I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason Berry/Zacky Vengeance)

Chapter Four.

“Don’t call me that.” I quietly said, my voice shaking as I tried to control my anger. “Only the people close to me can.”

“Baby, I am close to you.” She then said, her voice cracking as she instantly began to cry.

“Correction.” I snapped. “You were.”

She sobbed a little as she wiped at her tears. I used to hate seeing my mother cry, and I’d do anything in my power to cheer her up and make her smile. I couldn’t care right now. Not in the slightest.

Finally, I turned to look at her, scowling at the sight. Her eyes were dark and red from crying and lack of sleep, and her hair was an absolute mess. I probably looked just as bad; maybe even worse, but I felt I had a better reason to look like shit. She didn’t have to lie to me, after all.

I used to look at my mother and be in awe of how pretty she was. I was always so proud as a kid, walking into the school playground and being the only one with the stunning young mother from California holding onto my hand. Of course, we looked absolutely nothing alike. Her hair was blonde, just going past her shoulders and she was quite tall. I did have green eyes like she did, but mine were way darker.

We’d also differed in fashion sense. Not many kids dressed like their mothers as it was, but due to how young my mother was, her dress sense had always been pretty stylish, so it wouldn’t have looked totally weird if we did shop in the same places.

However, I chose not to wear huge gold earrings hanging from my ears and revealing tops and miniskirts. She’d tried, of course, many times, steering me towards the skirts and dresses in clothes stores and getting me to try them on. From a young age though, I insisted on t-shirts that had my favourite bands’ names on and jeans.

But if you didn’t know us, and you looked at my mother and I, your first guess wouldn’t be that we were related. I appeared to look just like my real father.

“I don’t want this to ruin our family, Mi—Jasmine.” She sniffled.

“Yeah?” I narrowed my eyes. “Well it’s a bit too late for that.”

She got a tissue out of her pocket and began to dab at her eyes, wiping a tiny fragment of the smeared makeup beneath them.

“Have you heard from your dad?” She then asked, as if everything was normal. “I’ve tried calling him.”

I instantly knew that she was referring to Rob, and the mere fact that she was still calling him my dad as if the incident three days ago hadn’t happened, just angered me even more.

“Except he isn’t my dad, is he?” I spat. “We’ve been through all of this, remember?”

She lit another cigarette, tears forming in her eyes as she stared at me.

“It’s all one huge mess, I know that.” She cried. “But I did it for you! I did it to protect you!”

“Protect me?” I lurched towards her abruptly, making her stagger back. “Protect me from what? From a normal life? From having a father? That’s not protecting me; that’s depriving me!”

“I wasn’t planning on lying to you!” She insisted. “But your dad, he wanted you! He was going to take you away from me!”

“He was going to do that to protect me though, wasn’t he, mum?” I could feel myself begin to cry as I thought through it in my head, but I was desperately trying not to let my tears fall. “Because you went off one again. You said it yourself.”

“I’ve tried to get help, Jasmine, you know that!” She sobbed. “I’m ill, I know I am, but I’m not a terrible mother! I’ve been there for you, you can’t deny it!”