The Wrong Side Of The Tracks (Leighton) (17 page)

“
What the hell is going on?” Davis demanded.

“
She’s drunk, she’s just talking crazy.  Put her in the car,” her Mom snapped.

Davis took a step towards her and Alex backed up.  “
Ask her who my real father is!  Ask her!”

Everyone froze, and stared at her.  Her father looked stunned and confused.  Her mother looked paranoid and borderline frantic.  It was so quiet in the pa
rking lot, even the crows in the tree line stopped squawking for a moment to hear what she had to say next.

She looked at her Dad, and almost chickened out.  This was going to kill him.  Then she remembered Karter climbing into the back of the cop car, and
put her hand up to the hot spot on the back of her head where he had just pulled her hair.  Her second thoughts drifted away as quickly as they had drifted in.

“
Your perfect wife was having an affair.”  She paused for dramatic effect and then finished, “with your father.”  She pulled the letter she had read to Karter out of her purse and thrust it into Davis’s hands.  Then she turned to her mother as she finished, “I’m Charles Rakers’ daughter, not yours.”

Keri Raker glanced at the familiar letter in her h
usbands’ hands.  Then she lunged at her own daughter, knocking her down into the pavement.  She bent over her screaming, as Alex scrambled backwards on the ground trying to get out from underneath her.  She had a crazy unpredictable look in her eye, and in that exact moment Alex was honestly scared for her life.  “You ungrateful little bitch!  You’ve had everything your spoiled little heart could desire, and this is how you repay me?”

As Alex tried to get up, she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corn
er of her eye.  Someone was climbing out of the back of their car; the windows were tinted so she hadn’t realized they weren’t alone.  From the look on her Grandma’s face it was safe to say she had heard everything.  She rushed to Alex’s side, and struggled to help her up.  After Alex was on her feet, she turned her attention to Keri.  She didn’t say a single word, the only sound was her wrinkly hand smacking hard against Keri’s cheek.

Alex began to blubber like a small child, “
Grandma, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t know you were in the car.”  Her Grandma cut her off, “let’s go Alex.”  She grabbed her by the arm and led her towards the path back to her house.  Alex never stopped and looked back over her shoulder. She walked quickly holding her Grandma’s hand, sobbing hysterically, and wiping at her nose with the back her free hand.

After they made their way across the creek, and out of the tree line her Grandma sat down on a big boulder across the road from her driveway.
  Neither of them had spoken a word since they left The Boxes, the only sound the whole way home was Alex’s sniffling and her Grandma’s labored breathing. 

“
Just go ahead Alex. I need to collect myself for a moment.”

“
Grandma...”

“
Just go, I’ll be in shortly,” she ordered sternly.

Alex didn
’t argue, she hung her head and began the long walk down the driveway.  She was too scared to look back.  She couldn’t handle seeing her Grandma break down.  She never intended for her Grandma to know about Charles and her Mom, she never intended for her father to even know.   Everything had just spiraled out of control so quickly.  Those four words just destroyed three people in a matter of seconds.  “Charles Raker is my father.”

THE AFTERMATH

“
How was school?”

Alex dropped into the passenger seat,
weighted down by her purse, backpack, and gym bag.  “Ugh! Exhausting.”

“
Your cousin isn’t coming over tonight?”

“
Gram! Shh, the windows are down.”

“
Sorry.  It’s just so hard to keep it a secret that I have not one, but TWO beautiful grand-daughters.” 

A month
had passed since the Rakers’ infamous melt-down in The Boxes’ parking-lot.  After Alex’s Grandma found out her husband not only had an affair, but with her own daughter-in-law, she sunk into a serious depression.  Not only had she lost her daughter, and her not so loyal husband, she was losing the last shreds of her dignity.  She had been locked in her bedroom for almost a week when Camryn finally agreed to come clean about her identity.  Alex thought a new grandchild by her late daughter may be exactly what she needed to pull her out of the darkness, and she was right.  Not only was her Grandma better, she was the best Alex had seen her in years.  Now the only hurtle was making sure she kept Camryn’s secret until she was ready to share it with the rest of the world.

