Chapter 29

Scarlet Billows

Part Two

...ten minutes later

Drake Parker was conflicted. If he didn't grow emotionally and still latched on to his

prejudices he'd still have a father. Yet, he realized, while there were some things he admittedly

did not understand about the trans community he knew that deep down in his heart he wasn't

a disowning bigot.

He loved Dina and hated the fact that she was upstairs crying her eyes out over the father

whom she only wanted his love and acceptance.

He stood in the doorway of the small dressing room area watching his stepfather dip his hand

into a jar of cold cream to remove the stage make-up.

When a woman carrying a huge make-up train case yelled at him for being "in the way" it got

Walter Nichols' attention.

"Drake?"

Walter wiped his hands on a towel and stood up to face the young man who may not have

been blood related was still his son in every sense of the word.

Drake had no choice but to let Walter hug him.

He hated not being able to return it.

But all he could see was his sister's tears and his own guilt for not being there in the beginning

when she needed him the most.

And this wasn't even counting his Mother's and Megan's hurting as well.

"I've missed you so much," And Drake believed that to be so. "Sit down. Tell me what you've

been up to."

"I have a band—"and the small talk didn't seem right to him.

"How's your mother?"

"How do you think she is?"

Damn.

"I know I've made mistakes, son. How are your mother and Megan?"

"Mom works harder than she should have to and Megan is a few steps away from winding up

in prison."

How could he NOT ask about Dina? Even if he had to call her "Josh" it would have been

okay as long as the question was asked.

"I've wanted to call Audrey."

Drake stood up, "I'd like to walk out of here and tell you that we're doing just fine, but we're

not. You'll have to live with that for the rest of your life. I want to know that after all this time

how can you ignore Dina? She exists and she's a good person. For you to ignore

her is enough to make me turn around and walk the Hell away from you. And that's another

thing you are going to have to live with for the rest of your life. Goodbye, Walter."

Drake kept walking ignoring the "please, wait, Drake" calls and he didn't break until he was in

the elevator by himself.

When the doors opened Drake made sure his eyes were completely dry. That wasn't so bad;

it was like getting a needle from the doctor.

He took a deep breath before putting his key card in the slot.

Dina was sitting up in bed and ending a phone call.

"Were you talking to Mom?"

"Yeah, I was. How is he?"

"A jerk."

"He didn't ask about me. Did he?"

"I'm sorry, Dina," Drake picked up the empty ice bucket, "Are you sure you don't want to

stay at another hotel?"

"I'm positive."

"I'm going to go get some ice."

"Drake, I know you miss----"

"Not anymore. I'll be back."

"After you come back do you want to go shopping?"

His eyes lit up. It was an excuse to get the hell out of Dodge for a while. "Yeah. I could use a

few more rock and roll shirts."

"Love you." Drake replied going out the door with the ice bucket.

"I love you too."

Dina sighed as she put her head against the pillow when Drake left the room. There was one

teensy part of her that wanted to go face to face with Walter.

She always thought she would face him, but when it came right down to it Dina couldn't be

bothered.

But Walter made his choices and apparently did not bother learning from them. Audrey

seemed nonchalant over the news other than the concern of how her kids felt she seemed to

throw her ex-husband out with the dirty bath water.

If she was going to go out shopping with her brother she needed to stop sulking on the bed

and freshen up in the bathroom.

And what better way to forget about one's unaccepting father by doing some major retail

therapy?

The Boulevard Mall was 150's stores of pure bliss.

Dina didn't care if her credit card got maxed out just a little bit.

"…if you were stranded on a deserted island would you eat your foot?" Drake asked

"What if I needed it later?"

"True."

Dina could spend a small fortune at Fredrick's of Hollywood, Victoria's Secret, and

Rampage.

"Do you mind if I go and try on------"

"No. You can't try out the shirts you wanted to buy from the hall. Let's say we meet in the

food court area in ninety minutes?"

"Okay. See you later, Dina." Drake patted her on the shoulder before taking off.

