Chapter 4 ~ A new Friend

Greg saw Rae run past the small recording booth that he was in and ignored it. Shortly after it he heard a loud thump and uncontrollable sobbing. He signaled the man to stop recording and went outside to see what it was. Looking down the hall he saw Rae outside the door of one of the recording booths crying and shaking. He ran over to her. “Rae, what’s wrong?” he asked as he sat down next to her. “He’s missing! I can’t find him.” Was all that he could understand. Just then, a tiny head popped out of the booth where Greg had been recording. “Mommy?” the small boy asked. Rae’s head lifted at the sound of the voice. “Mommy!” he yelled as he ran to her and jumped on her lap. ‘What is going on here? Did I miss something?’ he asked himself. “Where were you Michael Anthony?” Rae demanded. “With Gweg. Is he my Daddy?” Michael asked. Both Rae and Greg looked at the small boy. “No sweetie. What ever gave you that idea?” she asked as calmly as she could. “He has brown hair, brown eyes and plays the guitar. Just like Daddy. You said that was what Daddy was good at.” He said innocently.

‘Lord, kill me now. Oh goodness, how embarrassing!’ Rae thought as she collected her wits and stood up. “C’mon sweet heart. Time to go home.” She said as she held her hand out to Michael. He eagerly grabbed and they started to walk down the hall. “Wait. Rae I really would like to talk to you for a little bit.” Greg said, as he ran to catch up with them. Rae stopped. She almost said a smart remark, but she remembered that Greg had watched Michael. “Sure. Why don’t we go to the park?” she said. “Yay! The park!” Michael yelled as he grabbed Greg’s other hand and dragged the two off to the elevator.

“Michael, sweetie, why don’t you go play on the swings? I need to talk to Greg for a minute.” Rae said as she put Michael down on the ground. Once he was on the swings, she turned to Greg and she surprised him as she gave him a hug. “What was that for?” Greg asked when the hug ended. “Thank you for watching Michael. I thought that I had lost him, and if I did, I don’t know what I would do. He’s the only reason that I’m still alive.” Greg looked at her and saw the pained expression on her face. “You wanna talk about it?” he asked. She looked at him and slowly smiled. “Sure.” They walked over to a bench and sat down where she could still watch Michael.

“See, when I was 15, I had a terrific boyfriend, who was also my first. I had been a late bloomer. Well, we went to a party, and someone had spiked some of the drinks. We both got drunk, but I was even more so than Ryan, my boyfriend. I had walked into the bedroom to lay down until the room stopped spinning, and Ryan followed me. We started to make out, but things got out of hand. Later, when I found out that I was pregnant, I told Ryan. He didn’t believe me until some people from the party told him that we had done it.” She paused as she took a deep breath. “Then he promised to be there for me and support me and the baby and that we’d get married after high school. He never stuck around. I went away for the weekend to go to my grandma’s funeral a few weeks later. When I got back, Becca, my best friend, told me that Ryan had committed suicide and left a note saying that he didn’t want to deal with being a father at such a young age and that it was my fault for the pregnancy.” Greg went to say something, but she just kept talking.

“Then, last month, my parents had gone to Florida for their honeymoon that they never got, and they died in a boating accident. At that point, I had only Aunt Cindy, Uncle Andrew, and Michael. I almost killed myself, but then I realized that Michael needed me and I couldn’t leave him like Ryan and my parents had left me.” Rae finished before she broke down crying.

Greg’s heart broke. This young woman sitting next to him had gone through more than anyone her age should be allowed to go through. Suddenly, she straightened up and started to giggle. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. It’s not like you care.” She started to stand when Greg grabbed her hand to stop her. “No, I do care.” Those four simple words and the action of grabbing her hand made her cry even more. “Why do you care?” she asked. “Because I care about you.” Greg said as she sat down.