One or Two secrets

Jessie: He left not the other way around

Rain always brings out the worst in me, I'm like a bull seeing red when it rains. I don't know why and something tells me I never will but today it's bucketing, no pouring rain from the heavens and I'm walking home from school; great. And to top that all off we had 4 exams today so I am the picture of a raging bull in human form. Even through the haze of heavy rain I know my street too well to miss my house, home sweet warm home with heaters and a shower. Not that I need one I'm already soaked to the bone, I practically sprint up the splintering porch steps past Nicko the dog and cascade into the hallway,
"Mum! I'm back from the hurricane of rain that has soaked all my brain cells and I just hope you realise that I might not be able to think probably again!!" I say at an inside tone because I know that our house is small enough that even at that volume it will reach every room. I hear a masculine laugh coming from the kitchen and I pause just as my mother comes rushing out of the living room looking rather dashing in her green blouse and tight skinny jeans with a rip at the knee (probably not there for fashion).
"Oh Jessie welcome home from the hurricane and I'm so glad you survived!" Mum pretends to gush over me looking for pretend wounds and I laugh playing along but then my laughter fades as her expression turns stone cold, 'Now Jessie don't be scared or angry but there's someone I want you to meet." I cautiously let my Mum lead me to the kitchen and my eyes turn to daggers at the people or rather person I see before me. My Biological father.
"What's he doing here?" I seethe through my teeth not looking away from him. My mum hurries over to me and says,
"Scott's here to visit honey.." My mum trails off as another man or should I say boy around my age walks into the kitchen and quite obviously I realise to whom the laughter came from. I narrow my eyes at him. He has tall lean shoulders and an obvious ripple to his arm muscles as he walks, which is only further evidence that he must work out. His eyes are a dazzling deep blue that I know a girl could get lost in and to top all that off he has chestnut hair that is all ruffled and out of place, I suspect must be from the whirlwind going on in my head...oh sorry I mean outside.
He saunters over to me and holds out his arm to shake but I only glare at it like it's about to turn into vipers, the boy shrugs and drops his arm, "Hi I'm Austin and this is called a handshake." He states sarcastically as he gestures to his arm. The sound of his voice brings me back to earth...Did he? Oh hell no...
"Oh sorry how rude of me, I do know what a handshake is I was just confused as to what that is." I say pointing a finger at him. I hear him mutter 'burn' and I smirk as I glance over at him again. What surprised me was that he has a full blown grin on his face. And I've got to admit it's quite endearing, I mentally slap myself and remind myself that anyone who associates with Scott is bad news. Scott. In my house. I turn to mum and grab her arm,
"My room now!" I hiss. Mum excuses herself and I march out of the room with a shameful looking mum following hot on my heels. When we reach my room and I round on her,
"Mum I don't know what's going on but you better have a hell of an explanation because in case you forgot he left us!" I don't like reminding my mother of this painful fact but we promised each other that we would never see him again after that incident that changed our lives and yet here he is. I can barely look at mum because I'm so angry so I cross my arms over my stomach so I don't throw a punch at Scott,
'Honey I haven't forgotten that but I had to invite him becau..."
"You what??" I interrupted, 'You invited him?"
"Yes I had to because...well...you see Scott's sister; Victoria passed away last week and I was once very close to Victoria and I want us to be there for her funeral." She finished quickly I could tell she was hiding something. Scott's sisters dead. Funeral. Us?
"Wait, wait hold up! What do you mean us? I'm not going anywhere with that man. He sends us a letter once a year. One freaking letter mum! Just to check we're alive or something? I don't know but he certainly isn't a father to me after he let us fend for ourselves. Don't tell me you've forgiven him?" I pace around the room too flustered to stand still. Mum grabs my arm and massages it.
"No of course not honey but I still loved him and Victoria once and it'd mean a lot to me if you went to the funeral with me." Mum looked so torn and shattered that I realised how tired she must be, she's been quite sick this week. I give her a small smile and dab away a tear from my cheek. The least I can do is be there for my mum in her hour of need even if it means being in the same room as the heart breaker I regret to call my father.
