Family Matters - Chapter 41 - 08/30/2023
Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 3:30 pm
Who knows and definitely Max would not know, and he did not know what to do except storm past his father and head on upstairs and Phillip could hear the rubble coming from the slammed door, and knew it was not his place to try to be support for his son because that was the last thing either of them needed to dealing with, because everything was still so tentative between us and if I get him going than he will certainly throw me out of this house he thought, and he did not need that.
So, he did not do what he yearned to do, which was to head upstairs and to be supportive to his son, so instead he grabbed his coat, and left the house.
And Max could hear the slam of the front door, but he did not leave the room to think of where his father could be going, I don’t want to have to deal with it he thought, because he only wanted to wallow in his own angst.
But all he could do was think was feel Liz’s pain, and the beginning of those flashes he was getting before she took away the touch, and forced herself to leave his house, and disappear from his view. It made all the pain he was feeling about her leaving feel meaningless. I am still upset, but he knew Liz.
He knew the girl he loved from seeing for the first time on the playground, in third grade.
When he did not have a chance. He had seen her grow into a confident young woman who was compassionate to her very detriment, and our detriment he would think. She always wanted to believe in the best.
And help, even when we got the short shift, and our happiness never worked out for long he thought. He always felt for her, because she never signed up for what she would find her life to be under in the wake of the shooting.
When he jumped into the fire and saved his dream girl, and brought her back to life, and into a life she had not asked for, and therefore all those sacrifices she was forced to make because of him Max thought, as he was in agony over what Liz had to deal with.
What she had to suffer because she loved him and wanted to make a life for him.
And to protect him.
Not that he was completely comfortable with that he thought, because it should me who is protecting her, not the other way around.
So, he stayed in his mind…
While across town, Liz and JJ went back to the motel after picking up some takeout but also electing to go back to the motel instead of being diverted anywhere else, and both were okay with it. Both were thinking of their own thoughts. While Liz was feeling too much baggage, and the burden of decisions. JJ was concerned for his mother.
And wondered if there was someone who could help her…
All the while Claudia was finally coming out of a long and steamy bath, and I felt more in control as she finally opened the bathroom door, and she came out into her bedroom. Mom was very fortunate to have her own bathroom she thought. Grandpa and Grandma apparently gave her a lot of privacy, she murmured as she saw Archie reading a book on the bed, and she felt chagrined by the fact she had a very visible meltdown. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Archie said looking up from his book, that he was not even reading but just going through the motions. “Are you okay?”
“Slightly calmer, sorry for my nutty before” Claudia sighed. She was not used to feeling so overwhelmed. Before the last week or so, she had was unusually calm, most of the time, and put together, and it usually took a lot to get to be unsettled. But she supposed coming to Roswell, and being exposed to her mother’s home, and knowing how much she had in this town without even knowing, it has gotten me going off the cliff.
And I need to figure out how to climb back up and settle down.
“You are entitled,” Archie smiled.
“I bet this was not what you were thinking you were getting when you decided to pay me a visit, huh?” Claudia asked with a slight smile, and Archie liked that smile because he had not seen it for much of his visit.
She has a sexy smile. Just as sexy as she is with the rest of herself.
“I definitely did not anticipate how dramatic this town is, that is for sure” Archie said with a sigh. “All I want to do is support you.”
“I appreciate it,” Claudia sighed. “I know you probably want to get on the first bus to the nearest airport?” she sighed, because she knew this was not what Archie was asking for when he decided to come for a visit, and it was a little too melodramatic even for her, and she did not know how to change things, because it did not change anything.
“If I wanted to leave, I would have left by now” Archie said with a smile, as he got off the bed and came towards his girlfriend. “I know something about family drama,” he said with a smile. “I know how overwhelming it can be,” he would sigh as he thought of his last text message from his sister, Crystal. He had long given up on his father, but his sister was still dealing with everything.
“My family drama is another scale altogether,” Claudia murmured.
“Maybe it is, but at the end of the day, it’s all the same” Archie smiled.
“So, you think, but you don’t know everything about me” Claudia muttered as once more she hated how she was causing trouble for her and Archie, maybe he should have stayed in Aspen? “Maybe, you should have stayed back home.”
“And miss all this,” Archie smiled. “And I want to know you, but you are holding things back from me,” he murmured. “It is not like we are in a new relationship Claude, because we have been together for more than two years now.”
