Chapter Four
He thought of it fondly. It was one of his most precious memories. The time when the young couple had found themselves trapped in a sudden downpour of rain. One second the sun was beating down on them as they walked home from what Robbie had perceived as a very successful date. To this day he could still envision how quickly her red hair grew dark and matted as the rain splatted her whole body. How her clothes clung to her curves as they absorbed the continuous bullets of water that attacked her body. Yet the rain didn't bother her, she laughed delightedly as she became more and more drenched. She had to leap into every puddle as they ran home through the park, slipping and sliding all over the waterlogged grass.
They were in stiches by the time they got back to her house. Cat deliciously teasing him as she dragged her hands through his hair, sniggering at how frizzy the rain had made his already disorderly hair. He had retaliated by mocking her smeared makeup as he used his thumb to try and wipe the blackness from her cheeks. Then all of a sudden the laughing desisted, replaced with Cat's lips on his. He was so nervous, his hand shaking uncontrollably as she dragged him down the hall and into her little bedroom. For once, she wasn't a bundle of energy. Cat was calm, reassuring and incredibly sweet. Constantly telling him how much she wanted this, how it was right and that she didn't feel pressured whatsoever.
They were young and Robbie cursed himself repeatedly for being so careless. They acted like two young teenagers controlled by their hormones. He realised now that they were too young for such an arrangement. They certainly did not think of the consequences of their actions, forgetting for a crucial moment the risks in being careless and lost in the moment.
The result of their carelessness was seated directly beside him, one of her skinny legs propped up on the leather seat as she stared vacantly out the window, headphones securely in place. Occasionally Robbie would catch a glimpse of her when he glanced at the side mirror of his black range rover as they plummeted down the freeway. The uncanniness of her appearance still spooked him; the hair length, the eyes, the skin… there was no way he could not believe that this was Cat's daughter.
"Stop staring at me." She muttered, "It's really creeping me out."
"Sorry." He apologised quickly, focusing on the road ahead of him, "It's just—"
"I know, I know." She responded sarcastically, "I look so much like Cat. It's just genetics Robbie."
"Yeah but still doesn't mean it isn't weird." He mumbled under his breath.
"Well I'm not her." She bit back, her voice tense, "She was all sunshine and rainbows before she disappeared right? Well, being nice has never really come easily to me. I'm more… reserved."
"Oh I noticed." Robbie replied.
"Look we don't have to talk if you don't want to." Maia assured him, "We can just sit in silence until we arrive in Phoenix."
"It's a long drive to Phoenix, on the road for a least four more hours." Robbie informed her, "You sure you want to sit in silence."
She scoffed loudly, "I'm from Portland Robbie. I spent hours on countless buses not talking to anyone to get to LA. I think I can survive four more hours."
"Portland?"
It was at that moment Robbie realised just how little he knew about this girl; where she lived, who her parents are, her interests- all he really knew was a name.
"Yeah Portland. It's not a bad place to live I suppose." She replied, "It's just- I wonder now about what my life could have been like if I lived someplace else."
"Hollywood would have stolen your soul." Robbie reassured her, "Portland was a better choice."
He frowned when he heard her sigh, grumbling something to herself as she shifted her body away from him. He wondered if she had wanted him to say something different. That she wanted to hear that if he had known about her. That she would have stayed in LA with him and Cat. But he couldn't say that to her, because she still didn't feel like she was his child. They had no connection, an inability to bond because of their emotional reservations towards each other. So he tried to stop sparking up a conversation with her, they sat in silence just as Maia had requested.
Until, they reached their destination.
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Even from the outside of the house, you could tell that the Jenkins were a clean-cut, old-fashioned family. The exterior was freshly painted, the windows gleamed against the setting sun, and every single piece of grass was trimmed to perfection. Maia's sardonic whistle only confirmed it for him when he pulled up at the curb.
"Neat freaks." She muttered as unclipped her seatbelt.
But before she could even open the door, Robbie had leaned forward to grab her hands, "No. I think maybe it's for the best if you don't come with me. Or at least let them talk to me first."
Her laugh was bitter as she slumped back into her chair, "You have got to be freaking kidding me! We drive the whole way here without stopping and you won't even let me scope these people out, these people who I happen to be related to?"
"You have never met them." Robbie explained, "They will probably be more comfortable around me, maybe tell me more. Trust me on this, they are like you."
"Meaning?" she asked sourly.
He smiled as he opened his car door and jumped out, saying one word before he sealed her safely within the confinements of his car.
"Reserved."
