out there somewhere

Kyle went round and round with his mother over Thanksgiving dinner. She was just throwing excuses at him now.

"But I'll have a full house," she told him.

"Exactly." He thought all he'd be good for was cleaning house and setting the table. "There will be plenty here to help you." It was exhausting. Something about his brother was bringing his new girlfriend home for Thanksgiving. As if she were royalty. She was a cheerleader at the university. How do you compete with that, he thought. Also Eric and his mother were coming.

"So." He didn't want to listen to her anymore about how Eric might get lonely being the only guy his age here. "Well, he'll be spending the entire time with Ellie, now won't he?"

Then the call came in that Amanda was going to the hospital to be with her Mom tonight.

"I'll go with you." Best to get this whole Mom meet your girlfriend out of the way or at least let his mom know she wasn't the only one having Thanksgiving. And when his mom knew what was going on, she didn't harp on him about spending Thanksgiving at home.

So Amanda came over and was really quiet and didn't say much which Kyle was pretty sure his mother understood after a while. Something about the meds her mother was on for the cancer treatment was hurting her stomach.

"Maybe you shouldn't come." Amanda had left Derrick at home. He was playing video games.

"No," he said. "I should be there with you. I can do this." He was sure of it.

But when he saw how sad her mother looked, all hooked up to machines and beeps and how tired she was, looking more like an alien from outer-space with her hairless head....he thought he was going to get sick too.

Then he started talking about how he met Derrick at a concert, and he didn't even know he had a sister. Her mother started to smile. Kyle didn't realise how hard all this was on Amanda until now.

He could see Amanda was way past the crying stage. She was just in the uncomfortable part where she could hardly sit still. But she didn't want to eat. She didn't want to talk. It was just limbo. They sat on a couch for the longest time in the waiting room. All he did was put his arm around her and she fell asleep on his shoulder. Then his arm fell asleep, but he didn't care. He just kept holding on because he knew Amanda was holding on to..what little there was.