Well I don't know the best way to start this off. I guess I don't have my mother's writing talent, but here goes nothing. My name is Victoria O'Doherty. As you can guess, I'm Seamus O'Doherty's daughter, and the youngest at that so I get babied! My dad's career has been over twenty years in the making, so I'm sure you can imagine that he's gotten far up in life, which he has! We live in a pretty nice house and a lot of people know who my dad is, which means just as many people know about my mom, Merel. She passed away right after I was born, and my dad never talks about her, but I know I look just like her.
We still have a few pictures around the house, but none from when my mom was younger. The reason I know I look like her is because my aunt Sophia tells me so DAILY. I still love her though, because just like all my other aunts, they're practically my mothers. Sure, no one can replace her, but they love me just as much as my mother would. Plus, like I said, I'm the youngest so I'm babied. My brother, Teddy, is three years older than me, and my sister, September, is two years older. One of the only things my dad has told me about mom is why she named us what she did. Mom was a huge history buff, so Teddy is named after Teddy Roosevelt, and I'm named after the queen herself. Then my dad went into this huge explanation about how music was one of the most important things to my mom, so she named my sister after a Daughtry song.
My siblings are currently in their first and second years of college, so it's just dad and I, at home at least. My aunt May and uncle Aleks live across the street from us. When I was really young, May got in a car accident. I don't know the technicalities of it, but somehow that made it so they couldn't have kids. With that, and the fact they're my Godparents, they treat me like their own. They're the only ones that aren't scared to tell me about my mom, and they actually tell me about her a lot. My dad doesn't mind, because it just means he doesn't have to do it.
We live in a pretty decent sized neighborhood. There's another street right by ours, and that's where my aunt Natalie and uncle Eddie live. They have one daughter who's a year older than me, and her name is Marcelline. Gee, I wonder where they got that name! That was sarcasm in case you couldn't tell. Anyways, just down the street from them is my aunt Sophia and uncle James. Their plan was to have two kids, which they did, and their names are Thayer and Arianna. Arianna's a popular senior and junk, and Thayer is in his third year of college. The reason why I said that was their "plan" is because they ended up having an "oops" baby. They'd never admit that, but I overheard my uncles and my dad talking about it once. She came a lot later, so she's my age and her name is Cher. We're best friends just like our moms were, and we do a lot together.
Cher's coming over today because it's my sixteenth birthday, but I don't want anything big and I told my dad that. He's usually pretty good about listening to me on that stuff, because he knows I'll get mad if he does do anything special. I'm not for celebrations much, because all I can ever think about is how my mom should be there. Which reminds me, the anniversary of her death is next week. I was only a year old when she died, and I don't remember a thing about her, but none of us do. Out of all us kids, Thayer is the only one that could even remember knowing mom. I still hold this weird internal grudge against him for that, but it's not like I could change my mother's death.
The doorbell rang and I ran to get it. Cher was there, with two presents in her hand.
"My parents insisted on giving you something!" She said rolling her eyes. "Plus I had to get you something too, so here you go."
I laughed. "Thanks. I'll set them in the dinning room, since I'm sure there will be more. Both aunt May and aunt Natalie told my dad that they were stopping by today."
"What about Ali?" She asked.
I sighed. "I don't know. I haven't seen them in a while."
"Victoria?" My dad called from his office.
"What?" I yelled back.
He walked to the kitchen where Cher and I were now standing.
"Your sister would like you to call her today." He said.
"Why? So she can tell me about "becoming a woman" and all that junk?" I groaned.
He snickered. "At least your sister will actually call you on your birthday. My siblings always blew me off, and still do."
"And that's why I'm not related to most my aunts and uncles." I spoke with a joking smile.
Dad shook his head. "Yeah, by the way, May said she'll be here soon."
The doorbell rang just as he said that and Cher and I ran to the front door. Of course my aunts were standing there.
"May!" I squealed as I hugged her.
"Well at least she loves you." Natalie pouted as she crossed her arms.
I laughed and hugged her too. They both had presents for me and set them in the dinning room, then went to talk to my dad. Cher and I weren't too interested in their adult conversations. Okay, lets get real. They're all in their thirties and forties and they still don't have mature conversations, but I still wasn't interested. I told dad we were going upstairs, and then we ran up to my room.
Luckily, my dad is very understanding about letting me be a teenager, plus he'll die in this house so he doesn't care about resell value and things like that. That's all good for me, and it means I get to do awesome things like paint my room royal purple, my favorite color! I jumped on my bed and started my favorite hobby; spying on Thayer! See, with the way the houses all wrap around, Cher's backyard backs up to ours. Thayer lives at home while he's in college, but the only way his mother lets him is if he does house work, like mowing the lawn... without a shirt!
"What are you doing?" Cher asked.
She leaned back to see me staring at her brother.
"Victoria!" She yelled in disbelief.
"Not my fault your brother is a babe!" I replied.
She sighed. "There's more important things to talk about than my brother, who is not hot!"
"Like what? And yes he is!"
Cher leaned her back against the wall and let out a big sigh. "Well you know how I was home sick a last week?"
I nodded.
"Your dad was over. I heard him and my dad talking about some girl that was trying to contact your dad, and then when I asked my mom who she was, she got really tense, said it was an "old friend" of your dad's. It just... I don't know. It sounded off."
"What was her name?" I asked.
