What A Lie Looks Like | ✓

1.11: sephine

"You know what's weird?" I ask Hayes turning to face him as he sits next to me on the couch while some superhero movie plays on the television in my basement. He looks up at me in confusion before focusing again on the game he's playing on his phone. "I don't know anything about you."

"Well, I don't know anything about you either, and besides, I thought that was the way you wanted it?" He replies easily, and I groan.

"I'm not talking about the reasons why we're fucked up, I'm talking about in general. What's one thing that no one knows about you?" I ask, pausing the movie, and he sets the phone down, realizing that I'm serious about talking.

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," Hayes jokes playfully, and I pause to think. There are all kinds of things that people here don't know about me, but I also have to think about what I'm willing to share in return.

"Since Cam and Liv are practically the only other people I really talk to here besides you, they don't even know that my mom's a senator from Maryland."

His eyes widen, "Really?"

I nod fidgeting with my hair, "I don't normally tell people because then they treat me differently, and I know that they wouldn't; I just don't know how to tell them at this point."

"What's it like if you don't mind me asking?" His head tilts, showing off his defined jawline.

I smile and shrug, "When she's home, it feels almost like we're as normal of a family that I think is possible for us to be. Except she's rarely home, and my dad lives almost full time in Texas for his job. I never used to notice since I rarely left Seattle other than for the occasional holiday break because my friends there were a family we'd chosen, making it easier to just stay there."

Hayes rests a hand on his knee and stares at me with his crystal eyes, "My parents are never home either. My mom isn't really my mom, but she married my dad when I was five, so she's really the only mother figure I can remember."

I certainly didn't expect him to say that, but I stay quiet, so I don't pressure him to talk. Talking about family isn't easy, and I'm rather interested in hearing what he has to say.

"My real mom died when I was three. It was a typical story of a wealthy businessman meeting a local in Monaco, and they fell in love. I don't remember her, but from the pictures I've seen, I look almost exactly like her from the tanned skin to the dark hair, except I got my dad's eyes. She was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was three, and I'm told that she died a few months later."

"I'm sorry."

He doesn't let it phase him at all, and a sad smile grows on his face, "Not a big deal, I'm used to it by now. I have a sneaking suspicion that my dad spends so much time traveling with my step-mom because he can't look at me without seeing my real mom."

"Well, what does your dad do?"

"You really don't know?"

I look at him as if he's crazy, "Why do you think I would know who your dad is?"

Hayes just stares at me as if I'm the crazy one, "My family owns Benson Pharmaceuticals."

It takes a moment to make the connection in my head, and the 'oh' realization comes over me. "Oh. I guess that would make sense," I say dumbly, and I try to keep my shock to myself.

I mean, hey, at least I can say I'm 'dating' the son of one of the wealthiest families in the country?

Hayes doubles over, letting out a rumbling laugh before pretending to wipe fake tears from his eyes, "That might be one of the best reactions I've gotten yet."