A Certain Not-So-Bad Boy

{twenty}

^^Carson's house^^ What do you think? Enjoy this chapter!

I shut the door to Carson's BMW and stared up at his house. It wasn't a house, really. No, it was a gorgeous modern lodge with huge windows and stone and wood elements. "Whoa," I breathed.

Carson just smirked and led me in the front door. Everything was just as impressive inside. There was a grand staircase that led to the upper floor and a burning fire in the stone fireplace. I looked up and wasn't surprised to see a unique wrought iron chandelier hanging gracefully from the ceiling. "You live here?" I asked, amazed.

Carson laughed. "Yeah, but it's not as great as it seems."

He walked to the left of the staircase and I followed him blindly. The area turned into a living room on the left, which was gorgeously furnished and decorated, and a kitchen on the right, which was updated with shining stainless steel appliances and sparkling black granite countertops. The light fixtures were all delicate and made of wrought iron like to chandelier in the foyer. "It's pretty great to me," I muttered. "Where are your parents?" I asked sitting next to him on a barstool at the kitchen island.

He didn't say anything for a moment before finally admitting, "They're not my actual parents."

I raised my eyebrows. "So... you were adopted?" I asked confused.

"My dad left when I was five," he started. "My mom and I were on our own, we had nothing. We were barely scraping by when she worked as a waitress. But she was taking online classes and she got her Bachelor's degree. She finally landed a job as an elementary school teacher. That was enough for us. We got a place in a better neighborhood, we didn't have to worry about whether there would be food on the table or if we would be able to pay next month's rent. We couldn't afford luxuries, but we were able to live comfortably.

"A few years later, right before I was eight, my mom was admitted to the hospital and diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of rare cancer that was in her right femur. She could only pay for so many medical bills. There was an eighty percent chance she wouldn't make it, and even if she got the surgery she needed, the doctors wouldn't be able to safely remove all of the tumor." My heart lurched, guessing what would come next.

Carson looked up at me. "She paid for as many treatments as she could to spend time with me, but in the end, she couldn't..." I wrapped my arms around him without hesitation.

"You didn't deserve to go through that," I told him gently, knowing that the last thing he needed was pity. My eyes searched Carson's and all I saw in them was a dull ache. Like a wound that once stung sharply was now weathered down to a miserable but constant reminder that he had lost his mother.

"I was sent to live with my mom's brother, her only living relative. He had a wife and they had a very successful business that she adopted from her father. They didn't want this other child, they already had one of their own."

All the pieces came together.

"The people who everyone thinks are my parents are actually my aunt and uncle. Clark is my mom's brother, Faith is my aunt, and Jade is my cousin."

I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes. The amount of information I received in the last five minutes was kind of overwhelming. But it made me look at Carson in a whole new light. He'd suffered the loss of both parents, in different ways, they were replaced by insensitive guardians who were neglectful and uncaring. "Wow... Don't get me wrong, I'm so glad you told me. But why did you tell me?"

He almost started his answer before he stopped. Cautiously, he spoke. "Because I trust you. And I felt like you deserved to know."

I felt a little guilty for not telling him everything. Carson deserves to know what happened as well. The whole story.

"Thank you," I told him genuinely. "There's more to what happened with my sister, you know," I started. He looked puzzled and dare I say, quite adorable. "She was ten at the time. My mom was driving her home because she couldn't go to sleep at a friend's slumber party." I took a shaky breath, reliving the moment before she left.

"Mom, where are you going?" I asked. She was in her pajamas, grabbing her purse and car keys.

"Getting Sawyer from the sleepover party. She wanted to come home. I'll be back in a couple minutes. Love you!" she finally called as the door closed and she drove away.

I felt a lump grow in my throat. "She was on her way back when there was a horrible accident. The car that crashed into them was driven by a high twenty-year-old guy. My mom was..." I let out a little sob. Before shaking my head at myself. "I'm sorry," I whispered through the tears. My head was facing down, staring at the big, dark spots my tears had created on my leggings. I felt like I couldn't breathe, like I was suffocating. The tears continued to stream down my face and I clutched the ends of my sweater sleeves. Everything was blurring together because of my tears.

I began hyperventilating before I felt arms wrap around me securely. My eyes squeezed shut and clung to Carson as if my life depended on it. All I could hear were quiet murmurs that soon began to take shape. Carson was whispering comforting words to me, effectively calming me down. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath before pulling away a little to look up at him.

"You scared me," he muttered, running a thumb over my temple and pulling me back into his tight embrace.

I smiled a little. "I'm sorry. That's only happened a few times before, I don't know..."

He looked down at me with a frown. His eyes were shining with concern. Concern for me. "You mean you don't know what that was?"

"Um... no?"

"Maya, I think you just had a panic attack."

{a/n}

This chapter was really sad for me to write :(

Thanks for reading! Make sure to vote and comment and yadda yadda yadda

QOTD: Are you multilingual? What languages do you speak? I speak English and Hindi, and I'm learning Spanish.

I'll see you guys in the next chapter, mwah! xx

-Seagull