Breaking the Cycle

Vincent Ever since I can remember I have always been By Claire’s side. I remember one day we were all playing in the pool. I overheard our dads talking about how I was nothing like my parents. I was confused because my dad was agreeing with them. He told them I was still young and hopefully I would never end up like them. I didn’t understand what they were talking about and went back to playing. I told Claire that I was going to stay with pops. She asked her dad and he told her that it’d be better for her to stay. She started to tear up when we saw Pop’s walking up to the patio. We were all getting out of the pool to say hi. Pop was my favorite person to be with. I was running right behind Claire when I heard Uncle Mason telling aunt Crystal he doesn’t want me to get too attached to Claire and that it would be safer for both of us if we didn’t. I had honestly forgotten about this moment until a few years later when I stayed the night with Claire. She woke me up to ask me to take a drink of my water since she had finished hers. I let her take a sip and grabbed her empty cup so I could fill it for her. When I got to the bottom of the stairs I heard Aunt Crystal talking to my mom about how much I looked like my dad, but I had my mom's hair. I quickly and quietly rushed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I looked nothing like my dad. My eyes were a light green and my left eye had a strip of blue in it. Claire liked to say it helped me see things others couldn’t. My hair was also dark brown. Both my parents looked nothing like me and my mom had blonde hair. It was then that I started to question who I was. I started to realize I didn’t look like my parents because they weren’t my parents. And then I felt my stomach drop. “I’m adopted” I ran back to Claire and started crying. It scared and confused her so much that she didn’t know what else to do besides she wrapping her arms around me and apologizing for drinking all my water. I didn’t care about that and just wanted her to hold me. After that everything just seemed to fall apart. I didn’t realize how much I was pushing everyone away, until it was too late. Including her.