The prize(s) goes to drum roll IcyMint and FGTfan! It was Ibi Kaslik from the inside of Stars Set Yourself On Fire Album Cover. Anyway back to the story. This chapter is a great deal longer.

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“Is that her?” She gawked at Kayla.

“Yes.” What the hell did she expect me to say? No, I just carry her around and she calls me mommy, but she’s really someone else’s kid.

“I’m sorry Alex.” She looked around the Quik Lube trying to find something else to focus on. She was nervous.

“For what, insulting me, leaving without saying goodbye, or both?” She looked at the ground and then at Kayla. Kayla clinched my leg. She told me about a story she heard at school a while back about a woman in nice cloths taking kids away from their parents. She must have thought Paige was a social worker. Then Paige smiled and Kayla unclenched.

“Everything Alex, just everything.” Kayla then opened her mouth.

“Tiger is doing good! He gets straight “A’s” in home school. Thank you for Tiger. I’m sorry I never mailed you back, but I called. Mommy put us on the phone. Remember?” Kayla was oblivious to all the tension surrounding us. I wonder if I was this stupid when I was her age. I couldn’t have been, I would have gotten killed.

“Who’s Tiger again?” She cooed looking at Kayla then me.

“Tiger is my bestest friend! You sent him to me in a box with your picture, the one that sits by Mommy’s bed.”

“Oh right. That’s nice to hear.” She said in a sing-song voice then rolled her eyes assuming Kayla wouldn’t catch it. She didn’t.

“Kayla me and Misses Paige are going to have some private time, okay? Why don’t you go inside and go see Uncle Jay.” She smiled. She loves Jay. At one point she called him daddy. That was promptly stopped though.

“Okay.” She skipped of toward the office.

“You trust your kid with Jay Hogart?” She looked at me with scrutiny.

“Yeah, so about my question…” I glared.

“I said I was sorry! Are you happy now?”

“You expect me to be happy? You left me alone to raise a child! I was on the streets when I was six months pregnant! Do you know how scary that was? I could have died! Kayla could have died! Six months Paige! Six whole God damned months!” I shouted. I looked behind me and Jay was peering out the window, Kayla in the background eating a piece of candy. Jay said something to Kayla and he sprinted out the door.

“Alex! What the hell is she doing here?”

“I can be here if I want to! My car broke down!” She screeched then she paused and looked at Jay. “Is this the scum ball that got you pregnant?” She questioned.

Jay turned to me, and then he looked a Paige. “You turned her; she won’t come near me now.”

I elbowed him in the stomach then harshly whispered in his ear. “Go watch my kid before you lose your manhood.” He walked off mumbling something under his breath.

“Alex, it’s not my fault. I’m sorry.” She took off right where we had left off.

“How was it not your fault? Were you under someone else’s control? Were there aliens from Mars in your brain?”

She looked at me with a look of shame. “I was stoned. I’m sorry.”

I erupted. “And that isn’t your fault how? Did you choose to take it?” I bellowed.

“Yeah I did. I’m sorry.” She was looking at her feet again. Damn that gets annoying. “But you got pregnant!”

I shifted my weight nervously. I didn’t even want to begin this story. I couldn’t even say the words in my head, much less out loud. “Paige there’s something I need to tell you.” She looked up at me. My voice was shaking. I was showing weakness.

“Go on. You can tell me.” She prodded me on.

“I was …” I stopped and looked at the window. Kayla was watching now instead of Jay.

“Alex?” She looked at me and then put her hand to my face brushing something off of my cheek. “You’re crying.” God I was.

“I …” I can’t even speak.

“Are you okay?” This was my Paige, the Paige that insisted at the end of high school that I moved into her house. She was compassionate.

“I didn’t …” She looked at me while I was sobbing. Her hand was still on my cheek. Same place it was during our first kiss.

“What?” She was looking me straight in the eye. Then it happened. I broke down.

“I didn’t mean too. He was so big and I wasn’t.” I was sobbing as I spoke every word. “He just took over and I said I had a girlfriend and he just wouldn’t stop and he was just like all of them. He was just like everyone and I kept saying no, he just wouldn’t listen. He said that some guy at the ravine said I was good and then he just kept going.” I was sobbing and all of the time Paige just watched me. Fear in her eyes. No idea why but she was all of a sudden scared.

She closed the distance between the two of us and hugged me. She still felt the same. We still fit together almost perfectly. God I had missed her. I’d missed all of this. I finally stopped crying and as always I took the next move. I reluctantly plied myself off of her. I can’t go back to being a high school student. I have a life now and people who depend on me.

She didn’t. She could take risks, and she did. She pulled us back in to out hug and we kissed. It was the most awkward kiss I’ve ever experienced, but it was Paige and somehow it made up for itself. Our kiss was a few moments long then we separated. I looked in the window and then I saw Kayla. It all rushed back to me. I can’t kiss Paige.

Kayla pushed open the door then ran toward me. “Momma’s a lebsian!” Damn it! I swore that I would never fuck my kids up and here we go, the cycle continues.

Paige pushed a piece of paper into my hand and left in her shinny new Jaguar.

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Tell me what you think. I would like to know.