As we walked up the porch steps, we heard them talking through the window screen. They didn't know that Jeremiah and I had gotten bored and decided to come back to the house for a snack. Our mothers thought we were all at the beach that afternoon. He just kept looking at Susannah and then back at the TV, like he was worried she would vanish into thin air while his back was turned. Throughout all of this, Jeremiah wasn't saying anything. "Or when your best friend does," Susannah said. "When you get breast cancer," my mother told him, exchanging a smile with Susannah, her best friend in the world. "So I guess it's okay with you if I smoke up too?" Steven picked the Twizzler up and dusted it off before popping it into his mouth. I'm offering up moral support to my best friend in the world. Susannah choked out a laugh, and my mother threw a Twizzler at the back of Steven's head. I knew he was trying to lighten the mood, and it worked.
THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY FREE ONLINE TV
Steven didn't look away from the TV when he said, "What about you, Mom? Are you toking up because of your chemo too?" Boys, your mother's been taking medicinal marijuana to help with the nausea from her chemo." She didn't say anything, but she looked genuinely upset. Susannah covered her mouth with her hand. "Mom, everyone knows you guys were smoking pot upstairs," Conrad said, just barely bobbing his head to the music that only he could hear. "Clumsy me," she said, chewing on one end like it was straw and she was a hick. Susannah reached for it, but it fell on the floor, and she giggled as she picked it up. She tossed a Twizzler at Susannah and said, belatedly, "Catch!" Then my mother came into the room with a bag of Twizzlers and the half-eaten bag of Fritos.