Carlisia’s eyes opened to someone shaking her awake. As soon as her eyes opened she finally realized that she had a speeding heartbeat.
Looking at the person she relaxed a bit.
“Hey mom.” She says looking at her mother’s worried face. Her voice came out raspy and her throat was dry not to mention that her cheeks felt a bit sticky.
“You okay?” Her mother asks and her eyes furrow.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Why?” She asks causing her mother to sigh.
“You were crying in your sleep Carly.” She says worried, causing Carlisia to take in a deep breath and sit up, leaning her back against the bed frame.
“It’s nothing, seriously. You don’t need to worry, I’m fine.” She says and her mother gives out a soft laugh.
“It’s not that easy. You’re my daughter, it worries me. The last time I saw you, you were eight.” Her mother replies honestly, brushing a few strands of hair from her face causing her to look down.
“Can I ask you something?” Carlisia finally says breaking the silence and her mother nods.
“Of course sweetie.” Her mother replies giving her an encouraging smile.
Carlisia takes in a deep breath, not daring to look at her mother as the words left her mouth,
“Do you hate me?” She asks and peeks at her mother from under her eyelashes who was shaking her head confused at her daughters question.
“Of course not! How can you say that?” She replies and Carlisia looks at her.
“Then why did you want to abort me?” She says and it was like the world had stopped as her mother looked at her with wide eyes.
“How-” her mother began to say but she cut her off,
“No one told me, I found out myself.” She replies quickly and her mother looks at the floor shamed.
“So is it true?” She asks and her mother nods.
“I found out I was pregnant with you when I was in college. Abortion was the first thought that came to my mind but I am thankful that your father didn’t let me go through with it. I am proud of you darling and I love you a lot.” Her mother says pulling her in for a hug causing her to smile.
Suddenly Carlisia’s phone began to ring making them pull away.
She grabs her i-phone 6 from her bedside table, which was a present from her father and smiles as she looks at the caller ID.
She looks at her mother then says,
“Umm do you mind if i….” She trails off shaking the phone in her hand and her mother nods leaving the room as she receives the call.
“Hi Zane.” Carlisia says as a smile crept on her face.
Zane had been her best friend since kindergarten. Even was a badass but a complete softy with her because of her innocence. Sometimes it shocked him, how he a tattooed player was friends with a girl who had’nt as much as hit a fly. He remembered how a guy had pushed her once and she hadn’t even screamed or shouted at that idiot even though he had beat the crap out of that asshole for hurting his best friend when he saw the bruise.
“Where were you? I thought you were going to call! I missed you!”He replies dramatically.
“I fell asleep Zane and I miss you too.What time is it there?” She asks
“Nine in the morning. Your place?” He replies.
“Six in the evening.” She replies causing the boy’s eyes to widen.
“Wow, we are so far away. A day ago we were practically underneath the same roof now we are miles away from each other, I hate it.” He says honestly causing Carlisia to frown.
“Me too. It doesn’t feel like home here Zane. Even though my mom explained about the abortion but I want to just come back.” She says and Zane takes a deep breath.
“What did she say about it?” He asks and Carlisia told him the entire thing partially smiling while Zane just frowned even though he was happy for his best friend.
“I guess that’s good.” He says and she nods forgetting he cant look at her.
“But I want to come back Zane. I miss everything. I miss my dad. Alot.” She says and that’s when her voice began to break and for a split moment she removes the cell phone from her ear and takes deep breath but puts it back in place because she didn’t want him to cut off the call and loose the little comfort she was having.
“Carly? Don’t you dare cry, your so strong. We talked about this. Your dad would want you to be happy not mourn over him. Come on send me a toothy selfie. I want to see those pretty dimples.” He says causing her to smile.
“You’re the best Zane.” She says after a few minutes.
“I know right!” Her friend cheerfully yet cockily replies trying to make her laugh but she could sense the faint sadness in his voice.
She hears footsteps approaching her room and decides to end the call.
