Chapter 29: Engine.
"Don't fucking touch me." I yell as I roll my suitcase to the front door.
"Where are you going?" Zachary asks, trailing behind me.
"My parent's house. Where I should have gone in the first place." I say before I open the front door.
"You can't be serious." He says and I glare at him.
"Oh, I am. You don't care about us, Zach. You pretended to in the beginning now you're just doing what you always do. Being too lazy to make a relationship work. I'm done with it. I'm going to grow our child in a home where love resides. Not this poisonous environment you have created." I tell him before I put my suitcase in the backseat of my car.
"Val, come on, let's talk about this." He says, walking up to me.
"We had enough time to talk, but you'd rather attend parties with strippers instead." I tell him, opening the door to the driver's side of the car.
"I already told you what happened. The guys invited me to a bar and I went. I didn't know there were strippers there." He tells me.
"It's one thing to claim ignorance about the strippers and it's another to have them give you a lap dance." I say, folding my arms as I wait for his reply.
"I-" He starts, but can't finish his sentence.
"Thought so." I quip before I enter my car.
I turn the engine on and I let the car warm up. I turn on some music to tune out the noise of Zachary banging on my window. I wave at him before I take the gear off park and drive out of the driveway. It's going to be a long drive to my parents house. So, I turn on some music. Lizzo's "Truth Hurts" plays through the car and I instantly get hyped. I sing the lyrics at the top of my lungs and shake my head. This is already off to a great start.
***
"Honey, we didn't know you were coming." My mother says with a smile on her face.
"I wanted to surprise you." I tell her, placing my suitcase in the foyer.
"Your dad's still at work. It's just me and the help." She tells me. "Miranda." She calls out.
"Yes ma'am." I hear a voice say from the kitchen.
A blonde woman comes out wearing a black apron and she smiles at me.
"Miss Valarie, you're here." She says before she gives me a hug.
"You know me?" I ask her in shock as she pulls away.
"Yes, your mother has told me so much about you." She says, smiling.
"You seem lovely. Nice to meet you." I tell her.
"Miranda, please take this bag to Valarie's room." She tells her and Miranda does as she is told.
"We're having spicy rice cakes and grilled asparagus for dinner. Just like grandma used to make them." My mother tells me when we enter the kitchen.
"Speaking of grandma, I was wondering if we could go see her or probably fly her in?" I ask my mother.
"Your grandmother isn't going to enter any plane and you know this." She says and I nod.
"But we can bribe her with the fact that I'm bringing her first great-grandchild into the world." I tell her.
"That might do the trick. I'll talk to her." She tells me and I clap my hands.
"What about Abuelita?" I ask her and she stares at me.
"You'll have to ask your father about that one. It's his mother after all." She says, rolling her eyes.
My mother and my grandmother on my father's side don't get along. My father's mother is Mexican and his father is American. My mother's father is American and her mother is Japanese. When my parents were about to get married, their mothers butted heads and of course my grandmother warned my mother not to marry my father because she did not want to be related to my Abuelita. But my mother married my father anyway because she was in love. And now she has a strained relationship with her mother. Her mother moved back to Japan and doesn't speak to her that often.
"Come and help me over here." My mother orders and I walk to where she's standing and help her prepare the food.
Time goes by fast and now we are eating dinner in the dining room.
"How's the father of your child?" My father asks me.
"He's being who he always is." I tell them.
"Trouble?" My mother asks me and I nod.
"You know it." I tell her, eating my food.
"Do you want me to take care of him?" My father asks me and I shake my head.
"Everything's fine." I tell him.
"Yet, you're having dinner with us and not him." He retorts and I stare at my plate.
"It's...complicated." I say in my relationship's defense.
"It has always been complicated, since you both were in High School." My mother says and I roll my eyes.
"Well, I'm pregnant with his child, so what do you guys want me to do?" I ask them.
"We want you to make better choices for you and your child. We wanted nothing to do with the Henderson family. Yet here we are." My mother says and I scoff.
"You guys don't have to be part of our lives you know. You can always act like your mother." I tell my mum and she glares at me.
"Don't say that again. The situation with my mother was different." She says and I laugh.
"How? History is literally repeating itself. You don't like Zachary the same way your mother didn't like dad. It's a toxic generational circle." I tell her.
"You have a point, Valarie." My father says, siding with me.
"Are you really taking her side right now? They are bad for each other, Vince." My mother says, reprimanding my father.
"I'm not siding with anyone. This situation reminds me of ours and it's our chance to be better than our parents, Marj." My dad says, holding my mother's hand.
"You're right. Valarie, I'm sorry for my outburst." She says, rubbing my arm.
"It's fine. Can I have more rice cakes please?" I ask and my mother dishes some from the tray in the center of the table onto my plate.
"Thanks." I tell her, smiling at her.
"So, how's Stone Construction doing?" My father asks.
"Thriving. After all, I am the CEO." I say, flipping my hair.
"I'm glad you've made the family business what it is." My father says and I smile at him.
"I told you, you could trust me." I tell him, shrugging.
"Your mother and I were thinking of staying at The Citadel for a week." He says, looking at my mum.
"That's great. You'll enjoy your stay." I tell them.
"We're proud of you, Vee." My mother says with tears in her eyes.
"Mother, if you cry, I'll stop eating and go upstairs." I say, threatening her.
