyfriend and girlfriend are that we weren’t already. But at the same time, I don’t want to do this with anyone else. Not right now. I don’t even want to Skype with anyone else. Can we just be...”

“How about if we’re just with each other until after graduation in a couple weeks and then see how we feel?” I suggested. “Jasmine, I don’t even want to think of anyone else.”

“You got nude pictures this morning from Kelly, Lisa, and Charmaine that all had ‘Me next’ written on them,” she laughed. “Are you sure you don’t want to do them all?”

“If ... If you’re willing, I’d really rather just enjoy you and our friendship for a while. I don’t know if we’re in love. Like you not understanding what a girlfriend and boyfriend are, I don’t know if I understand what love is. I know I want to be around you a lot and I want to do a lot more of what we did this weekend together. Just with you, Jasmine.”

“Then kiss me again. I have to go in and explain things to my mother.”

I had to explain things to Mom and Dad, too. And Granddad. And Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn. Dad’s father was pouring Grandma another bloody Mary. God knows how many she’d already had. It was already two in the afternoon. I managed to carry my painting to my room before I was attacked.

“Young man, take a shower and make yourself presentable to the family,” Mom barked at me. “Don’t come down here until you are clean.”

I briefly considered just not going back downstairs, but I knew that would end up with everyone in my room. I’d just showered with Jasmine in the motel before we left. I shook my head and rinsed in the shower. Knowing Mom, she’d check to see if my towel was wet. It gave me a minute to pull myself together, though. You know what? I’d just spent the past night making love to my beautiful friend. I wasn’t going to let this spoil my mood. I dressed in clean clothes and bounced down the stairs as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

“Hi, Mom, Dad. Hi, Granddad. Grandpa. Do you need a refresher on your drink, Grandma?” I went to the bar and mixed a bloody Mary and took it to my mother. “Here, Mom. You look like you need a drink. Did you all have Sunday dinner together?”

“Would you care to explain yourself?” Mom demanded. “Where were you last night?”

“Didn’t you get my text message? I spent the night with Jasmine. It was great, thank you.”

“I called Jasmine’s mother. She thought the two of you were here.”

“No. We rented a room. Wait till you see the painting I did of her. She’s so beautiful.”

“Painting?” Granddad chuckled. “Is that what you were doing?”

“Well, not all night. I finished the painting before we did anything else, though. It was really great.”

“Is that all you have to say for yourself after spending the night with some girl in a filthy motel room?” Mom exclaimed.

“First, yes, that’s all I have to say. Second, it wasn’t some girl; it was Jasmine. Third, the room was really quite clean and I cleaned up all my painting mess before we left this morning,” I said. I saw that there was a big bowl of Chex Mix in front of Grandma and helped myself as I went into the kitchen to get a DP. I went back in to sit beside Grandma and have more of the mix. “What have you all been doing today?”

“We’ve been talking about you,” Dad said. “You had us very worried. You turned off your phone.”

“I really didn’t want to be disturbed, Dad. I let you know I was fine and who I was with.”

“You know you aren’t allowed to stay out all night,” Mom almost shrieked.

“Mom, you and Dad have been telling me for three months how things have changed now that I’m eighteen and I need to be taking care of myself. So, I’m eighteen and I took care of myself.”

“You still live under this roof and you need to abide by our rules.”

“You’ve told me that you’ll be charging rent for me to stay in that little room after I graduate. I’ll be moving out by mid-summer. Earlier if you really want me to. I have finals next week, but then we have a week clear before graduation. I can use that time to look for housing,” I said calmly.

“How much rent?” Grandma asked leaning in toward me.

“A thousand a month,” I whispered back to her.

“For a thousand a month you can have the whole lower level of our house,” she giggled. That was an intriguing possibility but I was hoping to find something for around a hundred.

“It’s not necessary for you to be looking for another place to live, son,” Dad said. Mom started to interrupt, but Dad held up his hand to her. “Charging you rent was to give you a taste for the realities of life, not to punish you or to make you think you weren’t welcome. We set the rent high so you’d realize that even though you were an adult, you were still a dependent.”

“Thank you for finally explaining that, Dad, but my $50 weekly allowance won’t even cover my lunches. I still need to go out and find a job and find a place I can afford to live.”

“You can work off your rent here,” Dad said.

“How?”

“You can cook, clean, do laundry, and yard maintenance,” Mom said.

“Sounds like slave labor,” Grandma giggled.

“He needs to learn responsibility,” Mom declared.

“At what point did you learn that, Isobel?” Granddad asked. “My recollection is that you got your first job at twenty-five and were in it just long enough for Jack to marry you. And at that time, you were still living at home.”

“Times have changed, Dad. Our generation doesn’t have the benefits yours did. Everything is more expensive,” Mom said. She cut off the conversation by turning it back to me. “This still doesn’t resolve the problem of Jett running away from home for the weekend to have a sordid affair.”

“That’s not why we went away. We went where I could paint her picture without being interrupted. The rest just evolved.”

“I’d like to see that picture,” Mom declared. “I don’t think you were painting at all.”

That pissed me off and I left the room. I grabbed a display stand I used for letting my paintings dry and brought it downstairs to set up first. Then I went back to get the painting. As I looked at my room, assuming I’d be leaving it within a week or two, I decided to grab the three other paintings I was using for my portfolio review at the university. They were dry and I’d have to go back again for the wet painting of Jasmine. I’d do a full presentation since no one seemed to believe I was an artist.