“To protect you,” Claudia sighed and yes, we have been together a long time she sighed. But it was protection in why she was not telling him the truth. As if she knew a little about what her mother was going through, but she did not know the depth of the sacrifice her mother had made for her daughter, and Claudia’s father.
Yet Claudia was keeping a part of herself from Archie, despite giving everything else to him, but being raised away from all this angst, still, she had been raised enough to know she had to keep what she was from those she loved, only Mom knows, and even then, we really don’t talk about it because we don’t want JJ to really know what is going on she murmured. Don’t ask, do not tell in a very alien hybrid way…
I do not know what it really means to be who I am, Claudia realized, because being back meant that she was learning so much more than the messy family she had been kept from by her mother, for most of her eighteen years.
And now she was here and finding out a life’s worth in only a few days.
“I don’t need protection,” Archie said with a smile. “I am a big boy.”
“I know you are,” Claudia sighed. “It just so much, and I am finding there is even more than I ever really knew growing up,” she sighed. “I wish it could be all so easy. I always wanted to know more about my birth father, and even family at that, because it was just my mother, JJ and me, moving place to place, house to house, and there was an air of mystery in what I did not know, so I always wanted to know, which is why I came back here when I did not have to. But now, that I have the chance, I am finding that it all matters even more than I ever thought possible, and I cannot handle.”
You are entitled Archie admitted. He had issues with his own family, but not the degree of Claudia and he knew if he had so much unknown, he would probably be a little like his girlfriend. “Seriously Claude, you need to take it easy. You don’t have to deal with it so quickly. Take it a day at a time,” Archie suggested. “You only have been in this town a few days, right, it is not as if you need to figure out the key to your life, in a single moment, right?”
Claudia muttered. Yeah, you are right, but everything is so intense, and going so quickly, despite it also being slow too.
“Anyways, you have had enough for today, so why not call in some take out because I am in a mood for some burgers or something, and maybe we can watch something fun on television?” Archie asked. “It might get your mind off what is going on with your life.”
“That sounds nice,” Claudia smiled. And it does she thought. “Just not something that makes me want to think.”
“I think we can find something,” Archie smiled as he walked over to Claudia, and they did lean in for a brief kiss.
And they did, as they settled down with the television.
And tried to take it easy, for one night.
Lucy was taking the long route home. She had no real need to go home, Mom and Dad know I go with my own flow, and I will eventually be home, so she stopped for some shopping and snacks along the way, and she saw Tripp coming out of the library, “Amazing, you in a library?” she quipped as she saw her cousin come out of the land of books.
“I do have term papers to finish up,” Tripp muttered. “School is not totally out yet.”
“Well for me it is,” Lucy said with relish. She was thrilled she did not have to deal with school unlike Claudia, despite her being preoccupied by other events, and people she smiled at as she spotted her cousin.
Via marriage because Tripp’s father was Maria’s stepbrother, but the family was tight, and unique in every way, and she was thrilled to be back in Roswell because she got to see her family more often than they had over the years because they were in Nashville, and dealing with Mom’s career, and her getting older and needing to be in school.
But she had come during the summers and enjoyed every minute of it. Often missing it when she went back to Nashville, not that she did not like the country music capital of the world, but there was something about Roswell.
And it drew her, and that is why she was happy to be back here, even if she would have put up with her parents’ desires for her upcoming senior year, assuming school is back to normal come September, which is not certain at the moment.
I do not care if it is, because she prescribed to her father’s view of school. Waste of time. Of course, she knew her father had a very different life than she had been afforded up to now, and there was a reason why her father had not been able to get his high school diploma. He tried, but life just would not make it happen, she thought, although he could have gotten those credits in aftermath, but he chose not to.
Dad was super smart and aced a lot of his classes that he actually attended but attendance was a big reason why he never got the actual degree, and of course the mayhem of Mom and Dad’s courtship she muttered, as she spotted Tripp, and knew that he was still in school here in Roswell.
Like most people in the country, on-line.
School was just all over the place. Which is why Lucy was able to steam through her lessons before her move, so I do not have to deal with it now, she thought.
“Thankfully, I am finished with all that until September” Lucy murmured.
“When you will have to deal with senior year,” Tripp asked. Because they would be in the same grade, and hopefully actually attending the same school he murmured, in person rather than via a computer screen.
