Strangers When We Meet

Leto, Jared; the name under the picture of the bright eyed young man with slightly long hair, read.
I showed grandpa, not thinking he would know who I was talking about. “Yeah, I remember him.” he told me.

Surprised, I blurted out, “You do?”

“Yeah, Kate was friends with him and his brother for years.”

That was really surprising. Mom didn't talk much about her life before me. She had me during her first year of college, and I didn't pry much into her past. I knew she had grew up in the same city as Jared and Shannon Leto, they were all around the same age, but for some reason it had never occurred to me that she might know them.

“Really?”

“Yes, good friends. What was his brother's name?” Grandpa asked himself.

“Shannon.”

“Yes, that's it. You're grandmother didn't like them much. They were a little poorer than us, and she hated their mother, more or less because she was a young mother. So of course she ate every mean word she ever uttered about that girl once your mother got pregnant with you.” he chuckled lightly. “Haven't seen any of them in ages.”

“They're famous.”

He made a sound. “So I hear.”

I started searching the box again. There was a small pink photo album, and sure enough there were pictures with both Leto brothers in them. Grandpa was right, they had all been friends. And they all looked so young, of course this was all nearly twenty years ago, but still it was strange to look at this and see them all as teenagers. And to see my usually stern mother look so carefree, with the Leto boys nonetheless.

“Why didn't anyone ever say anything about this?”

“Oh, you're mom had a falling out with one of them, they stopped talking and then they moved to California, and we just never thought about it much.”

“Not even after you found out they were famous?”

“Fame, smame? Who care?”

That was my papa for ya, he couldn't care less about celebrity. And it wasn't that I cared, but these guys were in one of my favourite bands, and no one had ever mentioned them, not once. This was so cool. I wonder if what mom could tell me about them, about that time. Did she know they were gonna make it big?

I checked the box for a diary or journal, found none, but more photos surfaced. Some from her childhood, some from later years, all before I had arrived.

“Look what I found.” I said, holding up the book when mom and grandma came back fifteen minutes later.

“Oh, no.” She said, her face stricken.

“Looking good.” I joked. “Mom? Is this who I think it is?” I asked innocently, my finger on the picture in the book.

I noticed her sudden intake of breath. I needn't say more. “That's Jared.” She said softly as she snatched the book from my hands. .

“Yeah, Jared Leto.” I said, my eyes wide, searching her face. “As in the famous Jared Leto, musician, actor.”

“Yeah.” she averted her eyes.

“You never told me you went to school with him.”

“Really? I could have sworn I did.”

Grandpa looked between the two of us. It looked like he wanted to say something but kept quiet.
I started looking through the box again as I spoke. “You just let that slip by. You went to school with Jared and Shannon Leto and you didn't think I would want to know about it? I'm in love with their band. You know I listen to them.”

She was idly flipping through the pages. “Which one is that? Those avenge people or the chemical ones? I can't keep them straight.”

I nearly rolled my eyes. “Thirty Seconds to Mars, mom.”

She pretended to be thinking. “Not ringing a bell.” she sounded distracted.

I had just picked up that small pink photo album again, when mom abruptly grabbed it from my hands too.

“Hey!”

“This is none of your business.”

“It's just a book.” Geez, what did she have to hide?

She grabbed the box and stalked over to stairs and began dumping the contents in the trash.

“What are you doing?” I asked, rushing over.

“Throwing this box away. I want none of it.”

Grandpa stood up. “Kate. What's the big deal?”

My thoughts exactly. She was clearly overreacting.

“I don't need any of it.” my mom answered calmly, but I knew something was bothering her.

“But I want it.” I spoke up. “Can't I have it?”

The words were barely out of my mouth when she gave me, “No.”

“Why?” I had made the mistake of raising my voice in anger. My mother turned her murderous rage upon me. I gulped.

“Head up stairs. I'm taking you home.”

“Mom.” I couldn't believe this.

“You heard me.”

“Catherine.” my mom's father said, and it made her turn he full attention to him. Making her distracted. I grabbed the yearbook, whilst simultaneously grabbing my bag. I stuffed the book inside. Luckily she didn't see it.

“Stop being so hard on the girl. She only wants to know about your past.”

“She only cares because of that man.”

She spat out the last word bitterly.

