The Eighteen Year Fallout

Chapter 26

Alexa's phone was in her hand, her thumb hovering over the green call button and yet she's couldn't bring herself to press it. In the past she wouldn't have hesitated to call Taylor, but things were different now. Alexa had no idea what Taylor was to her at the moment, but she knew she wasn't her best friend anymore. Too much had been revealed in the past few days for them to be best friends.

After all best friends told each other everything and yet it appeared that their friendship had been one sided with Alexa spilling her secrets while Taylor kept hers locked away. There were only two plausible reasons why Taylor would hide something from Alexa; she either didn't trust Alexa or it was something terribly bad. Then again, Alexa had witnessed some horrific things at the hands of Taylor so was it most likely the former. Funnily enough this didn't help to ease the sick feeling in Alexa's stomach.

Knowing Isabella would soon be waking up for her feed, Alexa took a deep breath and hit the call button before she could hesitate again. The dull dialing tone repeated and repeated as Alexa waited patiently for her former friend to answer her phone, but deep down Alexa knew she was never going to answer. She hadn't answered any of her calls in the past few days since the incident with Kaydie so why would today be any different.

Sighing Alexa threw her phone down onto the coffee table and lay back on the sofa, closing her eyes. How had her life gone so downhill? Her best friend had some 'deep dark secret' that she was keeping and her dad...well he was a whole different story. After her showdown with Carson yesterday, Alexa had waited patiently for her mom to return from work. Granted Kaydie's revelation about Taylor and Carson had caused a lot of trouble but Alexa was happy everything was out in the open and so she decided to finally confront her mom about her dad.

It was almost eight o'clock when her mom returned home from an early start at the cafe and Alexa was quick to call her into the living room, knowing that her mom was tired and would most likely attempt to escape to bed otherwise. She sat her mom down before bluntly askng her about her dad and hs whereabouts. The pain stricken expression on her mom's face gave away that this wasn't going to be a happy topic of conversation but after a lot of persuasion her mom  agreed to tell her straight what the deal with her dad was.

When her mom had returned home that niight to find the house eerily silent, she'd questioned her dad as to Alexa's whereabouts. The ironic thing was he didn't even try to hide his disgust as he almost proudly repeated the words he'd said to his daughter not long before. Knowing her daughter, Lissa had made her way upstairs where her world was shattered into a million tiny pieces at the sight of Alexa passed out on her bedroom floor. As predicted by Alexa, she'd been rushed to hospital and sedated, leaving the people around her wondering her fate. Lissa explained bluntly how she had refused to let Alexa's father come to the hospital and had even locked him out of the house. Alexa could see her mom's face screw up in disgust as she relayed the story and she couldn't help but feel proud of her mom for sticking up for her. Lissa concluded her story by stating that her dad had went to stay with her grandparents down south for a while and Alexa had the feeling that her mom was unwilling to say much more.

Alexa could see her mom was extremely tired as she finished so she pushed the millions of questions she had to the back of her mind and told her mom to get some rest. Her mom nodded gratefully, pulling Alexa into a hug before pulling back and standing up.

"Night Mom" Alexa smiled, as her mom made her way out of the living room, the sound of her footsteps getting further away.

Alexa was just about to get up to check on a sleeping Isabella who was in her pram on the otherside of the room when she heard her mom's voice echo down the hallway.

"Alexa?"

"Yeah mom?"

"You go back to school tomorrow honey. You didn't forget did you?"

"I didn't forget" Alexa shouted back, even though she had indeed forgot.

"Okay honey" she heard her mom reply as her footsteps became gradually quieter.

Going back to school tomorrow meant various things were going to happen. She'd have to leave Isabella for the first time since her birth, which she knew was going to be the most difficult thing she'd have to do. She'd also have to face the stares and whispers at her return from her classmates and everyone knew how Alexa hated being centre of attention. Alexa knew Carson was returning back to school tomorrow and she knew had they not fallen out, she'd have been leaning on him throughout the day - but they had fallen out and she'd be braving the curious stares alone. Throw Taylor into the mix and tomorrow was a recipe for disaster.

The only thought that gave her any reassurance was the fact that Kaydie would be coming to school with her while she stayed. Alexa knew there was more to the story than just 'Kaydie wanting to help out with Isabella' but she knew it was something for another day.

Right now she needed to sleep or her thoughts were going to drive her insane so she carefully lifted Isabella out of her pram, before turning off all the lights and making her way up the stairs as quietly as possible, so she didn't wake her mom or Kaydie. Switching on the light in her bedroom she firstly tucked Isabella into her cot before hurriedly changing into her pyjammas and climbing into her bed.

Hopefully with a good night's sleep she'd be able to deal calmly with school in the morning.