Pretend (73 page)

             
"Mom, seriously?"
He said in an
embarrassed
tone.

             
"Oh gosh
,
this is seriously entertaining," Anthony said as he began to laugh, earning him a slap in the head from Aiden.

             
"
Owww
,
Mrs D, Aiden hit me," he said in a child's voice.

             
"Now, now Aiden no violence," she said as Anthony winked at Aiden and laughed.

             
"You always were a tell tale," Aiden muttered as Anthony just laughed.

             
"You know you love me bro," Anthony said as a smile crept on
to
his face
,
causing Aiden to laugh.
For a pair of guys I've got to admit that there
friendship
is
the cutest I've ever seen and the funniest.

             
"Anyway Mrs D, I think
that
Crystal's feeling left out, you haven't asked about her boyfriend yet," he said as he winked at Crystal. He of course got a scowl from her. It was quite cute to see that he had finally decided to save his best friend even if it meant putting Crystal into the lime light.

             
"What?
Who?"
Susan asked.

             
"Just some guy from school," Crystal tried to brush off.

             
"Some guy?
Well how old is he? Does he do well in school?"

             
"Oh gosh M
om!
He's my age and he does perfectly fine in school. Why do I get grilled whilst Aiden gets thrown a party?" She asked in a frustrated tone as Anthony and Aiden were quietly laughing.

             
"Aiden didn't get thrown a party now stop being so dramatic. It's different with you sweetheart," she said in a gentle tone.

"What
,
because I'm a girl?"
She asked in an angry tone.

             
"No, because I don't know your boyfriend
.
I know Jess and April don't
I
,
" she said. It made sense actually.

             
Finally deciding to be a decent brother Aiden stepped in to save Crystal.

             
"Mom lay off
her,
he's a good guy, seriously. I already had a talk with him and he treats her real good," he said as Crystal gave him a small smile that said 'thank you'.

             
"Well he sounds lovely although I still want to meet him. You can bring him along tonight," she said.

             
"Tonight?"
Crystal asked.

             
"Yes that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I have something important to tell you," Susan said.

             
"Ok I'll leave you guys to it," Anthony said as he rose to his feet.

             
"Yeah I'll go with Ant," I
said as I stood up
.
.

             
"No, I want you to all be here please," she said in a serious tone. I didn't know what was going on but the atmosphere was suddenly very serious and I could see how nervous both Aiden and Crystal were. I threw Crystal a little smile and then turned to face Susan as she began to speak.

             
"Firstly I want to apologise, to you all," she started.

             
"Apologise?" Crystal asked.

             
"Yes," she said as she took a deep breath as though it was really difficult for her to say what she was about to.

             
"I know that you were all around when," she paused.

             
"When, your father still lived her
e
," she said as she looked at Aiden and Crystal.

             
"Mom you don't have to apologise," Aiden said as his whole body began to tense up.

             
"Yeah
,
he's right Mrs D, that wasn't your fault," Anthony said in a soft tone.

             
"It was because I had a duty to protect you all but instead I subjected you to it and asked you to lie about it," she said as she
 
gave us a weak smile.

             
"Mom we understood, it's fine," Crystal said.

             
"Yeah
,
Crystal's right Susan, we don't blame you," I added, quietly.

             
"That's not the point. You were kids and I was the adult. Anyway that's not what I wanted to talk about, not directly anyway," she continued.

             
We all looked at her in shock, I for one had no idea where this conversation was going and from the look on the others faces, neither did they.
 

             
"After your father left you know that I had to work harder to keep a roof over your head, which meant long hours and me being away from home a
lot. As a result I have missed
alot
-"

             
"We understand, you don't need to explain," Aiden interrupted.

             
"No sweetheart
,
I do. Let me do this, please," she said gently.

He nodded his head as she continued.

             
"I missed a lot of
you
all
growing up. You all mean so much to me and I want to apologise for not being around as much as I used to but I want you to all know that things are going to change," she said with a smile on her face.

             
"What do you mean?" Crystal asked.

             
"I mean that I quit my job," she said.

             
"What?" Crystal asked in shock.

             
"I quit my job," she repeated.

             
"Yeah
,
we got that bit but why, I thought that you loved it?" Crystal asked.

