Dream Catcher

||Alex Carver||chapter 10

"Mom?" Alex calls out when he arrives back home. He shrugs off his jacket and hangs it up, also taking time to slip off his Converse.

"In the living room, Alex." His mom answers. Alex hesitantly makes his way in there. He'd been dreading how this conversation is going to go the whole drive back. Alex peeks his head around the corner, spotting his mom curled up on the couch, with a book in her hand. Another thing he hasn't seen her do in a while. With her working all the time, there's barely any time to do things she loves. When she hears him enter, she closes the book and pats the empty cushion next to her.

"You look like you have a lot on your mind. Care to spill to your dear mom?" She gives him a teasing smile, but that's fades when Alex's expression fails to match.

Alex plops down next to her on the couch, and brings his knees up to his chest. "When were you going to tell me that he isn't my dad?" He blurts out of the blue, breaking the silence.

"Alex, w-wha--How did you come across this?!" His mom stutters out. "Who told you that Robbie isn't your biological father?"

"Robbie, himself. Could you please give up trying to play it off? I'm not a 13 year old." He meets his mother's gaze; she lets out a sigh.

"You're right, Alex. Sometimes I just forget that you've grown up so much. It feels like just mere days ago you were a little boy making mud pies after it rained. Robbie isn't your dad, that's correct. I'm assuming you have questions about your biological father, and what happened to him."

Alex nods his head. "Please. Start from the beginning." He wants to know what happened, why he never stuck around to make sure Alex was growing up right.

"Well," His mom runs a tired hand through her hair. "As you know I got pregnant at your age. Even though you were never planned, I need you to know that you aren't regarded as a mistake, not in my eyes. When you were born my life finally began."

Alex knits his eyebrows together. He kind of felt as if he were a mistake. But when he takes into account all the other options his mom had before deciding to keep him, it was definitely the opposite. She loves him. "I know." He gives her a little half-smile.

"And your father, since we were pretty young, felt differently about it. My parents had already kicked me out in the hopes I would get an abortion to come back. But I ended up going over to crash with your father. I knew you were going to be something special."

"Wait, you said that he felt differently about it, but you were still crashing with him? He let you do that?" Alex asks, both eyebrows raised.

"I kept it from him for a while. When I couldn't exactly hide it anymore and he found out, he asked me to get an abortion also. Said something about a future he has to secure for himself, and a child wasn't part of it. I lied and told him I did get an abortion. Then I moved out so he wouldn't have to worry anymore. That's how I ended up living with Robbie. He wasn't bad. He allowed me to live with him and helped take care of us."

"So my dad didn't want me. Nothing I didn't already assume. He ditched you when you needed him. How can someone be that selfish?"

"Well, I'm sure he felt that I was being selfish when I decided to keep you a secret from him, along with trying to pull him in on the plan when he found out. We didn't need him." She reaches over and pets his hair. His mom has had years to come to terms with those facts. But, to Alex, it feels fresh. Turns out both experiences of having a father suck.