There wasn’t much more discussion after that, with us eating in relative silence, broken up suddenly when a loud burp pierced through it. Everybody looked a bit shocked when they turned to the perpetrator, but I gave a cheeky grin.

                “Sorry…” Lizzie said sheepishly. “The pizza’s really good.”

                “It is, isn’t it?” Hazel replied sweetly.

                “Doesn’t beat Mia Marcos back home,” Cole snorted derisively.

                Reminded of something, I quickly pulled out my wallet and started sifting through the cash. “How much was it by the way?”

                Moriah held out her hand in front of Hazel before she could reply to interrupt. “For tonight? Dinner’s on us.”

                I raised my eyebrows. “But… that’s like two large pizzas!”

                She shrugged sheepishly. “I love spoiling my kids, what can I say?”

                I recalled how she mentioned that she had to take several pay cuts to get the position she holds now, and it only made me more insistent. “I feel bad though. I mean, you already paid for a flight for three to Boston, another flight for three to Chicago, paid for the B&B, and the pizza? I feel like I should chip in here…”

                She laughed. “I’m flattered you’re concerned, but we’re alright. Let me worry about the financials. Take this as my apology for finding you unprompted and scaring you into thinking you were in danger.”

                I turned to Lizzie for help, but she only shrugged.

                “Don’t bother trying to negotiate,” Cole said, mouth full of pizza. “She’s stubborn that way. Might as well take the free dinner and run with it.”

                “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Moriah scolded.

                He responded with a loud burp, expelling literal flame from his mouth in the process. We all laughed and the topic was dropped.

                After dinner, I got on the phone with Dan and Vik to have conversations with each of them. Dan expressed his gratitude for trusting them and noted that he wanted to meet me someday but understood that I was a busy man. It was then that I learned that Moriah had set a standard for her family to not mention powers directly through the phone or text, as an extra layer of precaution, even though everyone in the group was in the know. Her logic was that phones could be easily be peeked at over the shoulder, tapped into easily, or that the government could get access to phone logs. When we discussed this (vaguely) with Dan, he suddenly got excited about an idea he’d recently had about making a private phone signal, one that used “my skills” to work. He wasn’t sure how possible it was yet and needed some help from Dr. Vik to determine if it was possible, but he’d love to chat about it with me at some point in the future. I was taken aback, not ever imagining my powers being used for something like this, and I had to give him a maybe.

                Vik had a much harder time sticking to the “no talk about powers” rule, as he kept almost asking me questions about what I could do. He was ecstatic about the idea of potentially meeting me, and the more I talked to him, the more I started to reciprocate. He was a doctor who’d see me free of charge for check-ups, and one who could test my powers in an actual lab. It was an incredibly enticing offer, one that I’d practically dreamed of when I imagined myself living with my powers. And if Moriah trusted Vik, I felt like I could trust him as well. Lizzie seemed just as excited as I was, and she didn’t even have any powers of her own. Of course, Vik’s lab was in Texas, so finding a time to visit him was already an ask.

                I also briefly chatted with Moriah’s mother, albeit a bit awkwardly, as I didn’t have much to say. It’s hard meeting someone two generations above you through the phone when you don’t know much about them.

                After that, we chatted a bit more about life and magic, before finally separating with new contacts on my phone and a successful night. I thanked Moriah for her advice with Mom, and she wished me luck with my studies and graduation. “If you ever want to talk to me about you-know-what, you know I’m here for you. Give me a call anytime!” she’d said on our way out.

                Lizzie and I rode silently into the late night, still comprehending what we’d just gone through.

                “So… what do you think?” I asked her.

                She sighed. “I feel like I trust them. God, I want to trust them. Moriah’s so sweet and caring, Hazel’s so kind and considerate, Cole’s laugh out loud funny, and there’s a freaking doctor!? I mean, how do we turn any of that down!?”

                “So, you don’t think they’re tricking us?” I asked.

