Touch Of Reality

¶ChapterTwo¶

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Song for chapter; The Vamps - All night.
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LATOYA

Staring back at the faces before me brought a wave of forced nostalgia. Everyone in the house had come out upon hearing my Mom call out my name, and I could see the shock in there faces. Lucien, my brother, had drastically changed. He had grown more in height than in comparison to his physique. Being only two years older than I was, I looked five years younger.

Dad hadn't changed one bit, his young and dormant features remained the same as he and Lake were often mistaken for being brothers. His bald head that we always made fan of was even balder than I could remember.

Mom on the other hand seemed not to take extra care of herself. Her naturally smooth skin seemed to be oily and her hair didn't look as neat as she always kept it. Her eyes carried dark circles which looked to have been permanent from lack of enough rest. Her face was pale and looked eaten up, maybe she was not well, or perhaps it was the stress of being a mother. We didn't really know the amount of depression they went threw, otherwise they'd always try to conceal it. I frowned at the thought, wishing she was so much of an open book.

What was only eight minutes felt like eternity, the tension in the air growing oddly thick. I clutched onto my purse unsure of what to to.

"Umm-" before I could utter a word my body was enveloped in a tight hug, nearly knocking me over. I immediately responded by hugging back and eventually dad joined in too, wrapping his arms around Mom and I. Lucien on the other hand just stood there, arms crossed and eyes furrowed in an odd way.

They didn't have to say anything for me to know that they missed me, I could feel it in our hug and the tears rolling down on my shoulder from my Mom's eyes clarified just that.

As we all perched on the sofas in the living room, so many questions were thrown at me that I couldn't think clearly. "Hey, hey, slow down." I said, raising my voice just high enough to get there attention.

"Sorry," Mom anxiously laughed clearly failing to contain her excitement, "but we've really missed you." I simply nodded with a smile.

"Why though, why did you have to leave honey?" This time it was dad who asked, his sitting position upright as if ready to snatch me if I try to leave again.

"It's complicated," I sniffed, whilst tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, "It felt like the right thing to do at the time, I was only sixteen and had all sorts of mixed emotions about everything. I thought maybe running away would take away that pain and-" a cold and dark humorless laugh caused me to stop what I was going to say right after.

"That's pure bull and you know it." It was Lucien, leaning against the wall by the door with a scowl on his face. "You run away not because you were afraid, but because you didn't give two shits about any of us. All you cared about were your precious feelings, could you not be more self-centered? And you think just showing up on a random day will take things back to how they were? I mean Latoya come on, I had to deal with losing my bestfriend and only brother. Think about Mom, she lost the one who she gave birth too, who she carried for nine straight fucking months but did she leave us when we needed her the most? No, she stayed because that's what family's all about. Lake would be so disappointed in you, to think you'd stoop so low only because you're dead on the inside. Staying would have showed you actually cared enough to be there but you... You left." I could hear a slight crack in his voice at the last part.

With his fists balled at his sides, he murmured a few curses before saying the last thing that nearly knocked the breath out of me. "You know what, forget everything I just said. Why don't you just go back forever this time, save us the trouble." Before walking out the door, slamming it shut and ignoring the pleas from our mother for him to come back.

I turn to my parents with hurt plastered on my face, is that really what they thought of me? That I was just being selfish and didn't care about them? Almost like she could tell what I was thinking, Mom spoke up, "Give him sometime dear. He lost his brother too and needed his only sister to be there for him. He's just hurt, he'll come along sooner or later." She shot me a warm smile which I miserably tried to return but the look she shared with Dad had me questioning if what she was saying was true.

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I wake up feeling drained, unable to sleep through out the night being the main cause. The rising sun peaking out through the curtains burns my eyes and I walk up to close them shut, needing the darkness more than ever.

Getting myself ready for the day ahead I try not to think about what happened yesterday and pay particular attention to why I came here in the first place. I make a mental note to call Stefan and Carina whenever I won't be busy or caught up in situations. I'm sure they're waiting for me to call.

After drying my hair and body with a towel, I put on a pair of black skinny jeans and my black Thrasher hoodie, my casual wear, then pairing the outfit with my black vans from the closet which surprisingly still fit. I let my hair fall loose into its natural curls and toss the dirty clothes into the hammer.

I head down the stairs for my breakfast, finding everyone awake already. "Morning people." I greet, whilst placing a heap of bacon onto a plate and munching right into it.

"Hey sweety." Dad responds and Mom just sends me a warm smile. I try to push past the fact that Lucien completely ignored my presence and didn't really seem to care.

"Lucien that's not very nice, say hello to your sister." Mom says with a hand placed at her hip, clearly noticing his attitude.

Lucien instead ignored our mother as well and stormed out the room leaving his plate unfinished. She let out a sigh shaking her head in disappointment.

Once I was done with my breakfast, I politely excused myself from the kitchen but was stopped by Mom telling me to wait just a sec. After a good five minutes, she returned with a box and an envelope in her arms.

This made me sit straight up in interest, was it Christmas already? She handed me the box first which I took and murmured a faint 'thanks' before going ahead and opening it. It was a pair of plain white Nike Air Force with my name branded on it and some other designs around it. It was a present I'd been wanting since I was 15 years old. With it was a silver necklace that had my name customized to the pendant with diamond stars. It was awfully cute and I had her put it around my neck that very moment.

"Thanks Mom, but may I ask what this's for?" I smiled, giving her a brief hug.

"Have you already forgotten that your birthday was only 48hours ago?" She rolled her eyes and I did too at her sarcasm, keeping quiet. Next she handed me the envelope. It was written in cursive, with blue glitter ink;

To my ugly broad of a sister Latoya on your 16th birthday,
From your favorite goofball, Lake. ;)

Immediately I closed the note shut, not ready for this. He wrote it the morning before he died. Whatever it was, I wasn't ready to open and read it now. My eyes stared at the note with shame, thoughts of guilt flooding over.

"It had been sitting untouched for five years you know, he asked me to give it to you." She gave a sad smile, peering into my eyes for some sort of reaction. But I had nothing to say, feeling like I'd suddenly become dumb. I wanted to ask what she meant by that, because I was with him throughout that day but barely uttered a word.

After placing the card in my bedroom drawer, I went down to my car and as the engine roared to life, a smile crept up to my lips. I Love It by Icona Pop ft Charli XCX blared through the speakers. I set off onto the road, prepared for whatever the day would bring.

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¶ a u t h o r ' s n o t e ¶

So... we've met Lucien, does he seem like a jerk or maybe he's just a softy on the inside?

Keep going if you're liking it so far <3

Comment and vote ;)