I shook my head. “I really wish the whole thing hadn’t happened. I was having a perfectly good time before that.”
“We’re glad you’re okay.”
“I met Cole’s parents today,” I said. “We went out for ice cream.”
Amy made a face. “I met them once.”
“You did?”
“Well, they came to orientation, before Declan was officially enrolled here. I only talked to them a little bit. They seemed okay and everything, but sort of... I don’t know...pretentious? I know they’re really well-off, but it felt like they were looking down on everyone else. Like they were trying really hard not to be that way, but they just couldn’t help it.”
“Oh,” I said. “Huh. I didn’t really get that impression.”
“Maybe they’ve changed, I don’t know.”
“If anything, his mother seemed kind of...melancholy.”
“I guess rich people can get sad, too.” She shook her head. “That was mean, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sure they’re very nice; it’s just hard sometimes to shake someone’s first impression, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said. “There was definitely something going on there, but I’m not sure what.”
After we pretty much finished all of the food, Amy hung out for a while longer. When she was ready to leave, I walked her out to her car. As I was walking back in, I saw that Cole’s garage door was open, the light on. I went over, thinking I’d say goodnight and tell him that I’d had a good time earlier with his parents.
“Knock knock,” I said.
He had a work bench set up at the back of the garage, and his bike was in the stand. He was standing at the work bench, his back to me, but he turned when he heard me.
“Oh, hey,” he said.
“Hey. I saw that the light was on.”
“Yeah, just tuning this thing up a little bit. How are you doing?”
“Good. Amy stopped by with dinner; I think we polished off about four containers of Chinese food.”
“Impressive.”
I laughed. “Yeah, sort of. Hey, it was nice getting to meet your parents,” I said.
Cole smiled. “Yeah, they really liked you. In case you couldn’t tell.”
“Your mom seemed kind of sad.”
“It’s this time of year. My sister died on the 17th, and that anniversary is coming up, so it’s always a hard time for my mother.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”
“We don’t talk about it that much.”
“What happened?”
He paused. “She died of a drug overdose. It happened just a few days after she got out of rehab, actually. My parents had sent her away up north to this recovery program. She was up there for a while, actually, and we went up to get her, but instead of driving straight home, my mom wanted to make it a bit of a celebration, so we were staying at this bed and breakfast a few towns over. It was about a five-hour drive from my parents’ place, so almost in Canada. And that’s when Marissa decided to do it. We don’t know where she got the drugs from; as far as any of us knew, she’d been clean.”
I touched his shoulder. He had a pained expression on his face. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must’ve been like.”
“I was the one to find her. Which was incredibly fucked up, but in a way, I’m glad it was me and not my mother, because I don’t think she would have been able to handle that. I think that would have sent her over the fucking edge.”
“Wow,” I said. “Cole, I’m so sorry.”