My Mother and Ava Summerfield

Seven

"Who?" Fletcher asks.

"Riley Bannerman. The man to whom most these emails are written and received from." Ava says as she continues to flip through the papers.

Fletcher stammers and stutters a couple of times, obviously flustered by the fact that there is stranger asking him questions. "Jayden, may I speak to you outside?" My brother hisses and grabs me by the shoulder. Fletcher shoves me into the hall way and slams my bedroom door shut behind us. "Jayden, why did you show those personal emails of mom's to some random stranger?" He whisper yells as if trying to keep Ava from hearing us, but I know that the thin, wooden door doesn't offer much protection.

"You gave me those emails and I needed to work through them and I couldn't look at them so Ava helped me." I shout back at him in a hushed voice.

"There are a lot of things that you don't yet and now you've brought a curious, nosy third party into it."

"Fletcher, what aren't you telling me? What aren't you telling me about Riley Bannerman, about Mom?"

Fletcher takes a long breath before answering. He leans in a whispers, "Riley Bannerman is a stranger, okay? I gave you those emails so that you would have another piece of Mom not to go off and show off to your new friends."

"Fletcher, I know when you are hiding something from me."

"What do you want to say Jayden? I don't know who that Riley Bannerman guy is, and I don't want you to get hurt so just read the emails and remember Mom's voice and keep them to yourself. I don't like it when out private life is shared with other people."

I had never seen my brother so angry before. "Okay," I say.

"I ordered a pizza for dinner. Tell your friend that she is welcome to stay." Fletcher says as he starts down the stairs.

I open the door up and see Ava standing right where I left her. She is still reading through the emails. "What was that about?" She asks, setting the folded pieces of paper down on my unmade bed.

I let out a small chuckle. "Don't worry, I know that you heard everything."

"Yeah, I didn't mean to, but there is really no way not to."

"I know. You're welcome to stay for dinner, if you like," I say jokingly.

Ava smiles, but says, "I should probably go."

"Okay, I'll walk you out."

She nods. We walk down stairs and stand in the open doorway as we say our farewells. The entire time Ava had her hands in the front pockets of her jeans.

I close the front door once Ava's car pulls out of the driveway, then walk into the kitchen to find my brother.

"What the hell was that about?" I ask him. Fletcher is sitting at the kitchen table with a mouthful of pizza.

I await my reply as he chews the food and swallows it, annoyingly slow I might add.

"I don't know that girl and neither do you, and yet you bring her into our house and show her our late mother's emails. Jayden, don't you think that that is a lot to show someone on a first date?"

"It wasn't a date and sure, I've only known Ava for two day, but I trust her. Our mother isn't dead, Fletcher."

"She might as well be," he says with a slight hiss.

The issue of our mother leaving us is a touchy for my brother. He was young and alone with a twelve year old brother to take care of. He blames her for the turn that his life took and the reason that he is still living in this town when the few friends that he has are off at big universities having the time of their lives while he is going to community college three days a week and working at a crappy job the rest of the time.

"Just remember, Jayden, that trust has to earned." Fletcher takes another bite of his pizza and walks out of the kitchen patting the back of my should as he passes by me.

I stand in the empty kitchen not knowing how to respond or what to do next. I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I check the caller ID. It's Ava Summerfield.

"Hello?" I say.

"Hey, Jayden, you answered. Great!"

"Yeah."

"Guess what I found out about the guy with whom your mother was corresponding."

"Ava, what are you talking about?"

"About what are you talking," I hear her correct in a quiet mumble.

"Ava?"

"Right, I took one of the emails from your room and did a little research. My older brother is a cop so I asked him to look into it. Luckily, he didn't ask too many questions, but he found out something about him that you may or may not want to know. It's up to you."

I have to pause and think about if I really want to know and take my brothers warning to leave it alone. "No, I don't want to know... wait never mind I need to know." I change my mind at the last minute because will always be a little curious about it and the only way to put it to rest is to hear the truth.

"Are you sure?" She asks.

"Yes," I reply quickly, not wanting to give myself time to chicken out.

"Riley Bannerman is your biological dad."