“I- I gotta go Zane. I’ll call you later okay?” She says biting her lip.
“Yeah baby girl. And remember no crying!” He says causing her to laugh.
“Yeah, no crying.” She assures and with that the line falls dead and as expected the door slams open.
“Carly do you mind getting washed up, Bob is having a few important guests over and I would love to introduce you to them.” Her mother says but Carlisia could sense the edge and nervousness in her voice.
Something wasn’t right.
“Sure.” She says anxiously but wondered what was going on as she watches her mother nod and leave the room closing the door softly.
Carlisia not wasting another minutes lazily walks to one of her suitcases, opening it and fishes for something presentable, finally finding what she was looking for she grabs the white and royal blue dress with matching sandals and makes her way to the bathroom to shower.
Minutes later she comes out dressed with her hair blow dried.
She goes to the dresser and pins a few of her strands back and applies some baby pink lip gloss not bothering to throw any makeup, after all she didn’t have much of it in her possession.
Taking a deep breath she looks at the time, seven in the evening. A sigh escapes her lips as she makes her way to the full length mirror and examines herself, she looked presentable with her hairs straight and pale green eyes looking fresh but that dress had a lot of emotions on her.
It was the dress she wore on the day of her father’s birthday, two days before he died. She and Zane had bought it from the internet together because neither of them liked to go to the mall, merely for the purpose of shopping. Once in a while it would be okay but neither of them were in the mood and she wanted something presentable to wear.
She twirls in front of the mirror making her hair flow around her as tears began to fill her eyes and she shakes her head.
No crying Carlisia. No more crying.
Taking a deep breath she goes to the sofa by the window and makes herself comfortable just as the wind blows in. The wind had the faint smell of mud and leaves, indicating it would be raining soon.
Her eyes traveled to the dark forest in front of the house as it examined its beauty. Back at Sydney there wasn’t much greenery while here it felt like nature bloomed in its most beautiful form. This place was breathtaking there was no question about that even if it wasn’t her home.
She just sat there at the sofa in her dark room watching how the leaves of the tall trees danced in the strong wind. Every once in a while the cold wind would nip at her skin making a shiver run down her, it was uncomfortably comfortable.
If that is even possible.
After about thirty minutes she heard someone calling her name bringing her out of her trance. She takes a deep breath and stands up walking to the door and slipping out quietly, looking down in the process letting her hair form a waterfall on either side of her head.
She walked down a flight of stairs to the foyer and makes a left to the living room, slowing down as the voices got louder, followed by laughter.
Upon reaching living room Carlisia’s eyes widened as she saw the scene in front of her.
Ben had a boy probably eighteen in a headlock while her mom scolded them. Another boy younger than the one in the headlock, sat at the sofa munching at a cookie as crumbs covered his mouth and fell on the ground.
Both the boys were in football uniforms and their shoes were covered in dirt, staining the clean wooden floor.
“Ben, let go of Ruben before you hurt him.” Her mother shouts at her husband to let go of the bleach blonde boy while Bob just laughed.
“Come on Maria, I’m just showing him how to do it. Besides he is the Beta.” He says making her furrow her eyebrows.
What’s a ‘Beta’?
“What’s a ‘Beta’?” Carlisia asks in a faint voice and every one stopped dead silent. Bob quickly let go of the boy who I presumed to be Jayden while the one on the sofa dropped his cookie on his lap.
She looked at her mother for an answer as she noticed the two boys stare at each other as if talking in their minds.
“Oh, it’s nothing darling. Let me introduce you to Ruben and Elijah, my step sons.” She says and I nod giving them a small smile and a short wave.
“Boys this is Carlisia, my daughter. I told you about her remember.” She says and the older one whom I guess is Ruben, nods.
“Yeah, I remember.” He says while his younger brother Elijah stares at me.
“I’m sorry about your dad.” He says and she nods not knowing what to say.
She wasn’t going to say, ‘it’s ok’ because it wasn’t. Her dad didn’t deserve to die like that, no one deserves to die like that.
