Skater Boy

Chapter 14

I'm A WHAT?

Mason

I couldn't stop thinking about Scarlet having a kid, what was he like? What was she like as a mother? Whose kid was it? Shaking my head, I grabbed my phone off my table and messaged the one person I knew would help me.

Me: I need Scarlet's address, please.

Cleo: are you kidding me! After what you put her through the other night! Fuck no!

Me: Please Cleo, I need to know what Scarlet is like now.

Cleo: Fine! But don't just go and show up at her doorstep. Message her first and see if you guys can meet up.

Cleo shared contact information: Scarlet

Cleo: don't just show up.

I did what Cleo said, and I didn't just show up to Scarlet's door step, instead I sat outside her apartment block at a café writing and rewriting the text message that I was going to send her.

I was just about to send her the perfect message when she walked in, with a little blonde boy in tow. Scarlet got down on her knees and asked the little boy a question, the little boy laughed and said something back. Which in turn made Scarlet laugh.

They turned and made their way over to the counter, right where I was sitting. "Mason." Scarlet whispered, as she stopped in her place. "What... what are you doing here?" she started to tuck the little boy behind her but he wasn't having any of it, instead he pushed his way around Scarlet's legs and stood in front of her.

He had shaggy blonde hair that looked a little overdue for a cut, and his blue eyes caught me off guard. His bright blue, Scarlet like eyes. "Hello, my name is Bentley, this is my mummy, who you?"

I took a deep breath in as he spoke, this was her son? He looked so much like... "How old are you?" I asked.

A big toothy grin greeted me. "I be twee in Otober."

"Three, so you're..."

"Two." He said loudly, holding up his little fingers. He grinned, and I just stopped. This kid, was going to be three in October, I haven't seen Scarlet in close to three and a bit years. "Mummy, can I have Meewshake."

"Of course my sweet boy, why don't you go sit down somewhere and I'll come and join you in a minute."

"Okay." He smiled before he walked over looking very strategically for a place for him and his mum to sit.

"Scarlet... is he? Is he... mine?"

"Mason, we can't do this, not here."

"Scarlet." I said through gritted teeth. "is that little boy mine?" I looked over at Bentley and saw him sitting at a table, his little legs were swinging and he seemed to be singing to himself.

"Yes." Was all she said looking at her son, "Look Mason," she started to chew her lip. "I'm not sure what happened to those letters that I sent you but we do need to talk about this, how about you come by tomorrow and we can talk about this."

Looking over at Bentley I nodded, "Yeah, that would be for the best." Was all I said before I walked out, leaving with one last glance at Scarlet and my son.

###

It was early in the morning when I knocked on Scarlet's door the next day, and my son answered the door. "Hey! I know you!" he said, loudly.

"Bentley! What have I told you about answering the door without knowing who it is." Scarlet shouted, as she stormed over to her son, she looked hot and pissed as hell. Her tiny little denim cut-off shorts were matched with a lose light blue singlet top. Her bare feet just showed how comfortable she was, her hair was tied up in a high ponytail and her face was bare of any make-up. She couldn't have looked more beautiful.

"Sorry mummy." Bentley hung his head in shame.

"Bentley, I have told you time and time again, if you open the door without me knowing about it then you could be taken from me." Scarlet said, looking at Bentley and lifting his chin with her finger before then looking at me. "Mason, hey sorry about that, please come in."

"Thanks." I smiled not knowing what else to say. I looked around as I walked through the place, the lounge room was small and had two single couches, with toys splayed across the floor, the dinning table and chairs where to the other side of the small room, Scarlet led me in to the kitchen, the very small kitchen. Scarlet was standing behind a kitchen bench, and making some coffee.

"Do you want some?" she asked, not looking at me.

"No thanks," looking around I saw that my son wasn't around. "Where is he?"

"Probably in his room, playing. I don't want him to know what is going on just yet." Scarlet said, sipping on her coffee.

"Scarlet," I said, using her real name for the first time since we met. "What happened?"

"My parents found out about him, about me being pregnant before I could say anything to you, this when I was under house arrest, and we were sending those letters to each other, I was going to sneak out that night and tell you but my father got involved and they sent me to live with my grandparents until he was born." Scarlet leaned against her kitchen sink and sipped her coffee again like it was the only way that she could talk about this, had she put a bit of liquid courage in her mug? "When Bentley was born, my grandmother let us stay with them until we – until I got us settled somewhere. They bought us this little place and I got a job at the local day care. Free day care for Bentley and I get work. Eventually I'll pay them back but at the moment it's just Bentley and I against the world."

"Cleo said that you sent me letters? I never got any letter from you." I said, wanting to know everything before I actually met my son, as my son. "Well I mean we did get letters but they were all directed to Cleo, none were for me."

"Cleo said the same thing," she said, looking at me for a second and reaching down to scratch her knee. "I confronted my grandparents last night and they sent me something." Scarlet put her mug down and started to look around. "Hang on a second."

Scarlet left for a few moments before she came back with a manila file. "Here." She handed me the yellowish envelope.

I opened it and it was filled with letters and photographs. Spilling the content on the table I leafed through all of them, one photo caught my eye. Scarlet holding what looked to be a newborn Bentley, she looked tired but happy, Bentley had his eyes closed and a slight smile on his face. "This is the day that Bentley was born?" I asked holding up the picture.

The smile that was on her face was unbelievable. "Yeah, October 17th I fell into labour around five in the morning, my grandparents called me an Uber and I gave birth to Bentley around eight or nine that same morning, and he was just beautiful."

"Your grandparents called you an Uber?" I asked, shocked that no one was there when she gave birth.

"Yeah, they did." Scarlet said softly, with a sad look on her face as she sipped her coffee again.

"Scarlet, I wish I could have been there for you, I would give anything in this world to be with you during that time."

I couldn't help myself but go over to her and hug her, she put her coffee down hugged me back. Her arms went around my neck; I could feel her warm tears falling on my shoulder. "Mummy okay?" Bentley asked.

"Yeah honey, I'm okay. Did you want something to eat?" Scarlet said, pulling away from me and wiping her eyes.

"Yes please," I could see the wheels turning in his head. "Pizza! Pizza!"

"Aw Bentley, I don't know if we can afford pizza today, I don't get paid until next week."

"Oh." There was as sad look on his face that I desperately wanted to come off his little face.

"Scar," I said, turning to my girl. Yeah she's still my girl. "Why don't I buy us lunch, you order what you want and I'll pay." She was about to argue but my put my hand up. "Please, it's the least I can do."

I watched as Bentley's smile grew, "Weally?"

"Yes, really."

"Wow! Yay! Tank you... tank you..." Bentley looked at his mother. "What I call him?"

Scarlet looked at me, her mouth open, unsure about what she was going to say. "Uncle," I said before I could stop myself. "call me Uncle Mason."