My Best Friend is Back

Chapter 13- Breathless

Chapter 13- Breathless

I stared in shack at the man in front that hadn’t seen for at least five years. Yep, five years give or take a few months that my dad and left us. The day he drove out of my life without so much as a goodbye. It was now that I was finally realizing that I had still not forgiven him for his actions that day.

My eyes then flickered to the kid I had spent the last quarter of an hour with and started to piece together the puzzle.

“Kid, h-how old are you?” I stuttered almost dreading to hear the answer.

“Eleven,” he answered quickly then looked back to his dad…my dad. “Why did she call you dad?”

I guess I was way off in guessing his age.

I gasped and felt the warm tears start to prickle at my eyes. My eye darted between the two of them as I sized them up. How had I missed this before? He was in fact my father son. The resemblance was uncanny. Maybe if it hadn’t been five years since I last saw my dad I might have pieced it together a little sooner.

“How could you?” I asked him, raising my voice a little higher than normal.

“Bailey, I know what you’re thinking, but please here me out.” He said.

“Hear you out?” I repeated. “Why on earth would I do that?”

He took a few steps in my direction until he saw that I was backing up and stopped. He looked…hurt.

“Because you’re my daughter,” He answered.

I was flabbergasted he still had the nerve to call me that.

“You don’t even know me.” I scoffed. “I’m nothing more than a stranger to you now.”

“Wait.” The brown haired kid said looking at me. “You’re my sister?”

I was too distraught to answer him so he turned to his dad and asked the same question. “She’s my sister?”

He nodded in reply, but didn’t take his eyes off me as he spoke to him. “Could you go get your mom for me please, Max?”

Max reluctantly agreed and looked between us on last time before exiting the room. My dad, or should I say John, now stood about ten feet from me, but didn’t attempt t come any closer. I couldn’t speak for him but my mind was still reeling from this whole experience. Then suddenly something he said a moment ago came to mind.

Why would he need Julie here? Isn’t this the type of thing you normally want to hide from your new family?

“Does she know about me?” I questioned a little calmer than I had been speaking before.

“She does,” he admitted. “She’s always wanted to meet you.”

If that was supposed to make me feel comforted it had the exact opposite effect on me. It somehow made me angrier.

“Before or after you had an affair on mom?” I snapped.

“Hey, that’s not fair.” He defended. “You don’t even know the whole story.”

“I don’t need to.” I said between my teeth. It was taking everything I had to hold myself together. The last thing I wanted was to be thrown out of the place my best friend’s grandma was staying. I couldn’t do that to Aiden.

“I’m leaving.” I added.

I grabbed my bag from the couch and threw it over my shoulder before I rounded John and tried to escape out the door.