more for us | grayson dolan (book two)

three

The classroom is completely silent. It's so silent that you can hear a pin drop. My eyes won't leave my mother's - whom I haven't seen in fifteen years. I can't believe she's here, in New York City. She's a professor at one of the best schools in the country. Her hair is longer than it used to be, but her hazel eyes are still the same. I'm at a loss of words. All of those horrible memories are rushing to the surface.

She never tried to contact me once. Never called, wrote, sent me a birthday card. She completely vanished. I used to wonder what happened to her. Jake always hated the idea of her, but she held a certain curiosity in the back of my mind. I started to play the piano because of her.

"Mom?" Violet's annoying voice speaks in shock. I already fucking hate her.

Laura Monroe is now Laura Koch, and she's my professor. How the hell is this happening? For once in my life, I have no idea what to say, what to do.

"Uh, sorry." She rips her eyes away and starts to pick up the papers that she dropped. I shift uncomfortably in my seat and hold back my tears.

"I'm Professor Koch, welcome to piano history. Obviously, you are all very gifted musicians." She keeps her eyes glued to me, completely speechless. "So, playing the piano should be easy. Today we are just going over the syllabus and will start the lecture on Wednesday." Her hands are shaking as she starts to pass out the papers.

When she reaches my desk, I can barely look her in the eyes. I have so many emotions that I don't know how to deal with. The syllabus lands on my desk and I start to go through it.

My mom eventually clears her throat, looking down at it. "I'm just going to take a quick attendance before we begin."

Oh god, here we go. This is the worst part of all. She starts down the list, and I'm waiting for her to awkwardly call me out in front of my classmates.

When she doesn't say my name, my eyebrows furrow. Am I not on the roster? The class is on my schedule.

"All right, let's go over everything. I will tell you about upcoming assignments and the due dates for them."

A few kids continue to stare at me with amused looks on their rich faces. Violet keeps glaring at me, she's obviously pissed.

I keep my head down and follow along to what Laura is discussing. Thinking of her as mom feels so weird to me.

She's very disoriented and keeps rambling. Her voice is low and her words are jumbled. Obviously my surprise arrival was not on her agenda. She probably thought I would stay trapped in the south side forever.

I desperately want to pull my phone out and call Grayson, or Jake. Oh my god. My brother is not going to be happy when he finds out the news. He's always had this vendetta against our mother, and had every right to. She left us with our abusive father and never looked back.

About an hour later, her rambling comes to a stop. "That's all for today. We will start our first lesson next class. Have a great day."

Students stand up and gather their books, practically rushing out of the classroom. The tension in the air is very obvious.

Violet abruptly rises in her heels. "Laura, care to explain?"

My eyes look back and forth between the two. Holy crap, this bitch is technically my step sister.

"Violet, could you give us a minute?" Laura keeps her focus on me.

Her evil step daughter  rolls her eyes before lifting the Prada bag onto her shoulder. Her heels click along the floor, until she's completely gone.