Nightly Confusion

Chapter 24

“Have you talked to her, she might have some answers.”

Joey shook his head. “I haven’t worked up the courage to talk to her yet.”

“Whoa, Mr. Fearless mystery man lacking courage? All right I won’t make fun of you now; I’ll save it for later. Do you want me to talk to her?”

“It doesn’t matter what I say, you’re going to ask her anyway because you’re nosey and you want answers too.” Joey said. “Now, you can make fun of me later all you want but if you breathe a word about what I’m going to ask you I will have to kill you.”

The day just isn’t complete unless I have my life threatened. “Ok, what is it?”

I could tell he didn’t want to say anything, which just made me more curious. “I’m not good at this family thing. I’ve been alone for a long time and I like it that way but now I really don’t have a choice. It scares me because there’s this person I have to look out for and shares my blood. I don’t know how to talk to her.”

I was touched he decided to open up to me; I guess we really were friends. “Do you want my help? We could talk to her together later once my family scares the hell out of her.”

Joey shook his head and smirked. “They can’t be that bad.”

“Just wait and see, why do you think Zack hauled ass out of here and why my mother had to demand that my sisters show? And just wait till Grandma Loupe shows up, she’s a funny kind of scary. But its not that bad once you get use to it.” I explained, I didn’t want to freak him out to much but my family was something else. But I wouldn’t trade them for anyone else in the world.

I heard a car door shut and peeked out the side of the house when I turned back around Joey was gone so I walked toward them. “You just can’t get enough huh?” I asked Theo.

“If I have to be here so does he, it’s only fair. So what’s going on?” Erin wanted to know.

“Let’s wait for Liss to show up.” I didn’t want to explain to her what was going on, it was mom’s place and I also had no idea what to say.

Erin looked worried now. “It’s serious, isn’t it?”

“It’ll be ok I promise, just keep relaxed, remember you are pregnant.” Thank god as I said that Alissa pulled up, she also asked what was going on. “Mami will tell you when she’s ready, just enjoy dinner.”

 My sisters knew me pretty well; they both gave me a puzzled look but asked no questions. My stomach began to do back flips as we all headed inside.

Theo stayed in the living room as we went to the kitchen, which made me wonder where dad was. Elena and mom were sitting at the table as the food cooked on the stove; they looked up when we entered. I wanted to run when I saw my mother’s tearful eyes. It wasn’t easy to see a parent cry and I didn’t know how to help.

Joey came back inside though the back door and leaned against the wall near Elena, she needed some support too.

“Mom?” Alissa questioned, she seemed to know something very serious was going on, her eyes were very intense. “What’s going on?”

Mom stood from her chair and grasped the back of the chair for support. She couldn’t seem to get the words out, Joey had told me so she didn’t have any practice on explaining Elena. “Mami?” she looked at me when I called her, her eyes made me want to cry. “Do you want me to?” In all honesty I didn’t think I could do a better job but I wanted to help.

She shook her head. “This is my family, I have to do this.” She looked at Alissa and Erin. “Before your father and I met I was very serious with another man. I had a baby and all this time I thought she was dead from mistakes in the past. She’s not.”

Alissa looked at Elena. “Her?”

Mom lowered her head so no one could see her tears. “Yeah.” I said. “This is Elena; the baby she didn’t know was still alive. The man mom was with was Art De Luca, this is his son Joey. You all know Art was killed and the reason was because he found out Elena was alive. Art found Elena and told her everything before he was killed and she found mom. Trust me I know this isn’t easy but it’s the truth and we have to come to terms with it.” I was freaking out inside ever since I learned the truth but if I may say so myself I was acting pretty calm, reasonable like an adult, but I knew later after I was alone I’d let myself lash out and have a good cry.

Alissa didn’t say anything, she walked out the front door, it was like déjà vu. Erin just looked shocked then when she looked at mom her face softened. “I’m sorry.” I was surprised, I really thought Erin would scream and yell worse than I did being that she was Erin. “I can’t imagine having my baby taken away from me.”

It made sense now, Erin was having a baby, she was growing up and knew how mom felt more than Alissa and I could because we’ve never had children.

I would’ve never imagined Erin to be the one to take this the best way out of all of us. She walked over to Elena and introduced herself, I saw mom smile and I smiled, I even wanted to cry a little too.

I left them alone and went to find Alissa. “Go be with your wife.” I told Theo before walking outside. I sighed when I saw Alissa hadn’t just come outside, she left. I shook my head, I really expected more from Alissa. I went back inside and now it was my turn to sit on the sofa and watch TV.

After clicking through a few channels, Dad walked inside.