Mystery Boy

I stood up from the table abruptly and turned to walk away. I ignored my father and the looks I was getting from everyone else, and I exited the front door, Charming following behind me.

I walked across the yard and over to Ronnie's. I knocked on the front door, sliding past Ronnie's older brother and running towards Ronnie's bedroom.

Riley was sitting in his room across the hall. When I raced past his open door he called out my name, wondering what was wrong. I waved my hand after me as I pushed Ronnie's door open and disappeared inside, slamming the door behind me and throwing myself down next to Ronnie on the bed.

"What's wrong?" Ronnie asked as I buried my face into his pillow.

"Airea?" Jacky called lightly. I felt Ronnie climb off of the bed and Jacky climb into his spot and rub my back lightly.

"They're having a baby," I murmured into the pillow, knowing that it sounded muffled to them.

Jacky asked me to repeat myself as Ronnie sent him glares, obviously thinking that he had done something wrong. I groaned and sat up, leaning back against the wall as I moved my eyes to meet their concerned eyes.

"Ina and my dad," I said slowly, "Are having another baby."

Ronnie's jaw dropped and Jacky looked just as stunned.

"She's pregnant?" Ronnie asked dumbly, blinking a couple times from the chair he sat on.

I nodded my head and let myself fall back onto the pillows, pulling Jacky back down with me and wrapping my arms around his waist.

"Can I live here?" I asked against Jacky's shoulder.

Ronnie laughed as Jacky chuckled. I gave them a flat look that let them know I wasn't joking. Jacky tried to conceal his laughter but Ronnie just grinned at me and shrugged his shoulders.

The three of us laid around in Ronnie's room and talked about nothing important. It wasn't until about two hours later that there was a knock at their door.

Since Russel wasn't home Ronnie yelled out for Riley to get the door. I heard Riley's loud, stomping, footsteps as he marched to the front door and pulled it open.

"Airea!" Riley shouted from the living room.

I rolled my eyes and climbed out of Ronnie's nest of blankets and squished pillows. My father was standing at the door, his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants. When I walked out he looked up to meet my gaze and studied my expression. Then he sighed and rung his fingers.

"Come on," he said, "Let's go home."

I shook my head. "That isn't my home."

My father looked crestfallen for a moment before he collected his face and put on a mask that told me, and everyone else, that he wasn't playing games. "Let's go."

I cackled sarcastically and folded my arms over my chest. "No."

Dad rushed forward automatically and grabbed onto my arm. He yanked me out of the Radke household and dragged my across the yard, dampening my socks as my feet scampered across the grass, trying to keep up with his pace so that I wouldn't fall.

When he got to the front door of the house he was sharing with his girlfriend, he yanked the door open and pushed me inside. "Go to your room," he growled, pointing towards the hallway. When I didn't move he wrapped his long slender fingers around my wrist and pulled me into the small room.

"Get out," he told Decklan, who was laying on his bed and flipping through a magazine.

Decklan got to his feet and left the room without a second glance.

I stared at my father as he pushed the door shut, making the slamming sound echo through the whole house. I didn't sit down or loosen my posture, I just stared at him. He wasn't the same person he was just four days ago. He wasn't the man I remembered playing dolls with me when I was a child. He was an entirely new person. He was the person he would have been if he had been living in this alternate universe his whole life. And, with a start, I came to the realization that I didn't like this person. I didn't like my dad anymore.

Dad left after a couple minutes of staring back at me. I wondered if he thought the same thing about me. I knew I was acting like a different person, too. But I felt that I was acting as a better person.

I laid in my bed after my father left and played with my cell phone, wondering why he hadn't taken my things away like he had when I was younger. I scrolled through the contacts and stopped on a three letter name. I hit the talk button before I could change my mind.

"Airea?"

My mother was now living alone. She had moved out of the house that had been my fortress and kingdom as a child, saying it was much too big for one person. She had a boyfriend, yes, but they weren't nearly as serious as my father and Ina.

When my mother's voice met my ears, I didn't imagine her as the socialite, high-class, stay at home mom that I had known for the past 16 years. Instead, the vision of a blonde woman met my eyes. She was wearing form fitting jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie that smelled like a man other than my father. Her beautiful hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail as she waved goodbye from the gateway that fenced in our home.

"Mom?" I asked back, feeling tears already hitting my cheeks, "I miss you."

I talked with my mom for two hours and seventeen minutes before she had to go. I started my story at the beginning, telling her how all of this had affected me and how I wanted things to go back to normal.

I told her about Taite. Explained his looks to her and even his middle name. I told her about Easton and Decklan. I told her about Dad and Ina, and their new baby.

I saved my new friends for last because they had become the most important aspect of life here. They were witty, crazy, and rude. They were loud, charismatic, sarcastic, and into music that I'd never heard of before. I explained to my mom about Ronnie and his little brother. How the two of them had a relationship with each other that I had dreamed about as a child. I told my mom about Ryan, Derek, Mika, and the other Ronnie who was a smooth talker and who was easily inserting himself back into the group.

When I got to Jacky, I explained every bit of him to my mom, hoping she too could see the beauty of the English boy. I told her about his eyes and how they were pale blue but flaked with gray and more mesmerizing than my own eyes that belonged to my father and now Taite, too. I told her about his quiet ways and the sound that bubbled up out of his chest when he laughed at something I did. I told her about his face, his lips, and his hands.

I told my mother everything that I had never told her before. I felt like since our lives had changed, our relationship had become an entirely new one, much like everything else. Before I learned of my parent's secrets, it was a mere "Do you're homework. Wash the dishes. Clean your room" kind of relationship that I shared with my mother.

How was your day? She'd ask.

There's a dance on Friday, I'd call while climbing the stairs to my room.

She'd say, Have fun.

And I would.

But now I had told her about the quiet boy who lived down the street. About how I had snuck into his room with him and slept in his bed. Although I left out the part about losing clothing along the way. Somehow I felt that she wouldn't appreciate that anyways.

When she said she had to go, she told me that she was meeting her boyfriend for dinner. His name was Evan, she told me. Then she stayed on the phone an extra ten minutes to tell me about his deep chestnut colored hair that curled at the back of his neck and matched the exact color of his eyes.

Then, as we said our goodbyes, she signed off with: "I love you, Airea."

And I was shocked as the line went dead, because that was something she had never done before.