Alyssa had curly strawberry blonde hair like all my step sisters, even though they all straightened it out flat, and all their faces were dusted with freckles that went with their blue Norwegian eyes. Whenever we went out it was obvious I wasn’t related, with my olive skin and multi-colored eyes and dark brown hair that was naturally straight.
“Dinner was great, Alyssa,” I complimented when I finished and excused myself. I never called Alyssa mom. She wasn’t and never would be, even though she’d been in my life for almost eight years now, longer than I’d ever gotten with my own mother. My mom died when I was seven, my mom and stepdad Miguel died in a car crash. That’s when I came to live with dad permanently, and then a few years later Alyssa moved in. I have many memories of my mom and dad; well, stepdad but I never thought of him like that. I’d known him since I was born and he even saw me before my birth father. Hell, he even named me. My mom and Miguel loved me, Alyssa had never loved me, she was nice to me for my father but that’s as far as it went. I guess I never cared that much because I had my mom and Miguel’s love and that was enough for me to last a lifetime. I felt their love every time they looked at me, in every smile or kiss goodnight. In every whisper or even a frown, they still loved me and never let me forget.
“Mike!” Gert shouted, coming into my room. There was no such thing as privacy here. We might be in the same grade and have the same classes together, but we were the farthest thing from similar and that was besides our looks. First off, Gert was a cheerleader. Yeah, she jumped around half-dressed showing off her body and then slept with half the football team. Not that all the cheerleaders did that, Gert just had no shame. She was popular, whereas I was the farthest thing from popular and she was mean as well. She was a poser like the rest of the popular crowd. She spent over an hour each morning getting ready, while I took ten minutes, maybe fifteen tops. Oh, and she was a real bitch to everyone, even her friends and as for me, I was a bitch only to those who truly deserved it.
“What?” I asked, annoyed by her disgusted look at me.
“You’re stalking James! I can’t believe you! How do you think this makes me look? We may not be related but we live together, what do you think people will say? Knowing I live with a freak. I have a reputation and you are not going to ruin it, after all I did to get it,” she said venomously, pointing her finger at me in an accusatory way, like I was a dog or something. All you did to get it? More like how many people you slept with and rumors you spread to buddy up with Tiffany and her crowd.
“You must be off your freaking chariot if you think I’d ever stalk James!” I shouted completely pissed off now. If anyone knew I hated James it would be her, after all she was a major part of the reason he abandoned me and we stopped being friends.
“Whatever, just stop being a freak and think about somebody else for a change,” she shrieked, storming out. Me! I was tempted to throw my bedside table at the selfish cow. Me selfish! Ha, that was a laugh. Who did the dishes and babysat Paix whenever Alyssa went out? Who helped her with her Spanish whenever she needed help and with any other subject? Me. And I got nada, zip, zilch, rien, nothing. I used to feel I had to help, she was my step sister after all, but now she was just a bitch who pushed me one step too far. I was already pissed before but now I was raging. I put on the mix CD James had made me once, it had all of our favorite songs on it and then at the end, three calming tracks. I chose the sounds of the ocean for now. The ocean sounds were the sound of the waves crashing lightly and if I followed the steps James had taught me, I’d start calming down. When my sisters were always pissing me off James would distract me or think of things to cool me down and make me forget.
“Close your eyes now, breathe in, breathe out, listen to the waves,” he’d told me. “Now imagine you’re at the beach okay, the sun is shining. It’s a beautiful day,” he’d say.
“What about seagulls? And those annoying children that are always crying and throwing sand at you?” I asked him, being difficult.
He smiled at me, “They’re all gone and all the seagulls went to another beach, there’s no one around, it’s peaceful and quiet,” he said rubbing my temples.
“I’m alone? That’s no fun, no one likes being alone.” I complained.
“You’re not alone, I’m there.” He laughed quietly, like it was a silly thing to say. “I’ll always be there for you,” he whispered. Always my ass! I switched tracks to the windy one, with the wind chimes sounding every so often but that day was still in my head, that feeling I always got when I was around him still lingered in my bones, tattooed there for life. I just had to work around those feelings, work with the challenge and overcome it, like Mrs.
