RP: New Home

[maggie_ross]

Date: June 1, 2011
Characters: Maggie and Stephen Ross
Location: apartment above the Hawthorne
Status: Private
Summary: Maggie and Stephen at her place.
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[stephenross]

Stephen hefted his duffel bag over his shoulder. There were a few more boxes in his car, but he really didn't have very many things. Mostly clothes and a few odds and ends like a lamp and some books. It was a relief in some ways to say goodbye to the frat house that had been his home for three years. His brothers made a big fuss over leaving and some of them even got a little emotional as they said goodbye, but Stephen slid away under the radar. He'd see them all at the two weddings he'd been roped into attending and that would be soon enough.

He knocked on the door to his mother's new apartment...their new apartment, he reminded himself.

[maggie_ross]

Maggie's hands fluttered with nerves--she still didn't know how to act around her son, in this new situation she found herself in--but she smoothed them down her pants. She'd told him all about the entrance inside the bar and the one in the back, which was the one they were using now, so as not to lug things through the bar itself. She wouldn't want to put Brendon out like that.

She opened the door with a welcoming smile for her youngest. "Come in, come in. How much do you have? I can help you bring it in," she said. Wasn't like she hadn't helped him move into and out of the dorms until he'd gotten settled enough to do it himself, and Robert had told her to stop babying him and let him grow up and do it himself.

[stephenross]

He dredged up a smile for her and surprised himself when it settled genuinely on his face. It was good to see her in her own place. It felt right somehow.

"It's ok, there's not much really. The bag has most of my stuff really." He set it down near the door. "I've got two boxes in the car, but they can wait."

[maggie_ross]

When he smiled, Maggie couldn't help but spontaneously hug him, something she knew she hadn't done enough throughout his childhood. Robert had always frowned and fussed about coddling, but a woman should be able to hug her son when she was happy to see him. "Are you sure?" she said, looking out at the car. "We can get them now, if you'd rather."

She closed the door and bustled back in. "Okay the, let's see. There's your bedroom," she pointed, "and that one's mine, the living room of course, the bathroom," Only one, unfortunately, but hopefully he wouldn't mind sharing, "and the kitchen." She rubbed her hands together. "There's a cheap cable package on the TV, and there is internet." She was able to swing it, just, because Allison let her worked plenty of hours. She still wanted to supplement her income some, but so far no luck there.

[stephenross]

Stephen returned her hug, feeling a little stiff about it, but appreciative. She smelled right, just the way she always did and that was amazingly comforting.

"It's fine, Mom really." He looked around. "A lot more space than I had at school. I found a job waiting tables nearby, so I can help with some of the bills while I figure out what I want to do."

He wanted to get that out there right away. Money could make things messy and he wanted to contribute.

[maggie_ross]

It wasn't much, but it was better than a squalid little place, which would be all she could afford without Brendon's generosity. Certainly it wouldn't be a two room place like this, so nice and clean and furnished. And safe, even. "Oh, that'll be good, at least," she said. It would give him some money to do what he wanted with.

She brushed a hand back through her hair. It felt a little longer than she was used to--usually she got a trim about now. "You don't have to," she protested, but she knew the extra money would help. She just didn't feel right, taking his money. "You should keep that for yourself." Perhaps it was pride, she didn't know.

[stephenross]

"Mom, I'm an adult, I can help with a few bills." He said gently. "Anyway, it's just a little thing."

He couldn't just hang around living off of her. It felt...wrong and uncomfortable. He didn't know how long it would take to sort out what he was going to do next. Mostly he felt adrift and had since the first time someone had asked him what he planned to major in in college.

[maggie_ross]

Maggie sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, forcing herself for what felt like the millionth time that her youngest had grown up a fair bit. "All right, then," she conceded, knowing she needed the help but hating to admit it. "Not all your money, though. Just a bit to help it all along."

She sighed again, rubbing the back of her neck. "I have dinner in the oven, too. I can't promise I'll have it every day, but there'll always be leftovers to warm up. Some days I'll be working later than others." And that was a huge change, too; not always a fresh supper on the table, and her not always home for dinner.

[stephenross]

"Hey, once in a while is better than never." He pointed out. It wasn't like he'd had homemade meals all that often in college. "I can make a few things too. Nothing exciting, but we'll figure it out."

This felt like the least complicated part of his life right now. He could make dinner, help out his mother.

[maggie_ross]

Her son, cooking a meal for them. It seemed so strange and foreign a concept. Her whole life seemed strange and different from what it used to be, and it was hard sometimes to assimilate all of those changes.

"That sounds nice," she said quietly. "Sometime you should meet Brendon, he's the one this place belongs to," she said. "He owns the bar downstairs. I told him you were coming here, he left keys." She picked them up from the table and held them out for him.

[stephenross]

He took them, sliding them between his fingers. They felt cool against his overheated skin and after a long moment, he tucked them into his pocket.

"He sounds like a good guy." Anyone who was nice to his mom was ok in his book. "Glad he didn't mind an extra tenant."

[maggie_ross]

She smiled. "Yeah, he is. Very kind." And Lord knew she was depending on the kindness of strangers at this point. First this place, then her job. "He said he didn't mind, luckily. Since there is the second bedroom."

Speaking of her job, though. "I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I work at 42 Cups. It's this art gallery cafe place."

[stephenross]

Stephen's mind started to race. He'd heard of the place and remembered...well there was no way that Mom could have been there at the same time. Because if she'd seen Tyler's photos, she would have told him. Of course she would have. Then again, he hadn't told her about seeing Tyler tending the bar. He still wasn't entirely sure it had even happened.

"That sounds pretty cool. Trendy." He brought his duffel into the bedroom she wasn't using. "And all the free coffee you can drink, right?"

[maggie_ross]

Margaret felt a churn of guilt, her mind going back to when she'd gone to see Tyler's show. She hadn't told Stephen, but why would she? It was she who allowed him to go away. She who had silently mourned for years, grief weighing her down and adding to the progressive depression she suffered from for a long time, that lingered still at times. She should tell him... it was his brother, after all

[stephenross]

"Again?" He looked her over, suddenly aware that living with his mother as an adult might open up layers of her that he hadn't seen before. That she might see through his own thin patina mask of detached friendliness. What then? "I didn't know you cared about art."

[maggie_ross]

She smiled somewhat self consciously, going into the open kitchen and rustling around for plates to give herself something to do. "Once upon a time," she said. She wondered if Stephen had ever been aware it had been her who had given Tyler his first camera. Probably not. "A very long time ago, your mother was an art freak, Stephen," she said somewhat jokingly. Wouldn't he be surprised to learn that she'd once cared about it so much, her high school sweetheart had broken up with her because he'd thought she'd cared more for it than him.