Dina hoped that he wouldn't get lost in some empty headed bimbo's eyes and he'd remember

to meet her for lunch.

She looked down at her hands and thought a trip to Glamour Nails was in order considering

she was due a manicure in a few weeks.

Why not get one in Las Vegas instead?

She was worth it.

Dina couldn't believe it. She almost choked on her diet soda. Drake not only met her in the

food court, but he was five minutes early.

"I bet you'd thought I'd be late…." He had one bag in comparison to her four.

"Noo.." She stretched her voice.

"or that I was flirting with someone….? How does Chinese sound? I'll pay."

"That sounds good. But you paid for breakfast."

"You didn't get to eat much of your breakfast…"

"No arm twisting required, Drake. You may buy me lunch. I'll have the orange flavored

chicken and a diet iced tea."

"Okay….I'll see ya in a bit."

Drake went to get his pizza first before getting Dina's order so hers would be hotter. He also

preferred his pizza to be cool to the touch before diving in.

"What did you buy?" Drake asked peeling the wrapping off his bendy straw.

"Girly stuff. Did you get your shirts?"

"Just one. The other one I liked was not in my size. Are you sure you don't want to go to

another---?"

"No. Why should we have to change our plans?"

"Won't it be uncomfortable?"

"Are you sure it's not going to be that for you and you're just using my emotions to cover up

your own uneasy feelings?"

Dina wanted Drake to stop hiding all of his emotions. He was going to give himself a heart

attack someday.

"I'm fine. I just wanted to make sure that you were going to be okay." Drake seemed to be

playing with his pizza rather than actually eating it.

"That's sweet of you."

Dina wasn't surprised when they made it back to the hotel and there was no receptionist telling

them there was a phone message. She knew that Walter had a final chance at redemption and

blew it. When this trip was over she'd have a good final cry over her father's

rejection of herself and the family and a vent to her yahoogroup, but for now it looked like she

was going to have to be the strong one.

Again.

He wasn't going to cry about this. Not in front of her. On one hand Dina was flattered, but on

the other she didn't want to be the scapegoat for her brother's inability to show his emotions.

Drake was sitting on his bed trying to button the sleeves of his cool dark blue and silver striped

rock star shirt. Sensing his frustration Dina sat next to him

"Here. Let me…."

"You don't have to…."

"I know. I want to. There. All done. Now what do you want to do?"

Dina thought he was going to bolt out of that room like an excited puppy who wanted to see

the outdoors. She was certain that his new shirt and the rest of his clothes would be on the

floor in less than twenty minutes as he had nameless sex with some tart whose name he'd

never remember.

"Nothing. Do you want to watch TV?"

"Sure. Maybe, Oprah's on." She was recording the episodes on her VCR back home. Dina

was counting on Megan being too busy being angst ridden to mess with her tapes.

Then she was expecting the argument about Oprah. But it didn't happen.

Drake just muttered, "Okay."

"Drake," Dina said from her own bed ten minutes later after they settled on a sitcom rerun,

"Are you all right, bro? It's okay to----."

She looked over to find Drake sleeping.

"cry in front of me." He did it before, but this was the finale. They reached their conclusion

with Walter and Drake felt that he had to be strong for her. "Sometimes you can be so

stubborn." Dina covered him with a blanket and kissed him on the forehead, "But I'm glad that

you're in my life. I love you, Drake."

"l-love y-you t-too, D-dina." He mumbled into his pillow.

Dina's heart was broken by her Father, but healed by her brother who at one time was as

hateful as Walter—but he grew out of it—he wanted to be a part of her life. He was sorry for

what he had done in the past and that made Dina very content.

Her brother Drake chose her.

Dina quietly walked over to the TV and turned it off. She carefully took her cell phone out of

her purse and went into the bathroom as to not disturb her sleeping brother.

"Hi, Mom……."

"Are you all right, Dina? Did you have an encounter with your father….?"

She could feel the tears starting to form. But they weren't sorrowful tears over her father they

were tears of hope from the one person she knew she could always count on.

"Drake did. For me, Mom. He did it for me……He said his goodbyes for me."