Maybe she thought I was a deadbeat dad who fucked off once things got too real. Yeah, that wasn't an option. I always wrapped up Dean Junior. I had personalized condoms, for fuck's sake. The only person I didn't use a condom with in my entire life was Rosie herself. I'd never felt another woman's pussy, flesh-to-flesh, before her.
"I didn't … " She tried to gulp all the oxygen she could get to stop herself from crying. "Please, continue."
"I was found by the janitor. My mother, Nina, was found a couple blocks down the road, buying cigarettes. Her dress was covered in blood. When they took her to the hospital, she called her sister to help her deal with the legal trouble she had gotten herself into. Nina's sister is my mom, Helen."
"Jesus." Rosie's lips trembled, and so did the fingers she covered them with. A part of me, the logical part, I guess, acknowledged that it was fucked up that none of my friends knew I was adopted. But this, right here, was exactly why I wanted to keep it that way.
I was powerful.
I was imposing.
I was a motherfucking god.
These looks of pity and hushed whispers of sweet words did nothing to soothe the gash Nina created when she dumped my ass. Only reason I was willing to tolerate them now was because it was Rosie who was giving them to me. I would take any emotion from her. Even pity. Even hate. Anything, as long as it's not indifference.
"My mom-my real mom, Helen, the one who raised me-decided to adopt me. I think Eli was game because … " I gave it some thought, a chuckle escaping my lips. "Well, because he is pussy-whipped, I suppose. He really loves my mom, you see. Nina didn't want me anyway. She had a lot of shit going on in her life. I don't even resent her for that. I mean, it's pretty screwed up to leave your newborn in a public restroom, yeah. But that's not why I hate her guts today. Not really. By the end of the first day of my life, we were all at the same Birmingham hospital. Nina signed my birth certificate and didn't include my father's name-she said she didn't know, and honestly, it wasn't that surprising to anyone in her inner circle-and my parents started filling out the paperwork for the adoption."
"Oh, Dean. I'm so sorry. So, so sorry," Rosie repeated herself. We were still walking, which was good. I didn't want to have this conversation with the unnecessary discomfort of eye contact. Already, it felt like the truth was being ripped from my mouth like teeth, one by one. She took my hand, squeezed it in hers, and I drew in a breath, feeling the pressure in my lungs as they filled.
"My dad accepted a job offer in California, and they moved. Mom got pregnant with my sisters. And I looked so much like my family that no one bothered to ask. People just assumed I was Helen and Eli Cole's son. We never bothered to correct them-because why the fuck, you know? It worked. We got away with it, and the lie became so big, so fucking huge, it was too late to backpedal and expose it to the world.
"It's not like my family ever made me feel different. My sisters know. My parents always treated me the same as them, so it's not like my adoption mattered to anyone." I paused, scowling. "Well, anyone but me. My mom was under the false illusion I could bond with Nina. My dad believes that everyone deserves a chance-well, he would. He's a lawyer. His job is to defend criminals. Either way, they always made me go and visit her in Alabama. Every summer until I was eighteen. That was the deal."
I thought back to my last summer with Nina when I turned eighteen, and a chill broke down my spine. The gold-digging bitch. The mere thought of what she did had my fists itching for a bloody fight.
"At some point in her train wreck life, Nina got married to a dude named Donald Whittaker. People called him Owl because he used to deal drugs from two a.m. to six a.m. on street corners. Real catch, as you can imagine. Whittaker got locked up, was released, and decided to move to the outskirts. Bought a piece of land-a farm-and lived the farmer's dream. Nina kicked her crack habit, so as far as my parents were concerned, she was clean. She looked clean, because she was no longer shoving needles with poison into her veins. She moved to more dignified mommy drugs. Adderall, Xanax, oxy. The fun stuff that makes your addiction fairly invisible. And I never bothered to correct them because I was a pathetic little bastard who hoped to shit that one day the woman who gave birth to him would realize that he is worthy and love him."
"Dean." she shook her head, her tears flying from her cheeks. "Oh, Dean."
"Every summer when I came to see them, she made me bike the twenty miles from the farm to the city to get her her housewife drugs."