Before Alex
’s Grandma even pulled out of the parking lot she asked, “Did I get a letter from Karter today?”

“
No, I’m sorry honey.  Just give him some time.  He’s dealing with a lot right now, he’s not gonna be angry forever.  He has six months to sit in there and think about everything.  He’ll realize before that time is up that he doesn’t want to lose an amazing girl like yourself, and when he does you’ll probably get a letter every day.”

Alex smiled, as she watched the diner whiz past her windo
w.  Students were already beginning to mill outside, even though school had only been out for about ten minutes.  She wished that she could just go to the diner and act like a normal care-free Leighton Prep student, but that simply wasn’t the case.  She was far from normal; if anything her life was the opposite of normal.  Her Mom had literally skipped town, her Dad who was technically her brother, was in the middle of a well-publicized mental breakdown, and her boyfriend was currently serving a six month stint in jail.  The only social-life she had consisted of going to her boyfriends’’ house and watching TV with his mom and sister while they were high-as-a-kite, and hanging out with her ex-frienemy and new-found cousin, or technically her niece however you wanted to look at it.

“
I talked to Donavon today.”

“
Really?  That’s great!”

“
Gram, I said I talked to him.  I didn’t say he had anything nice to say to me.”

“
Oh no, what happened?”

“
I saw him in the hallway and asked him how everything was at home.”

Her G
randma awkwardly pulled into the driveway as she turned to look at Alex, “And what did he say.”

“
Well I’m paraphrasing but basically something like this, ‘it’s not a home, you destroyed it.’”

Her Grandma pu
lled the key out of the ignition and turned to her, putting her hand on her shoulder.  “Alexandra, you and I both know YOU are not the one that broke up your happy home.  Your mother did that long before it was even created.  Why don’t you explain your side of things to him?  I hate to see you two bickering like this.”

Alex shook her head, “
I’m not explaining anything to him, he obviously doesn’t know everything and he doesn’t need to.  I’d rather have him hate me and blame me, than know the truth about Mom.  If he wants to think I drove Mom away, then so be it.”

Her Grandma beamed with pride and r
uffled her long black hair, “Oh Alex, my little martyr.  You do realize it’s inevitable, the truth is going to come out sooner or later.”

“
Well, let’s hope it comes out later,” grunted Alex as she started hauling her luggage out of the back seat.

She dropped her bags in the kitchen and walked through the den and out the doors onto the back-patio.  She pulled the doors shut to make sure her Grandma didn
’t smell any smoke, and lit a cigarette as she sunk down into a lawn chair.  She exhaled and watched curls of smoke rise up into the air and then disappear.  Her Grandma really didn’t approve of her smoking, but she chose her battles wisely.  As long as Alex wasn’t sneaking around, disappearing, and lying to her every day, in her eyes she didn’t have anything to complain about.  It was still new and strange to live with her Grandma, but she knew she was never going to leave.  Time heals all, and after some time her dad and Donavon were going to want her to come home.  But she already knew she was going to turn down the offer when it did come.  When Alex felt abandoned by everyone, her Grandma was the only one there for her, and she wouldn’t feel right leaving her.

To an outsider looking in Alexandra Raker
’s life was in turmoil, her mom was MIA, her father was going over the deep end, and her boyfriend was in prison.  She had just found out her Grandpa was actually her dad, and her ex-best friend was actually her cousin.  But in her eyes her life was finally real; she was no longer living in a perfect little world constructed from the ground up by lies.  To an outsider looking in Alexandra Raker was a spoiled little girl who met some people from the wrong side of town that completely threw her off track.  But in her eyes she met some amazing people from a different side of town that the taught her the true meaning of loyalty, and honesty.  And that’s something she would have never learned on the Rakers’ side of Leighton Tracks. 

Mommy Dearest

BY AMANDA AUSTIN