The Usual: A Jonathan Brandis Fanfiction

Eight

The Day Before Absidee's Birthday
March 3rd

  "Abi!" I heard Brittany running behind me. I was standing at my locker talking to Ryan.
  "Hey!" I hugged her. "What's up?"
  "Oh, you know, the usual. Hey, tomorrow's your birthday!"
  "Yeah," I smiled. Ryan raised his eyebrows.
  "Is it? Damn, sneaks up on you. Any big birthday plans?" he asked.
  "Well, since tomorrow's Friday, Jon and I were going out to eat somewhere pretty late. Nothing too much."
  "Interesting," Brittany twisted her hair around her finger.
  "Yeah," I shrugged as I leaned back against the locker. "Maybe us girls can do something."
  I looked over at Ryan, who had a smirk at his face as he looked at Brittany. I looked at Brittany, who looked mischievous.
  "What am I missing?" I asked, confused. Obviously, they had a big scheme.
  "Oh, nothing. Hey, is Jon around today?" she asked. 
  "Actually, he's at a meeting for SeaQuest today. He doesn't have to go."
  "Will he be home later?" Ryan asked as we all started walking down the hall to our class, which we all had together.
  "Yeah, why?"
  "I wanna hang out with him. Maybe we can go to the arcade. You think he'd be down for some guy time?"
  "Yeah, I'll ask him," I smiled as we entered our class.
  After school, instead of going straight home, I headed to Cup O' Joe to hang out with Myles and Joe. I walked in to the strong smell of incense, coffee, and cafe food and shouted for Myles and Joe.
  "Right here, hun!" Joe yelled back, rushing out a grilled pimento cheese to a customer. "Enjoy," he smiled as he served her. "I'll be back to check on you."
  "Rush hour?" I asked as I put an apron on.
  "Every day is rush hour nowadays. You know, we could really use you as a regular worker, Abi, now that we have the funds."
  "Is that Absidee?" Myles called from the kitchen.
  "It is, indeed."
  "Absidee, go check on some tables and clean the dirty ones. We close in an hour and I am not trying to stay open any longer than I have to."
  I did as Myles said, wiping down tables left and right and checking on customers. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Myles and Joe locked the door after the last customer left.
  "Finally," Myles crashed on the couch. Joe sat beside him, and I sat in an arm chair.
  "How was school, dear?" Joe asked as he sipped a water bottle. Myles offered me  a bagel, to which I declined.
  "It was okay, tomorrow's my birthday."
  "As if we didn't know that," Myles exclaimed. "You'll be legal," he winked, waving his pack of cigarettes.
  "Legal to do shit I already do on the daily," I joked.
  "Now I know you don't mean having S-E-X now, do you?" Joe joked as he laughed.
  "Me? Never," I giggled.
  "About you working here," Myles started, "would you want regular hours?"
  "Sure," I shrugged. "We leave for Orlando June 15th, so I can work until then."
  "Sounds good," Joe stated as he stood up. "You start Monday."
  Myles stood up and followed him. "Abi, you'll be in tomorrow, right?"
  "Yeah, why?"
  "We may or may not have a little something for you," Joe winked. "But for now, Myles and I have a date tonight, so we're gonna head out. We'll see you tomorrow, Abi."
  I hugged them both and walked out of the coffee shop to my car.
  "Ol' Gypsy. What am I gonna do without you these next few years?" I mumbled to my car as I sat in it. I hated leaving her all alone in L.A. while I was in Orlando. She was the only car I had ever owned. Growing up, she was the only car I even rode in. My grandma had bought it brand new when I was 3, and kept it ever since.
  Jon and I are planning on leasing a car in Orlando and sharing it, but recently we've put more thought into it and realized maybe two cars is what we need.
  Driving through the streets of L.A., I slowed down when driving by the arcade to see if Jon and Ryan ended up going. In just a single glance, I saw Jon and Ryan in an intense game of air hockey. I smiled to myself, lit a Marlboro Red, and cranked the radio to an Oasis song.
  "Some might say, we will find a brighter day," I sang along as I drove. After making it out of the downtown area, I drove by Guildford Street, a street that leads to my parents house. I decided to see what's become of it without me there to clean, cook, anything.
  After turning on the few streets it took to get to my house, I finally found it. The house at the dead end. The grass was overgrown, a window had a blanket covering it in place of curtains, the mailbox door was wide open and full of spiderwebs, and the front door was shut tight.
  After a minute or so of pondering, I decided to knock on the door and see what had become of the inside, especially my room, which I had left completely abandoned with the exception of my mattress.
  It felt wrong knocking on my own door, the same door I was used to going in and out of for four years, but nevertheless I still knocked. After a moment, my mother opened the door. She had lost even more weight, I could tell.
  "Abi?" she asked, confused.
