Part 2

~Alien~

I changed into something else as my mother had told me to do so. There was still time to kill when I was done.

I took out my clothes and placed them in the dressers. Since my door was opened I could smell the food. I really couldn't remember the last time my mom ever cooked for me. I think it was because it was before I had good memory, maybe it was when I was four or five.

It was a bit hard to believe all of the change in her. I just wished it would've been sooner. It would've been nice to have a mom there for me when I needed her. When I won all kinds of prizes in school, and when… that happened. It would've been nice to have trusted her to tell her, but I didn't trust her.

The more time passed by the more I wanted to meet Phil. He must be some kind of miracle worker or a hypnotist for changing my mother.

I tried so many times I gave up hope.

I remembered when I was small I tried hiding her drugs she would beat up until I told her where they were. One thing my mother did do was protect me from the men she used to bring.

She told them to stay away from me and even took out a knife on a guy who tried to do something on me when I was thirteen. Too bad she wasn't there for me when it happened.

I wished I had a knife then.

My phone started to vibrate. I took it out of my pocket and saw that it was my best gay friend, Nick. Nick was the reason I was able to make it through the first year of college. I was a stranger to the city, and he helped me get around. He was my salvation. He even knew about the rape. Normally, I didn't trust people so fast, but I knew I could trust him because he trusted me with his secrets. He still didn't tell his parents about his homosexuality.

I smiled as I answered. "Nicky!"

"AVA! Darling, I am so missing you right now," he said as I heard him inhale.

"You're smoking! You were doing so well, Nick, why?!"

He scoffed. "Don't get me started. My father was bitching about how I didn't bring a girl home with me."

"Hun, you're gonna have to tell them. Don't you want them to meet wonderful Rick?" Rick was his six month boyfriend.

"Of course! But… I'm scared they'll hate me. I wish you were here. How's your mom?"

"First of all, I'm pretty sure your mother would understand, sure your father might be… disappointed for while, but you're his son and he will love you no matter what, and my mom--"

"Ava!" I heard my mother call out.

"Is calling me to meet her fiance," I finished.

Nick gasped. "Holy… cheese and crackers, say what?!" he said in a falsetto voice that made me laugh.

"I'll tell you later. I've got to go."

"You better give the juicy details."

"I will, promise."

I closed my phone and walked out of my room and down the hall.

I made a right and walked through the living room to get to the kitchen.

I saw a man with my mom. He was taller than me and he was also younger than my mom. He couldn't have been older than thirty and my mom was forty. I guess age is just a number because they truly looked like a happy couple.

Phil had shoulder length straight raven hair . He had a goatee that really completed his look. He wore dark clothes. He wore a black sleeveless shirt, black ripped up jeans at the knees, and heavy boots. There was steel at the tip of the boot. He had a lip ring on the right side of his mouth . Not to mention his many tattoos on his arms and chest.

He was very handsome. He had thin-ish lips, but my mother still sucked on them like they were huge.

I cleared my throat and they stopped.

"Ava, meet Phil, my fiancé," she said in that tone that just was alien to me.

I turned to Phil with a smile on my face. I walked up to him with my hand extended, but the second I took a whiff of his cologne it made my brain go into a flashback. I heard my screams and pleas inside of my head.

"Ava!" My mother called out my name.

For the second time, I had the flashback because of someone wearing the same cologne of my rapist.

I snapped back to the present and saw that I was holding Phil's hand rather tightly. I didn't remember ever touching his hand, I guess it happened when I was having the flashback. I could feel my face had gone out of color. I released his hand.

"Are you okay?" my mother asked concerned, again an alien tone from her.

I nodded. "Just me being weird, sorry Phil, I'm Ava."

Phil smiled widely and very warmly. "No problem, we all have our little day dreaming. It's nice to finally meet you, Ava."

"Likewise," I answered as sweetly as I could. "Do you mind if I ask how old you are?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "I don't, I'm twenty seven, but I'm turning twenty eight on October the twenty sixth."

12 years younger than my mom, I quickly made the math in my head, and only nine years older than me. We sat down on the small table in the middle of the kitchen. My mom served the food and she was talking about how she met Phil.

She walked into a bar called Johnny's bar. I paid more attention when I heard the name of the bar. My mom said she was there for a drink, and that Phil offered her a ride home when he saw that she was too messed up to go anywhere alone.

I looked over to Phil and noticed a smile on his face. It was… weird. I got a bad vibe from that smile, but I shrugged it off.

I listened as my mother went on about how they got to know each other.

"How long have you been sober?" I asked my mom when she finished.

"A few weeks," she answered.

"It's a work in progress," Phil chimed in with a charming smile. "Your mother is a different woman."

"Yeah, she is," I agreed.

"Oh, baby," Phil spoke, "a couple of my friends are coming over to meet our family, you don't mind."

It wasn't a question, but my mother didn't seem to notice that it wasn't a question, but a demand.

