by Portia Moore
“Do you want to keep looking through her page?” Blue asks, finishing off his glass of ice water.
“No, you have all of this information saved for me?” I ask and he nods.
“It’s all on a flash drive.” He hands it over to me. I let out a deep long sigh and feel tears in my eyes.
“Are those happy tears or sad ones?” he asks quietly.
“Both,” I say with a nod, trying to tell myself they’re both. I shake my head as tears begin to come full force and more than anything I wish that Kam was here. He’d know how to pull the best out of this situation. He’d hug me and let me know that everything will be okay. But he’s not here.
“I just thought that if I knew all of this, who my parents were and what happened to me, I’d feel a weight lift off my chest. That I wouldn’t feel so lost and, I-I still feel lost.” I laugh to try to cover up my voice cracking and take one of the napkins on the table and wipe my face off.
“Hey, there’s one more left.,” he says in a upbeat tone. I let out a deep breath. I forgot he even mentioned I had a brother. He clicks on another file on the screen. A man in his late twenties with hair as dark as mine and matching grey eyes fills up the screen.
What’s more interesting is that on the screen where my sisters each have one ID, he has two. I move in a few inches closer and see that they’re from different states and have two different names on them. One has Calvin Scott in Illinois and the other Christopher Scott in Michigan.
“I-I have twin brothers?” I ask, a little confused. A wide amused grin spreads across his face.
“That’s what I thought at first. So we dug a little deeper and confirmed that your mother only had four children.”
“Soo…I don’t understand?”
“You, Olivia, Mariah, and a son. Guess his name?” he asks excitedly.
I shrug.
“Christopher Calvin Rice.”
I look at him bewildered.
“So is he like a con man?” That would make sense, maybe it’s in our blood, since Olivia is a thief and apparently so am I.
“Calvin Scott has a residence and utilities listed in Chicago. In premier real estate Chicago, not the shitty part like where I’m from. I’m talking about million-dollar apartments. Which he could afford seeing as he’s employed and seems to be extremely close to Dexter Crestfield Jr. the son and VP of Crestfield corporation, a multibillion-dollar company. The weird thing though is that Calvin Scott has no records prior to 2006.
“Christopher Scott, on the other hand, was legally adopted by two farmers in a little town called Madison, Michigan. He graduated from Madison High School and after some sporadic leaves of absence eventually received his bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, and received w-2s from Madison High School, where he worked,” he explains.
“Soo…I don’t understand. He abandoned his life as Christopher Scott and began living as Calvin Scott?” I ask, confused.
“That’s what it looks like, but since I’m amazing and just for fun, I wanted to see what the correlation was between the two and after some more of doing what I do, I found out that one of those little Podunk farmers is actually Dexter Crestfield Sr.’s stepson,” he says, amused with his own cleverness.
“Which means…” I ask, waiting on him to divulge some grand revelation.
“Well, if anything, your brother is fucking loaded,” he says so loudly the people seated two booths away look over at us curiously.
“Not only that but if his granddad is Dexter Crestfield that would be the type of thing Kam’s extended family would lap up. No more being little Cinderella in their eyes, Uncle George and the lot will be so far up your ass you’d think you were getting a colonoscopy.” He laughs and I roll my eyes.
“Okay slow down,” I tell him, seeing his excitement growing.
“What if he doesn’t even know that he’s adopted? I can’t just walk right up to his door and say ‘Hey I’m your sis, can I have some money?’” I spout off, but Blue just shakes his head.
“Look, if nothing else, you need to find out what’s going on with you,” he whispers with hushed urgency.
“You need to call Kam,” he tells me and my eyes widen.
“No. I-I can’t drag him into this. I just got threatened by some psycho and it could be dangerous to be around me, but even if it isn’t I can’t put this on him. It’s his last year of school, he’d make me his focus and he can’t. I just can’t do it,” I say, my mind made up. He shakes his head in disagreement but there’s nothing to discuss.
