fierce ↠ sweet pea [1] [✔]

|| THIRTY-THREE ||

"Fangs, wait!" Lauryn called after her brother as he stormed across the trailer park, trying her best to keep up with him. "What's wrong?"

Fangs stopped, turning on his heel sharply. "Dad is the reason my mom is dead! I looked up to him for so long, but he left her on her own to go off with Katherine!"

"Fangs, I'm so sorry," Lauryn cried, snatching his hands. He wouldn't look at her, and she felt her heart beating up her throat. "Please, look at me."

"It must've been because Katherine got pregnant," Fangs suspected. He retracted his hands from hers, turning away. "I don't know what you expect me to do, Lauryn, just pretend that nothing happened?"

"No," she shook her head. "No amount of pretending can change anything."

"Why did your mom get involved? What if dad and my mom were happy?" Fangs suggested, and his sister could hear the pain in his voice, even though what he was saying implied the idea of Lauryn never being born.

"Dad cheated, okay?" Lauryn reminded him. "And I know that my mom did wrong by going with it, but it was Dad's decision in the first place, the same way he probably cheated on my mom, too."

"My mom killed herself, Lauryn," Fangs looked back at her, tears in his eyes. Lauryn's heart sank. "She killed herself when I was four days old!"

"Fangs, please, listen to me," Lauryn begged after a deep breath, starting to think she was losing him. "I'm sorry about what happened, okay? I'm sorry that it happened to you, because you don't deserve it."

"I can't do this with Katherine, Lauryn," he told her, shaking his head. "After what she did, I can't look at her every day!"

"She's trying to make a difference now," she said. "I know she's not proud of what happened. Maybe she just wants to be there for you now?"

"She had the chance to be there for me years ago but she chose to make my life hell!" Fangs roared, causing Lauryn to flinch.

"I-I thought that went so well back there!" Lauryn stuttered. "Are you upset because of Jared?"

"Don't, Lauryn," he warned. "You know nothing. You don't have a single clue what's going on in my head!"

"Maybe I don't, so why don't you tell me?!" she snapped. "I'm trying to help you, but I can't if you don't--"

He stopped her. "Don't make this about you."

Lauryn bit her tongue, calming herself down as she stood before her brother helplessly. "I'm not, Fangs, I'm just trying to understand."

Fangs lowered his tone. "You may think it's so easy, but you have no idea how many shitty memories seeing that woman brought back for me."

"She apologised, okay? She's gonna try and be our mom!"

"Maybe yours, but not mine," Fangs painfully shook his head before lashing his arm out in front of her. "Mine's dead!"

"Yeah, and so is Dad, Fangs. Katherine is the last--"

"You may be buying all of this, but I'm not. You know why?" Fangs hissed, and Lauryn barely recognised the pain and fury in his eyes. "Because I went through shit, you didn't. I was verbally abused by her time and time again, you weren't. We may be siblings in one way or another but the only thing connecting us is dead!"

"Fangs, I-" Lauryn reached for his arm as he tried to walk away again when he instinctively pushed her back, causing her to slip in the damp mud and fall.

"Fuck!" she cursed, grimacing at the mud all over her hands which she wiped in her jeans, glaring up at him. "Really?"

"Lauryn, I-I'm sorry," he panicked, drawing his hands up to his head. He held out a hand to help her up but she ignored him, steadying herself on her own.