  "Hey, Ma. I decided to stop by for a visit. Where's Dad?"
  "He walked to the store to get me a beer and some cigarettes. You may want to leave before he comes back," she looked scared. "But he just left, and the store is about a 40 minute walk there and back. So, you can stay for a little."
  I stepped into my former junk house, which had miraculously became even junkier.
  "What happened to the couch?" I asked as I stepped into the empty living room.
  "We sold it, we needed money for food."
  "Oh," I knew she was lying. They needed money for drugs. "Can I see my room?"
  "We have friends living in it," she explained.
  "Why?"
  "Well, they lived with Sharon's mom for a while with their daughter. Her mom kicked them out and kept their daughter. It's a couple, Sharon and Jimmy. Do you want to meet them?"
  "I don't really care," I rolled my eyes, looking for a place to sit in the empty living room.
  "Just come meet them," she grabbed my arm and pulled me to my old bedroom door. "Sharon! Can we come in?"
  "Yeah," I heard a scratchy voice say. When we opened the door, 2 people who couldn't be any older than me sat on my old mattress, needles and cigarette butts all over the floor.
  "Marie, you didn't tell me you had a sister," the guy, who I assumed to be Jimmy, said, smoking a cigarette. He had a voice exactly like Christian Slater's in Heathers, a movie and voice that irked my nerves.
  "This is my daughter," she smiled as she held her arm around me.
  "I didn't know you had a daughter," the raspy voiced woman said.
  "Me either," he added.
  How nice to know that two people who had clearly been living with my mom a while didn't even know they had a kid. That's how it's always been. My grandma was left to raise me and my parents didn't even acknowledge my existence until they needed a maid.
  "She's my baby girl. Of course, she thinks I'm the devil. Teenagers, right?"
  "Cecilia is a teenager now, and I'm telling you, she never wants to come see us. She's like, 16 now. She's all shoved up her grandma's ass because she spoils the bitch," Sharon complained.
  "Absidee turns 18 in a few weeks," Mom told them proudly.
  "I turn 18 tomorrow," I rolled my eyes, trying to hold back tears.
  "Oh wow, time sneaks up on you," she said.
  I walked out of the bedroom and stood in the living room holding my head in my hand.
  "Abi, did you only come here expecting a gift?"
  "What gift? The same one you and Dad have given me every single year? Absolutely nothing?"
  "We just don't have a lot of money. We gave you a roof over your head, don't be ungrateful now," she started to raise her voice as she spoke.
  "You know what I remember? I remember waking up on my birthday 2 years ago to Dad stealing my nice clothes. And when I confronted you guys, I ended up black and blue. I bet you didn't even know I'm moving in a few months!"
  "And just where do you think you're going? You have no money, no career, nothing!"
  "I'm moving to Orlando, and for your information I've been given lots of money towards it."
  "Absidee, what's the real reason you came here? If we treat you so bad, why are you here?"
  "Because regardless of how you treat me, you're my parents and I love you. I wanted to check up on you guys."
  Mom stopped and for a split second I saw her tear up. Before she could say anything, the front door barged open and my dad stormed in, holding a six pack and a pack of cigarettes.
  "What the fuck are you doing here?" he demanded, setting the beer and cigarettes down on the floor.
  "Tom, it's okay," she started shaking.
  "She left, remember? What the fuck does she want?"
  "She's moving to Orlando in June, she wanted to say goodbye I guess."
  "She wants money I bet," he reached in his pocket. "Here, fucking needy bitch," he mumbled, throwing a handful of change at me.
  "Tom!" my mom cried out.
  "Don't worry," I mumbled, "I only wanted to see my fucking parents."
  I stormed out of the house and got in my car. Through the open front door, I could see my mom yelling at my dad. I saw her turn in my direction and start running to the door before I saw my dad grab her and slam the door.
  Was she gonna get in the car with me? Was she gonna leave him? What was her plan? For once, I felt for her. She welcomed me into the home and actually tried to talk to me like I was her daughter. She tried to stand up for me against Dad; again, something she had never done.
  I cried as Runaway Train played on the radio. The amount of times those piece of shit parents made me want to runaway, end my life, or simply just not exist made me actually fucking depressed. I didn't get to have that perfect fairytale life that everyone else has. Instead, I was blessed with actual fucking drug addicts.
  "Happy birthday, Absidee," I pulled out a cigarette and lit up. When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed no one was home.
  I ran upstairs to the bathroom and threw up. I threw up every possible thing that could be in me until I was dry heaving. Then I started crying again. "I hate you!" I screamed at my reflection. "I fucking hate you," I cried. I ran to the room and grabbed my photo album, pulled out a picture of my grandma and held it close to my heart. "Thank you," I whispered to it, crying.
  I heard the front door open and shut, them Jon shout out, "Babe! Where are you? I have a surprise!"
