Waiting for Superman

Chapter One: The Return

"Jesus fucking...are you kidding me?! 'House' my ass..."

The quiet words were murmured into the hushed atmosphere in the car as the brunette turned the radio down, leaving it barely at a whisper in an attempt not to wake up the sleeping boy in the back seat. What the hell she was supposed to do now? She had been expecting to be able to pull up in front of a rather sizable two-story house, park in the drive, and make her way to the front door; she had not expected to find herself stuck in front of a large iron gate that was blocking her way up towards the house. Sharp hazel eyes gazed up at the house in front of her as she sat inside her idling car, her fingers drumming incessantly on the steering wheel while silently hoping the gate would open by sheer force of will.

Looking up at the mansion, she found herself shaking her head a bit. This place was at least ten to fifteen times bigger than her apartment back home. Then again, it wasn't hard for that to be possible – there were days she vowed that a cardboard box would have been bigger than her apartment – but the 'house' where she'd heard her little brother was staying was so much bigger than the normal definition of a house; instead of the maybe two stories she had been expecting, this so-called 'house' was at least three, maybe four, stories tall - not counting whatever basement or rooftop section the building might have also contained. She was fairly certain that this 'house' qualified as a mansion in literally anyone's dictionary.

Leading down from the house was a long, winding driveway that stretched down the hill to the gate she was currently stuck in front of. Glaring at the iron gate decorated with ornate metal flowers in front of her, she huffed out a short, quiet growl of frustration. How the hell was she supposed to get through a gate like this? It's not like she could just jump the gate; or...well...she could, but she doubted a random woman jumping the gate and showing up on the doorstep would go over well, even if she was related to one of the guys staying there. To be honest, she didn't know if Darius' friends even knew about her. She hadn't spoken to her baby brother in nearly three and a half years, and she knew that fact alone had hurt the younger man greatly.

She could still remember a time when she had been very close and probably overly protective of the boy five years her junior. Back then, she had been living with the Rusnacks since she was 10 years old, and despite being the older of the two she had still grown up with the other boy. For most of her life, the two of them had been damn near inseparable. Even after she was kicked out of the house shortly after her 17th birthday; as supportive as the Rusnacks had been, they were less than thrilled when she found herself pregnant, yet refused to give the baby up for adoption. In fact, Darius had been one of the few people in her life at that time who continued to support her and stay by her side for the entirety of her pregnancy and long after.

The night the two of them had fought about her relationship with Tripp had been the last time she'd seen or talked to him in years, and truthfully adjusting to life without her little brother had been one of the hardest things she'd been through in the last few years, and that included going through childbirth.

Having to adjust to life on her own in the environment that she'd left herself in with Tripp had been one of her biggest challenges, and refusing to listen to her brother or anyone else in her life at that time had been her biggest mistake. It had taken many hospital visits and many dark nights where she wasn't sure she was actually going to come out of the other side, but eventually there had come a point when she realized just how big of a mistake she had made. Just how dangerous the man she'd secluded herself with actually was. The problem was, it took her too long after that for her to actually build up the courage to leave. Life with Tripp was all she'd known for so long that she wasn't sure she'd be able to actually live life instead of just survive it.