Hell Has A New Name

22

He sipped his soda and thought, he'd already asked her about her family one night. He'd forgotten about it but she said her dad was a marine, he brothers were in the service. Why did her story change? What was she hiding?

"Amber? When did your dad join the FBI? He retired from the Marines yeah?"

She swallows a bite of food. "Yeah, so he served so many years in the service, when he about forty five he retired and joined the bureau. My brothers are still enlisted, they're older than me. I came along after dad joined the bureau, remember I said I was a surprise. My brothers have kids now."

"Wow, your parents must have been shocked!" He laughed.

"They were. Mom was a teacher till I came along, she stayed at home with me pretty much till I was in high school. Now she teaches part time at a community college."

He finally took a bite.
"I feel like you're avoiding telling me something. Maybe it's just in my head, but there's something."

She looked at him with an annoyed face.

"It's fucked up. Not important though."

He pushed his plate away.
"Everything I've told you is fucked up Amber."

She nodded accepting that what he'd said was true.
"My older brother, the one who put a bullet in his head. He's not actually my brother. He was my dad. I was raised to think he was my brother, he knocked up his high school girlfriend when he was fifteen."

Juices eyes were giant, he knew he looked surprised but he couldn't change his expression.

"Apparently whoever my mother was told Keith she'd had an abortion. Her family moved, Keith got sent to a military boarding school. Anyway, obviously she kept me, my parents had stayed in touch, wanted to adopt me. They didn't want their blood out there in world unaccounted for. They picked me up from a hospital in Pennsylvania. When Keith came home for Christmas from school I was there. I think he knew, cause, you know, he was always taking care of me when he was home. When he came home from Iraq that last time he told me not to forget who I am."

Juice was speechless, what can you say to something like that? In one sense it was completely unbelievable but in every sense it was believable. He just stared at her over his plate.

She blushed, and pushed some hair behind her ear.
"I um. I didn't know what he meant at the time. Don't forget who you are. It was such an odd statement I thought. He'd tell me that every time I saw him those next few months. Then one day, bang! I rummaged one day looking for information about him in the house, I found my documents in the safe. My parents still don't know that I know. We've been rocky since. I was sixteen then, so it's been a while."
She took a sip of her soda. Juice was still listening intently.

"So yeah, I've got my secrets. You've still got some too."

Juices heart was beating so fast he thought he was he going to die in the pizza place. This was too much for him, her dad was probably in some way responsible for all the shit the club went through even if she didn't know it, the girls family was a mess. There was no telling what skeletons they had in their closet. He had this urge to run, run and never look back. He was tired of being a coward, he kept taking the easy way out of things. He ran from Queens, he ran from the club, he ran from Stockton, could he just keep running?

"Well Amber, and your closet of secrets, I'm Micheal, this is my closet of darkness. We're pleased to meet you." He smiled like a dork and he felt like a dork but she snickered also. That snicker, the smile she had despite the tears trying to escape her eyes was beautiful. Someone like him could see the beauty in someone broken, because he was broken. Maybe they were supposed to meet and navigate some part of life together?

"It's nice to meet you as well... dork." She winked.

He thought for a minute about what they were going to do for real. He needed to hear from Tully about what was going on, but he didn't know how long that would take. He was worried about this girl he'd never met, he hoped that the club wouldn't hurt her. Women had never been their thing, but things had changed so much.

"So to Louisiana? Mississippi? Georgia? Where too?"  He asked curiously.

"Well we can go through Mississippi on the way to Georgia. I think you should check out the school, before the semester starts. See if you like it and what you need to do to enroll. Then maybe we can take a trip to Louisiana for fun before we both start school."

He nodded, that could work.
"If I do go, if I stay in Georgia, you go back to Miami, we're not going to see each other." He concluded, feeling actual remorse.

"We will work it out. I have friends all over the world, literally and we keep in touch. I think I can handle sixteen hours. It's not that far." She smiled, inside knowing given his circumstances there was a high possibility of not seeing him again once they went their separate ways. She also really hoped he'd find a way to keep in touch with her.

He put some cash on the table. "Let's ride Bonnie"