Becky knew that this was what she had been waiting for, was Tina to explain why she had left, and why she didn't bother to talk to her before she did. Becky knew that Tina's heart had to be breaking, but all the support that she had was there. It was not on the road somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
Becky heard her take another deep breath; it was like she was getting ready to tell her something that she didn't want to hear, or didn't want to say. It was like she was bracing herself to tell her that she had feelings for her or something.
Becky started getting a little nervous, she had never had to face anything like that before. She was not sure how she was feeling about it. She had to admit in the deepest parts of her that she had some thoughts. Becky shook her head she knew that couldn't be what Tina was going to tell her. Even if she had those feelings, she would have never driven away without telling her first in person. Becky couldn't help but hold her breath as she waited anxiously as she bit her bottom lip just waiting her hear what she had to say.
Tina said, "You know how my mom had acted weird toward me? She was so much different than anyone else's mom. Well, I found out from my dad, on his deathbed. That my mom died, and she is really my aunt. She has just been playing like my mom all this time. She even said it herself. That my mom died a long time ago and she has just been acting like she was her."
Becky let out a gasp. She thought back at everything that she had seen, and she could see how she had been treating her more like a stepdaughter than a daughter of her own. Becky said, "How awful. To think that they had been telling you that all these years. How long has your mom been dead? Do you even have a clue when it happened?"
Tina said, "I was very little, I think I was like 4 or five when it happened, and I thought it was some sort of nightmare that I had. I think that I saw her lying on the floor in a pool of blood. But they convinced me that it was just a bad dream, and there she was. So, I had to think it was a nightmare, but it did seem like everything changed after that."
Becky said, "Your mom has always acted strange. By the way, she came over and was asking me if I knew where you were or where you might be going. She sounds like she is really worried about you now. It sounds strange with the way that she has always treated you, but she sounded really worried she even passed out when I showed her your text that you were leaving."
Tina thought about it, she had never seen Diana faint at anything, and she could not tell what was going on with her. Had she really changed from the fact that she was alone now? She would not believe that and even if she had started caring now, did it really matter even though she had taken the place of her mom she had never felt the love that a normal mom would have given her.
Tina knew at this point that she no longer hated her for the way that she had treated her, but that didn't mean that she had forgiven her for everything. It was more like she had just stopped caring if she was loved by her, and she was just a stranger that had been living with her. All the emotions had dried up, like a plant left out in the desert, and it had withered and died long ago. It was like since she no longer felt bad that she didn't love her she just felt almost nothing when she would see her. Ken had been trying to help her just like the rest of her friends but now that he was gone it was just more of a mess.
Tina thought why did she have to start trying to care now that just makes everything worse, she is probably just lonely now why should she care about that?
Since there was just silence on the phone Becky said, "She was okay the guys helped her back to your house."
That hit Tina weirdly. She couldn't think for the life of her what guys would have been with Diana. Was there more to her than she had thought? After all, she had been spending a lot of time away from the house. Her dad did die all of a sudden and had gotten so mysteriously sick. Could she have done something to him? Tina stopped to think, even with the way that she had treated her whole life there was no way that she could see her doing anything to her dad. Tina shuttered at the thought. She knew that at times her dad was stressed and might yell a little, but that was all he ever did at his worst, and that was only once or twice that she could remember. There was no reason and even if they were not getting along that well all she would do was just leave him not hurt or kill him.
Tina asked, "Who were the guys that were with her?"
Becky said, "I have never seen them before. It didn't look like they cared about her that much they made a half-assed attempt to catch her when she fell but they just stood there while she was on the ground and just looked at her. One guy looked like he was in his 30s and the other was in his late 40's they both looked strange like they belonged in a gym instead of cheap suits."
Tina asked, "What do you mean?"