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The moment he stepped into the house, he knew he had made the right decision in making Maia wait in the car. They were exactly how he remembered them and it wasn't the lie he had told Maia, because they weren't reserved, especially when it came to their religious beliefs. It seemed that no mattered where he looked he was reminded of this. As he sat on the rigid chair, his hands cradling a cup of coffee, he found himself staring at one of the pictures on the wall that contained a bible quote.
Let marriage be held in honour among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Emily followed his eye line and smiled, "Just a healthy reminder. I put it up when the boys where in their teens."
Robbie laughed uncomfortably before taking a huge gulp of his coffee. It was possibly the worst passage she could have as a mantra.
"Well Mrs. Jenkins you probably have guessed why I am here. I was wondering if you have heard from Cat lately." Robbie said nervously, trying to ignore the slight narrowing of her eyes the moment that her name had been uttered.
She pressed her lips together before taking a dainty sip of her tea; it was so quick that Robbie doubted that a single drop of it had touched her tongue.
"You are referring to Caterina I take it?" she responded, her posture rigid, "Always use their given name Robert."
"So you have seen her?" Robbie continued, "Please, Mrs. Jenkins it is really important that I find her."
"Oh I know why it is so important that you find her Robert." She said, her words clipped, "I haven't seen Caterina in oh, it must be eight years by now."
"Why did she leave?" Robbie asked.
"Well it wasn't by choice if that is what you mean." She replied curtly before pointing at the picture, "Do you believe in that message Robert?"
She pointed to the bible passage, her lips a thin line as she glared at him; "It is God's word after all."
Robbie cleared his throat uncomfortably, "I'm not really sure what you mean."
"Oh but I think that you do. My husband bless his heart, was so distraught when she showed up on our doorstep. She was so young at the time, tears flowing from her eyes as she crumbled into his arms. We are good people Robert; Ian's mother had just passed away so Caterina had no home to go to. We had to take her in, all that she had left in this world. She was family and we did everything that we could to help her. But there is one thing I cannot and I will not tolerate Robert, and that is a liar."
"Mrs. Jenkins I-"
"I put up that picture the moment I made her leave this house. The moment she thought it would be acceptable to tell us the truth. The corruption she brought to us is unimaginable Robert, the shame, to think that my boys where only 15 when she told us. To think that you and her- when you were only children! To think that there was a child conceived, outside of marriage! A child who I am certain is in your car right now!"
"We didn't mean to-" Robbie pleaded, suddenly feeling like he was a student being berated by a teacher as he tried to justifying his actions, "We just-"
"I should not have been surprised." She said bitterly, "Caterina was always wild; she got away with too much. Her parents and then her grandmother where always too lenient on her, if she was raised the right way… if you were raised the right way, it would all be different."
"How dare you." Robbie mumbled; rage slowing brewing inside of him, "What gives you the right to talk of a human life like that! The only mistake that Cat made was trusting you to accept what had happened to her and help her cope and instead- you what? Threw her out of the house?"
"I had to." Emily retorted quickly, "She was an adult and I had my boys to think about, she was corruptive to be around."
Robbie smirked as he set down his coffee mug, "You really believe that when your boys where younger they never did that? The world is progressing quickly Mrs. Jenkins, people do not think like you do anymore. If anything they probably did it more because of the risk of being caught by their overly religious mother!"
"You are just as bad as her!" she squawked, her voice cracking, "This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. I never wanted her to stay, Ian convinced me because she was his niece. But I always saw her for what she was. She is a user Robert, afraid of commitment, flimsy and easy! A whore."
He had heard enough, his stomach churning viciously as he forced himself not to step out and throw himself on her. She was blinded by her belief to see how viciously she had acted towards her niece. Once again Cat was alone, without a plan and without a destination.
"Did she say anything about where she might head, anything that could led me to her?" Robbie asked somewhat forcefully, his patience running thin.
"I don't know, she never really made any friends while here!" she sneered, "Well ones that lasted more than a day. She did say she wanted to go to Canada, when she saved enough money she would go there."
He rose from his seat, without expressing a single once of gratitude for the information he had just received, walked calmly out of the house and down the path towards his car. But he couldn't control it, he had to realise this anger. He didn't regret reversing into her perfect white fence, didn't regret that his back wheels may have accidentally crushed her primped rose bush.
Maia stared at him, "What the hell Robbie!"
He didn't respond, instead he sped off as Emily Jenkins rushed out of her house to berate him. She could hear her screaming as the travelled out of the estate. Instead he laughed as he glanced at her in his rear view mirror.
"Dude what was that about!" Maia shouted, "What happened in there!"
"Are you hungry?" he asked abruptly as he pulled up at the first diner he saw, "C'mon let's get something to eat. I'll explain then."
She just gawked at him, a strange mix of awe and confusion as she unbuckled her belt and followed him willingly into the small diner.
