Dear: Who Now?!

Chapter 26

An hour later, mom and I are entering a salon that seem to already be ready for us. We're both sat down and immediately worked on with little bit of conversation here and there. 

Two VERY LONG hours later, the stylist is done with me. "Wanna see?" She asks me excitedly. I nod my head and she turns me to look in the mirror. My jaw drops open in shock! My entire head is black! There's isn't a trace of the red left! Slightly annoyed, I turn around and instantly forget my problem when I see my mother!

Instead of her pin straight, jet black, slight emo fringe haircut, she now has curly brown hair! She puts down her mirror and turns towards me, laughing slightly at my reaction. "Is it that bad?" She asks jokingly. I quickly shake my head no in response. We both stand up and look at eachother. "I hope you don't mind that I had your whole head dyed black with no other colors without asking you - Oh! And a slight trim." I shrug my shoulders, still in awe of her hair. She laughs and brings me to the front to pay. 

Once outside, I don't see our little red car. I look around panicked before mom points at an old light blue and white chevy truck. Scrunching my face in disgust, we walk towards it and get in. 

Five minutes later, we're outside my imminent hell. Just as I go to get out, my phone buzzes with a message. I look at the contact name and groan - my dad!

Dad: Hey sweetie! 

I roll my eyes and begrudgingly send a message back. 

Me: Hey.

Instantly, another message comes through. 

Dad: How are you? Are you anywhere fun?

I roll my eyes but send another message - Have I ever said just how much I HATE MY DAD! 

Me: I'm good. And no.

My phone buzzes again. I'm starting to get annoyed. 

Dad: I don't believe you lol - Prove it! :p

I let out a frustrated noise. 

Me: How? 

Yet another message. 

Dad: Idk... Send me your location and I'll decide whether or not you're somewhere fun or not - like an amusement park or something

I growl and quickly send him my location before silencing my phone and putting it in my pocket. I get out of the car and close the door than quickly walk over to where mom's waiting for me. "You okay?" She asks me worriedly. I nod my head and we head inside, up the two flights of stairs where mom knocks on the door. 

Seconds later, it opens and reveals Joey. He seems excited to see mom but it quickly vanishes when he sees me. "What?" He asks rather rudely. Mom looks up at him. "Can we come in for a minute? Ophelia has something she'd like to say." I slowly meet his eyes and nod. At that he hold the door open wider and lets us pass through, closing the door behind me. 

After the door closes, we all stand around awkwardly before Lou tells everyone to sit down. Joey's the only one that listens. Mom hangs out by the door while I move to the center of the room.

I hear the tv quiet down. My nerves start to take over. I look at everyone and then look at my feet, wishing I could just disappear. I let out a small sigh and start. 

"I'm really sorry for being stupid and kissing you. I don't really know why I did it - Well I do but it's stupid and I wasn't thinking - it's also petty and I regret everything. If I could take it all back and undo it I would. I didn't expect everything to unfold as it did. If you wanna hate me go for it - I mean I deserve it and I'm really sorry. I felt super bad about it which is why I'm here now apologizing. So yeah - I'm sorry." I say quickly and rather lamely. 

It's quiet so I look up. Joey's intently staring at me and it almost makes me gasp and take a step back - but I don't and I stay rooted to my spot. Finally he sits back. "It's fine." He says nonchalant. Confused, I look at him. I kissed him  and he made such a big deal over it when it happened! Now I apologize and all I get is "IT'S FINE!?"Well that's freaking STUPID! I'm knocked out of my thoughts when my mother puts her hands on my shoulders. 

"Thank you for apologizing O, We all appreciate it." Then she looks at Joey. "But that's not the only reason we're here." She takes this minute to glance back at me. "Would you mind sitting for a sec - wherever you want." she adds. I nod and take my old seat on the couch with Lou. Once I'm seated, it's all quiet for a moment and then mom starts and to me at least - looks kind of nervous. 

"So the other day when I ran out." Mom starts slowly and almost unsure. She's quiet a moment as she thinks about what she wants to say, then she continues. "I ran into your dad as I was running down the stairs." She says looking between Lou and Joey. They both nod. "He stopped me and told me I should get a DNA test done." Mom pauses again before continuing with her brows furrowed. "I was so upset, that none of it really made sense and it all happened so fast." She looks up from the ground and at all of our faces before looking back at something on the floor and slowly moving her shoe over it. "He quickly plucked a little baggie out of his pocket and gave it to me." Her brows furrow again as she continues staring at the ground. "Something about how Ophelia looks like a relative or something - I don't know.  Anyway, so I leave here and take off, completely putting that whole weird encounter behind me." Mom looks up and we all nod slowly, not seeing where this is going at all. "While I was by myself, the conversation popped into my head and it still confused the ever living hell out of me. I thought about it a bit and then thought your dad thought he and I were related which freaked me out, considering -" Mom looks at Joey and stops quickly. "That's when I remembered he said something about Ophelia." She stops and looks at us all again. "So I went downtown, brought the little baggie of what I found to be hair in it, thankfully found a strand of O's hair in the passenger side of the car and brought it in to be tested for whatever reason." Mom looks up, looks at the three of us quietly before continuing on. "I got the results today and -" She bites her lip nervously, looks at us all quickly and continues looking at Joey as she ends what she's saying. 

"- And your Ophelia's dad." She says shakily.