Dominions

Chapter 7: Selena

Selena was frantic in the hours before the bonfire. This was the first social event of the year at J.P Adams High School. She had to not only impress, but thrive. Everything from her clothes to her makeup had to be perfect. Add on to this she has a kind of date with that boy Judah. She still wasn't sure how he managed to convince her, but it was one more stressor to add to this night.

"You're going to be the prettiest one there, Sele," said Aria. "Stop worrying. You're amazing."

Selena looked at her sister and lightly smiled. Once again Aria was made to be her backbone in a moment of stress. Why was she like this? She hated depending on others, but for reasons that she couldn't describe, she always found herself latching onto a hero. Regardless of the situation. She let out a loud groan and fell backward onto her bed. The new laptop that her dad bought her for her birthday last night lay unopened on the side of her. She couldn't bring herself to open such an expensive gift when her family couldn't even afford the condo or the tuition for the school she had gone to all her life.

"Or are you nervous about the boy you're going with?" said Aria in a teasing tone. "Judah. Judah the handsome boy who shares your birthday? The boy with the tanned skin and golden brown hair that you wrote about in your diary?"

"Oh my gosh, Aria!" said Selena.

She threw a pillow at her sister and laughed. Yes, she was embarrassed to admit it, but she was intrigued by Judah. She was even more embarrassed to admit that she didn't lie to him when she said that him knocking into her yesterday really did have a butterfly effect on her belly. Selena hadn't experienced that in the longest time.

"Did dad give you 'the talk'?" her little sister asked her with a sadistic smile. "I remember when you would go out with Andy, everytime you'd leave on a date you'd get sat down with the whole 'Mija, you know that you don't have to do anything you don't want to, right?" Aria turned her nose up and copied her father's accent in a perfect imitation.

"You're scary good at that," said Selena with a grin.

Selena got up from the bed and looked into the mirror one last time. She started at her long dark hair and let her eyes travel down her blue and white floral shirt, then to her dark blue jeans, and her white keds. She took a deep breath and walked out of her room and down the short hallway of her family's basement apartment. Photos of her family in happier times when they had money lining the walls.

Selena knew that money wasn't the root of her happiness. She wasn't shallow enough to believe that all of her problems would be solved if she had money again. The truth is this happened to her family, and there was a piece of them broken that none of them have been able to find since. They still loved each other. They're family after all, but there was a light that died in her father the day that he told them their whole world was changing. There was a fire extinguished in her mother's eyes when she looked at him.

And it was up to Selena to hold them together, but she couldn't even do that right. It was Aria who was truly being the glue.

"Mom, I'm heading out," Selena called from the front door.

"Don't be too late, Mija," she called back from their bedroom. She hardly left that room if she wasn't cooking nowadays. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Westfield Cove was only a little ways away from the building that Selena stayed in. When she lived in the penthouse, she could see it from her old bedroom window. She used to love watching the people there walk along the beach. She'd see young couples late at night walking along the shore, and she would try and imagine the stories that they had. What brought them here to the beach? Were they truly happy?