Untold Stories of the Unforgiving Youth

Chapter 38

The next day I was up early, surprisingly. My mom was still asleep which was a good sign, I didn't want her cooking for me. I had a shower and put on some fresh clothes  and decided to step out for a bit. I decided to walk over to Ms. Veronica's house. I hadn't seen her in awhile and I was officially on school break. I knocked on her wooden door a few times and it opened after the third knock. "Aleece," She said with a smile, it's pretty early for you to be coming over, come in, come in," she said. In the morning she looked more young for some reason. Her wrinkles highlighted her face and didn't phase her. I liked that. As soon as I walked into her house I was hit by the strong smell of cinnamon and coffee. Perfection. "What can you smell, Aleece?" She asked with a smile on her face. "It's either churros or doughnuts," I said with a laugh. "Neither," she said with a smile, "well, you are partly correct, it's a french doughnut. The beignet," she said with a little skip in her voice. "Oh yum," I said, I was hungry. When are you never Aleece? Ha.
"Come, I just made some coffee, please sit, I will bring the tea stuff." She rushed into the kitchen as I sat on the sofa. I decided to look around her living room, so I immediately jumped out of my seat and walked to a vintage glass case that had these little photo albums. I took out a velvet red one and blew the dust off it. As I flipped through the pages, I saw how beautiful Ms. Veronica was, she had a petite little body, with blonde hair and a cheery charm to her ways. She looked amazing. She looked like she was enjoying life, that's all I've ever really wanted. As I went in further, the album show cased her in what looked like her late 30's, she was carrying a baby. Probably her daughter, the baby had a pink and purple dress on. She was so adorable. As I went on the pictures showed how the baby had initially grown up. I came across a picture on the last page of the album, it was of Ms. Veronica and her now teenaged daughter. The girl in the picture, she looked familiar. I slowly unsealed the clear wrap that protected the pictures and peeled off that significant picture. As I stared at the picture up close, I kept getting this weird feeling that I had met this person before. Call me crazy but the girl in the picture looked like the slimmer version, of, me.
As I turned the picture over and gasped. I let the picture go and watched it defy gravity as it hit the floor. "Mother & Daughter, Laurel And Veronica Conzelias." It read at the back of the picture. My mum. That was my mum's name. Everything started making sense, Everything started clicking. Why my mom didn't want me coming here, why Ms. Veronica wanted to get to know me, why their cooking tasted so similar. As I stood there, stagnant, trying to make sense of everything Ms. Veronica came back. "Aleece I brought-" she stopped in her place and looked at me I could tell she sensed something was wrong. She slowly placed the tray down on the coffee table watching me with every move. "You- you're my mother's mum," my voice came out small. "Aleece I can explain," she said trying to reach for me. In one swift move I picked up the picture that had fallen to the floor and rushed past her. "Aleece please don't," her voice followed me as I exited the front door. I stormed up my front porch and opened the door. My mom was sitting in the living room in her robe. "Hi hun, what's up? Where'd you go?" She asked looking at me through her glasses. Ms. Veronica walked in after me and my mom slowly got up. "Oh, hello neighbor," my mom said awkwardly. "Give it up mom," I yelled across the room. "This is you," I showed her the picture. "This is you and her in the same photo," I said, my voice breaking as I pointed to the both of them. "Aleece," my mum started. "We didn't want you to know about our relationship with each other because it would just effect you. Remember she threw me out?" My mum said trying to touch me, I backed away. "I threw you out, because you were stubborn," Ms. Veronica said sternly. "I was still your daughter!" My mom yelled. "So you lied to me?" I said, as I cut in. "Just because you thought that would effect me, you lied to me? Mom, I have no family!" I could feel anger settle in my voice. "I have no one, and after years of having everyone I love lie to me and leave me, I thought you would be the last person on earth to deceive me," I said looking at her biting back all the nasty words I wanted to say, she was still my mom and I still respected the hell out of her for that. "And you," I said turning to Ms. Veronica, "you knew what was happening all this time and you lied to me, your own grand daughter. You both made me look stupid," I spat. "I'm going out." I turned around and left the house, I heard my mom call after me but I heard Ms. Veronica say to just let me be. She was right, I needed some time to cool off. Lots of time.