| 18 | Who are you?
2034 Words
Paulina POV
I'm sitting in the kitchen with an angry Brody and an extremely hungover Damien. To say that the tension is awkward would be an understatement. Brody has been screaming at his big brother since he woke up confused and didn't know where he was.
Everything from telling him how stupid he is to curses were uttered towards Damien. I didn't interfere; it's not my place. Instead, I take sip after sip from my coffee and look at anything that isn't paired with the brothers and their conversation.
Damien is uttering more noises than words, mostly grunts and growl at his brother's words. I roll my eyes at his caveman antics and give him aspirin to help with the apparent headache. He doesn't say thank you or even acknowledge me, not that it matters to me anyway.
"You can at least be polite and say 'thank you' to the woman who let you sleep in her bed last night," Brody growls.
They continue to bicker and yell at each other. It gets too awkward for me to stay, so instead, I walk into the living room and begin to fold the laundry. I can still hear some words from where I'm standing, but a lot of the conversation is stifled.
"Why are you doing this to her? What has she ever done to you that makes you behave like this?" Brody asks in annoyance.
"I have told you repeatedly to stay out of it!" Damien growls back.
"No, I'm not going to stay out of it. I don't like the chicks you've been dragging home during the years, but Paulina is the first girl I like, and she doesn't deserve this. She can and would give you the world; in return, you decide to smash hers. What the f**k is wrong with you?"
I can't hear what he answers, and that's probably for the best anyway. I don't want to be dragged into their problems, even though I'm a big part of it. It's drama like this I want to avoid the best I can, and look what happens, I'm being placed in the center.
"Paulina, I can help you with the laundry," Brody says when he walks in.
"It's fine, thank you. I'm almost done anyway." I answer and smile at him.
"Is there something else I can help you with?"
"No, it's okay. I've done these things alone for five years, remember? I think I can manage." I wink at him.
He ignores my attempts to say that I'm fully capable of folding clothes by myself. Instead, he takes one of the baskets with clothes in it. It doesn't take long for me to understand that he has no idea what he's doing. I show him, and he takes another one. Oh no, not that one!
"Brody, don't take that-" too late.
The whole couch is full of my thongs and bras. I facepalm and sigh before laughing at his embarrassed expression. He throws a pair of pink panties at me, and I laugh even harder. At first, he glares at me, but in the end, he laughs with me. We have a full-on panties-throwing war when Damien walks in.
"What the hell is going on?" he asks and looks us over, trying to understand the situation.
Brody and I are still laughing, even louder now, when we get to see Damien's confused face. Brody shows Damien a pair of midnight blue lace panties proudly with a smirk, Damien is glaring at his brother and growls at him.
"Put her panties down, unless you want to lose a finger."
Wow, this situation escalated fast. What is his problem? Damien was the one who banged at my front door in the middle of the night, waking me up, and now he tells us that we can't have fun with MY underwear in MY apartment?
"Chill, dude. We were just having fun. What's your problem?" Brody asks with furrowed brows.
"I don't know. I'm sorry." Damien says and sits down beside me with his head in his hands.
I pick up a pair of panties that I throw at Damien's face. He looks up and sees the soft fabric. At first, he doesn't do anything. Suddenly he looks at his brother, who nods, then with a smirk, they both throw all the panties at me until I'm buried underneath them. I laugh until my stomach hurts.
"Did you die of suffocation under there?" Damien asks, amusement clear in his voice.
"No, it's not a lot of fabric. That's the whole point, show as much as possible and easy to get off." I answer and break my head through the pile.
I rise with a sigh and begin my work of folding every pair. Yes, I'm folding my underwear, okay? The teasing stops and they help me put everything in order before I walk towards my bedroom to put everything in the right places.
When I walk out of the bedroom, my phone is ringing. I look at the display; it's Adrien's phone. Like someone's scratching at the microphone, cracking sounds can be heard, and I wait for someone to speak. I can hear Adrien say that I've answered.
"Mommy?" Fiona's voice makes me smile.
"Hello, princess. How are you?"
"I'm really good, mommy. Uncle Jaxon bought us chocolate chip cookies, and they're my favorite!"
I sigh when I hear that. Adrien and Jaxon are buying the kids all of their favorite sweets whenever they can. I don't like that; they shouldn't eat that much sugar, it's not good for them. I guess I'm going to have to scold them once again.
"That's great, honey. How are your brothers?"
"Everyone is happy, but we miss you, mommy! When are you coming back?"
