Stepbrother

26: Don't Open It

I never expected this day to happen. In fact, I've never even imagined it, but it's still happening here and now, right in front of me. My chest tightens as I look into the brown eyes of my father, who I have never seen since I was four, and now he's standing at my doorstep.

I can hear the sound of running water turning off in the kitchen, and Jordan's footsteps can be faintly heard, each step growing louder and louder. "Who's at the door?" Jordan asks a bit quietly. He has barely spoken to me these past weeks, and when he does, he speaks with a low tone.

"Who's this?" my father, or the man who left my mom and I, says aloud, shifting his weight to the side to peak into the house.

I move away from him, looking at his face with fear. As I speechlessly stare at him, my vision begins to blur from the tears wanting to fall out. Hatred and sadness begins to pump into my quickly beating heart, and my face reddens from anger.

Before another word could leave my father's mouth, I slam the large wooden door directly in his face, and I back away even further, taking in gasps of air. My hand reaches up to my chest, and I step backwards, only to feel my back bumping into Jordan's chest.

"Maya?" Jordan says my name with a panicked concern, and I suddenly feel him place his hands on my shoulders.

I immediately shove Jordan's hands away from me, and I turn my body to face him. At this point, my face is moist with my salty tears, and my heart aches with a pain I've never felt before. My ears are filled with the sound of my dad knocking at the door, and Jordan starts to walk to the door to open it.

"Don't!" I yelp out, grabbing Jordan's arm and pulling him away from the door. "Don't open it," I plead, my short gasps of air giving me trouble with talking to him. Both of us step away from the door.

Jordan's eyebrows wrinkle as he looks down at me. "What?"

I ignore Jordan and spin away from him, rushing towards the stairs. Before I could reach it, Jordan's hand wraps tightly around my wrist, and I dart my eyes towards him, sending him a furious glare.

"Maya, I don't understand what's-"

"You never understand!" I shout at him, cutting his sentence off.

Jordan's eyes widen, showing hurt and more confusion in them. He loosens his grip on my wrist, giving me a chance to escape from his grasp. I bolt up the stairs, avoiding Jordan's calls and the knocking on the door. I run into my room, feeling slightly safe under the covers of my bed sheets.

I close my eyes, but that doesn't stop the tears from leaving my hurting eyes. In moments like these, I wish that I could feel my mom's arms wrap around me, keeping me safe from the hurt and sadness, just like she did when my father decided to leave us.

"Maya, are you okay?" I hear Jordan say. "It's okay, he's gone. Whoever that was," he says reassuringly. I don't say a word. Instead, I lie in silence. "Maya?" he repeats. "Are you gonna open the door?"

I don't reply to Jordan. I keep my eyes closed, hoping I could fall asleep and calm myself down from the situation. I want to be alone, to sit in my dimly lit room and keep my thoughts to myself, since my best friend is no longer here to listen to my words.

If only I could start over and prevent all of this from happening. I wish I never fought with Kendall, I wish I never hurt Jordan, I wish I could've stopped my mom from leaving, I wish I could've been a better girlfriend to Jacob, I wish I could've been a better person. 

Within moments, I heard my doorknob rustling and a click, followed by the sound of my bedroom door creaking open. I open my eyes a bit, and the light from the hallway starts pouring into my dark room, and Jordan's shadow appears in the way, holding up a key in his hand.

"I have a key for every door in the house," Jordan answers my unasked question.

I roll my body over, so my back is facing him. I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone, especially him. He's been ignoring me this whole time, and now he suddenly wants to speak to me. One day he cares, and the next day he doesn't.

"Maya, what's wrong?"

"Go away," I grumble under my blanket.

Jordan sighs. "No, I can't do that. Who was that guy?"

I roughly pull my covers away and give him a death stare. "Will you stop doing that to me?" I ask, annoyed.

"Stop doing what?"

"Getting my hopes up and acting like you care. I know you don't, Jordan, so stop acting. I'm sick and tried of getting hurt, and you're not helping in the slightest way." Jordan stares at me, and I stare back, not dropping my gaze on him. Then I say, "Well? What's your explanation?"

"I don't have an explanation," Jordan says in a surprisingly soft way. I was expecting him to get mad, to yell at me, but he did the exact opposite.

"Then get out," I say harshly.

"No."

"Yes." I turn away again, covering myself with my blanket.

"Maya, it's difficult."

"What is?"

"Explaining myself."

"I thought you said you didn't have one."

"Well, I do, but it's complicated," Jordan tells me in a whispered tone.

I sit up in my bed to look at him once again, and Jordan is biting his lower lip. His eyes are looking down at the ground, and I knew right away that it had something to do with him acting strange in October. I just didn't know what it was.

"Wait, let me get something," Jordan mutters. He quickly leaves the room and returns just as fast, but this time he has a picture frame and the same shoebox I saw the day I fought with Kendall.

"What is this?" I ask Jordan when he hands me the box.

"Everything in that box was my mom's, before she had died. I kept it hidden under my bed, but I rarely open it."

"Oh," I mumble, remembering that Jordan's mom is a sensitive topic to talk about. I didn't really know what else to say, so I take off the top of the shoe box, and I look down at different objects within it.

"You know, it was my mom's birthday. October fifteen," Jordan adds, taking out a book, a hair brush, and a necklace. "I went to the cemetery to visit her, and I found this in the box." Jordan pulls out a folded piece of paper and hands it to me. "Read it."

I unfold the paper and read it, realizing that it's a letter from Jordan's mom. When I read each word, my heart starts to beat progressively faster, and when I read the last words on the paper, my hand goes up to my mouth. I start crying, tears falling onto the paper.

"Jordan, I'm so sorry," I weep out, and I suddenly feel Jordan's arms around me, both of us seated on my bed. "I didn't know," I tell him, my tears wetting his shirt.

"It's not your fault. I didn't tell you."

"Is that why you were so upset when Kendall confessed to me?" I ask him. Jordan doesn't answer. He just holds me as I cry harder than before. "Jordan, please tell me."

"Maybe," he answers.

***

This chapter's slightly longer :). So Maya knows what happened to Jordan's mom, and she understands why Jordan was so upset when he heard Kendall. I'll update chapter 27 asap. I just have a ton of mid-terms this week, which sucks smh