“Can’t wait,” Lucy said mildly, and Tripp smiled because he knew that Lucy was not looking forward to senior year, or school for that matter but he was never in school with her before because Lucy tended to come on holidays, or during the summer.
“Oh, I am sure you are” Tripp said with a smile.
“I am who I am,” Lucy said with a laugh.
“As can be said about all of us,” Tripp sighed. Some more than others. “Should you not be home unpacking or something?”
“My room is pretty put together,” Lucy said with a smile. “I am getting to know my new hometown, and spending time with Claudia.”
Oh, Claudia Tripp murmured, and Lucy could only laugh. “She has a boyfriend, cuz” Lucy said with a smirk.
“I know,” Tripp acknowledged. If I did not know before because Lucy told me before, then I would know with Claudia telling me and to know he’s in town. “I know, I also know that he’s in town visiting.”
“Really?” Lucy asked, surprised. She did not know how Tripp would know because of what she knew, until they came out with her earlier. Claudia and Archie had spent most of the time at the apartment before their little excursion outside onto the streets, and I bet Claudia is having regrets about that she mused to herself. “Yes, he is.”
“I ran into her last night,” Tripp sighed.
“Oh, really?” Lucy said with a smirk.
“We ran into each other at the park,” Tripp said with acknowledgement to Lucy’s laughter, “It’s not that interesting, and nothing happened.” Claudia was too preoccupied for something to happen, he would think. “At the end of our time together, she went back to her boyfriend” he muttered.
It is to me, because I am living vicariously through others because I am single, she thought as she wondered what would happen in that regard now that she was here in Roswell and was not going to be leaving before, she graduated from high school. I cannot wait to get out into the world. “To me, it is” she said softly, but she knew it was not that funny to Claudia because it was so much more than her love life. “So, you see that you don’t have much of a chance.”
“Even if I did, I am not sure if Claudia is that person I want” Tripp said realistically. “It is clear she has a lot on her mind right now.”
Oh, that she does Lucy admitted. “I am glad I am not there in that respect,” she said. “I know my mother and father, and I know the warts and all of our family history,” sighed that was fit to tell me she muttered, because she knew there was a whole lot she did not know. “Claudia unfortunately does not have that luxury.”
Tripp nodded. “Why did her mother even take her away from her father anyways?” he asked, because growing up in the clan, despite being one of the normal ones, without gifts, still you know all the unique qualities of the members, and therefore he knew that Claudia’s father had lost out on her mother, and Claudia herself he thought, but I never really knew the warts of it, because the adults were tight lipped among the younger members, and Dad and Claudia’s mother did not talk much he thought, and there was so much not said he thought.
“I don’t think anyone knows,” Lucy said honestly, because I do not know she sighed. I hear rumors, but I don’t know what they mean yet. Because everything is still so new. “There are rumors of course, but it’s one of those life mysteries and Claudia is suffering because as much as she loves her mother, and her family, so much was kept from her, and I hate to have been like that, but I had my mother and father together, and therefore I know my history. Claudia did not have the same fortune, and now she is coming here to Roswell and finding there is a story that she did not know existed,” she sighed. “And the ability to see that her father was out there in the world all along, and here in Roswell for most of it.”
Tripp nodded. “Therefore, it is obvious it is better to be a friend, than anything more” he sighed, although I would have love to be more, but maybe down the line he thought. It is only the early days he thought.
“Friendship is always good, because Claudia and Archie are happy” Lucy said with a degree of warning to her cousin, as if Tripp was going to disrupt that harmony, which I doubt she thought, but a girl has to give a warning, does she not, for the sake of my friend.
“Are they?” Tripp asked, only because I am curious.
Yes, Lucy thought. Or I think. “He’s trying to be there for her, and that is what Claudia needs right now” Lucy said. “So, I can look around this town, and see what is out there, because I don’t have that burden in my life” she said. “And thankfully I don’t have school anymore, or at least until September.”
“I don’t know why you hate school so much” Tripp said with a laugh. “It’s annoying at times, but it’s better to be there, than on some computer screen.”
“I know, but it is just that I do not like it that much” Lucy sighed. “There is so much out there, and I don’t want to wait.”
“Well, your parents brought you back for a reason” Tripp said.
“Oh, I know they did” Lucy muttered. “I am not going to magically like school or even head onto university just because they came back to their hometown,” she said with a laugh. “I will do what I want, all on my own.”