“What did he ever do to you?” I asked before I thought it through.

She gritter her teeth. “Upstairs.”

I didn't wait around for her to say more and ran up the stairs, fuming. It took mom a few minutes to come up stairs. Gran was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She didn't see me come upstairs, and slip out onto the porch.

What was wrong with that woman? She was making a big deal out of nothing. And her reaction only made me want to know what exactly had happened with her and the Leto's, clearly something had happened. My only source of information was grandpa, and his knowledge was limited.

When mom emerged she didn't say one word until we were nearly home. “I shouldn't have reacted that way.”

I said nothing, still fuming a bit over the whole thing.

“But you have to understand that not everything is your business.”

“Yeah... whatever.”

“You are already on my bad side, Brie, don't push it.”

I kept quiet for the rest of the ride home.

♫♪♫♪♫

Once secluded in my room I pulled out the yearbook. And the stack of photos I had stolen from the pink album. I somehow knew mom wasn't going to be happy about me finding her stuff, so I took a few I wanted.

One was of mom and Shannon seated on the hood of a beat up blue car, both laughing. Another was of mom with both boys standing with two other people, a boy and a girl, behind them was a brick wall. They might have been at school, all trying to play it cool. Mom couldn't have been any older than sixteen. The next was of mom and Jared, her arm around his shoulder, her small heart tattoo visible on her arm. She looked incredibly happy. Young, vibrant, not at all like my mom. It was refreshing to see.

And it only made me want to know more about her past with those two boys. What had they done that made mom so angry to even look at pictures of them?

A part of me wanted to brag, tell all my friends that my mom was once friends with the Leto brothers, but I knew better. I stashed the pictures away, making sure no one would see them. I grabbed my keys and headed down the stairs.

But was stopped along the way.

A tall, slightly skinny kid with blonde hair by the name of Andy Jr. stood in my way. Andy was technically my step brother, but really he was just a thorn in my side. He wasn't as bad as Kim, but still they seemed inclined to make me hate them. I think it might have been because their parents had a nasty divorce, and their mother hadn't moved on, where as their dad had, which pissed off the woman to no end. And she didn't like my mom much, either. I hear that children from divorced families have it rough, I wouldn't know anything about that.

“Hello, Brianna.” he said, his voice was a bit on the nasally side. He stood a few steps down from me, making us nearly the same high.

“Antoine.”

Since he didn't like to call me by my actual name, I decided I would return the gesture.
His face leaned in close to mine, making me lean back. “Your lip looks like it's got something attached to it.” he commented then laughed at his own little “joke”.

“Don't you have someone else you could annoy?” I asked, trying to make my way around him. He was deliberately blocking me. I huffed out a sigh of frustration. If my fist met his face it would be his own fault. “Move, Candy.”

“God, you're such an emo.”

“And you're suck a dick. Where were you at last night?” I knew I hadn't seen him, nor this morning when I left out.

“None of your business.” He said, his voice high in pitch. He was hiding something.

“Whatever.”

I knocked him roughly aside and continued down the stairs. He followed behind me.

Mom was in the kitchen on the phone, talking in a hushed tone, she sounded upset. Kim, the annoying little rat, was seated at the table, pretending to text but was spying by the look of it. She looked up when we came into the room, making a face at me.

“Mom, I'm going over to June's.” I announced, heading towards the backdoor.

“No you're not.” She said, stopping her phone conversation.

“Oh, come on. It's movie night.”

“I said no.”

Was she trying to sound tough because of the company in the room? Mom never let me miss a movie night. I wasn't going to beg, but I really had no intention of staying in the house all night, especially with Tweeledee and Tweetledum here.

“Fine.” I snarled, not in the mood to argue. “Just fine. Whatever.”

I heard Kim snicker as I left the room, but I didn't care. God, first the piercing, and now this whole thing with her past. I knew I should just let it go, get back on her good side, but I just wasn't in the mood to play nice. I was going out, goddammit. One was or another.

♫♪♫♪♫

I ate dinner with them, silent as Andrew talked about his day with my mom, and she only vague mentioned our day with my grandparents. I said nothing. His kids talked but I tuned them out and finished before everyone and asked to be excused so I could go sulk in my room. I had to text the girls and let them know I couldn't make it, at least not yet.

