Insecure

Chapter 12

"Do you think that really worked?" Lilly asked Laura and Jayce as they walked through the door.

"Hell, I don't know," Jayce said, shrugging his shoulders.

 "Bro, I'm just glad you stuck up for your girl," Carlos added as he walked in from the bathroom.

 "Lilly told you about it?" Jayce asked, wrapping his arm around Laura's shoulders.

 "Yeah, she watched the whole scene behind a parked car."

 Laura rolled her eyes and laughed. She pulled away from Jayce and started to head upstairs. Before she could take another step, Jayce grabbed her hand and pulled her back. "Where do you think you're going?"

 "There's this thing called showering. I know you don't know what that is, but I need one."

 Jayce smiled and kissed her cheek. "Be quick."

 "I don't trust being in the shower that long anyways," Laura turned to Lilly. "You better not tell them why."

 "I would never," she said, sarcastically and laughing. Laura rolled her eyes and started walking the rest of the way up the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~

Laura looked through her closet. Even though she didn't have a lot of clothes at the moment, she still had a hard time deciding what to wear. She looked from each outfit left to right, up and down, side to side, basically any option possible and finally, she decided on one of her decent outfit. She grabbed a bright blue tank-top along with jean shorts with striped socks to match, and of course she grabbed other personal items. Once she was satisfied, she headed into the bathroom with her razor and clothes along with her phone.

 She set down her clothes, hanging them on a rack while she started to get undressed. Once she was fully undressed, she looked at herself in the mirror and thought to herself. Am I really beautiful? Do I actually have a chance at someone loving me? She took a big, loud sigh and she started to run her shower. Even though she was alone, she covered up her breasts just in case someone did walk in. When she was younger, her dad always had guys over and drinking. Sometimes there was women there, too. Laura eventually learned to lock herself in her room because they would get drunk, and after getting raped once, she didn't want to ever do it again. It's pretty bad that the night she ran away, her own father tried to unzip his pants to do something worse than beat her.

 Laura shook her head, trying to get rid of those thoughts and just focus on her shower. She stepped into the shower and let the warm water run down her body. She loved taking showers. No one was around to judge her, she could think alone and this water was amazing. She leaned over to grab the Shampoo bottle, but she heard a thud coming from outside the bathroom. She looked outside the shower for a second, but she shrugged thinking it was one of the guys.
She poured some shampoo in her hand, and then she started running it through her long hair.

~~~~~~~

"How are you and Laura doing, Jayce?" Lilly asked after Laura went upstairs.

 "Things are great. I really like her, she's amazing."

 "That's good because she's been through alot in her life. She needs someone like you to be there for her," Lilly said, smiling and walking into the kitchen. She searched through her cupboards and grabbed a bag of popcorn. She threw the bag in the microwave and pushed the 'popcorn' button before going back into the dining room.

 "Don't worry, I will be." Before anyone could say anything else, they heard a thud coming from upstairs. All three of them looked upstairs, confused.

 "Should we go check on Laura?" Jayce asked, standing up.

 "She probably just knocked something over in the bathroom," Carlos added, shrugging like it was no big deal.

 "Yeah, probably. She tends to do that a lot."

 Jayce hesitated, but he sat back down as the microwave started going off.

~~~~~~

Laura stepped out of the shower with the towel wrapped around her body, shivering. She stood in front of the mirror and started to blow dry her hair as she grabbed her underwear and slip them on. After she was finished getting dressed, she opened the bathroom door and walked into her bedroom. On her way out, she tossed her dirty clothes into the hamper outside of the bathroom, and she walked into her room to grab her brush. She stood in front of her dresser, and she grabbed her brush to start brushing through her hair.

 She started to brush her hair and she wrapped her hair up in a high ponytail. She looked in the mirror and what she saw behind her could've given her a heart attack. "Dad?" She spun around and saw, also, Tommy standing in the corner. "Tommy, what the hell are you doing here?"

 "Sh, calm down, babe. Your father just wanted me to show him where you ran away to," he said, smiling evilly.

 Laura looked over at her father, who looked pretty calm. "Dad, what are you doing here? This is my best friend's house!"

 "Laura, calm down. Don't be frightened. I came here because I missed you. You have been gone for a couple weeks now..."

 "Do you even remember what you did to me?"

 "Yes, I've realized it the following morning when I woke up with a hangover. It all flashed back. It was absolutely horrible. I cried myself to sleep for a week straight since I noticed you've been gone. What I did was so unacceptable, and I get why you would hate me. Can we talk about this more privately?"