  "Uh," I stammered out, not wanting him to hear me cry, "I'm in the shower!"
  I threw the picture in an empty drawer, quickly threw my clothes off, and jumped in the shower.
  "I got you a little something," he said as he entered the bathroom.
  "I'll have to open it tomorrow then," I said as I stood in the shower, not even washing my hair or anything.
  "No! Open it as soon as you get out of the shower," I could hear him doing something- not sure what.
  "That would be unfair," I told him in a mocking voice. Suddenly, Jon stepped in the shower with me. "Jon!" I smiled as he looked down at me, smiling as well.
  "Happy birthday, baby," he kissed me.
  After our "extra long" shower, we went to the bedroom to get dressed before Greg and Mary came home.
  "Here," he said as he pulled basketball shorts on. "Open it."
  I opened the gift bag and pulled out a CD. It was "Grave Dancer's Union," autographed by all the members of Soul Asylum. I cried and hugged Jon.
  "I fucking love this album!" I cried, throwing my arms around Jon.
  "I know, that's why I got it for you sweetheart," he smiled, kissing me continuously.
  I grabbed his hands to hold before he stopped suddenly. "Did you hear that?" he asked, stopping.
  "What?"
  "I think someone's at the door."
  He leaned over to his window and saw a woman whom he didn't recognize.
  "Let me see," I pushed him over, looking over. To my surprise, it was my fucking mom.
  "Holy shit," I jumped to grab a t-shirt and ran downstairs.
  "Who is it, Abi?"
  "It's my fucking mom," I called back. I heard Jon run down the stairs close behind me.
  "Mom?" I screamed as I opened the door. She was bruised all over and looked like hell.
  Instead of saying anything, she hugged me. Jon stood by the door, looking stunned.
  "Mom, go sit on the couch. I've gotta speak to Jon in private." I pulled Jon to his parents bedroom and shut the door. "After school, I stopped by the shop. I knew you were out with Ry, so I decided to go home."
  "Abi, why?" he looked surprised and a little hurt.
  "I wanted to check on my parents and see how the house was."
  "Well, now what?"
  "Until my dad came home, it was going really well. To be honest, I think she wants help."
  Jon bit his lip and ran his hand through his hair. "What about when we move to Orlando?"
  "She knows. Don't worry, Jon."
  He sighed and looked at me. "Well, let's see what she wants."
  We stepped out into the living room, where she was sitting straight up on the couch.
  "My name is Jonathan, I'm sure Absidee's told you a lot about me," he reached out to shake her hand. "To what do I owe this visit, Miss Davis?"
  "Abi visited me earlier, and it didn't end too well. I wanted to speak with you, Abi."
  I looked at Jon, who shrugged. "How did you find me here?" I asked as I sat beside her and Jon sat in an arm chair.
  "I remember having to pick you up from here one time about 4 years ago," she explained.
  I thought to myself and remembered. It was obviously before I could drive and before her addiction was too bad for her to even function as a decent mother. "Oh, yeah. So, like Jon asked, why are you here?"
  "Absidee, I'm tired of living the life I'm living," she cried into my arms. "I'm tired of Tom."
  I felt so many emotions as she cried into
my arms. Where was she when I needed to cry to someone? She was with Dad, snorting cocaine or injecting heroin, high as hell.
  "Get the fuck off!" I screamed, standing up, leaving her stunned as she cried out.
  "Abi," Jon touched my shoulder. I jerked away and ran to my car. Once I sat in the driver's seat, I realized I didn't have my keys, so I just sat there. I threw my head against the wheel and cried. I heard my passenger door open. When I looked up, Jon was sitting in there with me.
   "Absidee, look at me." I looked up into his bright blue eyes that were filled with concern. "Absidee, your mother is helpless. This is her cry for help. I know she hasn't treated you the best. She isn't a mother. But she needs you. She wants to have a relationship with you, but she needs help. I respect whatever decision you make, but make this one a smart one."
  I looked away before he could see me cry. The tears slowly poured out as I clutched my arms around my stomach. This feeling made me sick. I wanted my normal life back- the one without my parents. The one where I could trust that they were taking care of themselves and I could take care of myself. I didn't want to have to take care of a grown woman.
  With his arm around me, Jon comforted me by quietly hushing me and telling me everything will be okay. I was shaking- I didn't want my parents back when everything was finally going to be okay.
  "Jon, I just want things to be okay. She's gonna ruin it all."
  "I won't let her ruin anything, I promise," he kissed my forehead. I took a deep breath and leaned my head back. Jon took my hand and squeezed it. "Now, let's get back in there, okay?"
  I nodded and got out of the car. My mom was curled into the couch, crying with her head in her hand.
  "Mom, I want to talk to you," I sat beside her. Jon kissed my forehead and left us alone.
