Lies My Mother Told Me

Chapter 11:(New)

Chapter 11

He poured the steaming hot black coffee into the Styrofoam coffee cup that stood on the table right in front of me. I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker but he offered it to me and I said yes. My eyes wandered around his small apartment. The kitchen where I sat only had little counter space and foldable chairs at the beat up old dinner table. There were a pile of plastic cups in a ripped up package next to plastic cutlery. He had a couple dishes in the dish rack set to dry. In his living room was an old plaid couch that looked like it was from the 70’s. They had a round TV, not flat screen like my mother insisted on buying. A few pictures in frames were scattered on the living room walls. You could tell only boys lived here.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening. I never thought I would see you again,” he spoke. I looked up from the black cup of coffee, the steam hit my face. It was an awkward situation for both of us. He didn’t even seem like he was my father. Just some guy I was meeting for the first time. Or a long lost cousin.

“Me neither, considering my mother told me you were dead,”

“She told you I was dead?” he asked in shock. I nodded my head in agreement. I know, I was shocked too I wanted to tell him. She told me…

A lie.

My father is not dead.

Lie number one. My mother also told me I was an only child. Lie number two. I had a brother named Mason and he was a total asshole.

“I always knew she was crazy. She needs help,” he sighed shaking his head. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. It hit me. Why didn’t he get her help? I mean they must have loved each other some point in their lives if they had two children. Why did he leave me with her, the crazy women? And take Mason with him. I ended up way better than Mason and he didn’t have the mother that abused him. He was lucky. Why didn’t my father take me too? I lost it.

“Then why didn’t you help her! Why did you leave me and take Mason with you and not me! Do you know what she did to me all these years when you weren’t there?” I cried.

“What did she do…?”

“She abused me! Beat me every day! She was an alcoholic! I had to take care off her almost every night! She was perfectly fine in the day time but when she got home from work she just lost it. For the littlest things she beat me. And you weren’t there,” I explained.

“I’m sorry,” he said. He sucked his lips inside his mouth and bit down on them. Tears started to stream down my face out of anger.

“Why didn’t you take me? Why did you take Mason with you and not me!” I screamed.

“I-i-I don’t know. Once we filed for divorce the court ordered for us to each have a child and I chose Mason. I didn’t think you would…want to live with your father…”

“If you knew she was crazy why would you leave me with her!”

“I didn’t think about it! I was young and stupid Summer. If I could go back in time and take you I would! We all make mistakes,”

“Yea well, your mistake made my life a living hell,” I said rolling glossy eyes.

“Well you turned out to be a pretty good kid,” he shrugged.

“Yes, because I practically raised myself! I’m not even living with my mother any more, I’m living with a friend who was nice enough to take me in,”

I could tell he didn’t know what to do. I just kind of blew up on him. I shouldn’t have done that, it’s not like it was going to solve anything by screaming at him. But was I wrong?

“I’m really sorry Summer, I had no idea,”

“Yea because you never even bothered to look for me. Wait how did you know? How did you know to tell Mason that I was his sister?”

“The school directory. It has all the numbers of every student in the school. I stuck a piece of paper in there that I was looking for and saw your name when I opened up the page. I was a hundred percent it was you. Who else names their kid Summer Air Simatra?”

“Have you guys always lived here?”

“No, we moved here about 3 months ago,”

It was all too much to take in. Luke was waiting outside for me in the car. I should get going.

“I gotta go,” I said and pulled out my chair to stand up. Jim did the same that was his name. That’s when I noticed I looked a lot like Jim. We had the same exact face and features. The same ice blue eyes, the same left dimple when we smiled, and the same button nose. Without saying goodbye I left to the front door and shut it tight behind me. I ran down the apartment building floors fast; I didn’t want him to come running after me or anything. I just needed time, to process everything.

I needed to know. Why. Why my mother lied to me all that time. That’s where my next stop was my mother’s house. To find out why she lied to me.

Let’s hope she wasn’t piss drunk this time. I plopped down in the passenger seat and glanced at the clock in the car, it was 11:00 already.

“We going to my house?” he asked. I heaved a sigh and nodded my head. I kicked off my uggs and drew my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on top of them.

“If it makes you feel any better, you’re not the only one with a fucked up life,” Luke broke the silence. I turned my head to look at him but his eyes were fixated on the road.

“What?”

“I don’t live with my father Summer, or my mother. My mother passed away when I was 7 in a car accident. Then my father just got nuts. He became abusive and he started drinking…and he became addicted to drugs. He wasted all of our money on drugs and liquor and he lost his job for drinking at work. We had no money. Until one day he came into my room with a group of men… the men handed my father money. And they…began to…touch…me,” It was dark in the car. But with every street light that passed by I could see the tears in his eyes fighting to come out.

“I didn’t get to have a regular childhood. I was molested everyday by strange perverted men! And my father let them! Just so he could buy his goddamn alcohol!” he screamed. He pulled over the car and slammed his big fists on the steering wheel. I jumped in my seat and cowered into the car door. I felt bad for Luke. But Luke could get violent easily; I didn’t want to get hurt again by him. By anyone.

It was dark outside, every second or so we heard the wind push against our car from the cars passing by us. One man even stepped outside his car, knocked on our window, and asked us if we needed help. Luke just sat in his seat with his head on the steering wheel and his arms draped over his head. We sat there for I don’t know how long. But he just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. I felt it was best to just leave him alone for a while.

“Do you know what it feels like to be touched Summer? And you can’t do ANYTHING ABOUT IT!?” he screamed.

“No,”

“Well what an unfortunate bitch you are. Because I’m going to show you.”