Page 23 of Breakaway Heart
I watched his casual, cool demeanor and couldn’t help but wonder more about him.
“Randy, how can you be so sure all the time?”
He sighed and looked at me.
“You really wanna know, Lucy?”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded, secretly enjoying hearing my name from his lips.
“Most of the time, it’s just, sort of… An act.”
“Go on…”
His face was serious now. No sparkle of mischief, no jokes waiting on the end of his tongue. Now, there was a weight on him that seemed to hold him down, making his head heavy and lowered to the floor.
“Y’know, things weren’t all that easy growing up, Lucy.”
A pained expression came across his face.
“I guess I was around twelve when we lived next to this single mom and her two kids. Those brothers were older, not to mention big, violent, and mean. I was terrified of them. But still, I’d get babysat by their mom a few times a week.
“Now, my dad. He lost his job and was at home a lot. Mostly drinking. Not like for breakfast or anything, but I guess life just hadn’t really worked out how he’d expected it to. Living in a decrepit house on the edge of town, the bills piling up and no way to pay them.
“My mom was a saint, she really was. She’d get back from work, and it was like all the dark clouds went away and sunshine itself had walked in the front door. But when she wasn’t there, it was like that house was rotting inside, and my father was there rotting away with it.
“It didn’t take long before those mean butch thugs of brothers were coming round to ours to play video games andbully the crap out of me while my mom was at work. And my dad? Well, before long, he was over in the house next door. I didn’t know or really understand what was happening. I just knew in my guts that something wasn’t right about it all.”
He sighed heavily and sadly. “Eventually, he got sloppy and got caught by my mom coming home from a double shift at the diner.”
“With the woman next door?”
Randy nodded ruefully.
“So, my mom threw him out. Hearing the two people who were supposed to be there to protect you giving each other hell was difficult for me to handle. And then, it got even worse.”
“Please tell me he didn’t move in next door?”
“Yeah. He fucking did. For a short while at least, until they all moved across town. Then it was just me and my mom. She was struggling to hold it all together, even with three jobs. Over the years, I just watched her… Fade.”
Randy looked heartbroken, and it made me well up a little inside as he recalled this time from his past.
“I’d still have to go and see my Dad a few times a month, when my mom couldn’t keep up. And those two monsters were meaner than they’d ever been after that. I guess they took it out on me, that my Dad was with their mum.”
“So, I didn’t handle any of it very well. By then, I was an angry, lost teenager from a broken home with no parents around and a new family with two monstrous brothers who didn’t want me there.
“My mom tried her best, but I started acting out more and more, and getting in trouble. I’m not proud of it, but I was a complete asshole.
Randy looked up at me, waiting to see if I was going tosay he was still an asshole, but I kept quiet and just gave him a sympathetic look.
“Eventually, I got picked up for ‘borrowing’ a car at fourteen. Hell, I don’t even know why I did it. I was just hanging out around a 7-Eleven when a guy hopped out of his truck and left the keys in. I suppose I thought it would make me cool or give me some cred or something. Next thing I know, I’m in a police cell in Jersey and I’ve got nothing to do but take a long, hard look at myself. And honestly, Lucy, I did not like what I saw.
“The awful thing is, that happened for me again a second time, when I saw that footage from Love Villa.”
“So what happened? With the car, I mean.”
“Fortunately for me, the guy didn’t want to press any charges. I think he probably didn’t want the cops sniffing around and taking a closer look at him. Like I said, it wasn’t the best part of the city. Everyone was up to something they didn’t want folk or the cops looking at.
“When I got out of there, I knew I had to change, and I just closed the door on that kid. I put on a uniform, like it was my superhero disguise, and that Randy didn’t let anyone push him around. He was a character I made up that could deal with all the shit going on, when I really couldn’t.
