Let's Pretend (5sos Adoption Story)

0.6

"Do you ever feel invisible? Like a ghost. Like... you can see everyone around you but they just pass right through you?"

I stared at her, taking in her words. Her blue eyes were locked on the hard wood floor of my room. Brynn had eyes like nothing I'd seen before. I wanted to say they were like blue fire, but I'd seen blue fire, her eyes just didn't match the color. They burned just as bright, but they were so much lighter, clearer, almost like ice.

And I knew what she was talking about exactly. I'd experienced it too many times in my past. "Yeah," I said, "I know that feeling."

I watched her carefully as she looked at me, her face was sad. This was a completely different side of Brynn, maybe the real Brynn. In public she always wears a smile and she always seems to be at the center of everything, it's like she lights up a room when she walks in. I tap my fingers against my thigh, a tune forming in my mind as I attempted to shift my words into lyrics inside my head. I blinked, trying to focus on Brynn and pull myself out of my thoughts. Sometimes I do that, just think up song lyrics when I'm trying to do something else. It's not really my fault though, they just pop into my head.

"What made you feel that way?" I asked. "I don't get it, at school you're the center of attention all the time. Everyone loves you."

She shrugged. "I wasn't talking about school. My parents are never home. They're doctors, so they're always working. They travel a lot and leave me and my brother alone in our house, sometimes for months at a time. In fact, he pretty much raised me. When they are home, they still never have time for us. They're always tending to new patients."

"Oh," I said. "That's stupid. If I had a child, he or she would always come first, before - before everything. No kid deserves that."

She looked at me with those eyes that had this burning quality that I couldn't seem to drag my eyes away from. "Thanks."

I swallowed, nodding my head. "Just the truth." I looked away. "You know, maybe I know them," I said thoughtfully, leaning against my bed. "I mean, I've been around a lot of places, if they've ever been to the East Coast maybe I've seen them before. What are their names?"

"Ethan and Kate Matthews. They're both called Dr. Matthews so it can get a bit confusing."

I stayed quiet for a minute. I did know them, or at least one of them. Kate Matthews was a doctor I'd had after a bad accident once in Boston. "Yeah," I said finally. "Your mother was my doctor for a bit in America."

Brynn looked up abruptly. "Oh. Well that makes sense, she's a pediatrician and she actually does spend a fair amount of time in America, especially on the East Coast."

I licked my dry lips. "What about your dad? What's his specialty?"

"He's a neuro and cardio surgeon," she said, picking at her jeans. "He's, like, uh, crazy well know in the medical world." She said it like she was embarrassed.

I smiled softly. "I guess we both have famous parents now."

She looked up. "What? What do you mean? Who are your parents."

I looked away from her, avoiding her gaze. "Well, foster parents. Ever heard of the band Five Seconds of Summer?"

Her eyes widened. "No way."

I laughed. "Way."

She made a noise that was somewhere across between a strangled gasp and a surprised exhale. "Wow, just... I'm not really a big fan of them but it's kind of weird that I'm sitting in a celebrities house."

I laughed. "Yeah, when I first came here about a week ago I had an idea of who they were but didn't really know know them, so it was a bit of an adventure looking them up online."