“Oh, I am sure you will” Tripp smiled, knowing his cousin liked to be her own person. The next year will definitely be interesting he thought, “Need a buddy with your walk home?”
“I am good,” Lucy smiled. “What can happen to me?”
“We might be a small town, but this is Roswell after all,” Tripp muttered as he had been raised to heed warnings from both his father and grandfather that he should not take Roswell or their residents at face values, sometimes secrets lie below the scenes.
Don’t I know that Tripp muttered, in my own life he thought. Given I have a half sister who is not officially acknowledged by this town.
Or our parents, he thought. But he had been given the warning that there was darkness that was lurking out there, and to be wary, especially since I am not one of the special ones, he thought of his not having any abilities, unlike Lucy here, or Kyla.
I am totally one hundred human because despite being saved one of them. Dad is his old self, and nothing has changed on that scale.
“Just be careful, okay” Tripp asked.
“Sure, whatever” Lucy said with a smile, but she was not looking for trouble. She did not see the need. Whatever happens will happen whether I am looking for it or not, she thought as she was getting ready to go her own way when she and Tripp saw a girl getting off the bus across from them at the bus depot.
Normally, Lucy did not care. Roswell was a tourist mecca which meant people gravitated towards this place, and the summer is just about to start.
She still did not care, but Tripp did, and he stopped.
“Crush on Claudia over already?” Lucy commented.
“Give it a rest,” Tripp maneuvered at the razzing from his cousin. Still, like his cousin. He did not take a notice of most newcomers, and this one did not ring any bell of any familiarity, so he did not know why he stopped and looked, except she is hot he thought.
At the girl with long jet-black hair, and it made him notice her, because this is a small town after all, and I know all the females my age he thought, and there was a clear sign that she was only a visitor, she has a bag, but not a suitcase which is convenient if you are coming in on the bus.
Given we are Roswell. We don’t have an airport outside of town, or in our back pocket. So, you have to come on the bus if you are arriving alone.
And this girl seemed to be.
“I am going to see if she needs help,” commented Tripp to no one in particular, and definitely not to his cousin.
“She does not look helpless to me,” Lucy muttered.
“I am being a gentleman,” Tripp muttered. “Come with me, if you want to keep an eye on me?”
“Whatever,” Lucy said, but she planned too because she did not have anything else to do, and it amused her to see what was going on as she and Tripp walked across the street, towards the newcomer, who seemed out of place.
“Can we help you?” Tripp asked. “Or be of some assistance. You look new?”
“Who are you?” came the girl.
“My name is James Valenti, III but everyone calls me just calls me Tripp and this is my cousin, Lucy Guerin,” he muttered. “There is no reason to fear either of us,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Our grandfather is the town Sheriff,” he said with a smile. At least for a time at least he thought because they both knew that their grandfather was gradually sliding into retirement, but still, he was a lifer who was taking the long road towards retirement.
But at least for now, he remained Sheriff.
“So,” the girl asked.
“You look new. We know this town, you can say. So, how can we help you?”
“My name is Crystal, and I am looking for my brother” the girl muttered as she looked around and saw the town, “This place is Roswell right,” she asked. “The land of the aliens?”
Lucy and Tripp could only look at each other and laugh.
“You can say that” Lucy said softly.
Crystal nodded.
“What is your brother’s name” Tripp asked. “I know this town. I know everyone almost,” he said with a laugh at the weary look coming from the newcomer. “It is that kind of town,” was all he said. “Lucy, can agree with that.”
“It is,” Lucy confirmed. “But with me, I was only a summer resident until just now. Because I only just moved to town. So, Tripp is probably the best go person for our town residents,” she said with smile. “He has better odds in terms of recognizing someone…” she said. “So, your brother?” she asked. “What is his name?”
“Alex,” came Crystal and did not think of anything when both Lucy and Tripp glanced at each other at the utterance of the name. “But that is not the name he goes by.”
“Then what is the name that he goes by?” Tripp asked as he looked at Lucy because they were super sensitive at any utterance of the name Alex because while they had not been alive to know him, still, one particular Alex was very familiar within their clan, and his death left scars on all of them, including my father he thought.
He knew the story.
And knew how his father lived with regret to this day.
“He was given the name Alex by my parents,” Crystal muttered. “But he tends to use his middle name, Archie” she muttered. “Short for Archibald.” Why he does not go by the name Alex, I don’t know, because it is a better name.
Or it is to me, Crystal thought.
