Reaching for Rebecca

Chapter 57

REBECCA'S POV
           
"It's a really long story." Landon said quietly between bites of macaroni. While eating, he turned toward me but kept his eyes trained on anything other than me.

"You really don't have to tell me right now if you don't want to..." He cut me off.

"I do. I want to tell you but it's hard."

"Take your time," I mumbled gently and set my bowl off to the side so my hands could reach for him. For now, they were just sitting on his muscled forearm. After quickly finishing off his dinner, he put his bowl down as well and exhaled deeply.

"Well, I don't know where to start so I'll just say what I think of – you can stop me and ask questions if I skip over something okay?" I nod and he looks straight into my eyes and begins. "As you can tell, from where I live, I haven't ever had a lot of money. My mom met a guy, my dad I guess, when she was fifteen and he was nineteen, a freshman and a senior at the same high school. Anyways, she got pregnant with me and her parents weren't very happy. Technically she wasn't allowed to date so they were furious and kicked her out of their house. With nowhere else to go, she ran to my dad but he wanted nothing to do with her either. He was just starting his life out and had multiple scholarship opportunities; he didn't need this to hold him back."

My hands involuntarily clenched around his forearm and he just shrugged in response before continuing.

"Plus, his dad was the mayor at the time and had to save face so his son wouldn't ruin their name. Their family had a little cottage out of town and sent my mom to live there. She was always alone except for my dad bringing her groceries and whatnot once in a while. She told me that she thought he was growing closer to her because every time he stopped by he stayed a little longer than the time before. When they weren't within the judging eyes of the community he seemed to love her and care for her. His father didn't like that though and started sending someone else to check in on my mom instead once he noticed it. The new man was cruel and used more than half the grocery money to put in his pocket and arrived with just enough food to keep my mom alive."

Landon's voice showed sadness and anger. He wasn't crying but his dark eyes seemed glossy and gave away that tears weren't far away. He cleared his throat roughly and continued.

"Once she had me, he didn't even bring her to a hospital by the way, she was given a week to find a job and get her own place. She was fifteen, had a newborn baby, and nobody else in the entire world to help her." His sentence became muddled near the end as fat tears began rolling down his face. I reached to wipe them away but he flinched back and closed his eyes so I ran my hand along his short hair behind his ear.

"She ended up here, in Rochester, a few hours away from them. I know she tried to contact my dad a few times but gave up when she got no response. She worked as a waitress at a run-down motel where the owner let us live in a spare room. As I got older I realized he let her stay there because he was using her and that's how she could afford it." I audibly gasped.

"Landon," I mutter and tug on his arm until he wraps them around me and sets his chin on my shoulder.

"We stayed there until I was about five," he said with a shaky voice.  "She would go to work and come back to the room to check up on me every half hour or so. Then one day, a customer must have caught her eye and they eventually started dating. Not long after that, she told me we were moving. When she showed up with me in tow, the guy was not happy and I could tell right away even though she was oblivious to it. He didn't show his hatred for me in front of my mom but was barely around when it was just me anyway. He avoided me at first, but after a while..." Landon's voice cut out and I felt his body shaking a bit with sobs from bringing up bad memories.