"I don't know, cupcake. Soon, I promise."
"Okay. Do you know where daddy is?"
"Yes, do you want to talk to him?"
"Is he with you? No, I want to scold him!"
"Yes, he's here. Hang on a minute."
Damien and Brody are talking in the kitchen, but stop when I walk in with the phone ready to give to Damien. He looks at the phone with a questioning look. Is Damien stupid or what? He takes the phone but don't put it to his ear yet.
"Your daughter wants to talk to you," I say.
"Hello, love. How are-. What? No, I didn't-. I understand. Yes. I promise. I'll try. Yes. I miss you too, pumpkin. Okay, I will come back later. Bye."
He hangs up and rubs his temples slowly. I smirk because I know that Fiona is a force to be reckoned with; she can scold anyone into the next dimension without blinking. She takes after me on that. I guess that she's mad he left without saying anything to her.
"Welcome to my world, daddy-o. Fi's a very good scolder. You should have seen when she found out that I ate ice cream without them once." I chuckle.
"She yelled at me because I didn't tell her that I would sleep somewhere else and when she found out that I got to be with you, and she didn't... Oh, dear lord."
"I wonder who she got that trait from...?" Brody says and smirks at me.
"Hey, it's a good trait to have. People respect you more." I answer and chuckle.
"Anyhow, we need to leave, Damien. I promised the boys that we would play today." Brody says and claps his hands together.
"Yeah, I'm sorry that I arrived here last night. That was not okay, and if I said or did something inappropriate, just know that I'm sorry about it." Damien says and itch his head.
"It's okay. You kind of fell on the floor, twice. I carried you to the bedroom from the living room."
"How did you manage that? I'm pretty strong, and this bull is heavy!" Brody exclaims.
"Well, it was that, or I probably would have tripped on him when I got up this morning."
I follow them to the door and hug them both. It's strange to embrace Damien, but I can't be rude and shake his hand. I've had his d**k inside of me, and we have a daughter together, do you see how weird it would be to do a handshake instead of a hug?
***
I don't do much during the rest of the day. Mostly cleaning and stuff like that. Brianna came sometime at seven, and we drank some coffee, gossiping about what's new in life. She didn't stay long, since she had a date with a man she met at Starbucks.
So, now I'm sitting here forever alone and can't decide what channel to watch. There's some noise from a neighbor a couple of doors away from mine, but except for that, it's quiet. I'm used to hearing the children, to be alone is weird. But then someone knocks at my door, and I open.
"Hello, can I help you with something?" I ask as politely as I can.
The man pushes his way inside with two thugs at his sides. What the hell?! Who are these people? I just stand there, not knowing how to react, shock still evident on my features. The oldest of the men chuckle at me and sits down at the couch.
"You have your mother's fire."
"Who are you?"
"One thing at a time, darling. Sit down," he says, and I do, it was not a suggestion but an order. "You don't remember me, and that's not strange at all. Considering that we haven't met since you were six years old, that time you refused to let me go."
"I ask again, who are you?"
"I never liked that you lived with those bastards during your childhood, and when I found out how they treated you, you were already gone. It took me quite some time to find you again. Don't worry; I'm not going to kidnap you or hurt you."
"Says the man who pushed his way into a stranger's apartment," I answer with a death glare, which he chuckles at.
"Like I said, you have your mother's fire. Unfortunately, she died."
"What are you talking about? My mother is very much alive and lives with my dad in NY." I say with furrowed brows, but he ignores me all together now.
"Your mother was young when I met her and got pregnant when she was only seventeen years old; she gave birth to the most beautiful little baby girl. She named her Eleonora..."
"Okay, this is obviously some sort of mistake. I don't know who you are or who do you think I am, but this is nothing I have any knowledge of."
"Eleonora, don't interrupt me. Your mother always hated when someone interrupted her; Lena was very precise about that."
"Like I said, I don't know what you're talking about. My mother's name isn't Lena..."
"Yes, it is. That woman you call 'mom' isn't your mother. She's a despicable person for ever hurting you the way she did... And that fucker who abused you is even worse!" he growled.
"She's not my mother...?" I whisper, not believing my ears.
It's hard to imagine that the woman who tucked me in at night and read my fairytales to me isn't my mother. Why didn't they tell me the truth? Why didn't they tell me that I'm adopted or whatever? They've been treating me like crap since forever but I never stopped loving them.
"No, she's not, Eleonora." I look at him with panic. "That's right, Eleonora. Your mother was Lena and me; I'm your biological father."
- Writer
