By Any Other Name: A Randy Orton Fan Fiction

Chapter 41: No Happy Endings

I'm out the door, Dolph trailing behind me, before anyone can say anything else.

Dolph unlocks the doors, and I hop in the passenger seat, slamming the door in the process.

"Randi, wait!" My mom comes running out of the house after me.

She gets to my door and knocks on the window.

I just stare at her. I can't believe my "Father" is here...and she didn't even tell me.

I didn't want to hear anything right now, but I gave in and rolled down the window anyway. "What?" I ask, voice cold as ice, and staring straight ahead.

"Baby, just come back inside and we can talk about this."

I look at Dolph, the only person that truly knows what not having a dad has done to me, to gauge his reaction. His eyes glisten with tears, but he doesn't let them fall. Trying to be strong for me, no doubt.

I turn my head, slowly, and look at my mom. I nod.

She misunderstands why I nod and smiles. "Ok then, let's go." She turns to go.

"No." She stops dead in her tracks. "That was not why I nodded."

She turns back around.

I nodded because I had just came to the realization that my so-called dad, the man whose attention I had craved for so many years, was in my mom's house...and this probably wasn't the first time.

Time to ask the dreaded question. "Is this the first time that he's shown up here?"

She doesn't answer.

"Is it?!" It was the first time I had ever raised my voice at my mom.

She looked down at the ground, then back up at me, and that's when I knew, before she even spoke, that it wasn't.

"He's been trying to get in touch with you for months now, but I wouldn't give him your number because I know how you feel about him...but it's been so long."

By "so long" I know she meant "time for forgiveness".

She comes closer to the window, "All I want, is for you to get what you've always wanted: your family whole again. Just come talk to him, and you, me, all of us...can have a happy ending."

If this hadn't have been such a serious issue, I might have laughed.

I put my face in my hands, and she knew what I was thinking, even without me saying it.

There was no happy ending...not for me.

She speaks before I can talk, "Please, stay."

I look up at her, and shake my head. "I'll talk to you later Mama." I buckle my seatbelt, as Mom looks at Dolph for answers. He just starts the car and waves at her. "We'll call you later Ms. Jacobs."

She nods silently and backs away from the car, Dolph pulls off from the side of the curb. My mom waves as we drive away.

"You want to go back to the hotel?" Dolph asks me.

I don't answer, instead taking a deep breath to hold in the tears.

He sighs then flicks on the blinkers.

He turns left instead of right, leading me to my favorite part of my old neighborhood.

The barren grassland that, when the evening comes, you get a perfect view of the sunset. But the sunset wasn't bringing me what it used to...happiness.

As we cruise down the road, slowly, I realized that I wanted to cry, that I wanted to get away, and driving wasn't going to do that.

I looked at Dolph. He was looking out his window, at the beautiful grass ahead of us.