A Certain Romance (Reimagined)

Hospital Visits

"Are you okay?" Harley asked for the fifth time. 

We sat with, what felt like, an hour of silence between us. I reread every fine print of her birth certificate, I rubbed my eyes to make sure I was seeing my own mother's name written on it, I even creepily scanned every facial of Harley's, finding many similarities of Sienna's and even my own. I dared not to look further, afraid to see the familiarity of evil looking back at me.

"I-I jus-" The words stuck in my throat.

"It's a lot to take in." She spoke like she understood my loss for words. She slipped her birth certificate back into the folder she brought with her, then folded her arms on the table. There were many more papers stashed in the folder and I wanted to know what each said and what information they would give me, but I couldn't bring myself to ask her about them.

Michael sat at a bench completely engaged with whatever was on his phone; porn or trying to text Luke out of buying twelve bags of Doritos. I suppose it was a good thing that Michael's phone was distracting him. If it weren't for the phone he'd be begging me to hurry up because he didn't want to be outside longer than twenty minutes at any moment.

I pulled out the old Polaroid photograph from the back pocket of my jeans."I guess the questions concerning this photograph are all answered." I lazily tossed the photo across the table, slumping back in my seat. Everyone else on this rooftop had good posture and smiles, making me wish I could be one of their positions instead of this one right now.

"That's Sienna with her, then, friends Patti Crews and Heather Harbor. The three of them were the girls Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx had around for themselves."

"How do you know all of this stuff?"

"At one point I had as many questions as you." She mused. "I was sixteen when I went to my father wanting to know everything about the woman who left us. Noland told me Sienna confided in him when they were younger. She opened up to him, let him see the ugly side of her."

"How old are you now?" I was spewing out so many questions, feeling as if this would be the only moment I could get answers.

"I'm twenty-five."

"Okay..." I scratched my forehead. "What do you do for a living?"

"I watch over the outlaw's children back at the clubhouse. Sometimes Noland lets me tag along on some trades, but he recently hasn't asked me to. Whispers around the club say he thought I was involved with one of the members, Arrie. He's afraid that I'll try to hook up with other members and be a distraction. Little does he know, I was just trying help Arrie get the hell out of that shithole. If I wasn't related to the president of the club I would've already been on my way of this shitty city and halfway to Europe." Harley scoffed. "Look, here's my number. The one you called was the main phone at the clubhouse that anyone can answer, you're damn lucky it was me that answered when you called. Anyone else over there would've tried to trace the suspicious call so they could give you a nice scare." She handed me the paper with her number on it. "Call me if you need anything."

I just nodded my head in response to her. God, I could ask Arrie so many questions too when I got home. As big as I thought Seattle was, so many people close to me were connected with so much bad shit. It made me think about my father and what he was connected to. Was he one of those evil doctors that over-prescribed medicine to his patients? Like that Doctor that murdered Michael Jackson. Oh my god?

"Promise, you'll call if you need something?"

"I will." I stuffed all my belongings into my back pocket once I stood up. I said goodbye to Harley. She stepped forward to give me a hug, but I quickly held my hand out for her shake instead. She hesitated to accept the gesture, however she took it, not expecting anything more from me. It'd be a shame if she was expecting us to hug it out like family and have that hug be the start of a movie-like sibling bond.