“Look, you just got chased by a guy you don’t remember meeting for fifteen grand. Maybe little brother can connect you with some doctors that can help you, or at least let you stay there until things die down here. He’s your family,” he says, sincerity lacing his voice.
“I-I don’t think I can do it,” I say quietly. My mind is spinning. I just went from being the only person in my world besides Kam to being connected to three other people on the planet. Three other people who possibly have no idea I exist. One who is virtually unreachable for the past six months and is a documented liar, the other whose life is so perfect she’d probably hate it if I showed up and ruined it, and another loaded and who will probably think I’m a conwoman.
“Stop thinking of all the things that can go wrong,” he says, pulling me into a hug.
“Doesn’t the universe owe us a break?” he squeezes me a little harder.
“What if this could be the best chance you ever took in your life? What if this guy could really help you? Then you could come back and be with Kam and live the life you’ve always wanted,” he says convincingly. I close my eyes and imagine what that would be like. I’ve never ever been able to live the life I’ve wanted. The small moments I’ve enjoyed always seemed like I was on borrowed time, a clock that was winding down before exploding.
“I don’t even have the money to get to frolicking around Chicago.” I say becoming overwhelmed with the idea of this. He lets out an annoyed sigh, takes an envelope out of his pocket, and counts off a thousand dollars and puts it in front of me. I look at him as if he’s lost his mind.
“What are you doing?” I ask in disbelief.
“Something nice, don’t tell anyone,” he says with a wink. I shake my head, sliding the money back over to him.
“I can’t take that from you. Why did you even bring that?” I ask him adamantly.
“It’s my side money, so just take it,” he says firmly. I refuse.
“Look. Just think of it as an investment. Let’s just say everything does go right and you and little brother become besties or something. You put in a good word for me when I graduate.” He picks up the money, folding it up and stuffing it in my bag.
“Thank you Blue,” I say. I rest my head on his shoulder and he gives me another quick hug, but his body tenses, going stiff as a board.
“What the fuck!” Blue screeches. His body stiffens and he slides out from the booth. I’m about to ask him what’s wrong when I see Katie standing at the opposite end of the restaurant with another guy whose hands are on her ass and her tongue down his throat. He’s tall and has a really big tattoo on his arm and his hair is spiked.
Geesh, Katie has a type. I grab Blue’s arm and he jerks away from me and charges towards them.
“Blue, don’t do anything crazy!” I plead, trying to figure out what to do. I grab both our bags.
“Who the fuck is this Katie?” he yells, stalking towards them. Katie’s head shoots up like a deer caught in headlights.
“Blue, what are you doing here?” Her small voice echoes through the restaurant, which is now quiet, everyone’s attention on the spectacle that’s about to happen.
“Dude, back the hell off,” Spikey Hair says, holding on to Katie’s wrist.
“I’m her boyfriend you shit bag,” Blue shouts, pushing the guy in the chest. The guy pushes him back. Katie yells for them to stop right before Blue’s fist hits the guy’s face, and they fall to the ground in a
full-on fight.
“Blue stop it! We’ve got to go!” I scream.
“Stop it! Stop it right now!” Katie screams, in tears, attempting to pull Blue off of the other guy without getting knocked down in the process.
“Stop it or I’m going to spray you guys with mace!” I yell at them, which is pretty useless as they both continue to throw punches at each other.
“Not in here!” a bartender yells as he approaches. Me and Katie jump out of the way as a waiter across the hall comes behind us and with the assistance of another customer breaks them apart.
“Blue I’m sorry!” Katie squeals. The first bartender pulls him to another side of the restaurant as the customer does the same to the other guy.
“How could you do this to me!” Blue screams, his voice full of fury and desperation, and she stands there looking absolutely pitiful in the middle of the restaurant with all eyes on her.
“You all need to leave right now before we call the cops,” a heavyset man says authoritatively, who I’m assuming is the restaurant manager. Katie starts to walk towards us.