"Sure, why not, maybe Ava can become close with one of them," My mother winked my way.

I chuckled. "No need, mom, I'm going back to Kenwood after the summer."

"Oh, that's right, you go to those big schools," Phil said and held my mom's hand as if they were already married. I looked up from their hands quickly and looked into Phil's emerald green eyes.

The lighting in the room really made them clear. Any woman could easily fall for him.

"Yes," I said avoiding his eyes. "I go to Kenwood."

"Wow, how are you paying for it?" his question seemed to imply 'do you have any money secretly stashed?'.

"I got a full ride scholarship," I said.

"You did?" My mom asked.

"Yes, mom, I graduated top of my class, valedictorian and everything," I told her. "You were there for my graduation, but you were high."

Her face flushed. "Oh, baby, I'm so sorry… I…don't know what to say."

"It's all right, mom, really," I said with a forced smile.

Truth was I was jealous.

Why did she change for a man and not for her own daughter? Why did I get beat up and hurt when I tried to get her to stop and all Phil had to do was… I don't even know what he did.

I wanted to know though, so I waited when my mother had to go to the bathroom. She always did after she drank too much of anything.

I felt Phil already looking at me, so I looked at him.

"So," I said, "you're into cougars, eh?"

He chuckled, but it was a very weird one too. I got another bad vibe from it. He leaned on the table with his elbows on it.

"Your mother is a kind woman," he said simply.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same woman? What did you do?" I asked him going straight to the point.

"You don't like this version of your mother? I thought you would like it after all of those years of abuse," he said with a cold tone that was sublet, but I picked it up.

"I'm surprised she changed…" I stopped myself before continuing. "Why are you with her?"

Before he could answer, there was a knock on the door.

Phil got up and walked across the living room and opened the door. The foyer was filled with laughter and a bunch of hellos. I turned my back to them. I already didn't like Phil. He was hiding something. I could already tell. I picked up my plate and washed it along with Phil's and my mom's.

Someone walked in the kitchen.

He looked familiar. I didn't place it until he winked at me. He was the guy that helped me get the attention of the bartender from the bar. I didn't want to think about it anymore, but fate just kept bringing back stuff from my past.

First the cologne, my mother mentioning the bar, and now him. His hair was different now. It was now long straight and kept back in a ponytail.

"Hey, I'm John; you must be Ava, Meredith's daughter, right?" Morrison asked, he didn't seem to recognize me.

Meredith is my mother's name.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you, Morrison," I said.

"Why don't you join us for some beers?" he asked as he looked at me up and down, but it wasn't in a checking me out kind of way, it was different.

I became conscious of myself and crossed my arms across my chest. "Uh, I'm still underage."

He chuckled. "I won't tell if you don't."

"I don't drink, sorry," I said apologetically.

"No problem, I can respect someone with morals," he said in a laugh. "Still, the rest of the guys are dying to meet you. Meredith's Daughter, you're sort of a celebrity around us."

I nodded. "Okay."

I followed him out of the kitchen and into the living room.

All of the seats were occupied and the TV was on a baseball game. They all had tattoos and piercing. They were pretty tall, all taller than me even Morrison whom seemed to be the shortest out of the group.

My mom walked in and sat on Phil's lap.

John offered his lap, but I declined and he chuckled and that brought all of the attention from the baseball game to me.

"Oh, lookie, Meredith's daughter!" The aquaman looking one exclaimed. "I'm Drogo."

"I'm Roman," said the one with the Samoan tattoo.

"I'm Jax," the long blonde haired one with blue eyes said. He also had tattoos and rings on his fingers, that read 'SONS'.

"She already knows me," Morrison said.

I waved at them. "I'm really tired from the travel, so I'm going to sleep a little early. It was great to meet you all. Night, mom."

"Night, baby," my mom said.

"Good night, Ava," Phil said and I looked at him as he said it. The way he said my name made me uncomfortable, and no one else noticed it. Were they deaf?

I waved at them one last time and walked down the hall and shuddered. I walked inside of my bedroom and noticed my door knob no longer had a lock on it. I made a mental note to get one because I felt a lot safer in a locked room.

I took my pajamas and walked out of my room to the bathroom. I changed into them. I pulled up hair into a messy bun and brushed my teeth and removed my makeup.

When I was done, I opened the door of the bathroom and a chest blocked my way. I took a whiff of the cologne and I closed my eyes as the memory of his hand touching breasts washed over me. I opened them and looked up to see Phil's concern look. It didn't look fake.

"Are you okay?" he asked and reached his hand to touch me, but I jumped back.

"I'm fine… I just… I was surprised," I recovered quickly.

He moved aside, but the space wasn't big enough for me. I still had to brush up against him to walk out. I saw the smile on his face when he noticed my breasts brushed against him, I had no bra on.

He chuckled and closed the bathroom door after he walked inside.

I went back to my room quickly.

I had a bad feeling about this summer.