Protecting Me

1

APOV

"Annnnaaaa, my cookies don't look like yours..." I roll my eyes at my best friend.

My name is Ana Steele, I am 22 and in two weeks I start Medical School at the University of Washington in Seattle. My best friend is Kate Kavanagh but she hates her last name so most of the time she tells people that it's Steele, which is fine. When we meet our first day of 4th grade I pretty much adopted her as my sister.

I have an older brother Nick Steele. We have the same father but neither of us sees him more than once a month. Our birthday's and Christmas are the days we get more than just a single day of our father's attention. My father, Franklin Steele, is one of Seattle's biggest billionaire manwhores. I'm quite sure that I have more siblings out in the world because of his whore ways but he's my father and I love him.

My mom's name is Carla and my stepdad is Ray Morgan. She meet him when I was 8 years old and the way the talk it was love at first sight. She was walking out of a bookstore and tripped and he caught her, they've been together ever since. I love my mother but once she met Ray I quickly became third in line of important people to her. I know she loves me but she has always put their happiness in front of anybody else. 

Kate and I both were accepted into WSU when we graduated High School. She wasn't going to go because her family didn't have the money and also she wasn't awarded any scholarships. I called the school and arranged for her tuition to be paid each semester plus extra for her to live on. She studied Psychology and I studied Microbiology. We both graduated with Bachelor Degrees. We lived in an apartment my father owned while attending WSU. Kate and I both got jobs volunteering at the hospital. She also found a neat job at a local cafe names Coffee Crazy.

My father may not be very visible in my life but he would drop everything if I called with an emergency. When my grandfather James passed away he left everything to Nick and me, which when sold total nearly 60 million for each of us.

I have never told Kate about it being me who donated the money and I never plan to let that little secret slip out. She has always accepted me for being who I truly am not because of who my father is. Unfortunately, Kate understands what it's like to be judged because of the father you have. 

You see, Eamon Kavanagh was arrest on the eve of his daughter 9th birthday for embezzlement. He not only stole 40 million over 10 years from the company he co-owned but also committed fraud. He is spending the rest of his life in prison. They courts froze all Kavanagh accounts and eventually, the account only had a few hundred left after being ordered to repay all debt. Her mom decided to move away after both Kate and her brother Ethan were targeted by people who were once their friends. Ethan ended up in the hospital for nearly a week because some members football team beat him up after their fathers mentioned they lost money because of Ethan's father. The girls who used to be Kate's best friends went all "Carrie" on her by pouring red paint all over her during a talent show she was performing in. Both groups got suspended and their mom wanted them arrest but neither Kate nor Ethan wanted to live through more torture so she agreed and they moved the next week.

When they moved to Montesano they slowly opened up since no one knew who they were related to. It took a good 3 months for me to get Kate to even say more than "Hi" to me. Once she realized I wasn't going away, we've friends we have been joined at the hip ever since.

"Did, you use baking powder or baking salt?" I ask when I hear a knock on the door.

"Shit, I swear I don't know where you learned to bake so well." I hear the 4th batch of cookie mix being dumped into the trash. I shake my head and walk to answer the door.

"ANA!" My brother yells before picking me up and swinging me around.

"I'm gonna throw up on you if you don't sit me down." He drops me like a sack of potatoes.

"Ana, who was at the doo...." I look up at Kate just staring at my brother. He is staring at her too.

"Hello?" I snap my finger in front of Nick's face and he shakes his head before blushing and turning back to me.

"I came to take my favorite girl.. girls out for welcome back/ Congrats on moving to Seattle dinner." I laugh as he tries to play off saying girl instead of girls. I know these two are secretly seeing each other but I don't understand why neither will tell me.

"Umm, well I have something already planned for myself tonight but Kate is free. Right, Kate?" I wiggle my eyebrows at her and she burst out laughing.

"Ana, may I speak to you?"

"We are speaking?" I smirk and she glares at me.

"Sure, be right back, Nickie pooh." I play slap, my brother before Kate drags me into her room.

"You know?" I nod and flop on her bed

"I want to know why you haven't told me?"

"We haven't really been going on date. We kissed the night before we left on our 3-month road trip and since we've only been talking. I just didn't want to get too excited in case we didn't work out. Forgive me?"

"Of course, plus if you get married we will be sisters legally!!" I help her get ready and she tells me all about her feelings for my brother I roll my eyes because it's so obvious they are in love with each other.

"You kids be good and you mister... You break her heart I'll..." I stop and think because he's my brother so.." Kick you in the balls, got it?" They both laugh and Nick pulls me into a hug.

"I won't hurt her. I love her too much. Thank you for understanding." I nod and kiss his cheek.

"Bye bye" I wave and shut the door before running to my room to change then getting comfortable on the couch. Tonight is gonna be a pizza and ice cream night along with The Nanny and Golden Girls marathon.