“A, uh, ring?”

John’s mind raced, working through excuses as his mother put her hands on her hips and took a deep breath, looming over him slightly.

“I can see that, but why are you wearing it?” Brenda asked, staring him down.

The gamer looked down at the offending item and the slight red irritation on his skin around it gave him an idea. “It just showed up today. I ordered it online.” A glance back up at her face showed no change and he forged on with his story. “I’ve been playing a lot of Cloudedge lately and in that game, you can wear enchanted rings to make your skills and stuff better. This one looked like the one I use in-game so I bought it.”

She stared at him for a moment longer before she relaxed her stance with a sigh. “Well, the way you’re wearing it made it look like a wedding band. Nearly gave me a heart attack.” Mrs. Newman shook her head, smiling with a slight chuckle to herself as she locked the car and made to walk past him to get into the house through the garage. “You should put it on the other hand if you’re going to wear that, honey.”

He shuddered at the thought of having to put the ring on a new finger, terrified that the burning sensation would start again now that he’d already grown accustomed to the slight throbbing. “Well, this is the hand my character wears it.”

Pausing mid-step, Brenda looked back at her son with a questioning look and John shied away from her gaze. ’I hate that look,’ he thought. ’It always feels like she’s looking right through me.’

“If you got a girlfriend or something, you’d tell me, right?” The pang of sadness in his mother’s voice startled John, making him look up to meet her gaze.

“W-what?”

“Just answer me. Yes or no.” Brenda’s tone took on a sharpness and he nodded automatically.

“Y-yeah, I’d tell you,” he murmured, watching her nod after a moment of consideration.

A soft smile took over her lips, but didn’t reach her worried eyes. “I’ll take that.” She started going inside again and paused halfway through the door. “If you insist on doing some yardwork, make sure you drink plenty of cool water.”

“Yes, Mom,” John half groaned in agreement, making her chuckle again as she closed the door behind herself.

’Damn.’ The gamer put his hand over his heart to feel the thundering beat. ’That was a bit close for comfort.’ Looking down at his hand in frustration, he remembered how hot Tala’s skin felt to his touch and he idly wondered if his temperature would ever go back down to normal.

He sighed, turned back towards the garage and grabbed the lawn mower, rolling it out onto the driveway before going back in to search for the garden gloves. He got lost in his own thoughts as he started pulling weeds before he mowed. He looked up to see that at some point his mom must have put a bottle of water out for him and he took a swig gratefully. It was still chilly out and might start snowing in the next couple of weeks. That’s probably why Brenda let the yard go like this, hoping the snow would cover it all up anyway.

His water half gone and the weeds taken care of and tossed in the bin, John was just about to start mowing when his mom came out with a smirk. “Break time. Come eat something. I’ve never seen you work like this.”

The lycan blushed nervously, wiping sweat from his brow as he tossed the gloves aside and went into the house. “Is that bad?”

Brenda’s voice was high as she answered, “No.” She cleared her throat. “It’s just surprising. You used to be a bit outdoorsy before your father left... It’s nice to see you might be getting back into it.” She paused as John sat at the table and she set out a meatloaf with potatoes and roasted carrots. “You went out to the forest the other day for an art project, now you’re doing yard work. I think I even saw you watching the nature channel this morning?” She eyed him as John dished himself a heaping serving of each, suddenly ravenous after such an active day.

“Well,” he mumbled around a forkful of food before swallowing. “Cloudedge is a pretty outdoors-y game. Lots of hiking, hunting, and stuff like that.” He bought time to think as he wolfed down more of his food, Brenda eating calmly across from him. “And it’s a lot more realistic than Globe of Fightcraft, so maybe it made me itch for the real thing.”

’Please believe that, please believe that…’ The gamer tried not to stare at her as he ate, but her smile was calm and knowing.

“And it’s not because of a girl?” Her eyebrow arched and John tried desperately not to **** on his food in response. To no avail.

He sputtered while trying to respond and had to beat his chest to clear the blockage. “I, uh. No?”

Brenda snorted. “You know, you’ve never been very good at lying to me. You look more muscular, you’re cleaning up the yard, you’ve been spending more time outside. What’s she like? Does she go to your school?” Her eyes lit up with excitement and John tried to find suitable answers as he gulped down half his glass of water.

’How much can I tell her?’ He looked the motherly woman over and sighed, resigning himself to telling as much truth as he could.

“There’s actually a couple of girls…” He paused, licking his lips. “One does go to my school, but the other is, uh, taking a year off to spend more time outdoors.”

“Aha! That’s the one.” Brenda leaned over the table, forgetting dinner, too enraptured by the topic of conversation. “Tell me about her.”

“Her name is Tala. She’s part Native American, I think. She goes h-hiking a lot and camping out in the woods with her family…”

A long series of half-truths spilled from John’s lips as Brenda continued to question him, pressing for more information over their meal as she remembered to eat. It took some creative thinking, but he managed to curtail the finer details of meeting her in the woods and that they traded numbers, but he’s not sure when he’ll see her next.

Mrs. Newman frowned and the lycan just hoped that her curiosity was sated for now.

She stood, picking up their plates, and John made to book it up to his room. “Now tell me about the other girl. From your school.”

John flopped back into his seat in defeat. “April. Cute and kinda chubby asian girl that’s into video games and computers. I bumped into her in the computer lab the other day and we traded numbers. We’re actually going to go out for coffee soon...”

“When?!” she half screamed with excitement.