The Gang Leader's Princess

|three|

Moments later the boy I recognized from my room walked in smiling quickly at me , before directing his attention towards my father.

"Yes?" He asked, walking over to us.

"Have you met Serena?" My father gestured over at me.

"Yes, although she seemed to have no clue who I am." Josh said, in an accusing way. I couldn't help but be confused.

I let out a small cough in order to capture their attention, "I'm sorry, am I missing something here?"

"Well I'll just put it this way... Josh is your brother." My father said, sheepishly.

"Step?" I asked, more confused than I've ever been in my life.

"No, full brother." He replied, looking me straight in the eyes.

"You're saying that I have a brother ...I've never known about my whole life?" I drawled.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

I stared at the both of them, for what seemed like hours . Josh was looking around , as if he was trying to find an escape route. My father however, continued to stare deep into my eyes. His gaze never faltered or strayed once.

"Your mom must have kept it from you." My father suggested , breaking the silence.

None of this made sense. My mom and I had a bond that was unexplainable, we told each other everything . She would never keep something like this from me .... right?

My mind was all over the place, I didn't know what to believe. I started to feel a little light headed , from the sudden possibility that my mom wasn't who I thought she was . I leaned against the wall, using it to support my weight and keep me up.

I closed my eyes , and took a couple deep breaths, managing to push everything aside long enough to head upstairs to my room.

I left Josh and my father downstairs , not even bothering to say a word to them. Surprisingly, I think they understood that I needed to be alone for a while.

Once I closed the door to my room , I ran over to my nightstand. Sitting nicely on the corner of it , was a picture frame of my mom and I. Just looking at the picture flooded me with warm memories of the day it was taken.

It was my freshman year, I had been struggling in school at the time . Not academically, but socially. I was different from most of the girls there , and to them that made me weird ...and an easy target.

I had never done anything to result in the way I was treated at school. I always kept to myself , focused on whatever book I could get my hands on. I sat alone everyday , and barely ever spoke a word.

Over time , things began to get worse. They stopped insulting me verbally all the time , and starting using fists instead of words.

That's when my mom took notice . I'd come home with bruises and bloody noses, almost everyday . She asked me constantly , who was hurting me. I never told her .

Until one day , I snapped . I couldn't take it any longer, so I told her. I told her who was hurting me.

With the new information I gave my mom , she went to the principal in hope to stop the bullying. Let's just say he was completely useless, and refused to do anything about it.

What my mom did next , might be one of my favorite memories I have of her. She punched my principal straight in the nose , so hard that blood poured right out of it.

I didn't feel bad for him at all. He refused to help , because one of the people bullying me was his daughter. When we got home , she contacted the school board and got him fired.

As a celebration , she took the rest of the day off , and we went to the beach. We had spent the whole day there, It's where the picture was taken. We were standing on the pier and holding ice cream cones , with smiles from ear to ear , while an older gentleman took our photo.

I stared at the photo, wishing I could go back to that day. I hugged it close to my body, as if I was afraid of letting go- and I was. I don't think I'll ever truly be able to let her go.

I pulled it impossibly closer to my chest before whispering, "I'm sorry mom."

And felt a lonely tear roll down my cheek.

♛