"Ok mum I'll go to the funeral but only for you not him." I'm careful to put as much emphasis on the word 'him' as possible.
Mum embraces me into a bear hug and whispers in my ear, "Thank you sweety." I massage her back and say. "So...where is the funeral at?" I ask getting curious. A sly and cunning smile forms on mums face,
"Portland." She says. My mouth just dropped to the floor.
"Wait really? No jokes?"" I ask
"Really no jokes." Mum states.
"Do you think we can visit my university?" I'm slightly nervous at her answer so my voice quavers slightly.
"Well since were there...of course we can silly!" She laughs when I do a little victory dance around my room. I'm in year 11 now and I already have my university lined up in Portland. I am aspiring to be a history teacher or a philosopher. So I've decided I'm going to get a major in both, if I'm smart enough. Mum and I have wanted to go to Portland to visit my university for ages but we haven't had enough money being on a tight budget as it is. Speaking of money...
"Mum...how did you pay for it? Please tell me you didn't use my collage tuition money!" I start to panic. Uh oh.
"No I didn't...um Scott helped out a bit with the funding but I promised to pay him back." She added the last part quickly. She owes Scott money? Ok now I feel like thunder, no scratch that I feel like lightning. Raging bull welcome back.
"Mum are you an actual idiot? You aren't actually going to be in debt to the guy who left us? No we're not going! Uh uh no way hozay!" I finish my rage a little out of breath.
Mum had a tear in her eye, "Sweety you don't understand we have to go..." What is she talking about?
"Mum..what are you talking about?" I stop pacing and walk over to her slowly.
"I think you better ask Scott that..." My Mum goes to walk into the kitchen again but I storm past her and I run into the kitchen like a woman on a rampage.
I stand in front of Scott and fold my arms and send him the most icy glare my soul can manage. It must have been bad because he flinched, "Ok first you bribed her? How low can you get Scott?" I squeal, "And second you better spill now because I am this close to socking you in the face so hard even your friends will feel pain!" Scott winced but Austin just laughs. I send a glare his way,
"What?" I corner him.
"Nothing it's just that you don't know who you are. You're so confused you take it out on other people and don't let them explain." He shrug's one shoulder as if he didn't just add another piece of wood to my fire.
"Oh so you're a therapist now? Who even are you?" I ask.
"I'm the one you should be angry at, I told your father to come. You are the heir to our gang now so calm the fridge down!" We were practically nose to nose now and breathing became a little harder. A little.
I walk away from Austin and say to Scott, "The heir to what? Oh and by the way Scott I know you bribed my mother. I didn't think it was possible to go any lower in my books but obviously you cease to amaze me."
"She wanted to come I just helped with the funding." Scott said timidly. Oh the little...
"She wanted to go to her dead friends funeral for gods sake and you had to make her owe you money to go and for what? You shouldn't be here! I don't want you here, you don't care about me about us. You never have, so why start now? Huh? Answer me that? Do you want money? Do you want us to make you look good? Well you can just get the hell out of our lives!" Tears are pouring down my face. The amount of time I spent crying over this man, the amount of my life wasted trying to get in contact with him. I wrote so many letters to him I can't count and he turned a blind eye to all of them. He turned a blind eye to me. I look over at my mother and she's looking at the ground, I look over at Scott and he's looking at my mother who's looking at the ground. I suddenly realise there's more.
I ask the question that is hanging in the air waiting to be asked, "What is it that you're both not telling me?" nobody answers, "WHAT IS IT?" still no answer. I walk over to Austin who looks like the only sane person in the room, calm and relaxed as if he's in this situation all the time,
"What aren't they telling me?" I demand. He raises an eyebrow at me, "I know you know Austin so tell me."
Austin steps forward into my personal space, "I'm not sure it's the answer you want." Austin's face is close to mine now, so close that I can smell his aftershave. Minty forests. Mmmmm. No Jessie. Slap.
"I want to know." I state firmly.
"Scott? Care to explain to your daughter who Victoria is exactly." Austin looks over at Scott and suddenly we're all waiting. Scott takes a deep breath and says the thing I thought I buried years ago as a scary story.