“No! You stay the fuck away from me!” Blue shouts at her, getting away from the bartender who was still gripping him.
“Katie. Come on!” Her spikey-haired boyfriend calls her from the other side of the restaurant. I think for the first time tonight she realizes I’m standing here. She looks to me for some type of sympathy or encouragement and I can’t help but look at her, disgusted.
“Just go Katie, don’t make this worse than it is,” I tell her pleadingly. Her face scrunches up and her eyes narrow in on me.
“You can’t judge me. You’ve probably cheated on Kam. George told us about you working at that ‘club.’ You left my brother devastated last night. What are you even doing here together? Are you screwing Blue?” she screeches, and I feel like I’ve been knocked off my feet by her words.
“You’re a dumb whore!” Blue yells at her, grabbing my arm and pulling me in the other direction.
When we get outside of the restaurant we see a cop car pulling up.
“Shit!” I hear Blue mumble. He grabs my hand and pulls me to his car. He opens the door for me casually. The cop walks past us into the restaurant, and Blue jumps in and pulls off.
“I’m so sorry Blue,” I say tentatively. I can’t believe what we just saw, that Katie has been sneaking around on him. I thought she loved Blue. I saw it.
“It doesn’t matter. She was too good for me anyway.” He shrugs with a chuckle. In the rearview mirror I see tears in his eyes.
“Don’t say that. She cheated on you!” I tell him sharply.
“To think that I’d be enough for a girl like that. Who was I kidding?” he grumbles.
“She doesn’t deserve you Blue. You’ll find someone else who really loves you,” I tell him even though I know it’s the last thing he probably wants to hear right now. I try to think of something to lighten the mood.
“That guy was a shitty knockoff version of you anyway,” I say, nudging him, and he gives me a weak smile.
“Kam never mentioned anything to you did he?” he asks with a hint of suspicion in his voice.
“No, never. He had no idea, trust me. He’s not that type of person, he would have made her tell you if he’d known,” I say without a second guess.
“You’re right. Kam’s a good guy,” he agrees.
“Then again I thought she was…” He trails off. I put my hand on his and squeeze it.
“She was the first person I let in. You know?” He’s quiet but I can hear the break in his voice.
“I know,” I reply, nodding in understanding. Kam was the first person that I let in. Before him everyone was shut out. Every person I had attempted to trust either betrayed me, or I was afraid I’d betray them. He was the only person who made the risk worth it, but look where that got us.
“I’m sorry. Here I am complaining about my slut-ass girlfriend cheating on me and you have much more going on than that.”
“It’s fine Blue. I know that was a lot to take in,” I tell him. He nods and then glances over at me. Just thinking of it makes me want to cry. I look over at Blue, who has been the closest thing I can call to a friend.
“I’m sorry she said that to you. She was just being a bitch,” he utters quietly. I take in a gulp of air and let out a guilty breath.
“Yesterday. I woke up naked in someone’s bed. I don’t know whose,” I tell him hesitantly. He presses his lips tightly together. I can see he’s thinking, trying to think of the right thing to say. But Blue’s never been the “right thing to say” kind of guy, and in some ways I do respect that.
“How could you do that? You love Kam,” he says confused.
“It’s one of the reasons I’m leaving,” I say, hearing my own voice crack.
“I don’t remember how I got there, anything about last night,” I explain, feeling tears fill my eyes.
“My car was out front of the building, so I clearly drove there, but I don’t remember any of it.” I’m crying so hard my body is shaking.
“Something is really wrong with me. I tried to believe otherwise, I convinced myself that it was something I could control, or thought was over—because after I met Kam, for the first time in my life things made sense. Until then.” I laugh bitterly at how ridiculous I was. He looks scared for me.
“I thought you had narcolepsy or something,” Blue says in disbelief. I laugh.
“I wish,” I say and we’re quiet.
