My Sunshine

Chapter 1: Winter

When you think of your typical American family, you usually think of loving parents and happy kids that love each other, right? Well, my family is hardly anything like that. In fact, we're quite the opposite.

Sitting at the dinner table on the night before summer, which should have been one of the happiest nights of the year, was actually more of a nightmare than our usual family gatherings.

"No, mother, you decided that for yourself!"

"Lily, I will not tolerate you speaking to me that way!"

"Oh, and it's okay for you to practically humiliate me and Asher! I told you mom, I love him! But, what? My happiness means nothing to you?!" Lily, my love sick sister, shouted across the table at my mother.

Ever since she started dating her boyfriend, Asher, he's been a frequent topic of discussion in the Hastings household. Or should I say a frequent topic of debate. Let's just say, my parents didn't quite appreciate the fact that he was as high as a kite the night he was supposed to meet the family.

"Ugh, Lily, would you just shut the fuck up? Your boyfriend is a fucking stoner. He started reciting poems about the salad when he was over. Gosh, and you still wonder why mom and dad don't like him?" My brother, Ace, muttered sarcastically.

"Ace Hastings! Must you curse so much?" My mother gasped, tears brimming her eyes. Great, here come the waterworks, "Darrel, discipline your son!"

"Ace, would you stop cursing so much? Please, spare me the daily migraine," my father sighed.

"Oh, so Ace gets off with a warning despite being the biggest jackass this family has ever seen? Are you kidding me?! Does no one care about my feelings?!" Lily exclaimed, once again throwing a temper tantrum at the age of 16.

"Oh my gosh, Lily. Can we eat one meal without having to listen to you whine about how no one cares about you? We've already established that no one does! Now if you could shut up and eat your food like a normal 16 year old, that would be great." I said, sick of all the yelling.

Letting out a huff of annoyance, Lily finally shut that annoying mouth of hers and settled on picking at her food. My dad sent me a grateful look. Out of all the psychos in my family I had always been the closest with him.

"Okay, well now that that's settled, your mother and I would like to make an announcement," my father said, gaining the attention of everyone at the table.

"Oh no, please don't tell me you're pregnant," Ace said, looking up from his phone to glance at our mom.

"No," she snapped, grabbing his cell phone and putting it in her pocket, "I'm not pregnant, but thank you for finally looking up from your phone, Ace. It's nice to know I actually have a son and not just two daughters and a cell phone."

I snickered as Ace gave our mother an exasperated look.

"Anyways, back to what I was saying. Your mother and I have an announcement," our father continued. "We're going to California!"

"What?!" Lily, Ace, and I all said at once.
~
After my father's announcement of our vacation, there were mixed reactions around the table. Being a fairly wealthy family, we've never really had a limit on what we can have. Which, pretty much explains why Lily is such a brat and why Ace is such a jackass.

"Gosh, this is so fucking unfair!" Ace shouts at our dad, "I told you that I had plans this summer, Dad!"

"For goodness sake, Ace, shut the hell up. Most kids would kill for the chance to go to California. Stop acting like a spoiled brat and be grateful that we can go on this trip as a family."

"A family!" Ace scoffed. "Wow, Dad, if you think that we act like a family then you've clearly lost it. You don't care about family, you never have! All you care about is keeping the perfect Hastings family name in check."

I scoffed. I usually try to stay out of the family feuds, but it's times like these when my brother chooses to act like a world class douche that I just can't help myself.

"Oh, here we go. Grab your umbrellas everyone, a major shitstorm is about to unfold! Gosh, Ace, can we please go one day without your bullshit?" I said, rolling my eyes as Ace and my father turned to face me.

"What the hell, Winter? This doesn't concern you," Ace said, trying to wave me off.

"Oh, yes it does. I don't care what your plans were this summer, but you're going to have to change them. Dad booked this trip for us so that we could start acting like a family again. So stop acting like a spoiled brat."

"Wow, Winter. One year passes and you think you're a saint now? Well, guess what? I can see straight through you and I see that you're still the same girl you used to be." Ace spit out before storming up the stairs.

"Love you too, big brother." I mumbled under my breath.

In a way he was right, I did used to be a horrible person. Heck, I was probably worse than Lily and Ace combined. I had been a spoiled bitch that knew no boundaries. But, those days were over and Ace knew it, yet he still took it upon himself to be the one to constantly remind me of who I once was.

Ah, family, you gotta love them, right?