             
"I didn't love it sweetheart, granted it was great money but it took me away from you guys and I've missed so much," she said in a sad voice.

             
"So
,
what now?"
Aiden asked.

             
"Well that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm starting my own business," she said as her smile increased.

             
"Doing what?" I asked.

             
"Well
,
there was a lady that I met on my travels who happens to live ten minutes from us. We got to talking on my trip and she was telling me about the company that she was setting up. It's called the Marianna Program,
its
set up to work with women who have been abused by their husbands or partners," she continued.

             
"Wow," Crystal said.

             
"I know
,
it is amazing.
Well anyway, she has just been granted the funding for it and when I told her about my story, she asked me to become her business partner. It was something that was close to my heart and an opportunity that seemed to
o
perfect to miss," she said as the smile returned to her face.

             
"I think
that
it's amazing Mrs D," Anthony said seriously.

             
"Yeah it's great," Crystal added.

             
Suddenly Aiden stood up and threw his arms around his mom.

             
"I'm really proud of you M
om," he said as he held her tight.

             
"Thank you son," she said as I watched her struggle to keep the tears in as she held her son even tighter.
It was one of the mo
st beautiful moments that I had
ever witnessed actually. They said so little yet in that hug, so much was being said. How could I not be
in love with someone like Aiden?

             
"So
,
that brings me to the next part. She has invited me to a
bbq
at her church this evening, they are holding it to celebrate the fact that her funding was granted and that she has been given the go ahead. She wants me to come and bring my family along with me, that's you and Anthony too," she said as she looked at me.

             
"Of course we'll come,
it sounds great," Crystal said with a smile on her face.

             
"You know that I'm down Mrs D,"
 
Anthony said as he gave her a kiss on the forehead.

             
"Count me in," I said as Aiden took my hand in his and smiled.

             
"Great, now back to this boyfriend of yours Crystal," she said as we all burst out laughing.

             
"Great," Crystal replied as she rolled her eyes.

             
Oh this is going to be fun.

*
*
*

             
After Susan
had
finally
finished
getting all of the information that she wanted about Cameron, she finally decided that she liked the sound of him. Once she had
finished
with Crystal of course it was mine and Aiden's turn, which was both amusing and
embarrassing
.

             
Susan insisted that Cameron and Jess were to come along tonight and that eventually led to Jinnie, Erica,
Taise
and Murphy tagging along as well, which was fun. The church
bbq
was absolutely amazing. They had sausage, bacon, beef, prawns, you name it and it was being cooked. Being the lover of food that I am, you can imagine that I was in my element. We arrived
at
about seven and spent three hours there. The people were lovely and treated us like family which was actually a nice feeling. They talked a
lot about Susan and Reena's business and how proud they were of them both. Reena was the lady who Susan would be
doing the Marianna Project with. It turns out that Marianna was the name of Reena's mother who died at the hands of her husband, Reena's father. It was a sad story and many of us cried as she told it but it was great to see that she had u
sed that to create this company.
I
really do hope that it is
a
success
. Susan a
l
s
o seemed really happy
,
which meant that Aiden and Crystal were happy. The night was finally closed with different members of the church praying that the pair would have a successful business that would help women globally. Being there tonight reminded me of wh
en I used to go to church with G
randma sometimes and I have to say that a part of me wanted to start going back. After we had said our final goodbyes we all made our way home. Anthony couldn't use his cousin's car and so Aiden dropped
him and Jess home whilst Jinnie and Erica took Murphy
and Taise
.
Susan took Cameron and Crystal
of course
. I hadn't yet found out the reason why Anthony had two weeks off
of
school but I must remember to ask him.

             
"Tonight was lovely," I said as me and Aiden watched Jess safely step through the door of her house before driving off.

             
"Yeah it was nice," he replied with a smile on his face.

             
"It's nice to see her using everything that
has
happened to
her to
create something so amazing," I said as I thought about the Marianna Project. I would love to do something like that one day.

             
"Yeah, I'm real proud of her and it'll be nice to have her around a bit more, you know," he replied.

             
"Yeah, it will," I said as I smiled at him.

             
"Did you hear from Kyle yet?" He asked as he kept his eyes on the road.

             
"No but I gave his mom a call whilst we were at church and she said that he was doing much better and would be coming to school tomorrow," I replied.