“Rafael?”
She called when he didn’t respond to her question after over three minutes.
“Oh, sorry, sure, you can ask me anything, I will tell you,”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, hit me,”
“I just want to know more about you and maybe if you don’t mind telling me about your family, if you don’t want to you don’t have to say anything, I will understand,”
She said in a soft voice.
“Crazy woman, of course, I want to share with you, but bear in mind that my story, or rather my family’s story isn’t a pleasant one,”
He said, she already guessed that it won’t be a pleasant one seeing that he didn’t like talking about it with people, no one knew his family, nothing about then was written online just that he grew up in foster homes in his early teens but the years before that were nowhere to be seen.
“My story, well, let’s just say, my dad a rich, yes my dad was rich, he met my mom who was from an average family and they got off immediately, according to my dad, it was love at first sight for him, I highly doubt that but anyway, they fell in love and got married six months after they met and nine months later I was born, my family was doing okay, and dad’s business was doing just fine but that lasted until after my tenth birthday, that’s when the nightmare started,”
He paused, she listened with much attention as she knew he was doing a lot by telling him.
“Well, after my tenth birthday, things started looking bad for my dad, he lost a lot of deals because his close friend said false things about him that made him lose brand value, then it got even worst, I fell sick and he had to spend a lot of money which wasn’t good seeing that his business was not doing well at that time, then it became obvious that there wasn’t going to be a redemption for him, my mom asked for a divorce and she left me with my dad, we still had some money but then dad started drinking so much and not working, I guess mom leaving affected him a lot, I was left alone by myself most of the times, mom found someone else and didn’t bother about me and dad wasn’t always at home, soon he got more into drinking and started having too much debt, soon he sold our house and the cars so we moved to a cheaper environment but things got even worst for us that I had to depend on kind neighbors for food, then one day I got the news that dad had an accident, I didn’t even think my mom would be with him because they have been separated for so long but it turned out that the woman with dad in the car was my mom, they both died and I was left alone,”
“Oh, my God, Rafael, that’s awful,”
She said hugging him, she hadn’t expected it to have such an ending, it must have been traumatic for him to lose both parents on the same day, losing one parent is bad enough but both on the same day? That would be hell and not to mention he was just a kid.
“That’s just the starting part, I didn’t even feel anything when they died, you know they became strangers to me before they died so it wasn’t even that but shits didn’t come out good for me after they died,”
“It gets worst?”
“Yes, it does, none of my aunties and uncles wanted to keep me, as a result, I was pushed into foster homes, I couldn’t stay with a family longer than three months sometimes it doesn’t even get to one month, some homes were nice and I really wanted to stay but no one wanted to keep me for a long term, I pretty much learned how to fend for myself, I got bullied a lot in school, I was called a social service kid and that hurt, one time at one of the homes I was sent to my temporary dad was abusive and I ended up in the hospital, after that I ran away, and decided it would be better to stay on my own, thankfully I did good and here I am told, God I hate my story,”
He said after he finishes talking, she had tears in her eyes, she knew he was keeping a lot of details and from the looks on his face, he suffered more than that.
“You are okay now,”
“Yes, I am and it got better when you came in, don’t leave me alright,”
“I won’t,”
She promised.
“Right, we will go see my parents the day after tomorrow, how about that, then after we can go see your parents,”
He suggested and she agreed to hug him.
“I called Faze and Rosie is doing fine,”
He revealed, she almost forgot about that and was thankful that he was thoughtful enough not to forget.
“That’s good to know,”
“Yeah, I would have felt guilty if anything had happened to her, thank God she is fine,”
“Yes, thank God, now gets some sleep man, you look stressed,”
She said patting his back, he nodded and closed his eyes, he fell asleep a few moments later and she followed too.
“Are you sure about this? I am okay with not meeting them,”
“Shush, I am sure, now let’s go,”
Rafael said pulling her out of the car with him, he walked to the back of the car booth and brought out the tomb flowers that they had gotten, Nicole felt she wasn’t good enough to meet Rafael’s parents but if that’s what he wanted, of course, she will do it for him, he took her to where they were both buried, they laid flowers on their graves before he introduced her to them, they talked at his parents grace side for a while before they got up to leave.
“Now, we go see your parents,”
He announced when they got back into their car, Nicole looked at him eyes opened, she knew they agreed on meeting both their parents but she didn’t know they were meeting hers today too.
“What? Right now? For real?”