X-Why-Me…Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She had fainted and was slowly woken up with her mother shaking her gently. “Emily? Emily wake up you fainted.”

“I did?”

“Yes, you did.”

“I had the worst dream Mom.”

“It wasn’t a dream.” Her mother had this strange almost foreboding finality there in her voice.

“Mom?”

“You eavesdropped on me and the doctor and then you looked what we were talking about on Google.”

“But it’s not true right?”

“We haven’t got the DNA tests back those will take awhile but everything else says yes.”

“But it’s still not true, c’mon!”

“It is, look you’re just going to have to deal with it.” And her mother just…she just walked out of the exam room. “Get dressed Emily we’re going home.”

“Mom…?”

There wasn’t a response.

Emily wiped at her eyes and she might have shed a tear or too getting her clothes back on but she seemed to be kind of not able to cry it out like she might have she sort of felt like she might have already.

What was going on? Why was her mother acting this way to her? Was she suddenly not her daughter anymore? Her mind was racing going almost to one nasty thought to another why her mother might have been just acting like this to her. She almost shyly left the doctors office because this was their gynos office and all of a sudden she sort of felt like everyone was sort of looking at her like she was fake.

She was still shaken deep down as she went outside and got into the car where her mother was waiting and she didn’t say anything instead she just sort of bit her lips and chewed on her cheeks as her mother drove out of the clinic’s parking lot a lot faster than she normally did and was very, very quiet the whole drive home. Actually her mother never made a single stop or said a single word.

She got out of the cars and said. “You and your sister are on your own for supper tonight.” Then she closed the car door pretty hard and walked fast down the lane and to the hangars.

Emily got out of the car and went downstairs to her room and when she had closed the doors and fell hard on her bed was when she started to cry.

It was several hours later when she came too from crying herself to sleep and her eyes were crusty and she made her way slowly upstairs and her stepfather was there actually it looked like he was the only one there with most of the lights off in the house and she looked around.

“Where’s Mom?”

“In our room she’s passed out.”

“Passed out?”

“She’s not taking the whole thing so well and she ended up having a few drinks.”

“Okay…but mom’s never passed out drinking before.”

“Well…she was kind of getting worked up a bit too much Em so I kind of took over mixing her drinks and with it being vodka…”

“You gave her enough to get her hammered.”

“Yeah, she was…really freaked out.”

“I’m freaked out too.”

“You should be this is about you and not her but as much as I love your mother and your sister there are times when they really are cut from the same cloth. Sometimes your mom’s still the same person she was in high school.”

“You knew mom in school?”

“She’s like your sister everyone knew your mom back then.”

“And you?”

“Not so much, I was the geeky kid that was into computers and radios and tornadoes and strange stuff. The only reason I wasn’t placed into the completely ignored pile was the airstrip and well we had planes so that sort of made me kind of cool.”

“Oh…so you two didn’t back then.”

“Hell no, I went to school and your mom married your Dad until that went to crap and then she hooked up with a bunch of people after that and then she got in deep with your sisters dad.”

“Yeah not the greatest track record with guys.”

“That’s part of what we’re trying to keep your sister out of.”

“Huh?”

“You mom was one of the best looking girls in town but the thing is she knew it and she thought that it solved everything. Well that’s not what life is like outside of school.”

Emily looked at him and he was having a few beers but he wasn’t a drinker drinker just a wind down drink once in a while or like right now when he was cooking. Her stepdad didn’t cook a whole lot tending to leave that to her mom but he did sometimes like now. He was making home made pizza and he was cooking while drinking and talking. Emily took a seat at the kitchen table and she started to take the block of Gouda and started to grate it.

Yes Gouda he made this really good but different pizza with tons of ground beef flavoured with green peppers and onions and caraway that had a white sauce instead of tomato sauce that was something called beshem-something but with some horseradish in it. The smoky Gouda went really well with this and everyone liked the pizza too even the edge was good with egg wash and rosemary and caraway and celery salt and black pepper.

He looked at her and set down a PBR for her to drink. Yes he let her drink, once in awhile and usually never more than one or two beers at most. She liked that but wondered at the fact she liked beer at all wash genetic or something. She cracked it open and savoured the sort of being treated like she had enough on the ball to have a drink seeing as they were having a real adult conversation.

“So do you know why mom was so freaked out about this? I know why I am but…”

“Yes. I do and she doesn’t know that I know.”

“Will you tell me?”

“I’m still deciding.”

“On…”

“On the fact that you’re fifteen and while you might not be using your hormones normally you’re still pretty full of teenageryness so I’m trying to weigh if telling you something that you might or might not take well after everything else you’ve been through today is a good idea or not.”

“But…”

He just looked at her and shrugged. Yeah as much as she hated it he was immune to the pleading and begging and needling of her, her mom and her sister.

“Dad, you do know that just saying that sort of thing just makes me want to know all the more right?”

Then he made most of the whole freaky day better by nodding and coming over and kissing her forehead.

“I know but you’re a girl you can’t help it.”

And she could tell that he meant the “Girl.” Part even if he never emphasized it…maybe that was the good part. He said it just like he always would have.