"I'm not crying." My mother says, wiping her eyes.
My father and I share a small laugh as we stare at her.
***
"Hey mama." The text is from Trevor.
I reply his message with a "Hey."
He messages me again asking if I would like to get ice cream with him later today. I accept, of course. I'm bored in this house. Miranda is on her off day and my parents are at work.
I get ready and I wait on the porch for his car to pull up. He arrives five minutes later with a huge grin on his face.
"You look really pretty." He tells me as soon as I get into his car.
"I'm literally dressed in sweats and an oversized tee, but thanks." I tell him.
"When I call you pretty, it's not about the clothes you're wearing or your face, it's the aura you exude. It's a pretty aura." He tells me and I look at him.
"That's a pretty detailed explanation of a compliment, but I'll take it." I say, chuckling.
"The ice cream shop isn't that far from here actually." He says making a right turn.
"So, how long are you in New York for?" I ask him.
I know for a fact that after college, Trevor was working in Chicago and stayed there. So, seeing him in New York is a shocker.
"I actually got transferred to New York. My office is opening a new branch and they asked me to run it." He says with pride.
"That's amazing. Congratulations." I tell him.
"Yeah, it's great. But not as great as the feat of success you've achieved here in the big apple. You're basically a household name now." He says and I laugh.
"I doubt that." I tell him, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
As we stop by a traffic light in Times Square, the picture of Zachary and I at the beach for the Pepsi campaign comes up on one of the screens and I let out a loud scream.
That's me.
"What's wrong?" Trevor asks and I point at the large screen.
"It's the campaign I did for Pepsi, this is my first time seeing it in person." I tell him.
"You see, I told you that you were successful, but you tried to downplay your success." He says and the car behind us honks their horn. "Take a picture of it before it changes." He tells me and I take a picture before he zooms off.
Seeing Zachary and I on that big screen makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Becca did a good job with the pictures. They turned out great.
"We're here." Trevor says as he parks the car. He turns the car off and we get out. We enter the ice cream shop and I order a cherry vanilla on a cone and Trevor orders a rocky road in a cup. Trevor pays for the ice cream. We walk out of the shop and I convince Trevor to take a walk with me around the streets of New York.
"You play too much." I tell Trevor as he stops tickling me.
He stares at me and leans in to kiss me, but I dodge it.
"Whoa." I say, shocked.
"I'm sorry." He says, standing up straight.
"I don't know if I gave you the wrong impression, but I'm not interested in you like that." I tell him and he nods.
We walk back to his car in awkward silence and he drives me to my parents house. As soon as I get there, I see Zachary sitting on the porch steps and I sigh. Getting out of Trevor's car, I tell him to just go home. He does as he is told and it's just Zachary and I now.
"Where did you guys go?" He asks and I stare at him.
"We went to get ice cream." I tell him, walking past him to open the door. To my surprise it's already open.
"The door's unlocked, why were you sitting outside then?" I ask him.
"Um, Miranda told me that your parents are at home and I don't know how to face them, so I just told her that I'll wait outside for you." He says and I chuckle.
"That is so ridiculous." I tell him. "Come on in." I say, waiting for him by the door. He reluctantly walks up the stairs and meets me at the door.
"You'll do great." I say, patting his back. "They don't bite." I add.
We walk into the house and I call out for my parents. My mother tells me that they're in the living room and I drag Zachary there with me.
"Hey honey." My mother says, not looking at me.
"Good Afternoon, Mrs. Stone." He says and my mother shoots her head up.
"Zachary, what a surprise." My mother says, faking a smile.
"Zachary is staying for dinner." I tell her.
"That's...great." She says, looking at me.
"Would you join me in the kitchen please?" My mother says and I follow her to the kitchen, leaving my father and Zachary in the living room.
Zachary's POV.
I take a seat on the sofa as I stare at the television. Valarie's father is watching football. It's the Boston Celtics versus the Los Angeles Rams.
"You do this now, right?" Mr. Stone asks, pointing at the television.
"Yeah, I play football now." I tell him.
"For the Jets. The Rams are better." He tells me, his eyes never leaving the television screen.
"Since this is our first conversation since you had me arrested when I was in the ninth grade, I just want to use this medium to apologize for almost killing Valarie." I tell him.
Ever since the incident that occurred in that apartment building, I never had the opportunity to apologize for my actions because everything happened so fast and Mr. Stone wanted my head. Now almost eight years later, I have the opportunity to finally render my apology.
"All is forgiven." He says, staring at me. "I have nothing against you, my daughter is in love with you, so you can't be all bad. There's some good in you. Although my wife would beg to differ." He says, chuckling.
"Yeah, she hates me." I tell him.
"It's reasonable. You almost killed her only child. It's going to take some time with her." He tells me.
"Thank you." I say, smiling. "For your forgiveness." I add and he nods.
"Vince, get in here. Valarie's water just broke!!!" We hear Marjorie scream from the kitchen.
Vince and I stand up at the same time and we run to the kitchen. Marjorie is holding Valarie up and there's this clear liquid on the floor.
"Don't just stand there, get the car running." Marjorie yells in my face.
"Let's take my car. It has more seats." Vince says before he hands me his car keys.
I rush outside and I open Vince's car and warm up the engine as I wait for them to come out of the house.