"Ashley." She replied.
I shrugged. "Time for google!"
I jumped down from my bed and snatched my laptop off of my dresser. Then I started it up, and clicked on my bookmark for the Creature Wiki. I searched "Ashley" and the first result was the link to a page for AshhBearr. My eyes skimmed over the page until I caught my dad's name.
"She's... my dad's ex." I said confused. "But my dad always told me he was with my mom since high school."
"Maybe he was lying?" Cher questioned.
"No, 'cause there's pictures of them in the basement."
"That doesn't mean they were dating at the time." She replied. "Why don't you just ask your dad?"
"Because he'll have my ass if I try to accuse him of lying."
"I heard that young lady." My dad glared at me as he stood in the doorway.
Shit! Did he hear me talk about the Ashley girl? I gave him a sheepish smile while he glared at me, waiting for a response.
"H-how much did you hear?" I asked.
"Just Cher say something about about asking me a question, and then you cussing. If I hear it again, I'll take that computer from you. Now what did you need to ask me?"
His eyes burned into me in that fatherly way and I shook in my spot. Guess it's better to just say it, 'cause he'll know if I'm lying.
"Well, I was browsing the wiki, and I ran across this girls page." I spoke as I turned my computer to him. "It... said she was your ex, but you were with mom when it supposedly said you were with this girl."
He sighed. "Your mom and I have been together since high school, but there was a few years that we took a break from each other because we were too immature to handle the relationship at the time. I'd prefer not to talk about it, because you know the saying I always use."
"Your past doesn't define you, yeah I know dad."
Dad gave me one of those half-hearted smiles that I always see. I doubt I've ever seen my dad give me a full smile, but I can't blame him. He's been heartbroken for fifteen years and still can't let go. It still begs the question, why does Ashley want to get hold of my dad?
"C'mon you two, dinner's ready." He said as he headed back down the hall.
Before we went down, I took one more glance over Ashley's page. Towards the bottom it said "Recently Ash announced on Twitter that her husband filed a divorce. She has yet to update on the situation." Hm, well I'm sure she figures my dad will come crawling back to her since he's widowed. Tough luck!
Cher and I headed downstairs and saw that May was staying for dinner! Yes! We talked a lot, and aunt May told me all about how she couldn't believe how old I'm getting. I just rolled my eyes and laughed. Then it started getting dark, and Cher's mom wanted her home. She went and hopped the fence to her house, leaving me alone in my bedroom.
I called my sister, and she gave me a quick Happy Birthday. We talked for about ten minutes, then I hung up and picked up my guitar. Dad has a rule that I can only play after six PM so it doesn't interfere with his recordings or business calls. I've been in choir for about four years now, but I'm not good enough to sing solo. My guitar skills are my best attribute, except I don't know where it came from. I've seen pictures of mom with guitar, and I also know dad has an old bass in the basement. I guess it's a mix, kind of like Teddy. I'm just like mom, September is just like dad, and Teddy is a huge mix of things.
While I was playing, my dad opened my door. Remember when I said he's really good about letting me be a teenager? Well there is one privilege I don't get; privacy. I stopped playing mid song and stared at him. He gave me another typical half smile while he leaned on the wall.
"You play like your mother." He said.
Woah, wait! Did dad just mention mom? He never talks about her. Am I dreaming right now? Nah, I can't be. This is strange, and it worries me a bit.
"I... do?" I asked.
He nodded. "She always played with her hand turned in like yours, and she never fixed her sloppy wrists. Plus she actually felt the music, and you could see it in her eyes. It was something I lacked, and that's why I wasn't nearly as good."
Guess my question was answered. I play like mom, just like everything else I do.
"I can't really say you're good, because I've never heard you play." I replied.
"And you probably never will! I'm not good anymore, but you are."
I blushed. "Thanks dad."
He sighed again. "I still can't believe you're sixteen. I don't think I need, nor do you want me to have the "talk" with you, but always remember, don't ever do anything you'll regret. Measure out the consequences and actually think about it. You're my little baby girl, and I don't want anyone to hurt you."
"Daddy, you know you taught me well. I'll always be careful." I told him.
"I know, but please listen to what I said. You're the closest thing to your mother that I have, and I don't want to lose you, especially if you follow in your mom's footsteps." He ended with a lighter tone.
"Why?" I asked. "What was mom like in high school?"
"A complete rebel. She was refereed to by every bad ass name you could think of; Renegade, Runaway, Bad Medicine, Kryptonite, but I called her Moe."
I could tell by the soft tone my dad was using that this was hard for him to talk about, but at the same time it was lifting a little weight off his shoulders actually talking about her. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a necklace.
"Here, I want you to have this." He said as he set it in my palm. "It was your mother's. I can still remember the first day I saw it on her like it was yesterday. It was New Years Eve, and just a few days ago she had a miscarriage. It was long before Teddy, but God was she heartbroken. That was a hard year us, but she always managed to pull through. She was a strong woman, just like I know you're going to be."
The tears were filling up my dad's eyes just thinking about mom. I hugged him, and quietly thanked him. Then he headed back to his office, and I washed off my face so that I could crash in bed. It was a three day weekend, but now I have to go back to school, aka hell. God, I hate life.
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Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! I'm so happy about writing this :D Please comment, vote, follow, and all that magical stuff! Thanks for all the feedback and support! I love you guys,
~Meryl <3