And Lucy definitely responded to that. Shit, she muttered.
“You know him?” Crystal asked.
Fuck Lucy muttered once more. Neither answering nor denying Crystal’s question. As she sensed some real disturbances in their lives.
So, he did not do what he yearned to do, which was to head upstairs and to be supportive to his son, so instead he grabbed his coat, and left the house.
And Max could hear the slam of the front door, but he did not leave the room to think of where his father could be going, I don’t want to have to deal with it he thought, because he only wanted to wallow in his own angst.
But all he could do was think was feel Liz’s pain, and the beginning of those flashes he was getting before she took away the touch, and forced herself to leave his house, and disappear from his view. It made all the pain he was feeling about her leaving feel meaningless. I am still upset, but he knew Liz.
He knew the girl he loved from seeing for the first time on the playground, in third grade.
When he did not have a chance. He had seen her grow into a confident young woman who was compassionate to her very detriment, and our detriment he would think. She always wanted to believe in the best.
And help, even when we got the short shift, and our happiness never worked out for long he thought. He always felt for her, because she never signed up for what she would find her life to be under in the wake of the shooting.
When he jumped into the fire and saved his dream girl, and brought her back to life, and into a life she had not asked for, and therefore all those sacrifices she was forced to make because of him Max thought, as he was in agony over what Liz had to deal with.
What she had to suffer because she loved him and wanted to make a life for him.
And to protect him.
Not that he was completely comfortable with that he thought, because it should me who is protecting her, not the other way around.
So, he stayed in his mind…
While across town, Liz and JJ went back to the motel after picking up some takeout but also electing to go back to the motel instead of being diverted anywhere else, and both were okay with it. Both were thinking of their own thoughts. While Liz was feeling too much baggage, and the burden of decisions. JJ was concerned for his mother.
And wondered if there was someone who could help her…
All the while Claudia was finally coming out of a long and steamy bath, and I felt more in control as she finally opened the bathroom door, and she came out into her bedroom. Mom was very fortunate to have her own bathroom she thought. Grandpa and Grandma apparently gave her a lot of privacy, she murmured as she saw Archie reading a book on the bed, and she felt chagrined by the fact she had a very visible meltdown. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Archie said looking up from his book, that he was not even reading but just going through the motions. “Are you okay?”
“Slightly calmer, sorry for my nutty before” Claudia sighed. She was not used to feeling so overwhelmed. Before the last week or so, she had was unusually calm, most of the time, and put together, and it usually took a lot to get to be unsettled. But she supposed coming to Roswell, and being exposed to her mother’s home, and knowing how much she had in this town without even knowing, it has gotten me going off the cliff.
And I need to figure out how to climb back up and settle down.
“You are entitled,” Archie smiled.
“I bet this was not what you were thinking you were getting when you decided to pay me a visit, huh?” Claudia asked with a slight smile, and Archie liked that smile because he had not seen it for much of his visit.
She has a sexy smile. Just as sexy as she is with the rest of herself.
“I definitely did not anticipate how dramatic this town is, that is for sure” Archie said with a sigh. “All I want to do is support you.”
“I appreciate it,” Claudia sighed. “I know you probably want to get on the first bus to the nearest airport?” she sighed, because she knew this was not what Archie was asking for when he decided to come for a visit, and it was a little too melodramatic even for her, and she did not know how to change things, because it did not change anything.
“If I wanted to leave, I would have left by now” Archie said with a smile, as he got off the bed and came towards his girlfriend. “I know something about family drama,” he said with a smile. “I know how overwhelming it can be,” he would sigh as he thought of his last text message from his sister, Crystal. He had long given up on his father, but his sister was still dealing with everything.
“My family drama is another scale altogether,” Claudia murmured.
“Maybe it is, but at the end of the day, it’s all the same” Archie smiled.
“So, you think, but you don’t know everything about me” Claudia muttered as once more she hated how she was causing trouble for her and Archie, maybe he should have stayed in Aspen? “Maybe, you should have stayed back home.”
“And miss all this,” Archie smiled. “And I want to know you, but you are holding things back from me,” he murmured. “It is not like we are in a new relationship Claude, because we have been together for more than two years now.”
“To protect you,” Claudia sighed and yes, we have been together a long time she sighed. But it was protection in why she was not telling him the truth. As if she knew a little about what her mother was going through, but she did not know the depth of the sacrifice her mother had made for her daughter, and Claudia’s father.
