Young But Real (5 YA Short Stories)

In Which They Need Each Other

"Are you kidding me?" I can't believe he dragged me to see this haunted-yet-cannot-be-called house to explain why he couldn't say no to his friends.

Harrison's oh so serious face snaps in my direction. He looks at me sharply with confusion.

"For heaven's sake, Kira, I poured out my deepest secret and you asked me if I was kidding?" His eyes narrow at me. "Did you have any idea how damn difficult it is to tell you? I don't need your pity and I will not be surprised if you will use this against me, like others who know."

I catch the vulnerability in his face before he averts his gaze from me to look in front of the small deserted road. If he murders me or I'll murder him — because of his ridiculous reason for pampering his so-called friends — no one will know. This place is creepy. Luckily, the guy whose knuckles are turning white due to his tight grip on the steering wheel is strikingly handsome which makes this place better.

He told me James and Shane, the Versace girl, knew him even before his father took him in and gave his surname. His mother was a cleaner to their houses. Harrison is a bastard, the product of his mother's obsession with his father. She, a housemaid, took advantage of his heartbroken father. She made him drunk to the extent that he thought he was making love with his girlfriend, now his wife and mother to Harrison.

Her biological mother was given a choice whether to go to jail or to disappear from his life. She did the latter and lived in the woods while his father and his bride lived in London for a decade. His father didn't know about him until he saw him outside the church, crying alone a day before his biological mother died of lung cancer.

Harrison and his father look very much alike and his hazel eyes are the same shade of his stepmother. Looking at their family picture, no one can tell that he is a bastard.

"I never thought you would think so low of me. You wounded me." I clutch my heart, making him look at me again.

"I didn't. I-I —"

I smack his arm. "Hey, I'm feigning so that you'll look at me."

He releases a hefty sigh of relief. Normally, I don't care how others think about me, but recently, what Harrison thinks about me matters.

"Did those shameless fools threaten you?"

"No," he pauses. "Not directly. I mean they mentioned my past whenever I didn't give them what they wanted."

"What do you think will happen if the public gets hold of this?"

"Mom will be hurt. No one would want to hang out with me. They'll mock me. My modelling career will be over." His knuckles turn even whiter and he grit his teeth.

"Did your Mom tell you to keep it a secret? Did your agency know and mention it in your contract?"

"No and no."

"Then, why? Why would you fear it?" I want to pull my hair out of frustration. Everything he says is not making any sense. Did he create his own monster?

"I assume it will hurt her and I don't want that, ever." They said a boy who loves his family will make a good husband. I don't know who said that exactly but it warms my heart.

He continues, "I need my friends and my career to prove that I don't rely on the wealth of my parents."

"Everyone needs friends but those shitty friends of yours don't belong in the category." I shift to my right to face him. He mirrors my actions and his eyes move to my jiggling humps around my waist. I feel my cheeks heat up but disregard it.

"If your agency turns their back on you because of your past, they don't deserve you. Don't let your past dictate your present or your future or your relationship to others, Harrison."