Finding Me

13

Felicity

Felicity pauses her music on her iPhone and looks between all the people. 

"What's going on?" She asks suddenly feeling very self-conscious and ties her black bathrobe over her pajama shorts and spaghetti strap tank top. 

"Don't ask me they just showed up at the front door and sat down at my island." Her father holds his hands up. 

"We were just about to get into that." Adam jumps in.

"No, No...you don't get to talk. No, you were the one who forbade me from meeting this man and now you're here. What happened to we have a fabulous life here in San Francisco, you're just going to get your heartbroken, it's a waste of time. He didn't even want us..." Felicity is getting defensive and her Buckingham temper is flaring. 

"DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I'M HERE OR NOT!" Adam yells, his Buckingham temper just as bad as his sisters. 

"ENLIGHTEN ME!" She yells.

"THAN SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!" 

"ADAM LINDSEY!" Stevie chimes in. 

"I'm sorry...okay, Harry Styles always gifts us elaborate things when I do his taxes. This year he flew us to London and gave us backstage passes for An Evening With Fleetwood Mac, we would've been stupid to turn them down and I didn't expect to walk backstage and meet my mother for christ sakes." Adam takes a breath. 

"Well, you would've figured it out if you hadn't burned that letter." Felicity huffs.

"Felicity," Adam warns. 

She just crosses her arm and sips her coffee. 

"Alright, so we met Mom...Stevie, whoever the hell she is, and she told us that a mother always knows her son and subconsciously I knew as soon as I looked at her...anyway, she had invited us to go back to her hotel and we went and we talked and she mentioned that her dog was named Lily and Brooke made an off-hand comment about your middle name and your cat's name and now we're here. Mom wanted to meet you and she wanted to apologize to Lindsey for well...you know." He looks down. 

"Great, that's all fine and dandy but let's just..let's just flashback to January. I was working three jobs running on three hours of sleep daily, I'm drowning in student loans, car payments, health insurance, car insurance, and I had to choose if I wanted to eat or pay rent. So you started paying my rent for me. But the moment I drove myself out of the San Francisco county lines, to meet dad you decided you were just going to stop paying my rent. I was drowning and you left me there. Do you even realize that I have a medical inhaler that I have to renew every year? I take some stupid pill to stabilize my blood pressure and my heart murmur which costs me forty bucks a month. My allergy medicines are one hundred dollars alone. Adam, I couldn't do it and you just dropped me." Felicity shakes her head. 

"Yes, I made a stupid mistake. I let a stupid man dictate my feelings and do you know what the stupid asshole man did? As soon as you moved out here and stopped returning my calls and texts I started worrying about you. I started missing you. And when I defended you to Bryan...he cut me from the will. Said I didn't deserve the Keith name or money. I still own my practice I mean it's mine, yeah they started it for me but I made it as big as it is, but now I get nothing. And the only reason I haven't changed my damn name is because of the kids." Adam replies. 

"You're just weak." Felicity spits. 

"What do you mean I'm weak?" 

"Your whole life you ran to Bryan and tried to prove yourself to him. I could've told you when Charlotte died that pretty soon he'd drop you like he dropped me. Especially when you stopped doing what he wanted you to do. So when he finally dropped you, you panicked and didn't know what to do which brought you here." Felicity replies. 

"YES DAMMIT I'M WEAK! I'LL OWN UP TO IT. I NEED YOU FELICITY YOU ARE ALL I HAVE LEFT." Adam yells. 

"Adam, I love you. You are my brother. We shared a womb for nine months plus a room for about five months outside of the womb. But you really hurt me and I don't know how long it's going to take me to forgive you." Felicity states slamming her coffee mug down and running up the stairs. 

***

She was angrily rummaging through her closet when a soft knock came at her door. 

"Come in." She sighs defeatedly leaning up against the dresser. 

"Um, Hi...I'm Stevie Nicks. Your mom." She looks down sadly. 

Felicity just looks at her and starts sobbing into her hands. Stevie, by instinct alone just takes her into her arms and leads her over to the bed. She hugs her and gently rocks her, rubbing her hands up and down her back. 

"It was my idea for them to come here. If I had known I would've just bit the bullet and came here by myself." Stevie shrugs. 

"No, you're fine. Daddy's been saying he wanted to meet Adam for a while and he's been trying to get me to crack for months." Felicity sniffles. 

"I found out you were living with him in May and I had to stop myself from driving here then." Stevie looks down shamefully. 

"I wasn't going to contact you." Felicity pulls her knees up to her chest. 

"You weren't?" Stevie asks her heartbreaking. Her baby girl, wasn't going to call her. Her whole life all she wanted was a little girl that could be her mini me and dress up and love on, but she threw all of that away as heartbreaking as that is. 

"No...To be honest, Karen scares me and I thought that if I kept trying to contact you she'd have me arrested on grounds of stalking. When dad told me who my mother was...I just I was shocked." Felicity shrugs. 

"I'm on your birth certificate." Stevie looks at her.

"I've never needed to look at it. I didn't find out I was adopted until I was like twelve. And even when I got my driver's license, they took a bill, my adoption certificate, and my address." Felicity shrugs. 

"Anyway, the reason I came up here is because I think there's a little bit more to you and your brother's little argument down there." Stevie points. 

"I don't know. I think I'm just slightly scared." Felicity shrugs. 

"Scared of what?" She asks.

"Adam's always been the favorite. No one in my family really likes me. except my Aunt Deb, who isn't even my aunt, just Charlotte's best friend. I think my subconscious being thinks that Adam is going to swoop in and become your favorite and Dad's favorite. Because that's what he always does." Felicity sighs in defeat, her head falling onto Stevie's shoulder. Stevie takes the moment to run her fingers through her daughter's identical though slightly darker locks. 

"I don't play favorites," Stevie assured.

"Thanks, mom." Felicity looks up at her. Tears well up in Stevie's eyes as she just hugs her daughter tighter.