Yet Claudia was keeping a part of herself from Archie, despite giving everything else to him, but being raised away from all this angst, still, she had been raised enough to know she had to keep what she was from those she loved, only Mom knows, and even then, we really don’t talk about it because we don’t want JJ to really know what is going on she murmured. Don’t ask, do not tell in a very alien hybrid way…
I do not know what it really means to be who I am, Claudia realized, because being back meant that she was learning so much more than the messy family she had been kept from by her mother, for most of her eighteen years.
And now she was here and finding out a life’s worth in only a few days.
“I don’t need protection,” Archie said with a smile. “I am a big boy.”
“I know you are,” Claudia sighed. “It just so much, and I am finding there is even more than I ever really knew growing up,” she sighed. “I wish it could be all so easy. I always wanted to know more about my birth father, and even family at that, because it was just my mother, JJ and me, moving place to place, house to house, and there was an air of mystery in what I did not know, so I always wanted to know, which is why I came back here when I did not have to. But now, that I have the chance, I am finding that it all matters even more than I ever thought possible, and I cannot handle.”
You are entitled Archie admitted. He had issues with his own family, but not the degree of Claudia and he knew if he had so much unknown, he would probably be a little like his girlfriend. “Seriously Claude, you need to take it easy. You don’t have to deal with it so quickly. Take it a day at a time,” Archie suggested. “You only have been in this town a few days, right, it is not as if you need to figure out the key to your life, in a single moment, right?”
Claudia muttered. Yeah, you are right, but everything is so intense, and going so quickly, despite it also being slow too.
“Anyways, you have had enough for today, so why not call in some take out because I am in a mood for some burgers or something, and maybe we can watch something fun on television?” Archie asked. “It might get your mind off what is going on with your life.”
“That sounds nice,” Claudia smiled. And it does she thought. “Just not something that makes me want to think.”
“I think we can find something,” Archie smiled as he walked over to Claudia, and they did lean in for a brief kiss.
And they did, as they settled down with the television.
And tried to take it easy, for one night.
*
Lucy was taking the long route home. She had no real need to go home, Mom and Dad know I go with my own flow, and I will eventually be home, so she stopped for some shopping and snacks along the way, and she saw Tripp coming out of the library, “Amazing, you in a library?” she quipped as she saw her cousin come out of the land of books.
“I do have term papers to finish up,” Tripp muttered. “School is not totally out yet.”
“Well for me it is,” Lucy said with relish. She was thrilled she did not have to deal with school unlike Claudia, despite her being preoccupied by other events, and people she smiled at as she spotted her cousin.
Via marriage because Tripp’s father was Maria’s stepbrother, but the family was tight, and unique in every way, and she was thrilled to be back in Roswell because she got to see her family more often than they had over the years because they were in Nashville, and dealing with Mom’s career, and her getting older and needing to be in school.
But she had come during the summers and enjoyed every minute of it. Often missing it when she went back to Nashville, not that she did not like the country music capital of the world, but there was something about Roswell.
And it drew her, and that is why she was happy to be back here, even if she would have put up with her parents’ desires for her upcoming senior year, assuming school is back to normal come September, which is not certain at the moment.
I do not care if it is, because she prescribed to her father’s view of school. Waste of time. Of course, she knew her father had a very different life than she had been afforded up to now, and there was a reason why her father had not been able to get his high school diploma. He tried, but life just would not make it happen, she thought, although he could have gotten those credits in aftermath, but he chose not to.
Dad was super smart and aced a lot of his classes that he actually attended but attendance was a big reason why he never got the actual degree, and of course the mayhem of Mom and Dad’s courtship she muttered, as she spotted Tripp, and knew that he was still in school here in Roswell.
Like most people in the country, on-line.
School was just all over the place. Which is why Lucy was able to steam through her lessons before her move, so I do not have to deal with it now, she thought.
“Thankfully, I am finished with all that until September” Lucy murmured.
“When you will have to deal with senior year,” Tripp asked. Because they would be in the same grade, and hopefully actually attending the same school he murmured, in person rather than via a computer screen.
“Can’t wait,” Lucy said mildly, and Tripp smiled because he knew that Lucy was not looking forward to senior year, or school for that matter but he was never in school with her before because Lucy tended to come on holidays, or during the summer.
“Oh, I am sure you are” Tripp said with a smile.
“I am who I am,” Lucy said with a laugh.
