Playing Poker [BEING REWRITTEN]

12| My Shadow

Third Person

"Boys, can you come down for a second?" Rayland offered to go to Weston's house while Paul had a serious talk with his sons.

Hayden had gotten back from school a few minutes ago feeling better than ever. It was the first day since middle school that he wasn't bullied, he reminded himself to thank Rayland later.

"What is it, dad?" His sons came down the stairs. Paul led all of his sons to the family room.

"I'm sorry." Paul sighed out, the rest of the room was confused by the apology.

"Sorry for what?" Micheal asked with furrowed brows, the expression causing wrinkles to appear on his forehead.

"I'm sorry for being a shitty father," His sons were about to speak but he continued. "Before you interrupt, let me finish. You all went through a loss as well and I was selfish. I didn't realize you were going through pain as well and I completely neglected your feelings." The air filled with silence.

"Dad," Liam broke the silence, Paul's head whipped up in surprise. "We weren't the best sons either, you just lost the love of your life and we made your life harder than it had to be. We are the ones that should be sorry." He sighed, ashamed. All of his brothers nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we all took our anger out on you and you didn't deserve that." Micheal sighed.

"But I promised that we would stick together and I broke that promise. I will never forgive myself for it. You all were coping in your own ways and the first thing I did was criticize you." Paul said, looking down at his hands. He didn't want to see the disappointed faces surrounding him.

He was shocked when he was wrapped in seven pairs of arms. All of his children were quietly hugging him, salty liquid running down their faces. They sat for a while, just crying.

Rayland

(Assume all dialogue from Weston's family is in Spanish.)

"Weston, what did I say about bringing peop- mi cariña, is that you?" [My Sweetheart] A sweet Spanish accent rang through the room. I looked at the brown haired woman, her presence putting a smile on my face.

"Madre, I missed you." [Mother] I ran up to her giving her a giant hug, she immediately reciprocated the action. The warmth only a mom can provide.

Sofia Alonso, a mother figure that I was missing in my life. In the three years I've known them, they were the closest thing I had to a family.

The word family was almost foreign to me. I haven't had a family since I was seven and I barely remember them. The memories are gone and they were the closest things to family; the memories were the only thing giving me hope that there were people out there that cared. But like I always say,

Hope only leads to disappointment.

The Alonso's gave me new memories. They didn't replace my old memo filled with new ones. They were my family and I was theirs. Blood or not.

We were interrupted when I heard the pattering of footsteps and small arms wrapped around my legs.

"Valentina, hey princessa." [Princess] I cooed to the little girl. Her lighter skin visible due to the bright kitchen and her brown curly hair hanging down above her waist.

Valentina, the youngest member of the Alonso familia. She's like the little sister I've always wanted.

"Raylie, you're here." She squealed, squeezing me tighter, I laughed and put her six year old body on my hip. I tickled her stomach and she let out an adorable giggle.