Stranger Love (Discontinued)

16: A Family Crack

I search through some boxes in the attic where it was cold, dusty and a little messy. I need to find my birth certificate again and I've no idea where I put it, only that it's in one of these boxes. Theo stood behind me on the ladders, poking her head through the hatch. "Are you sure you need it?" she asks. "Yes, I need to prove my identity, age, and let him see my medical info. Especially my medical info." I finally find it and put the box away to then turn to Theo with a smile. "Got 'em." She sighs and allows me to come down and put the ladders up again.

"So, you don't mind if she comes over?" "As long as you two finish before I get back," I say with a funny smile. Theo stares blankly for a moment before she caught on. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed when hitting my arm. "Come on! You two are totally doing it, I know you are," I laugh. "It's not like that, we're just friends. That's that." I just smirk and walk away. "Enjoy," I say. I hop into my car and head straight to the diner where I'll meet Sasha.

When I pull into the carpark, I see Sasha sitting on the small red wall waiting on me. I grab my certificate and head on over where I greet her by ruffling her hair. "Audrey, I just fixed it!" she whined. "You suit it like that. Markus won't mind. Come on, let's get hired." We walk in and immediately bump into Markus himself. He was small, handsome, and probably in his early forties. He gave this sense of comfort and kindness. That's probably why the diner gets good customers. "Watson and José?" he asks. I nod and he waves his hand.

We follow him into his little office space and sit in front of his desk. He goes onto his computer and raises a brow then looks to Sasha. "Dyed your hair. Creative. Love it. Children will be more attracted to you so maybe it's best you avoid small families that come in," he laughs. I'm oddly nervous. As nervous as Sasha right now. "I heard your parents opened a gallery in the mall. Do you do anything creative like that?" "Photography and possibly starting in a band," she replied. "Cool. Skull Breakers, I assume. Heard the band. Been to a few gigs. A unique band. The whole town knows them. You're the lead guitarist, right?" He asks, looking to me.

I nod and he types that up before looking at our birth certs. He nods slowly, looking back and forth between Sasha's and the computer. "I'm hiring you both since you got good grades in hospitality and all. Just getting this done and giving you a time table. You'll both be working the same times, anyway." "See? Told you he'd hire you," I say to Sasha as I nudge her. "Sorry, Audrey. This might be new to you but is your last name Watson or Wallace?" He asks. "What? It's on the cert, isn't it?" I ask. He hands me my birth cert and I carefully scan my name and parents.

The realization was like a steel fist hitting my stomach at a hundred miles an hour and a blazing hot knife being twisted into my chest. "Audrey?" Sasha says quietly, setting a hand on my shoulder. I brush her off and quickly leave the room before I could let my boiling anger destroy the office. I reverse out the parking spot and speed off. When I arrive home, I slam the front door and walk into the living room where my foster parents sat confused about my anger. "What's wrong?" Mom asks. I throw the cert on the table and light myself a cigarette. "Why?" I ask. They don't answer so I aggressively kick the table.

"Answer me!" I yell. "Audrey, calm down. Please." Mom says. "Don't tell me to calm down! You had at least ten years to tell me but you didn't! Why?! Was I not good enough for the truth?! Did you care too much about your real daughter than some kid you picked out from a group of unwanted new-born's or something?!" "That's enough, Audrey! Your father and I both care about you, always have!" Mom replies as she jumps off the sofa. "Bullshit! He never gave a rats ass about me or my existence! He clearly loved Sophie more instead of loving us equally and now I know why! So you can both fuck off!" With that said, I storm off and out the door.

A few hours passed by of me sitting alone in my usual lonely place. My home away from hell where I allow myself to relax, to think. My eyes sting from crying and knuckles are really fucked after punching the tree several times. I hate to admit but I wouldn't mind if Sasha was with me right now. I don't wanna tell Jess about this. She'd probably laugh about it or something. Plus, Sasha was there when I found out. Maybe she'd allow me to mess up her hair again if it'll make me smile. "Hey, Audrey," Sasha says from my left. Speak of the devil. Freaky.

"Funny, I was just thinking of you." She sits down and takes a large energy drink from her bag and hands me it. "I don't know if you let out your anger by beating up trees or trash cans." I smile a little and accept her offer and also mess her hair up again. She doesn't whine but sits closer to me instead. "Feel any better?" she asks. "Yeah. I went crazy at my foster parents at home. How did you get here?" I ask. "I walked. I'm so fucking exhausted," she chuckled. "I'll drive you home. Actually, you wanna stay at my place tonight? You can sleep in with me if you want. Parent's won't mind, I hope."

"I'd love to. I'll just need to get my pyjamas." I don't say anything after that. Instead I just pull her close and snake my arm around her shoulder as she wraps her arms around my waist. I wouldn't mind giving her a kiss or getting one from her. It sucks that she's straight and I'm not out of the closet. "The view is beautiful, isn't it?" she asks. "Yeah, that's why I come here. Beautiful. Quiet. Alone. I'm glad you're the one I brought here." "Why's that?" She asks. I shrug and sip from the can she gave me. My breath was visible against the the cold as I sighed softly.

"I don't know. It's just this gut feeling I have, y' know? I trust you, I guess," I reply. "I trust you too, Audie." I swear I'm getting softer the more I hang out with her. It annoys me but maybe it's for the best. Honestly, as long as I get to brush my hand through her hair and mess it up, I'm happy. "You think everyone's questioning us talking to eachother?" She asks. "Probably. A tough bitchy dyke Raised in a shit hole with a supposed bitchy rich girl raised in luxury? It's like the perfect lesbian love story or something. Like the cute nerd girl meets a jock dumbass."

She laughs a little, a bit awkwardly, and turns to face me. "Love story? What are tryna say?" She asked, her pale cheeks turning pink with a nervy smile. I shrug and push up off my knees to walk to the wall. "People might think we're dating or something. But we're both straight and probably already wanting someone else." I take a struggled drink from my can again and look to her. She leaned on her knees with her hand under her chin with a gaze so beautiful that it made me smile.

"Plus, our parents would probably lose their shit if they found out we tried anything together," I add with a shrug. "True but... Who said anything about telling anyone if we did?" She asked. I raise a brow and laugh a little. "What, you wanna do something together?" "No," she hesitated, eyes shifting to the barrel on her right. I finish my drink and throw it in the barrel. It wouldn't be too bad if I tried something with her. Maybe get a little bit of experience before doing anything with Jessica. Save me the embarrassment... If Jess wants to do anything at all, that is.

I can't let anyone else know, though. Jess already knows and that's all I want. Sasha might not even like it and then we'd both be embarrassed. "Come on. It's getting cold. Don't want you freezing to death." "Where are we going?" She asks. "We can head to yours and get your pj's. Maybe I can see your room for the first time." Sasha follows me to the car without a word, so I assume she agrees with the plan. "So, I got a question," I say, beginning to climb down the long hill to the car. "When did you learn how to sing?" I ask.

"My parents made me do vocal lessons and piano lessons. I also sing alone in the house. My parents are always busy in their art studios somewhere else. Attending meetings and all so it saves me getting lectures from them if I sing something they hate." "Your parents sound like pricks but I'm kinda glad you can sing. A hidden talent if you can sing and play at the same time." We climb into the car and drive on down the road with the radio playing at a low volume, heaters on full blast to keep warm.