“As can be said about all of us,” Tripp sighed. Some more than others. “Should you not be home unpacking or something?”
“My room is pretty put together,” Lucy said with a smile. “I am getting to know my new hometown, and spending time with Claudia.”
Oh, Claudia Tripp murmured, and Lucy could only laugh. “She has a boyfriend, cuz” Lucy said with a smirk.
“I know,” Tripp acknowledged. If I did not know before because Lucy told me before, then I would know with Claudia telling me and to know he’s in town. “I know, I also know that he’s in town visiting.”
“Really?” Lucy asked, surprised. She did not know how Tripp would know because of what she knew, until they came out with her earlier. Claudia and Archie had spent most of the time at the apartment before their little excursion outside onto the streets, and I bet Claudia is having regrets about that she mused to herself. “Yes, he is.”
“I ran into her last night,” Tripp sighed.
“Oh, really?” Lucy said with a smirk.
“We ran into each other at the park,” Tripp said with acknowledgement to Lucy’s laughter, “It’s not that interesting, and nothing happened.” Claudia was too preoccupied for something to happen, he would think. “At the end of our time together, she went back to her boyfriend” he muttered.
It is to me, because I am living vicariously through others because I am single, she thought as she wondered what would happen in that regard now that she was here in Roswell and was not going to be leaving before, she graduated from high school. I cannot wait to get out into the world. “To me, it is” she said softly, but she knew it was not that funny to Claudia because it was so much more than her love life. “So, you see that you don’t have much of a chance.”
“Even if I did, I am not sure if Claudia is that person I want” Tripp said realistically. “It is clear she has a lot on her mind right now.”
Oh, that she does Lucy admitted. “I am glad I am not there in that respect,” she said. “I know my mother and father, and I know the warts and all of our family history,” sighed that was fit to tell me she muttered, because she knew there was a whole lot she did not know. “Claudia unfortunately does not have that luxury.”
Tripp nodded. “Why did her mother even take her away from her father anyways?” he asked, because growing up in the clan, despite being one of the normal ones, without gifts, still you know all the unique qualities of the members, and therefore he knew that Claudia’s father had lost out on her mother, and Claudia herself he thought, but I never really knew the warts of it, because the adults were tight lipped among the younger members, and Dad and Claudia’s mother did not talk much he thought, and there was so much not said he thought.
“I don’t think anyone knows,” Lucy said honestly, because I do not know she sighed. I hear rumors, but I don’t know what they mean yet. Because everything is still so new. “There are rumors of course, but it’s one of those life mysteries and Claudia is suffering because as much as she loves her mother, and her family, so much was kept from her, and I hate to have been like that, but I had my mother and father together, and therefore I know my history. Claudia did not have the same fortune, and now she is coming here to Roswell and finding there is a story that she did not know existed,” she sighed. “And the ability to see that her father was out there in the world all along, and here in Roswell for most of it.”
Tripp nodded. “Therefore, it is obvious it is better to be a friend, than anything more” he sighed, although I would have love to be more, but maybe down the line he thought. It is only the early days he thought.
“Friendship is always good, because Claudia and Archie are happy” Lucy said with a degree of warning to her cousin, as if Tripp was going to disrupt that harmony, which I doubt she thought, but a girl has to give a warning, does she not, for the sake of my friend.
“Are they?” Tripp asked, only because I am curious.
Yes, Lucy thought. Or I think. “He’s trying to be there for her, and that is what Claudia needs right now” Lucy said. “So, I can look around this town, and see what is out there, because I don’t have that burden in my life” she said. “And thankfully I don’t have school anymore, or at least until September.”
“I don’t know why you hate school so much” Tripp said with a laugh. “It’s annoying at times, but it’s better to be there, than on some computer screen.”
“I know, but it is just that I do not like it that much” Lucy sighed. “There is so much out there, and I don’t want to wait.”
“Well, your parents brought you back for a reason” Tripp said.
“Oh, I know they did” Lucy muttered. “I am not going to magically like school or even head onto university just because they came back to their hometown,” she said with a laugh. “I will do what I want, all on my own.”
“Oh, I am sure you will” Tripp smiled, knowing his cousin liked to be her own person. The next year will definitely be interesting he thought, “Need a buddy with your walk home?”
“I am good,” Lucy smiled. “What can happen to me?”