Becky said, "You know the old guys that just spend all their time trying to look all buff. Then they try and put on a suit that never fits just right. You can always tell that the only thing that they were used to doing was just working out. Their heads always look so small because their necks get too big. Well, both of them looked like they should have been bodyguards for someone. One had dark black hair and the other was balding or he had his head shaved. They both looked really scary when you were up close."
Tina thought for a moment and realized that no one in her family that she ever had seen would have even gotten close to the description that Becky was giving. As Tina thought the only ones that she could think of that could have even fit that description were some of the guys that were in the company that her dad worked for. She had not seen them that much, but they always seemed to stick out whenever they were around.
One time she had seen a few of them when they were at a company function and there were about ten guys that looked out of place because they were so big, and they seemed to be just standing around guarding the group. They all were not that hard to spot since they all looked so out of place that it was like they were not even trying to fit in and that is what made them so memorable at the same time.
Tina had no way of knowing who Becky had seen but by the sound of it that was the ones that she was describing. Tina thought about it and her mom was not that pretty or that rich that she would be drawing a bunch of hunks. Besides, based on her dad that was not the type of guy that she would be trying to draw in. Not that Tina really knew what type of guys turned on her mom but based on the fact that they were both fighting over her dad and there was no way that he would have even been called a hunk even in his prime.
Tina started thinking about just what would her mom be doing with company guards. She had a thought what if they were there to protect her because someone had gotten to her dad, and they were after his research?
Tina knew that he was working on top-secret things and that is why he was never able to tell her about anything that he was working on. It had never been all that important to her to find out exactly what it was. It was enough to know that he was a scientist. It was not like any of her friends cared past the point of the question of what work does he do for a living. That the teachers would ask.
Now Tina was starting to wonder just what he was working on. If they were guarding her mom. Did someone get to him? She thought that she was just glad to be out of there, but it stayed in the back of her mind. Was something at work related to his death? In fact, was he working on something that got him sick, or was there someone after it?
Tina thought that was just one more reason that she was going to have to watch her back. Not that since she had left and was on her own that she was not already looking out for herself.
With all the silence Becky said, "Well when your mom came over, she was really trying to find out where you are and where you are going. I know that she has asked all your friends and if anyone finds out anything about you, she wants to be told right away. I know in the past it has not sounded like your mom had cared that much but it does sound like she cares now."
Tina said, "I just don't know. I have heard that she is acting differently, and the texts and that call seem like she cares now. But I am still having a hard time believing that a woman used to push me away and send me out of the room if I was trying to give her a hug whenever Dad was not around and looking. Has changed all that much."
Becky said, "I thought that she only did that because she was busy at the time that once."
Tina said, "No she used to do that all the time. It just got to the point where I gave up and stopped trying to give hugs. At least to her although it did make it hard for me to give my boyfriend hugs, I always feel like I'm going to be pushed away."
Becky looked down as she remembered the look on both their faces when she saw it happen. The mom had a look like she was bothered and didn't want her around right now and she remembered how sad and bothered Tina was. She looked like a scolded puppy that was being sent out of the room for peeing on the floor. All she had done was try to give her a hug and it was not like Tina had anything on her hands that she was going to make a mess. After that Becky tried to have Tina over to her house instead of spending time at her house
Becky said, "Yea. I remember her doing that to you."
Tina asked, "What do you mean? I didn't think that anyone had ever seen her push me away."
Becky said, "I saw her do that to you once. It looked like all you were trying to do was get a hug, and she acted like you were covered with mud or something. She pushed you away and sent you out of the room. After that, we just started playing at my house instead. I have to admit it looked a little weird to me I have never seen anyone else get pushed away for trying to give a hug even if they were covered with stuff."
Tina blushed at the thought that someone else had seen it happen, and she knew that it had happened so long ago. Tina had wondered why they always played at Becky's house even if that was what she was wanting anyway.