“And you’re sure there’s no way you were drugged, or like your drink wasn’t spiked when that happened?”
“The last thing I recall was being at the gala…I don’t even remember our conversation.” I wipe away the tears from my eyes.
“And unfortunately it’s not like it’s the first time it ever happened to me. It was just the first time where I was with someone that cared enough to notice,” I admit.
“I can’t put him at risk with whatever has been happening to me! Who knows what I did, or will do? Now with this guy today saying I owe him fifteen thousand, I have to walk away. For now atleast.”
“You can’t go to Chicago by yourself. It’s too dangerous with you practically blacking out,” he says, sounding eerily like Kam.
“I’m not going to Chicago,” I say, leaning my head on the window.
“Why the hell not?” he asks, confused.
“You just said you didn’t want me to go to Chicago,” I reply, in between a bewildered laugh.
“I said you shouldn’t go by yourself.”
“Look, unfortunately it’s probably just going to be me for a while and I’ve always been fine.” I shrug. He looks at me in disbelief.
“I think you should go and let Kam come with you. He’d want that. He deserves the option.” I roll my eyes.
“No! I don’t want him to be involved with any of this, whatever this even is, and…he doesn’t need to hold his life up for someone like me,” I say and he throws his head into his seat.
“He loves you,” he says sincerely.
“Besides, again—I’m not going to just go there and knock on my brother’s door. What if he’s an asshole or a serial killer or something?” I say, changing the subject.
“So what’s your plan then, wait around here to see if the guy you owe fifteen grand shows up? Live the rest of your life alone because you’re afraid you’re not good enough for anyone? You live with Kam, if you go back with your roommate he’ll be at your door in a second.”
Honestly I don’t know what my plan is. I sort of thought that finding out about my parents would give me some type of epiphany but right now it’s absent. He lets out a long sigh.
“I’ll go with you,” I hear him say. My eyes widen. He can’t be serious, but the look on his face is showing me that he absolutely is.
“I can’t ask you to do that! You have school and work,” I reason with him.
“And a cheating ex-girlfriend who will be all I think about, to be honest,” he says, clearing his
throat.
“And I have a cousin that lives there. We can crash with him,” he adds. My heart speeds up. I try to think of a reason why we shouldn’t but there’s none. Nothing. I don’t know if things will get worse if I go but I know they won’t get better if I don’t.
“...Are we really going to do this?” I ask, running every excuse in my mind about why we shouldn’t make this trip.
“We’re doing it. We’re going to take your car to my place, I’ll grab some stuff, and Windy City here we fucking come!” he says enthusiastically, as a guy fighting a broken heart can.
I close my eyes and say a quick silent prayer.
Please, please let this work out.
Think again bitch.
Nine
Megan
I never thought I’d be here. I never thought there was a possibility of kinship, at the least three different threads tying me to them. And just the thought of not being alone in the world and connected with people makes everything seem not so dark. I’m so grateful to have Blue with me. Without him I wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be on our way to Chicago together in search of my brother, who is possibly some sort of millionaire. Now we’re here, driving through the dark streets with shining lights and tall buildings.
It’s different here; the air, the energy…it’s almost electrifying. It makes the hairs on my arms stand up and all of my senses on alert. There’s so much going on everywhere all at once that I can’t help but feel moved by it. It’s so different from the sleepy little town in Indiana that I’ve adopted as my home. “The GPS says this is it.” Blue pulls in front of a building with a sign that says Green Room.
“Your cousin lives in a bar?” I ask him in disbelief.
“I mean we are some professional drinkers but it’s more likely he’s renting the apartment over it,” he laughs. We look around for parking which takes a while since it seems as if his cousin lives in the middle of party central and it’s a Saturday night. We make our way through the crowds of people strolling down the sidewalk, obviously after having drinks. The air is warm but the breeze is cool, music floats through the air like it belongs on the streets just as much as it does in the bars. The atmosphere is intoxicating.