“We might be a small town, but this is Roswell after all,” Tripp muttered as he had been raised to heed warnings from both his father and grandfather that he should not take Roswell or their residents at face values, sometimes secrets lie below the scenes.
Don’t I know that Tripp muttered, in my own life he thought. Given I have a half sister who is not officially acknowledged by this town.
Or our parents, he thought. But he had been given the warning that there was darkness that was lurking out there, and to be wary, especially since I am not one of the special ones, he thought of his not having any abilities, unlike Lucy here, or Kyla.
I am totally one hundred human because despite being saved one of them. Dad is his old self, and nothing has changed on that scale.
“Just be careful, okay” Tripp asked.
“Sure, whatever” Lucy said with a smile, but she was not looking for trouble. She did not see the need. Whatever happens will happen whether I am looking for it or not, she thought as she was getting ready to go her own way when she and Tripp saw a girl getting off the bus across from them at the bus depot.
Normally, Lucy did not care. Roswell was a tourist mecca which meant people gravitated towards this place, and the summer is just about to start.
She still did not care, but Tripp did, and he stopped.
“Crush on Claudia over already?” Lucy commented.
“Give it a rest,” Tripp maneuvered at the razzing from his cousin. Still, like his cousin. He did not take a notice of most newcomers, and this one did not ring any bell of any familiarity, so he did not know why he stopped and looked, except she is hot he thought.
At the girl with long jet-black hair, and it made him notice her, because this is a small town after all, and I know all the females my age he thought, and there was a clear sign that she was only a visitor, she has a bag, but not a suitcase which is convenient if you are coming in on the bus.
Given we are Roswell. We don’t have an airport outside of town, or in our back pocket. So, you have to come on the bus if you are arriving alone.
And this girl seemed to be.
“I am going to see if she needs help,” commented Tripp to no one in particular, and definitely not to his cousin.
“She does not look helpless to me,” Lucy muttered.
“I am being a gentleman,” Tripp muttered. “Come with me, if you want to keep an eye on me?”
“Whatever,” Lucy said, but she planned too because she did not have anything else to do, and it amused her to see what was going on as she and Tripp walked across the street, towards the newcomer, who seemed out of place.
“Can we help you?” Tripp asked. “Or be of some assistance. You look new?”
“Who are you?” came the girl.
“My name is James Valenti, III but everyone calls me just calls me Tripp and this is my cousin, Lucy Guerin,” he muttered. “There is no reason to fear either of us,” he said with a reassuring smile. “Our grandfather is the town Sheriff,” he said with a smile. At least for a time at least he thought because they both knew that their grandfather was gradually sliding into retirement, but still, he was a lifer who was taking the long road towards retirement.
But at least for now, he remained Sheriff.
“So,” the girl asked.
“You look new. We know this town, you can say. So, how can we help you?”
“My name is Crystal, and I am looking for my brother” the girl muttered as she looked around and saw the town, “This place is Roswell right,” she asked. “The land of the aliens?”
Lucy and Tripp could only look at each other and laugh.
“You can say that” Lucy said softly.
Crystal nodded.
“What is your brother’s name” Tripp asked. “I know this town. I know everyone almost,” he said with a laugh at the weary look coming from the newcomer. “It is that kind of town,” was all he said. “Lucy, can agree with that.”
“It is,” Lucy confirmed. “But with me, I was only a summer resident until just now. Because I only just moved to town. So, Tripp is probably the best go person for our town residents,” she said with smile. “He has better odds in terms of recognizing someone…” she said. “So, your brother?” she asked. “What is his name?”
“Alex,” came Crystal and did not think of anything when both Lucy and Tripp glanced at each other at the utterance of the name. “But that is not the name he goes by.”
“Then what is the name that he goes by?” Tripp asked as he looked at Lucy because they were super sensitive at any utterance of the name Alex because while they had not been alive to know him, still, one particular Alex was very familiar within their clan, and his death left scars on all of them, including my father he thought.
He knew the story.
And knew how his father lived with regret to this day.
“He was given the name Alex by my parents,” Crystal muttered. “But he tends to use his middle name, Archie” she muttered. “Short for Archibald.” Why he does not go by the name Alex, I don’t know, because it is a better name.
Or it is to me, Crystal thought.
And Lucy definitely responded to that. Shit, she muttered.
“You know him?” Crystal asked.
Fuck Lucy muttered once more. Neither answering nor denying Crystal’s question. As she sensed some real disturbances in their lives.