VEINS

CHAPTER 1: CAUSE AND AFFECT

The unforgiving California sunshine was shining directly onto my head, increasing the amount of sweat that was pooling at my forehead, beginning to drip down my face at my dismay.

It was officially June, which meant these oven hot moments in the warm state only got worse as the Summer months went on. I took a mental note to buy more tube tops on my next trip to the mall.

Subconsciously drumming my fingers against the steering wheel, my anxious mind reluctantly gripped the steering wheel of my white hummer Jeep.  If it wasn't for my poor, sweet mother's kind gesture that I take my brother to his AA meeting, then I would do whatever it had took to soothe her spirit after all the grief and trauma her and the rest of our family had been through.

My father left us for one of his secretaries at his law firm. I guess Regina is young as me with bleached hair as blonde as Pamela Anderson's according to my mom who had found the woman's Facebook account.

Since then luckily I had convinced her to delete social media altogether. When everything first went down I suggested a family social media detox. Evan, my older brother, was reluctant to say the least. Then again, I couldn't remember a time he hadn't went against the grain. A lot of times to spite the person. he was the spitting image Of. My father.

My phone buzzing snapped me out of my thought process completely. It was my best friend Olivia texting me for the umpteenth time. Irritated, I reach into my purse and turn my phone onto silent mode, the blissful silence followed.

Waiting has never exactly been my forte. In middle school at our class graduation, I had  been so dead set on being first to receive the mediocre piece of paper that I sprinted onto the auditorium in the middle of my principal's introduction speech.

To this day, I don't think I would forget the horrified and humiliated expression on my poor mom's face. My dad being the immature thirty year old he was found it humorous and you could tell he was stifling a laugh until my mother had shot him an intense glare.

That was one of the first times my young mind had picked up on trouble in paradise that would eventually lead to Splitsville.

Another thing to note about that seemingly insignificant day is the fact that Evan was no where to be seen at my graduation and you didn't see him at any other family function unless money was involved. Which will become more important to the story later on.

I snapped out of my thoughts after hearing a knock on my window. "Mam you can't park here." A very strict toned police officer stated in a very matter of fact way.

"I was just moving." I smiled sheepishly at the officer, who at this point hardly seemed amused. He waved me off surprisingly. Instead of second guessing my decent stroke of luck, I waited to breathe a sigh of relief until the policeman had passed me.

My white knuckles were still gripping the steering wheel. You would've thought I would be a tan, blonde bimbo living in California.

Instead, I am simply your average plain Jane with too curly brunette Springs of hair that never knew what direction they wanted to lay in. My brown eyes that resembled warm pools of honey stared back at me in the reflection of my car's mirror. I could admit I looked a little rough, but at least all my broken and cracked pieces had somehow managed to stay glued together.

The one blessing in disguise about the officer making me pull over to a different location is that this was a much more shady spot to reside in for now.

Just as I was about to turn my ignition off, I felt an unnatural curve and heard a smash in front of me. That can't be good on any level, Mercedes.

In case you wondering that's my name and not the vehicle. You ever heard of the term fender bender? Well, it stuck out in my mind from drivers training. Right now, I think I was just the cause of one.

Sheepishly grinning, making sure no one was driving by I opened the car door and wanted to assess how much damage had actually been done. My bohemian style hippie skirt was swaying in the balmy breeze as I worked up the courage to actually see what disaster I had created now.

"Do you always drive without looking at the road?" I heard a deep, velvety voice belt out. Even though the tone was harsh, something about his voice was also angelic.

Slowly inching my way to the stranger's car, I dare myself internally to spin around and face the person whom I had probably just given a heart attack to by rear ending the poor guy.

To my surprise, the boy in front of me was angelic in his appearance as well. He had thick, dark brown hair that looked like it effortlessly fell into place, framing his face and well defined jaw line .

"Don't you ever take a glance in your rear view mirror?" I retorted, resisting the childish urge to stick my tongue out at the handsome stranger.

"I'll have to take a glance at my insurance bill after this." He growled, frustrated as he ran his hands through his thick hair. I wondered absentmindedly what brand of shampoo he used to get it shaped like that or if it was passed on through the luck of having good genes.

Suddenly the silence between us was almost becoming too much to bear. Biting my bottom lip, another nervous habit to add to my list, I tried to strategize the next move in my mind. Certainly, to turn around and just get back in the car would be rude. Deep down, I knew rudeness had never been a part of my core personality.

Snapped out of my thoughts, he hung up his cell phone and turned to me, brows knitted. "The insurance company is closed on Sundays." He kicked his tire, and for his sake I had hoped he had a spare one in the back.

Being in such a haste to assess the damage of handsome stranger's car, I hadn't even thought to look at the state of my own vehicle. Slowly, turning around hesitantly, I looked around at the bumper of my car and sighed in sweet relief to notice no harm had been done. Not even a scratch.

Thank you God.

Mom couldn't handle another crisis right now and in that moment, I hadn't been sure if I could either.

"Where the hell have you been?!" My brother's familiar voice rang out behind me, startling me and quickening the pace of my heartbeat. Withdrawals still had him very much on edge these days and it took every bone in my body not to snap back at him.

Gritting my teeth, I flashed my pearly white smile at him and tried to hide my dismay by staring into my brother's rarely sober eyes. For once, in that moment they had been filled with light and maybe even a shimmer of hope, but I couldn't be too sure.

"Could say the same to you." I deadpanned, trying to hide my growing anger in front of the handsome yet mysterious stranger I expected to be behind me when I spun around, but surprisingly when I did to my dismay he was nowhere to be found.

Can't believe I had never even got the boy's name After all of that hassle. Take a deep breath, I had to remind myself.

Knitting my brow, I turned to ask Evan if he had just seen anyone behind me when he came out of the building. Before I could, I had noted he was already in the car.

"Scoot over." I told him once I reached the driver's side of my vehicle. He looked like a wounded child as he moved one leg at a time and then butt second into the passenger seat, continuing to throw a hissy fit.

Sulking as he leaned against the window opposite to me, he looked as if he wanted to sink into the car and disappear. Looking that way and actually disappearing into a haze of drug induced self pity are luckily two different things entirely, though.

I wasn't mom and I didn't give into the sour vibe Evan was giving off. I think I took more after my father in that way. I was still trying to decide whether that was a good or bad thing even as I pulled into our driveway.