Jerks of Springville High

t w e n t y o n e

Chapter 21: Who We Are

My phone was resting beside me on the hood of my car. I grabbed it, dialing the number of the one person who could  confirm what I had just found out.

"Cookie?" His voice was hoarse, meaning I probably woke him up. "Did you have another nightmare? Are you okay?"

"Did you know?"

He froze. "Know what? What are you talking about?"

"Did you know about me being--" I paused thinking of the dreaded word. "Did you know I was adopted?"

The end of his line was quiet already telling me what I didn't want to be true. "Who told you?" He finally asked.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, feeling betrayed. "Why did you keep this away from me?"

"Cookie-"

"Don't call me that."

"Cookie, please listen to me." He pleaded. "I would have told you, I wanted to tell you, but--"

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because Mom wanted to be the one to tell you herself, she and Dad we're supposed to tell you together." He sighed. "But then Dad died and telling you then would have made things worse."

"But when I told you about Grayson, you could have told me then!"

"Even telling you now could have affected you. I mean, you still have nightmares of Dad's death."

"That has nothing to do with this."

"It has everything to do with this." He stated. "Was Mom the one to tell you?"

"She didn't tell me to my face," I whispered. "I overheard her talking with Andrew."

"You need to talk to her yourself." He said. "Don't make this a big deal, it isn't a big deal."

"Are you kidding me?" I shouted. "It is a big deal!" I hung up on him.

My mom isn't really my mom, my dad wasn't really my dad. . . And Grayson is my brother.

How could that not be a big deal?

My heart clenched and broke into a thousand pieces just thinking about it. I grew angry, sad and angry. I wanted to scream and cry then scream some more. I wanted to punch and kick anything that got in my way.

Seventeen years of life. Seventeen years of growing up with a family that's not even mine. How could they keep a secret this big from me? This huge piece of information about my life which had only been brought to my attention now, had so much control over my emotions just as well as my curiosity. The part of me which held my curiosity made me want to find out more, listen and understand why they did it, but the rage and hurt inside me over powere it.

I found my hands wiping furiously at my eyes where tears had shed themselves. I could almost barely see anything but blurry lights.

"Kylie?"

I turned around, seeing Jake. I almost asked what he was doing here, but then I remembered that this was his spot. The spot he came to when he wanted to think or when something was bothering him. I didn't even realize where I was until I saw him. My mind was so clouded, I didn't even remember how I got here.