“Boys go get changed, we are having guests over.” Her mother says and Ruben raises his eyebrow.
“Who exactly?” He asks and Ben answers.
“Alpha- I mean Gabriel.” He says quickly eyeing Carlisia than back at the boys who nod.
She watches the boys leave then looks at her mother who gives her a small smile but Carlisia didn’t return it.
Something didn’t felt right.
Even though Ben covered his tracks, thinking I didn’t heard him but I did, what did he meant by ‘Alpha’?
Not to mention how her mother covered the other word ‘Beta’. These words were foreign to her but the way they said it as if it was a mistake made her curious to their meaning.
After a few minutes of them staring at her she finally says,
“I’ll be in my room.”
And with that she leaves them there going into her room, closing the door softly.
They were keeping secrets from her and she knew that. When she was with Zane she didn’t care because they both had each other but now it hurt her. Not to have someone, a friend, family.
Everything felt blurred and hazy.
She frowns as she sits on her bed and grabs her cell phone.
After a few minutes of staring she finally decides to play a game and that’s exactly what she does for the next fifteen minutes, concentrating to beat her previous record when she hears the knock on the door.
“Come in.” She says in her normal faint but soft voice as the door opens and she looks up to see her two step brothers.
“Oh, hello.” She says and Ruben smiles.
“We just wanted to see what you were doing.” He says and she nervously raises her cell phone.
“Game.” She replies and they nod.
“Do you mind if we come in?” He asks and she shakes her head,
“Of course not.”
Elijah smiles at her as he makes his way to the sofa by the window, where she was lounging hours ago and Ruben makes his way to sit on the dresser.
They stare at her for a few minutes in the awkward silence making her feel more nervous and I guess Ruben noticed that because he finally says,
“Me and Elijah wanted to know more about you. Since we are going to be spending a lot of time together. Besides you must feel pretty awkward here, not knowing anyone.” He says.
“Sp how about we play twenty questions?” Elijah chimes in and Carlisia nods.
“Ok.” She replies.
“I’ll start, How old are you?” Elijah says excitedly causing her to raise an eyebrow.
“Sixteen. What about you?” She says.
“I’m seventeen and Ruben here is eighteen.” He says and Carlisia nods.
“Ok, so what’s your favorite color?” Ruben asks.
“Black.” She replies and Elijah opens his mouth to ask another question but she stops him.
“It’s my turn.” She says and he grins at her while she thinks of a question.
“Any middle names?” She asks finally and Elijah is the first to answer,
“Parker, Elijah Parker Hudson.” He says and she nods then looks at Ruben.
“What about you?” she asks when he doesn’t answer and turns bright red.
“I’m not telling. It’s embarrassing.” He says and Elijah laughs.
“You bet it is.” He says earning a glare from Ruben.
“Come on, its not like I’ll tell anyone.” She says finally in her comfort zone with the boys, causing Ruben to puff.
“Leslie.” He mumbles and Elijah doubles over in laughter causing Ruben to turn even more crimson.
“Oh come on! Its not like I had a say in it.” He says looking at his laughing brother causing me to smile.
“Wow, Ruben Leslie Hudson.” She says and Elijah laughs even louder and Ruben just groans as Ben enters the open room. Carlisia notices he was dressed in a pair of white dress shirt and black dress pants.
“Everything okay here?” He says smiling a bit and Elijah nods.
“Yeah dad and I think we are going to get along very well.” He says and Ben smiles at Carlisia.
“Well that’s nice to know.” He says just as the door bell rings.
“I should go get that.” He says and leaves the children there.
“Come on , lets go." Ruben says as he goes out of the room and Elijah follows him.
“Aren’t you coming?” Elijah asks as he notices that Carlisia didn’t stand up from her place at the bed.
“Yeah, in a moment.” She says and watches them leave as she hears the front door open downstairs.
After a few minutes Carlisia finally decides to go downstairs, not wanting to embarrass her new family.
