I'm No Cinderella

29. You Were A Little Shit

Helen put a mug of hot chocolate in front of me on the coffee table. I spent about twenty minutes crying into her arms by the front door, we took my sob fest to the couch.

I was surprised at her gentleness but that was actually what I needed right now. Helen was the last person I would ever go for comfort, and its quite ironic being here right now.

"Why are you being so nice? Don't you hate me?" I broke the silence.

Helen took a long sip of her hot chocolate. I left mine untouched on the coffee table.

"I could never hate you, Annabeth. I suppose now is a good time to be real about this."

Be real about this? Since when does Helen talk like that? She didn't sound as posh and annoying as usually did. She wasn't even dressed in her usual housewife dresses and heels. Her hair was actually fanned around her face rather than up in a honeybun. She was dressed comfortably in sweats and a t-shirt and Good Morning America was on in the background, making me remember just how early it was.

"What?"

Helen sighed. "I don't hate you. I don't dislike you. Not in the slightest. Never have. Little do you know, I actually care a lot. I'm not that mean."

And again, "What?".

Helen chuckled. "Okay, I guess I should start at the beginning."

I nodded numbly. "That would be nice."

"Your father didn't let me into his life until a year after your mother passed and we didn't even start seeing one another seriously until months after that. I didn't meet you until your dad proposed, and that wasn't until you were about ten, I think. I was pregnant with the twins, so creating a bigger family was all that was on our minds. The only issue was how much you didn't like that."

"I was a witch, I know." I admitted.

Helen snorted. "You were a little shit, but it was quite entertaining. I didn't take any of it to heart."

I gaped at her. Helen...just cursed. She never curses.

She saw my expression and composed herself, "Oh, sorry. I have quite the potty mouth but I had promised your father to never curse around you, I got used to it but your home during my swearing hours."

I smiled slightly. "Swearing hours?"

"Hey! I have to have some days for me!" She scoffed. "Anyway, I know you might think that my job is being an assistant to the head of a company and accompanying him to Gala's and boring crap like that, but no. I'm an actress."

"You're an actress?"

She nodded eagerly. "Mmmhmm. Daytime television. You never knew because well, you never cares to ask nor do you watch much Daytime television. Except General Hospital. I know you watch that. You record it on the DVR everyday."

"Wait, I don't understand. How does this explain why I thought you hated me too."

"It was actually an acting exercise I was working on. To be that horrible stepmother. I guess I got carried away with it over time and being mean became a second nature. I'm just childish at heart and can hold quite the grudge. Fucked up, yes, I know. But you were quite horrible yourself and I was not going to give in to a poorly behaved child."

And now I feel really bad, even though pretending to be a bitchy, kind of sounds like a bitchy thing to do. This whole thing kind of gave me a headache.

"I was really that bad?" I whispered.

Helen frowned. "You threw tantrums around me, you left the house a mess with your legos, even though the structures you put together were amazing, you even dyed my hair blue one time. It was hilarious, but I was irritated."