Lashton: My Sister's Boyfriend

.::Chapter 56

[@DCStudios: This story is the only one that's ever made me feel so emotional,and in a good way too!But when I see an update I feel like crying from joy and jumping up and down at the same time.This story can always make me laugh and it gets better in every chapter,I hope it doesn't end either!]

{Special} Clifford's side ~ 'the one who always wished to be normal'

"What's wrong with your daughter? Why is it that she never smiles?" Aunts, uncles, visitors and in this particular case, a social worker would always ask my mother the same thing, followed by a half-assed suggestion. "Her very presence makes the air seem...hostile around this place. Have you ever thought about getting her some therapy?"

I was eight years old when I started to realise others would use the word 'therapy' a lot when they talked about me. Though, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure what it meant at that age.

My mother, always so charmingly kind, laughed softly at the comment, "She's only a child."

But the man wouldn't laugh back, his expression remained emotionless. "All the more reason to do it, Karen. I am serious, May has...A very deep psychological issue. Just by watching herー You...You can see she is not well."

"Nonsense," She kept insisting, "She's just a bit shy. Just yesterday, she was playing with the rest of the kids at the park. My little Dani isー"

She stopped speaking when our eyes met. Perhaps she had forgotten I was in the same room as them, sharing the same kitchen table, I wouldn't blame her since I didn't speak much to begin with. "Dani, baby...Will you mind...Going away for a while? Mommy needs to talk in private with the man."

I wasn't stupid, I knew who the man was and why he was there in the first place. My parents had plenty of fights, it always started with the accusations, followed by the screaming and the yelling, then it would end with one of them trying to kill the other.

I was so glad the neighbours had sent enough noise complaints to the police, otherwise this man wouldn't of visited my family twice a week to check up on our well-being. "May? Danielle, do you understand mommy?"

'Of course I do, idiot.'

"Why don't you nod your head if you understand? You can do that, right?" He took out his thin rimmed glasses to focus on my reaction and placed them on the table. "Come on, nod your head."

I flipped him off.

"Haha, hahahah...Dani likes to joke around..." My mom automatically laughed, standing up and gently pushing me out of their sight. "Baby, how about you run upstairs and play with Mikey?"

〜 Much like our parents, my big brother and I had our share of battles as kids; But unlike our parents, the two of us always made up. I couldn't stay mad at him for more than an hour, though I was never sure if something like that was mutual.

"Mikey?" I opened his bedroom door and found him sitting on the floor, his legs crossed and his green eyes staring at his reflection on the big mirror that was glued next to his closet. "Mikey...I'm sad, too..."

"Don't care." He was ten years old, if I recall correctly, almost eleven and I knew why he was looking so distant that day. "...Is Mom still talking to that man?"

I nodded slowly. "I think he was mad because Dad wasn't here, even when he promised he would."

"Our old man is a liar, what more could you expect?" After a short pause, he turned his whole body around and signalled me to sit across from him. "Close the door, I have something I want to show you."

I did what was told, and he suddenly grabbed a white shoe box from under his bed and opened the lid. A small, fluffy brown bird resided in it. A few of its feathers looked disoriented, it had a bottle cap of spilled water on the side and enough teared pieces of toilet paper around him to make a bed. "It's so cute..."