Tina cleared her throat as she tried to clear her mind. She was embarrassed that the moment had been someone, especially her friend but that did explain how she seemed to always understand where she was coming from better than all the others did. Tina was not sure what to think about it. She wondered if Becky had ever told anyone about it, but she doubted that she did, or someone would have asked her about it or would have mentioned something sooner or later. She figured that Becky never said anything because she saw something that she knew that Tina didn't want others to know.
Tina wondered if Becky ever wanted to ask her about it and just never did. That didn't matter but she knew already that she could trust her with secrets that she didn't want others to know, especially her mom. The true question was, did she want her to tell her mom where she was or where she was going?
Tina thought for a moment, and she still was not sure if she wanted her to know where she was going but she thought there really was no harm in it, especially if she was really trying to change and started to worry about her. Even if she really didn't believe that she was all that worried.
Tina said, "It doesn't matter if you tell her that I am okay and that you have talked to me, but I am not sure if I want you to tell her where I am and don't tell her where I'm going. I will tell her when I am ready, I think that she should worry about me for a while with everything that she has done it's only fair."
Becky nodded her head and said, "Yea I agree. I will tell her that you are okay so that it will help her not to worry but I won't tell her where you are or where you are planning on going. I will just say that you told me that you are not sure where you are going. But she is probably really going to want to know where you are in case something happens."
Tina said, "Just tell her that I am planning on texting her later and as far as you know I was going to talk to her about it. Let's see how she likes being lied to and left out of the loop for a while. By the way see if you can find out who the guys are that were with her, and what they were doing."
Becky said, "Yes I was planning on trying to find out what was with those guys. I will let you know whatever I find out about them. I think they are staying with your mom. I mean their car is still outside all the other ones left."
Tina asked, "What other ones are you talking about?"
Becky said, "There was a bunch of guys in the same gray suits, and It looked like they took out a whole bunch of little boxes and loaded them up in a plane white van."
Tina wondered what that was all about, but she figured that if these were the guys from her dad's work then they were taking back the stuff that her dad brought home to work on in some of his off time when her mom was not letting him sleep.
Tina had wandered into his den looking for him at times and there always seemed to be a lot of boring paperwork lying all over the place when her dad was in the middle of things and was not paying attention to anything else.
Tina asked, "Can you keep an eye on everything? It seems like a lot of strange things are going on."
Becky said, "I sure can. I was taking the summer off anyway before I started college. I was kind of hoping we could do some hanging out if you make it back before it starts."
What she really had been wishing was that she would give her a chance to go with her. But she got nervous and didn't want to put pressure on her, or for her to think that she was trying to babysit her for her mother. She was planning on the first time that Tina brought up that she needed or wanted help. She would volunteer to go with her. Or if she said that something was really cool then she would tell her how much she would have loved to have seen it with her. With the hope of an invitation letting her know how much she wanted to travel and see things, but all her boyfriend was doing was just being at home playing video games.
Tina took a deep breath and now she was ready to tell her everything that happened at the hospital after she left. She filled her in on all the details of everything breaking down and crying harder than she ever had before.
By the time Tina had finished her story they both were crying, and Becky was trying to give her the little bit of comfort that she could. Knowing that it was not doing much to help, but it was all she could do.
Becky said, "You really should have someone that you trust with you."
Tina went silent, she knew that Becky was right, and it had been something that she had been thinking about, but she didn't want to burden anyone else with her troubles. There was a long-drawn-out silence on the line. Tina sat there thinking that Becky wanted to come along with her, but she had a boyfriend, and she definitely was not in the mood to have them both along.
Just then Becky started getting a click on the line letting her know that there was another call on the line. Becky said, "Hold on a minute I have another call I'll just get rid of them."
Tina said, "I will just call you back later I need to do some thinking while I drive anyway."
Becky said, "It would only take a second to get rid of them."
Tina repeated, "I will just call you later. Bye."
Becky was hoping that meant that she was considering having her along, but she didn't want to come right out and ask her and be somewhere that Tina didn't want her to be.