Dream On

Chapter Twelve

It had been two months since I had been living with Lucas, and I was actually starting to feel like I fit in a little bit. Mom hadn't bothered to call, and Isaac had been right, she still wasn't home. Probably on some stupid affair again, I thought to myself sourly.

"Stupid affair, what?" a voice asked. I turned and saw Lucas' head popped through the door. "You better not be having sex with another random stranger, Natalia. I swear, I will find your mother's phone number and spend forty dollars on a long-distance call if it is necessary."

I blew a raspberry in his direction in response, collapsing on my bed in laughter when my spit got in his eye. "Ugh, what the heck?" Lucas grumbled, wiping his eyes, which were half-closed. He looked like Yoda, but way taller and way less green and hairy.

"That's your fault for snooping around and eavesdropping on me," I retorted, recovering once I had finished gasping for breath.

He snorted and plopped down next to me on the bed. "Hey, I just wanted to let you know--" he began.

Cutting him off, I tried to finish his sentence. "Jake and Isaac got in jail for dealing drugs and now you're going to go bail them out and you want me to stay at home and make sure that I don't get kidnapped, and if I do, then this is goodbye," I finished helpfully for him, smiling.

"Not even close," he laughed. "What I was going to say is--"

My eyes stretched wide. "There are aliens in the backyard and the house is getting sucked up into a vortex right now and were going to have to go live on a different planet for the rest of our lives and the aliens are going to force us to be their slaves until we die and go to Alien Heaven!" I blurted out, pulling my knees closer to my chest. "Oh my God, what if they force us to get married to aliens and we have mutant babies that look uglier than Shrek? Call nine-one-one already, Lucas, call the police, and the firemen, and the ambulance, and the animal control and anyone else who can help us!" I gasped for air in deep, gulping breaths.

"Calm down already and let me finish my sentence without being interrupted," Lucas chided, an annoyed expression on his face.

Shrugging, I sat back down and looked at him expectantly. "Fine, what is it?"

Taking a deep breath, he looked me in the eye. "My dad is coming back," he stated emotionlessly.

"From where?" I asked curiously, my brow furrowed in confusion.

He shrugged. "Some business trip, I suppose. He's bringing a new lady back with him, of course. He never comes back without one."

Scooching closer to him, I bumped my shoulder into his. "Hey," I murmured softly. "You never told me about your mother."

Lucas stiffened, and I felt his muscles clench and unclench before he finally relaxed again. "She was an amazing woman," he began, his eyes misty with emotion. "Never let my brother and I leave the house without a hug and a kiss and a backpack check to make sure that we had all of our homework and lunch money. She was kind and caring, and she was devastated when she found out that our father had been cheating on her for over two years before he left. Even after he left and she got sick, she never stopped working to make sure that we would survive. She paid off all of our mortgage and all of our debt from my father's gambling, and she never gave getting remarried a thought. She was strong and independent, and she never needed help with anything except for her health." He sniffed and wiped his nose with his sleeve. "She died when I was ten from Parkinson's," he finished, "leaving the house paid off and a huge amount of money that she had saved up to help my brother and I stay alive. She never once regretted any of her choices, and I'll never forget her."

There was dead silence for a couple of minutes, with tears sliding down my cheeks and Lucas' as well. "I'm sorry," I finally said quietly. "I know what it's like."

He pasted a small smile on his face. "It's things like these that build character, you know? That's what my mother would always do; look on the bright side." I nodded, giving him a small side hug as a sign of comfort.

"You know, my dad wasn't actually a bad person. In fact, it was my mom who was really the quote-unquote 'bad parent'. She was really irresponsible, and really too young to be a parent. She had my brother when she was seventeen and my dad was only nineteen at the time. They were both young and immature, but the difference between them was that my dad actually stepped up to the plate and did his best to raise my brother and I, while my mom enjoyed her last years of high school by going to parties and coming home drunk at night. She would throw bottles everywhere when she got home, and my dad would have her sleep outside so often that he had a guest cabin built there. When my dad died of type four cancer, my mom just went out and got herself another guy to get married to, Frank. It was horrible, and they were both alcoholics and heavy smokers. A lot of the time, Isaac would be away at college, partying with his friends and drug dealing. He landed himself in jail eventually, and he got kicked out of college and came back to live with my stepdad and I while my mom was on some stupid business trip, probably ready to cheat on another guy and break his heart. She says that she'll come back in a month, but it really ends up being about four months. Basically, I'm your typical broken family girl," I finished, shrugging and chewing my lip to release all of my anger.

More silence.

Guess I should get used to it sooner or later.

~~~

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