Family Matters

Chapter Fifty Four

Ceres froze as she stood outside of the kitchen. She could hear her Mama's sniffling and the few sobs she let out every now and then, but she was too afraid to actually approach the distressed woman.

"He would have loved this..." Serena muttered as she looked down at the stuffed turtle in her hands.

She didn't mean to buy it but for some reason, she couldn't help but think of Max, who she wouldn't get to see grow up. He was only a baby and yet she still did what she did, and now the feelings of guilt were flooding back to her.

She was aware. She was fully aware of the consequences she would have to face by leaving her family, but yet at the time, she didn't care or realize just how bad what she had done was.

What was the point in thinking about it now? There was no way she could ever go back to try and fix the ties that were completely severed between her and her family. It just wasn't something that was possible or going to end up in her favor.

Serena got the feeling that she was being stared at and looked up only to see Ceres, who was peaking her head into the room, and said girl flinched upon being noticed.

Serena gave one last glance at the turtle before letting out a sigh.

"I guess you can have it now" Serena said as she tossed the turtle on the ground and went into her room.

Ceres looked down at the small turtle plush that had been thrown at her feet before she bent down to pick it up.

In some ways, in that moment, she had felt just like the turtle. Tossed to the side and ignored. When looking into the turtle's black beady eyes, Ceres decided that she would treat it with as much care and love as she could. She'd do better than her Mama who had so easily given up on it.

"I'll take care of you" Ceres muttered as she clutched the turtle to her chest.

~ Present Time, Ceres' P.O.V. ~

"Oh come on, it's my birthday for crying out loud! You can't just say one nice thing to me?" Kade cried as he looked at Max with his hands on his hips.

Max, who was sitting next to me on his phone, just raised an eyebrow at Kade.

"I said happy birthday, was that not nice enough?" Max asked and Kade huffed.

"You said 'Happy birthday old man' and that is hardly nice. I'm not old at all!" Kade said.

"You're three years shy of thirty" Max said and Kade glared.

"See? This is what I'm talking about" Kade said and I just sighed as I listened to their back and forth bickering. Well it was a more one sided argument on Kade's part as Max didn't really seem to care about the conversation.

"A compliment wouldn't kill you, y'know? Something along the lines of beautiful, gorgeous, handsome, stunning, or pretty" Kade continued and Max scoffed.

"More like conceited, narcissistic, egotistical, vain, and annoying"

"I am none of those things!"

"Ceres, come with me for a second?" When hearing Lance call out to me, I was quick to dash from the room as I no longer was interested in hearing those two bicker.

"Riki and Erika are going to be here in a little while to help set up for the surprise party. I'd appreciate it if you'd help Riki make some runs to the store" he said and I nodded.

The surprise party was going to be a small barbecue in the backyard. Lucas and Ares were cleaning the grill right now and Max was given the task of distracting Kade while they did so which was pretty much working right about now.