Chapter 44: Was She Doing Okay?

"I hope you realize you're the only person in the world that wears a motorcycle helmet to a skatepark," Troy said dryly as they arrived at the nearest one the next day around 4:30 PM.

Jonah shrugged. "I can still see. For all these people know, I drove a motorcycle here."

"Why would you drive a motorcycle to go skateboarding?"

"I don't know; we drove a car to go skateboarding. What's the difference?"

Troy shook his head despairingly. "I can't even reason with you. Whatever, man. Wear your motorcycle helmet and freak all of the little kids out."

"I'm doing this so I don't freak all of the little kids out!" Jonah protested.

Ugh, there was no use arguing with him. Skateboard helmets simply didn't cover enough of his face to make a difference.

He wore his motorcycle helmet on bike rides too. It was completely black and covered his entire face. Exactly the way he liked it. The sense of anonymity was refreshing and allowed him to enjoy his time outside more fully.

Troy ignored this and headed to the top of the nearest ramp to get started on the course. Jonah followed him feeling slightly disgruntled. They had some iteration of this argument every time the motorcycle helmet came out.

It had been a while since he had been skateboarding. He had nearly forgotten how fun it was.

Troy was obsessed with pro skateboarders for a while in middle school and had gotten them both into it. They spent many hours in the driveway and up and down their street learning how to stay upright before moving over to the nearest skatepark to learn some tricks.

By this point, they were pretty good even if they were a bit rusty from not making it out here in a couple of years. Jonah was sure he would be able to hit the halfpipe again by the end of the day. Once you learned, you never really forgot.

They went around the entire skatepark a few times, including the quarter pipe and halfpipe, for over an hour before heading to their favorite sushi restaurant. They sat in a booth like usual so Jonah could keep his burned side facing inward and away from servers and passersby as much as possible. He had eating out down to a science by now.

Troy didn't bother arguing with him about things like this. He knew what people were like. The motorcycle helmet thing only bothered him because he thought it was too cumbersome to wear doing those sorts of activities.

"What sort of candy do you think Mom got for us this year?" he asked as they waited for their food to arrive.

Jonah smiled. "Probably all of the usual ones plus something new. She likes shaking things up."

They had gotten a variety of weird Easter candies in their baskets over the years because she would see them and be curious what they tasted like. Some of them were better than others, like the sour gummy worm jellybeans. He wouldn't mind getting those again.

"I just hope we don't end up with those practical joke jellybeans. It took eating four different chocolates afterward to get the taste of the soap one out of my mouth last time," Troy said as he screwed up his face in disgust.

Those had been terrible! The worst one in Jonah's opinion was vomit flavored and had been disguised as peach, which was one of his favorites. The failure to meet his expectations was more jarring than the flavor itself.

"Yeah, fingers crossed."

He wondered what sort of Easter candy Eden got growing up and if she would get any tomorrow. Then he cursed himself because he had been doing a good job not thinking of her since Troy got home and made him get out of the house.

He hadn't actually talked to her since Wednesday and it was driving him crazy. He didn't want to bother her while she was with her family though.

Was she doing okay? Was she having fun with her brother or was her mom giving her a hard time? She never said so explicitly but he could read between the lines enough to know there was some serious favoritism going on.

Jonah continued to worry throughout the rest of the night and the next day when he and Troy were sitting around the living room of their childhood home gorging themselves on candy. The sugar wasn't a sufficient distraction. He needed to actively be doing something.

"Does anyone want to play Monopoly?" he asked somewhat desperately.

"I'm working on dinner," Aunt Mel called from the kitchen. "Play with Bob and Troy. They need to do something other than sit there."

Both of them protested the implication of being lazy with cries of "Mom!" and "Mel!" but ended up relenting. Troy put down his Cadbury Caramel Eggs and Bob put down his newspaper so they could play. These two were notoriously cutthroat and a single game could last for hours, which was exactly what Jonah needed.

The game didn't even finish before dinner but Jonah had already been bankrupted and was simply watching them go when Aunt Mel called them in to eat. She had prepared a feast involving lamb, rolls, mashed potatoes, Jell-O salad, roasted green beans, and a coconut cake for dessert.

Everyone's mouths watered as they sat down at the table. She had outdone herself again but she truly did love to cook.

"Dish ish amazhing, Mom," Troy said with his mouth full.

Aunt Mel rolled her eyes, belying the pleased smile she wore. "Chew with your mouth closed."

"It really is amazing though, Aunt Mel. Thanks for the food," Jonah said fervently before digging into the lamb. He hadn't eaten it since last Easter and didn't have words to describe how delicious it was.

"You're welcome, sweetie. I fully expect the two of you to take leftovers home; you're both so thin! Are you eating properly? You better be eating more than cereal and takeout."

They exchanged a guilty glance, which gave them away. She sighed heavily and mumbled under her breath wondering what she was going to do about her sons that didn't know how to take care of themselves properly.

It was less a matter of not knowing how than it was being unwilling. Cooking took time and effort. It wasn't like Jonah didn't have the money for takeout either and Troy frequently got to take pizza home from work so there wasn't often a need to make real meals.

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