fierce ↠ sweet pea [1] [✔]

|| FIVE ||

~ 8 Years Earlier ~

"I'm sorry, Jackson. I just don't think it's fair that I have to provide for someone else's runt that got named the most unfortunate thing!" Katherine spat, her sharp nails pointing at the small boy sat silently on the couch. "He was dragged along with the rest of your knocked-off belongings, including that stupid jacket!"

"Shut the fuck up, Katherine. You keep telling yourself this stupid story over and over again when it's not even a little bit true! The Serpents are a family, not something you'd know much about," Jackson argued, his fist slamming into the wall. "And just because Fangs was born before your brain decided to finally catch up and realise that you were just an affair, doesn't mean I'm just going to kick him out that damn door. He's eight years old, he don't understand!"

"Maybe if your son wasn't brought here by my best friend—"

"Oh, so that's what this is about? The fact that I used to find Mariah more attractive than the likes of you. Well, now I think I know for sure that I do! It shouldn't matter who his mother is, she couldn't cope because of my mistake, and now you're refusing to be his mother when he needs you to be!"

This was one fight of many others.

Lauryn and Fangs clutched each other's hands as they listened to the argument, eyes widened as they witnessed such aggression. Lauryn wondered if all grownups in love were like this. 

She was in tears because of what her mother had been saying about Fangs, wondering how the woman she had so much respect for could say such horrible things about her brother who she loved.

Jackson, Lauryn and Fangs' father, couldn't believe the change that had been made on his wife's personality after she'd started going somewhere every weekend years earlier, claiming it to be a mother's group. 

He thought she was who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but he was wrong. She went from a loving, interesting Southside ally to nothing but a cold-hearted, fascist bully. It was heartbreaking, and no one could understand why she seemed so brainwashed.

Fangs' birth mother had overdosed on painkillers after finding out Jackson was cheating on her, and Katherine had just fallen pregnant with Lauryn at the time. Fangs was only a few days old, and his mother thought that she and Jackson would have a bright future with their baby. She trusted him, but her world came crashing down the minute she found out the truth.

Katherine stormed out of the living room into the main bedroom, swearing and breaking things which alarmed the children, but they were completely frozen. Their father turned his head to look at them, his eyes meeting with theirs sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, daddy," Fangs replied, though his heart was aching because of how unloved he felt.

"You two just look after each other," Jackson told them, his words imprinting on their brains instantly, as well as his serious expression that made Lauryn shiver. "I mean it."

The little girl nodded, squeezing her brother's hand tighter. 

Before long, Lauryn's mother returned holding a duffle bag and her tatted-up trench coat. She took one look at both the kids, a grimace forming on her face. She shook her head before her eyes reunited with Jackson's. 

"I'm tired of being just another woman you impregnated, this isn't what I wanted. I can't help but wonder who'll be next. That Penny Peabody woman? Or Gladys Jones? She already has a little boy! Why not make it two?!"

Katherine swung open the front door, marching out of it without saying a word to the kids, not even Lauryn who turned to peer out of the window. "Mommy, wait!"