Chapter 3
Chapter 3
April 6, 2003
I woke up later than usual. It was a Saturday, and that night's show didn’t start until 7. I heard rustling from the kitchen, and a few seconds later, Foggy walked around the couch. “Green tea with honey. We don’t have any herbal, so I hope this is okay.” Foggy said as he handed me a teacup.
“This is great, thanks Fogs.” I took the cup and started to sip at it. The tea burnt my tongue, but it was comforting.
“Do you want to talk about last night?” He was looking right in my eyes, but his face was soft. It made me want to trust him.
“I just don’t get why he left. I think it’d be easier if he didn’t write me a letter at all. You don’t abandon your family and still say that you love them, you know?” He nodded, and put his hand on my knee. “And He tried to spin it like he was protecting us. That’s the worst part, that he thought he was some kind of hero for leaving us.”
“What if he was protecting you?” I shot a glare in his direction, “I’m just saying, we’re from Hell’s Kitchen. Not to mention that was during the 80s. Maybe someone was after him or something.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. It’s fun to think that my dad was some sort of crime fighter, but it’s just fiction. The mystery man was probably wrapped up in drugs or something.”
“Maybe. But if you’ll never know, why not just decide what the truth is? Nobody can really tell you that you’re wrong.”
“You’re right. My dad was a shark wrestler from here on out. Anyone that says anything else is a liar.” There was my smile again. I had no idea how Foggy could do this to me. God, was I going to miss him at college next year. Wait… college! That’s what I needed to talk to him about. “You got your college acceptance letters yet?” I asked him. I switched the subject, and he clearly noticed, but he let it slide.
“Yeah. I got into NYU for public policy, they gave good aid so I’m committing. You?”
“No way. I got into NYU! Anthropology.” His smile got even wider.
“And since Mr. Shark Fighter gave you all his shark fighting money, you’ll be set.” I guess I wouldn’t be missing him in college, we’d both be together still.
“It’s getting close to 10. I should be getting home.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No Foggy, It’s only two blocks. I have my pepper spray just in case.” I patted my purse, and then went out the door to start the short journey home.
When I walked in the door, it was too quiet. I put down my bag and realised I was the only one home. Strange, mom was usually out at this time but Oliver had nowhere to be. I left the door unlocked behind me since Oliver still refused to take a key anywhere with him.
When he walked in an hour later, he didn’t look too good. He was limping, there was blood on him, and he was getting a black eye.
“Oliver! What happened?” I asked as I rushed to his side.
“There were people talking about your dad. But I took care of it.” He said ‘Your dad’. They weren’t talking about Jack. How’d they find out about mystery man though? Not important right now. Focus on Oliver.
“What do you mean ‘Took care of it’? Your fists are bloody and you’re all bruised up.”
“Juniper, they found out that we have different dads. They were calling mom a whore. I couldn’t let them do that.” I couldn’t blame him for that. Mom had always taught us family first. I doubt she thought that Oliver would do this though. I took a steadying breath before continuing.
“How’d they find out?”
“I don’t know, they were talking about some letter they found-”
“Shit. I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” I ran back to my room. They couldn’t have found the letter, it should still be in my bag. But the letter wasn’t in my bag. I dumped it out, went through every pocket from last night. The letter was nowhere.
Thinkthinkthink
Foggy had read it last night. I pulled out my phone and dialed him.
“Pick up Foggy, please.” I whispered as the ringing echoed through my ears.
“Hey Juni. Miss me already?” I had to hold back the urge to yell and started pacing to calm my nerves.
“Foggy, where’d you put the letter last night?”
“I set it back down on your desk. Why?” Shit. If it was on the counter when we left, the other kids on the crew could have seen it.
“F. I think some kids got a hold of it.”
“You’re joking. What can I do?” I was so glad he said that. Foggy wouldn’t say anything he didn’t mean.
“Can you come over? Oliver’s pretty roughed up and I might need some help patching him up.”
“He got into a fight? I’ll be right over. Do you need me to bring anything?”
“No, we have everything. Hurry, please. I want to get this cleaned up before my mom gets back.”
“Wow kid. That’s a serious eye.” Foggy said as he stepped through the door.
“Tell me about it.” Oliver said. He was pressing an ice pack to his head to stop the swelling, but the bruising was already there.
“Thanks for coming, Foggy. Do you want to see if any of the blood is his? I can start getting all the first aid equipment.” Foggy rushed to Oliver’s side to check for injuries and I went into the bathroom to gather the anti infectant and supplies.
When I stepped back out with my hands full of random first aid supplies, Foggy was leaning over Oliver.
“Good news, you aren’t bleeding out. Bad news? This black eye will be impossible to hide. Even with Juniper’s makeup skills, there’s no way that your mom won’t notice this.”
“I’m sorry Juni. I didn’t mean to get into the fight. I heard them talking about you last night but I let it go. Then today I went back to the theater to grab my jacket that I forgot.”
“You left your jacket in the theater?”
“You left a note from your bio dad at the theater. Out of the two of us, I’d say yours was worse.”
“Fine. Continue your story.”
“When I went back there, I thought I’d go into the prompt room to see if you left something there too. Well I got back there, and there were some boys in year 10 huddled around your desk laughing. Then they called mom a whore and I lost it.” He paused, flinching as Foggy cleaned the cuts on his knuckles, “And you can see how that went.”
I was seething. That stupid letter was causing a lot of trouble. “Look, kid.” I said, “Don’t get into any more fights for me or mom. We can handle ourselves.” I smiled, trying to be convincing. He knew the truth, that I was just trying to keep my head down long enough to get out. To start my own life. I’d never said it out loud before, but we both knew that everything would change once I went away to college.