I locked my door, turned on some music, and laid on my bed looking at the pictures again. God, I still couldn't believe mom knew them. My mom of all people knew the Leto brothers. Okay, I was starting to act like a total fangirl, but I couldn't help it, this was exciting, even if my mom seemed ashamed of it all. Was that it, was she ashamed, embarrassed? I couldn't understand.

I was smiling as I looked at a picture of Jared and Shannon, their arms around each others shoulder. On the back in my mom's handwriting read: Shannon and Jared, in the backyard, the last summer.

The last summer? What did that mean?

A light knock on the door brought my mind back to the present and I scrambled to gather the photos and stuff them in a drawer before my mom jiggled my door handle and demanded that I let her in.

“What exactly were you doing in her that you needed the door locked?” She asked once I let her in.

“Masturbating.”

Her eyes grew wide, a look of embarrassment crossed over her face.

“Kidding.” I said, “Can't a girl have a little privacy?”

“Not when said girl goes out and gets her lip pierced without her mothers permission.”

I gave her a sheepish smile. “I already apologized.” I plopped down on my bed, tired of this never ending topic. I felt a headache coming on.

Mom stood before me, arms crossed, looking severe. Mom was a social worker, she dealt with unruly people on a daily basis. The least I could do was make her life a little easier. But I was me, and I was flawed and as stupid as every other teenager in the world.

“I know.” her stance changed and her face softened. She went over, shut my door, turned my music off, and sat down next to me. There were times when my mom treated me like on of her cases, it annoyed me to no end, but not now.

“I'm trying my best to understand you, Brie. It's hard. Everyday you remind me more and more of myself.”
“And that's bad?”

“Yes... and no.”

I waited for her to continue. “When I had you I was only nineteen. I had no clue what I was doing. I was lucky. I had my family, they helped me along the way, until I landed on my own feet. But it was hard.”

“You didn't have to do it alone.” I said softly, trying to keep the anger out of my voice.

“But I did.”

“You could have found him. Asked for child support. Anything.”

She said nothing, she wouldn't even look at me.

“Who's my dad?”

“He's no one.” It was her go-to answer, spoken without thought. There were times when I thought that maybe mom didn't know who my dad was and was jut too ashamed to admit it.

“Mom? Did something happen to you? Did he hurt you?” It was something I had always wanted to know.
Her face was a mask, hiding all emotion. She was back on the job now. She wasn't my mom. “Please, mom. Tell me. I'm seventeen. I deserve to know.

“That man was no one. You have your step dad now.” she said as if that made things all alright.

“That's not the same.” I exclaimed and stood. “He's not my father.” A familiar pain in my chest came. As much as I told myself that I didn't need my real father, it still hurt, his absence in my life. I didn't even have a name.

“I just want to know who he is. I won't bother him. I promise.” my voice was meek, my throat tightened. I swallowed the lump there. “I promise. I only want to know.”

She gave me a tight smile and stood and walked over to where I stood my my dresser. Her arms enveloped me in a tight hug. We were silent for a long while. I fought back the tears in my eyes.

“I never meant for this to hurt you.” she whispered. “He just...” she began but didn't finish. “Listen. If you really want to know, his name was Leonard. He doesn't know you exist, sweetheart. And I think it's best if he never knows. He's not a good man.”

In all my years of asking she had never given me a name, that's why I had given up on even trying to find out who he was. But now I had a name.

“Leonard? Leonard what?”

“Harrison. Please, don't go looking for him. Brie you promised.” There was pain in her eyes. I had never seen her this look this... vulnerable.

“When you say he wasn't a good man... Does that mean that he...?”

“No, he didn't hurt me or anything like that, he just... wasn't the kind of man who would make a good father.” She let me go and looked me over. “It's getting late. Go to bed.”

And like that the conversation closed.

I would have like to ask her more about the Leto's, but now it seemed unimportant. She had given me a name.

“Get some rest. We'll talk some more tomorrow.” I tried to give her a smile, but failed. Mom left the room, softly closing the door behind her.

My clock read that it was only a quarter to ten, but it suddenly felt really late. I sat down again on my bed, thinking. Leonard Harrison. I had gotten his name, so why did it feel like I hadn't gotten anything at all?