Confessions of a Bunny

Gabriella "Mariposa" Thomas

"What's done in the dark, will always come to the light!"

I stood on the edge of the stage waiting from them to call my name. It was the day that I'd spent the last 4 years working towards, getting the hell up out of this high school and this town. Don't get me wrong Philly was cool and all, but I was ready to go for more reasons than one. As I inched closer and closer to being called all I could think about was seeing her again. By her I mean my mother, she...well we left her when I was about 12 and moved to Philly. He never explained why we had to leave or even why we left without her; he would just tell us we were better off without her. For a while I believed that and so did my other siblings, once I turned 16 and started to think for myself, I realized that my father was a lying conniving piece of shit. He took us from our mother and made us think she was crazy when she wasn't she just didn't want to deal with him. I couldn't blame her either, if he treated me the way he treated her I'd leave his ass too.

"Gabriela Marie Thomas!" I walked across the stage and gathered my high diploma before making my way down the other side. I am officially done I smiled looking at the diploma. The graduation lasted a little longer before they declared us all graduated and we were free to go and celebrate with our families. "Congratulations Gabby! Thanks Sis" I said hugging my older sister. You did it girl! Yeah, I did I said to my other siblings before seeing my father and his new wife approach us. Congratulations Gabriella, he said giving me this stern look. Mhm! Gabby my sister said nudging me. Thanks dad I said correcting my statement. Well, we should get going if we're going to make it to the restaurant for our reservation. Reservation I thought we were having a party at the house. Why would you think that? Never mind I said walking away from them, it never fails that he knows how to ruin something for me. Gabby! Gabby wait up my sister said stopping me. What! Ok one bring down the attitude and two why are you upset? A reservation Tori, he couldn't for one day think about me and my feelings. I don't want to celebrate at some stuffy ass restaurant I want to celebrate with my friends and family at home. I know Gabby but... no Tori don't make excuses for him; he's been a dick to us since we got here. He didn't ask us if we wanted to move, he didn't ask us if we wanted a "new mother" or nothing he just does shit without thinking about us and I am tired of it. I understand Gabby, trust me I do. I'll compromise with you, just go to this dinner and we'll plan something special for you and your friend's next weekend. You'd do that for me? Of course, I would, you're my baby sister. Have you heard from her? We won't talk about it here; we'll talk later she said nodding to me.

I understood her head nod and what it meant when she did it as well. Tori is my oldest sister followed by Mecca, India and my brother Braylen. We had 3 other siblings that my father had, well he never really explained where they came from, we just knew they all of the sudden came into the picture after he left our mother. Marylynn had her own kids from a previous marriage. You know what I want even to say she's she devil because she's actually normal it's just that my father is so damn controlling that she is often weak willed and easily influenced. The other 3 siblings were hers from a previous marriage and aren't even worth mentioning because well I am not going to sugar coat anything they don't associate with us, and we don't associate with them. I took a minute to compose myself before going back over to where everyone was.

Against my better judgement I apologized to my father and Marylynn for being rude. I meant they didn't have to do anything for me after graduation, but they did, and I could at least be grateful for that. "Dad and Marylynn, I am sorry for my bad attitude. You didn't have to plan anything, and you did please forgive me. Hmph, you know you better apologize you have better sense than that he said looking at me before walking off. Wow! Gabriella, he doesn't mean...he does and soon enough I won't be a burden on yall I said nodding to her. I couldn't be rude to her it wasn't her fault he's an asshole. I honestly don't know how she married him, no way would I marry a man that treats his kids like shit. Of course, we went to the restaurant of his choice not mine and ate what he chose for us. You'd think with how controlling he was he was a military man; he wasn't he was just a controlling person and had been ever since I could understand what controlling meant. I guess that was my mom's biggest issue with him was control, he saw himself as ruler and leader of the house. Whatever he said goes and no one should question him about it. My mother on the other hand wasn't a push over just because she was pretty and appeared to be a push over, she wasn't, and she took his shit for way to long before she had to unload on him. And boy did she, she shot at him and lucky for him none of the bullets hit him. It was her downfall though after that he tried to say she was crazy and needed to be committed. The nig.... he had my mother committed for shooting at him and then he stripped her of her parental rights to me, India, and Braylen. Mecca and Tori were already over the age of 18 and were out of the house. Even though they were older and weren't subjected to his post-divorce attitude they still understood what we were going through and to a certain extent they still understand. The agreement was if I dealt with the bullshit until I graduated, they'd make sure I could go to school anywhere I wanted with no questions asked. My choice was to be as close to my mother as physically possibly, so I only applied to schools in Nevada close to my mother. And I got into the closest one to her as well University of Nevada-Las Vegas. I would literally be living and going to school 15 minutes from my mother in Henderson and I couldn't wait either.