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Robbie picked at his food, his appetite not what it normally was. But he had stopped her solely for Maia, who was apparently starved if you took the way she was chowing down her burger into consideration.
"So" she began, her mouth still completely full of half chewed meat, "What did Miss stick-up-her-ass have to say for herself?"
Robbie shrugged, "Nothing useful."
She swallowed audibly before continuing, "Well she must have said something for you to go and destroy her front garden."
"She was worse than I remembered her." Robbie told her, "Much worse. So judgemental of others that she can't even see all of the monumental things that are wrong with her, she was so cruel to her. I just don't understand why everyone is lashing out at Cat, why everyone is trying to stop me from finding her. Going on and on about how she had sinned. God we were only children!"
"I knew that's why you didn't want me to come in with you." Maia admitted sadly, "Its okay, I can handle it. I know I wasn't exactly planned, message received."
He mentally cursed himself, "No Maia. I just wanted to save you the pain of having to hear someone talk about you like that because you deserve better. I don't want you to define yourself as someone who wasn't planned or a mistake. It's not fair to you, especially when you had no control over this."
Her lip quirked up slightly at the corner, "Well, you didn't either."
"You could argue that." Robbie said, "But then again you could argue that I had all of the control. Now we have nothing really to go on, I can't think of a single person Cat would go to in Canada."
Maia arched an eyebrow, "Canada? As in the place where your high school friend Beck Oliver is from, that Canada?"
"Of course!" Robbie exclaimed, "Beck had always said that when the time was right he would move back to Canada, and they did eventually. Jade moved with to Canada after they got married, if that's what it is then all we have to do is-"
He broke off, suddenly aware of how unrealistic this plan was. He couldn't just go to Canada. That was across the border and even if he did go on this ridiculous venture, he certainly could not bring Maia. She had no papers and more importantly, legally, was not his child.
But still he needed to know and wanted to see his old friends more than anything now. He had always been suspicious of Jade's relationship with Cat. Before they left LA she had jabbed him with insults about the girl in an attempt to rile him. He could handle it that was her coping mechanism, it always had been. Jade West had always made others feel bad to help her with manage her own pain and loss.
But there was one time that she, one occasion when Jade had been overly nice to Robbie. Up until this point he had thought nothing of it, put her mood down to the amount of alcohol she had consumed and the fact that she had just married her high school sweetheart. She was happy, ecstatic even, slurring about how all of her favourite people where all in the same room once more, excluding Tori Vega who was present… but not by her request.
"I'm such an idiot!" he cursed out loud as he slammed his fist on the table.
"What?" Maia question as she glanced around anxiously at the other customers, his outburst had caused a few of them to turn their heads in surprise.
"She was there- the whole freaking time she was there!" Robbie exclaimed.
She had broken her promise to Tori, she had returned to LA.
"Where?" Maia said, pouting in annoyance, "Why must you speak in riddles!"
"At their wedding." Robbie said as he dropped a twenty on the table, "Come on."
For the second time today, Maia scuffled behind Robbie as he rushed to his car, he phone placed by his ear as he waited for her to pick up the phone.
Eventually she picked up and once more, he heard her never-changing cool and callous voice, "Shapiro, to what do I owe the pleasure."
"You knew didn't you?"
There was a pause, a moment where all that could be heard was the softness of her breathing, the calmness of her form as she told him, "I think we should catch up."
"My house. Tomorrow." he said, more of a demand than a request.
"I can hardly wait."
Then the line went dead. He cursed loudly as he climbed back into the car. He felt as if he was going around in circles, because at the moment they literally were. Maia glanced anxiously at her, her nails digging into the side of the seat.
"Robbie please slow down!" she asked, "You're scaring me."
Instantly his foot came off the accelerator, "I just—I can't believe how stupid I was not to see it!"
"It wasn't your fault!" Maia argued, "Your friend should have told you, hell Cat should have told you. Stop beating yourself up! But you have to admit that on some level they are right. That what she did was wrong. They are angry because she won't admit it to herself"
"I know." He said, "I'm not lying to myself. But I saw a complete different side to Cat, a side that no one else got to experience. So I have to believe that there was a bigger reason to her running, because she isn't a bad person. I know in my heart that she isn't a bad person. Everyone has given up on her. But I don't think I ever will."
She nodded, tucking a piece of stray hair behind her ear before asking, "So what now?"
"Back to LA." He grunted, "Where you will have the pleasure of meeting Jade West."
Two chapters in one day, Jeez I am in the worst stage of procrastination.
Anyway, I can kind of see this being a rather short story, but you know nothing is set in stone!
Hope you all enjoyed it and hate Cat's relatives as much as I do.
Next chapter will have Jade so look forward to it!
Much love!
xoxo