                Lizzie huffed. “They’re master actors if they are. But… I think no, we should be safe. There’s just… too much that doesn’t add up if they’re some secret government agency. Like, why the long-con? Why take such an open approach to inviting you in? And let’s not forget that we saw Hazel and Cole use their powers too. Oh my God, I still can’t believe other supernaturals exist!”

                I smiled. “Yeah, that’s so insane…” I agreed with her wholeheartedly. Moriah was giving off such innocent energy, offering her home with a smile, answering all my questions patiently and politely, listening to my story with Mom and offering her unique and thoughtful perspective… it was all so heartwarming. When I was feeling so isolated and cut off from a mother figure in my life, another just swooped in and became the person I’d hoped my mother would’ve been.

                Speaking of Mom…

                I pulled out my phone and, after reading the messages in the newly formed group chat between Lizzie, Hazel, Cole, and I, brought up the text logs between Mom and me. I read through her paragraphs of desperate responses and felt the pain swell up in my heart all over again, the electricity inside working furiously to calm itself down.

                “So, what are you going to do about your mom?” Lizzie asked, noticing me on my phone, reading through the unanswered messages.

                I sighed. I didn’t want to respond. Part of me felt that it went against everything I’d told myself I was fighting for in our relationship. But at the same time, Moriah and Ramona had a point. There was no chance our discussion post-graduation was going to be anything productive if it wasn’t clear what we were even fighting about. It would blindside her, and she’d be too emotional. “I’m gonna text her,” I finally declared. “I know Moriah said phone call, but I just can’t handle her voice at this point. At least this time it’ll be in text form so she can read it over and not forget anything I said.”

                “What are you gonna do when she calls?”

                I noted the when instead of the if. I chuckled to myself. “I won’t respond, but I might in text. Just to let her know that I don’t hate her or anything. It’s up to me to decide how much communication is too much, and at the end of the day I can just ignore her again. I’m not gonna let her get to me.”

                Lizzie only nodded and yawned. “Man, what a day.”

                I gave a non-answer of a grunt, brain tiredly working on the perfect thing to say to Mom. Not wanting to give her the satisfaction of knowing I was typing to her, I opened the notes app on my phone and started working on a draft.

                When we got back to my apartment, it was nearly 11pm, and we were both conked. Normally after such an exciting day, we’d celebrate by being naughty, but it was too late, and I was too stressed with Mom. Instead, Lizzie took our shower while I laid back on my bed, reading my draft of the text over and over. It felt like the world relied on me sending the perfect message. When Lizzie joined me in bed, I found myself realizing that I was too tired to give a proper readthrough. At this point, I cared more about getting things over with, so I just sleepily copied my draft and sent it through the text. I then flipped over and put an arm around Lizzie, putting Mom out of my mind and thinking all about my new superhero friends.

                That night, Mom read the text:

Mom,

I don’t hate you. I want to make that perfectly clear. I love you a lot, and I want to make things work between us. The only reason I’m ignoring your calls is because I feel like I wouldn’t be properly heard in a discussion. When we last talked, you shut down my perspective and it felt like we weren’t going to be able to talk about my skills with the mutual respect we needed for a healthy discourse. I had to leave to give us both a break from each other, and to give us both time to think.

I’m serious when I say I want to see you at my graduation. I want you to see me walk, to watch me get my degree. Once I’m done with that, once school is finally behind me, I’ll be ready to talk to you and we’ll go over everything, from start to finish. Until then, I won’t be answering phone calls. Not because I hate you, but because I need the time to think, and because I need to focus on graduating school. I really do love you. I want us to be mother and son again. But it won’t happen unless we both agree to trust each other and support each other.

You might not remember, but I made a promise before I left that night, that I wouldn’t use my abilities until after I graduated. I said that because I wanted to prove to you that I didn’t need to rely on them in life, that I could be responsible for them. You should know that I’ve kept that promise so far. Hopefully you can understand how in control I really am of my new abilities.

I love you Mom, and I hope you’re getting the help you need to have a healthy discussion. I’ll talk to you soon. See you in a month.

Beck