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Chapter 1: Maya

Edited

"Maya!"

My mother's screeching voice resonates in a house that now feels empty and cold. I wince slightly as she takes me by surprise and lookup from my homework.

What have I done now?

"Yes." I reply, coming down the stairs.

She glares at me as she usually does and I have to remind myself bitterly that I only get to see her smile whenever she has an audience to entertain. When was the last time she truly smiled?

"Didn't I call you down here 5 minutes ago?!" She yells, her eyebrows tightly knit together and her scowl so deep that it could resemble that of a wild animal.

"I was doing my homewo-"

Her hand cuts my sentence short before I'm even done with a silencing slap across my face and for a moment I am left speechless as I let it sink in a little. I raise both hands to my cheeks, then I start to feel the sting and my surprise is exchanged with loathing. Her acts of fury are never random and I can normally pinpoint when she will get mad and avoid the situation but nothing I did today, right now, permitted her to slap me. I turn to glare at the woman I call mother. I notice behind her a few empty bottles of vodka. I feel emotionally numb towards this woman.

I grit my teeth in anger. She's the one talking about family businesses to be continued yet when I go do my homework I am held accountable for not being at her feet 1 second after she utters my name? Ridiculous.

She clenches her jaw and puts her hand up, ready to strike again. At this point, I don't even care anymore. The woman in front of me is no mother of mine and hasn't been for quite some time now. The physical pain is simply something I've gotten used to.

Just when she's prepared to slap me, I close my eyes, ready to receive it, but it never comes. I open my eyes slowly and see Darren's big hand holding the vile woman's wrist.

"That's enough." He says softly and she relaxes immediately.

My whole body goes rigid as my muscles all tense in complete hatred and jealousy. Why is it that Darren can be a naughty child and I take all the blame for everything?

"I'm sorry..." She almost whimpers and I grit my teeth, spinning around on my heel to leave. I've had enough of this repetitive scene.

Why is it that all she wants to do is slap me and her burning hate changes whenever she sees Darren? I feel my heart being painfully pinched whenever Darren is around us. She gives him special treatment, acts like an actual mother to him, and yet she despises me, treats me like some scum at the bottom of her shoe that can't seem to come off.

"Maya!" I hear Darren call from behind me.

I walk faster up the stairs to get back to my room.

"Maya!" He calls again, nearer now.

He extends his arm and catches my wrist and I stop. He looks down slightly and opens his mouth as if to say something, and then closes it again. I take it as a sign that he isn't going to say anything, pull my arm away and lock myself in my room.

"Maya, I'll protect you." My older brother says with confidence and promise in his voice and for a second I feel my heart waver as I'm conflicted. That quickly turns to anger as I recall all the times he gave me empty promises.

"I'll have a gap year and i'll make sure you're okay. We can leave together once you've graduated." He whispers by my door.

Will he really always be there to protect me?

I want to believe it. But some part of me doubts it's true.

My mom wasn't always like this. There was a time when she was loving and caring as hard it is to believe.

My father started questioning whether I truly was his biological daughter because of the numerous rumors that my mother slept with other men around my birth. My father would probably have questioned whether Darren was his son too if he didn't look like his spitting image. I, on the hand, looked nothing like him, even down to our personalities, even though I was daddy's little girl. My father had blonde hair and blue eyes while my hair is brown, aside from my silver dye, and my eyes are brown. You can see the similarity when I'm next to my mother, down to the face shape and structure but not with my father.

That's why the fighting started; over whose I was. When I was twelve, I found out I wasn't his biological daughter. For me it didn't change the fact that he was my father but for him it definitely did. I didn't want my relationship with him to alter because of this news but it did. Shortly afterwards, his drinking and smoking habits just increased and with that, doubt. Doubt about whether my mom could really be trusted, doubt about whether he wanted to leave her or not.

With all this revealed, my father avoided my mother at all costs. That was it for my mother. She slowly started losing it. Being away from the one she loved was harsh on her, but she brought it on herself. There were rumors that she cheated but now that they were confirmed we felt betrayed. The last years of his life, he only showed a smile around her in public, never going near her in private. My mother has become similar in that aspect.

My dad kept on drinking and smoking without my mom being able to scold him for it, because in his eyes, she was nothing. She didn't exist.

He died in March from lung cancer 3 years ago. My mom locked herself in her room for a month. It was complicated for us. I was 13 and Darren was 14 almost 15. We didn't know how to drive and Darren had to take most of the responsibility as he was the eldest. Maybe that's why she's always nicer to him. But I wasn't left untouched by these experiences either.

Then she came out but drank all the time. The more she drank, the more aggressive she became. I couldn't let anyone at school worry about me. After all, I was fine. However bad the situation was at home, I was always fine. I made it my goal to make everyone's day great at school. Everyone has bad experiences, so if I try I can make someone's day,l then I would.

The one feature that I'm proud of is my short silver hair that I dyed. It's the one thing that I did that my mother was very truly against. It's like I've won something against her, like I've managed to change her view on something. Trust me, it's hard. When she's convinced for you to do or not do something, she really is determined. She won't budge one bit. Although she was against the idea, she learned to live with it. It's not like she can make it come off anyways, but I'm sure it was something along the thoughts and researches she did. I'll only have it for a year then it will slowly wash away. By the time I continue the company it'll be gone, like she wants it.

Well in the end she does get everything she wants.

~~~

Hey guys!

What are your thoughts on Maya's past and her family and how things are going on for her?

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Song: Lia Marie Johnson - DNA