The Traitor

Chapter Two: What To Believe

Tension settled heavily over the dinner table as we sat, silently picking at our food. Nobody had touched their plates since I had spoken and it had been an uneasy few minutes since anyone had said anything. I hadn't meant to upset everybody, and actually, it was mostly just my mom who was upset.

I finally got up to courage to say, "Mom, I'm really sorry, I just...it feels like the right thing to do." At this point, I had run out of things to say that would adequately defend my decision, but I wasn't done proving to my mom, as well as the rest of my family, that this was the right choice.

She looked up at me and I immediately wished I hadn't said anything. "You mean leaving your family to go the Other Side when everyone you love has already chosen this Side? I can't imagine why you would think that would be the right thing to do." The ice-cold edge in her voice was unmistakable and I winced, rethinking my entire decision. No, I told myself. This is the right way to go. You know how much time and research you put into this. No backing down. But I wasn't sure what else to say to make her trust my choice to join the Daines.

"I just..." I sighed, racking my brain for something, anything else I could say to make her change her mind. This proved harder than I thought. "Mom, I'm sorry, but I think the Other Side is the right choice. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and I don't know, I think you might be wrong about the Wens." I knew I had gone too far when I said that, but at this point, all I could do was wait and hope they didn't take it the wrong way. I wasn't sure if they could ban me from making my own decision about where I stood, but I didn't doubt that they might try. I decided to stand my ground, hoping for the best.

My dad looked over at me. I was surprised to see that he looked disappointed, but not upset, like my mom. I thought he was going to yell at me, but instead, his voice was calm when he said, "Teya, please. You haven't chosen yet, please just try to rethink this. For your mother." He looked at me with pleading eyes and I desperately wanted to say yes. I wanted to stay with my family and friends, and if it were my choice, I wouldn't choose at all, but I knew this was the right way to go.

"I'm sorry," I said, looking down into my lap where my thumbs fidgeted nervously. "But I can't." I knew I had let down my parents, as well as my whole family. I didn't think they understood how hard of a decision it was for me to make. But I had come too far to stop now. I couldn't give up.

My mom looked up at me from where her eyes were staring into her lap and gave me an ice-cold glare. If. Looks. Could. Kill. "Well then you should probably go pack," my mom said, somehow even more angrily as she got up from the table and left the kitchen. I glanced over at my older brother, Brandon, who gave me a sympathetic look as if trying to make up for everything that had just happened. I frowned, pushed my chair out from the table, and stormed out of the room. I sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and flung open my bedroom door, slamming it into the wall behind it. Collapsing onto my bed, I put the heels of my palms over my eyes and began to cry, angry tears escaping the captivity where they've held back for so long.

I didn't know how things had turned out this way. I thought back to a couple months before when I had first started researching both Sides. I received a lot of biased opinion from older family and friends who had already chosen their side, but I had shut them out, wanting to form my own opinion about my future. I knew the importance of the choice I was about to make and I knew more than anybody how it could affect my relationship with my family and friends who had chosen the opposite Side than the one I was about to choose.

I flashed-back to less than an hour earlier when my family and I were sitting at the dinner table and my mom had asked me if I had chosen a Side yet. I knew she hadn't asked me before then because she always thought I would choose her Side, the Wen Side. I was nervous to say anything and she had asked me again. At that moment, I knew I couldn't hold off any longer. I had to tell her and brace myself for her reaction.