  "Absidee, I'm sorry. I know I haven't treated you good at all. I'm so, so sorry."
  "Why did you have me? Why did you do the things you did?" I had tears pouring out of my eyes at this point.
  "Your dad and I dated when we were young. He was older and wanted me. I fell in love with him, and your grandmother never approved," she took a deep breath through tears, "she told me he was no good. We ran away to California from Washington, away from your grandma and grandpa. About a month later, I discovered I was pregnant with you. I called Mom and Dad, and they moved everything down so they could take care of all of us. Your grandfather retired early, he was so excited for his granddaughter. He wanted your life to be perfect. But, the cancer got him. You were just over a year old when he died."
  For a brief moment, we were silent. I took in the story. Then, she continued.
  "Your dad always had an alcohol problem. An anger one, too. Your grandma disapproved, and all they did was argue. Once I had you, he told me that she was lonely and would probably be better off with you than him and I would be, so, with tears in my eyes, but intentions to visit you every single weekend, I gave you up. Absidee, I was so hurt by losing you and Dad that I just had to get high. To forget how fucked up I had made my own life."
  "You fucked my life up too, Mom. You and Dad sold all my fucking clothes. Jon and his family have basically taken care of me since I was 14. All you've done is abuse me and get high."
  "I was a different person, Abi! Drugs ruin you. That's why they tell you not to do them!"
  "My mental stability will never be the same because of you and Dad! You can't waltz in and truly expect me to forgive you! Especially not when I know you'll leave here and run right back to him!"
  "I'm not, Abi. I want to go to rehab. I came here hoping you would forgive me, let me use the phone to call my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Mike and ask them to help me get to a rehab. I want to have a relationship with you," she begged.
  I looked at her up and down. She was 33, weighed less than 100 pounds, looked at least 15 years older than she was, and she looked miserable.
  "Go use the phone," I muttered, pointing to the table with a phone on it.
  While she called, I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. Jon stepped out with me, putting his arm around me.
  "I think you did the right thing," he whispered quietly, kissing my cheek.
  That was my favorite thing about Jon. He was always so supportive. When he wasn't laughing and goofing around, he was the most serious, easy to talk to guy ever. His blue eyes twinkled as he looked at me.
  I leaned over the porch railing and finished my cigarette, Jon's arms wrapped around me. When I finished it, I turned to go back inside and talk to Mom.
  "They're calling a rehabilitation center where they live. They've rented me a hotel room one town over, so Tom can't find me. Would you mind taking me there?"
  "No," I smiled. "Why don't you and Jon get to know each other?"
  "What are you planning on doing when Abi goes to Orlando?" she asked as she sat on the couch.
  "Wh- oh, she's moving there with me. I'm filming SeaQuest. It's this really cool series with Roy Sch-"
  "You're going with him?" she interrupted.
  "Yes," I answered, confused.
  "Abi, I told you what happened to me. Please, please, don't go down the same road I did!"
  "Mom, he's my best friend. I know him better than anyone. Trust me, the road isn't anywhere near yours."
  "Alright, I'm sorry. Anyways, Jon, tell me about yourself. You must be a really, really great guy to have done so much for Abi."
  "I just do it because I love her. But, uh, about me. I like music, I love basketball, I really like what I do."
  Mom smiled. "What kind of music?"
  "I like Jimi Hendrix, Counting Crows, Nirvana, anything really."
  "I saw Hendrix live as a little girl. My dad was a big fan. He let me backstage and look a picture with me."
  "I think I showed him. It's in one of Grandma's old albums."
  "Jimi was so cool. I was like, 9."
  "He's always been one of my favorites."
  For about half an hour, Jon and my mom got to know each other before I told Mom I wanted to go ahead and take her to her hotel before it got too late. I gave her a few old clothes and told her to call me if she needed anything, not anyone else.
  When I got home, Jon was in the kitchen icing a cake.
  "What the hell are you doing?" I laughed as he struggled.
  "Absidee, come on! It was suppose to be a surprise!" he whined.
  "Did you think I just wouldn't come home?"
  "I was hoping it would be a little more than an hour!"
  "Well, thanks," I giggled. He ran his finger through the icing and licked it.
  "Tasty," he smacked his lips to annoy me.
  "Thank you for the cake attempt," I said as I walked up the stairs to throw some pajamas on. Once I had changed, I walked to open the door, but Jon opened it before me, walking in the room holding the cake. On the top, he had written "Happy Birthday, Absidee!" in sloppy pink icing. He looked so proud, I couldn't help but laugh.
  "Thanks babe," I kissed him.
  "Why don't we eat a piece and go to bed?" he suggested. It was already 10, and I was exhausted.
  "Sure," I shrugged. We went down to the kitchen and cut ourselves two pieces, then headed to our room to watch some TV and go to sleep.