 Laura was know cornered by her father and Tommy, and she could feel herself slowly...
Breaking down until her boyfriend came to her rescue.

 "What in the living hell is going on here?" Jayce screamed as he found the two guys cornering Laura.

 Tommy laughed and approached him, laughing. "Calm down, buddy..." He couldn't finish his sentence because he already receive a punch from Jayce. Soon enough they were on the ground fighting it out which caused Carlos and Lilly to run upstairs.

 "What's going o..." Lilly saw Laura's father and looked down at Jayce fighting Tommy. "Better question. How the hell did you guys get in my house?"

 "Lilly, they were here after I got out of the shower. I had no idea..."

 "Laura, don't. I know this wasn't you. It's Tommy trying to get back at us."

 "Actually, sweetheart..."

 "Please don't call me that, Mr. Collins," Lilly warned Laura's father.

 "Do we have to be so formal. I thought I told you before you can call me Daddy," he smiled at
Lilly, walking away from Laura.

 "Dad! What the hell?" Of course, he was the next one to get punched. This time it was Carlos laying the punch on him.

 Laura's father was not the strongest person even though he did lay his hands on Laura. Carlos was in every sport you can name, so he worked out a lot. I think you can guess who had the upper hand in this fight. Lilly and Laura gasped as Lilly grabbed for her boyfriend. Just as they separated from each other, Mrs. Gonzales stormed in. "What the hell? I thought I told you kids no fighting after a game of Monopoly..." she caught the glance of Laura's father. "Oh, hi. I don't think we ever met."

 "I'm Mr. Collins, Laura's father."

 "I'm Lilly's mother, Mrs. Gonzales."

 "Nice to meet you," they shook hands and even Tommy and Jayce were off each other. "You look very familiar. What's your maiden name?"

 Mrs. Gonzales smiled. "Well, it was Collins like yours. Ironic, huh?" she said, laughing looking at her daughter.

 "That's funny, I swear I thought you looked exactly like my sister."

 "Sister?" Laura asked, surprised by this news.

 "Oh, yeah. Sorry for not saying..."

 "I'm sorry, but my brother's name was Bruce Collins, and he left me when I was 15 to drink with his buddies instead of staying home and actually go to college."

 Bruce's eyes got wide as realized that this woman, was indeed, his sister. "Mrs. Gonzales, I'm Bruce Collins. I was at mom's funeral. I left when I was 17 because I was living with my girlfriend at the time, but I did go to college. I drank a lot, but I did go to college eventually."

 The whole room was silent. Lilly and Laura looked at each other. "Wait, so we're related?" Lilly asked, trying to get to the bottom of all of this.

 Mrs. Gonzales finally spoke up. "You're saying you're my brother, the one that abandoned me when I needed you most? I was going through hell in school and you just left me?"
Bruce ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "Yes. I'm sorry, but I wanted to have fun. I wanted to do what I wanted to do with my life."

 "Bruce, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she said, stepping back.

 "Sis..."

 "Don't, please. I'm not ready to come face to face with you after 20 years like this. I just can't. Please..."

 "I came here to speak to my daughter."

 "She's in my care now. You can talk to her tomorrow when I'll be free."

 Bruce sighed. "Fine, but I'm sorry...." he shook his head and climbed back out the window and climbed down, followed by Tommy. Mrs. Gonzales shook her head and left the room, wiping her face.

 "I should probably go check on her," Lilly said, grabbing Carlos and walking out of the room which left Jayce and Laura.

 Laura was dumbfounded. She turned to Jayce who was just as shocked as her. "I guess you're going to go too, right?" All of a sudden, Jayce's phone started ringing.

 "Hello Mom?"

 "Jayce, can you please come home. We need to talk."

 "What about?"

 "Please, it's important. I have to tell you something I meant to tell you a couple weeks now. You have been out of the house a lot and I never got a chance. Please come home."

 "Okay Mom. I'll be right there."

 He turned back to Laura. "Babe, I'm sorry. I have to go. My mom needs me..."

 "It's okay, go."

 He looked at Laura, who had her back towards him. "Laura..."

 She started sniffling. "Please. Just go."

 Jayce walked up behind her and hugged her from behind. "Promise me that you'll still be around when come back." Laura bit her lip and rubbed his arms.

 "It all depends when you'll be back."

 "If not tonight, tomorrow."
Laura turned around in his arms and kissed his cheek. "Okay. Text me," she said, walking with him to the door.

 "I will. Promise," he said, smiling and kissing her before running down the stairs.