Mr. Dahl gave me lunch detention for sleeping during class, but the joke's on him because I was ecstatic to have an excuse to avoid Jaxson. Honestly, I planned to avoid him indefinitely, and it would have worked if it wasn't for Maeve and her mandatory family dinners. So here I sit, Jaxson stink-eyeing me and Maeve demanding to know every detail about my upcoming assignments. But, none of it seems to bother me. The fact that I still don't know what the hell is wrong with me isn't even bothering me. It all seems meaningless as I anxiously wait for Jin's DM. I know it's only because I can't wait to tell him what I found in Maeve's office today.

"So, any cars picked out for tomorrow afternoon?" Maeve says, bouncing a fussy Silas on her knee.

"There's a Malibu and a Lancer I like down at the Chaz Limited lot," Jaxson says.

"No Lancer, maybe on the Malibu," Maeve answers, getting irritated as Silas's cries continue.

"Here, I'll take him," I say, taking Silas from her arms to dance him around the kitchen. Anything to get away from Jaxson's stink eyes and this conversation.

"And you?" Maeve calls back to me while wiping smashed peas off her shirt.

"I'm pretty busy, can you just pick one for me?" I say as migraine kicks in. Great.

"What do you have planned?" Maeve calls back suspiciously.

Oh, I dunno, maybe just trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with me. "Just stuff."

"She's always got stuff going on nowadays," Jaxson's sour voice adds.

I roll my eyes as my phone buzzes again.

"I don't feel good," I say honestly, before slumping Silas back into Maeve's arms and then running up to my room.

Hey, I'm here.

HEY! Where u been?

Legit sleeping. Slept from 3:30-6, then ate dinner.

Don't ur parents notice u gone so early?

No way, they've been too busy getting things ready for the big remodel tomorrow

Oh...

Ya...well I'm here

Kk

I throw my phone aside to fling the rope out the window. Jin and I go through the same old sneak in the window routine from last night. Once inside, Jin sets down his stuff and slumps into my bean bag.

"You okay?" Jin asks. "You look flushed."

"Yeah, must be allergies. I've been itching and just have a headache."

"Weird, hey, did you find anything in Maeve's things?"

"Actually I—"

A firm knock on the door echoes into my room. That's Maeve's knock.

"It's Maeve," I whisper to Jin, who rushes to my closet, shutting himself inside.

As I open the door, I try to stop my adrenaline rushed arms from shaking.

"Yeah?" I ask as Maeve presses her way into my room, Silas in her arms.

"We need to talk," she says, sitting down at my desk, looking unnerved.

"About?" I mask my anxiety with some sass.

"Sit," she says, setting Silas down to crawl around.

I sit down and extend my arms for Silas as he crawls into my lap, grabbing at my curls.

"So, Mr. Hunderk called me today..." Maeve opens.

"Of course he did," I mumble. I'm not even surprised at this point, but I am low key worried.

"He told me you were in his office today. You and Jin Caldwell."

I don't respond. Instead, I look up at her and wait for her to get to the point.

"Vel, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" Deflect and deny. Deflect and deny.

"Really?" Maeve continues, rolling her eyes even more dramatically than my typical eye-roll. "Cut, the bullshit Vel, tell me what's going on?"

"What did Hunderk say?"

"He told me you have some dysfunctional relationship going on with not one but two boys at school. One of which is Jin Caldwell, who I'm assuming is the reason why you and Jaxson aren't talking."

"What about it?" I say, allowing my face to hide as Silas grabs at all my curls.

"Well, is it true?"

"Ish," I begrudgingly respond. Ish is the only answer I can give without risking Maeve finding out what's really going on. I'd rather her think I'm a hoe than crazy.

Vel, I don't know why you have destructive tendencies—"

"Maybe I'm just like mom," I say back with some extra snark to hide the fact that I'm honestly worried about it being true.

"Vel, do you like these boys?"

Jin's face pops into my head. The fact that he's hiding in my closet, listening to this very conversation has me mortified. I can feel my face get red.

"...uh-huh," I say discreetly.

"One more than the other?"

"...uh-huh."

"There's nothing wrong with being in a normal healthy relationship with one boy. And it's okay. You don't have to hide it."

I do, though. "You wouldn't understand," I say as Silas's heavy head rests against my chest.

"Are you having sex with those boys?"

"OMG NO!" I demand startling Silas. If my face was red before, it's now full-on ginger-fire red.

"I won't judge you. I just need to know."

"No!"

"Are you planning on it?"

"On what?!"

"On having sex with one or both of those boys." I'm blown away with how straight Maeve's face is right now while I can't even hide the embarrassment in my voice.

"No!... I mean, I dunno...what the hell. When would I even do that?" I'm rambling. I honestly hadn't thought about it, but then again, I've had a boy in my bedroom for the last two nights.

"Well, here," Maeve says, leaning up to grab something from her back pocket.

I freeze with wide eyes at the sight. Condoms.

"Take it," she demands.

"I don't need that."

"Just take it in case you ever do!" She throws them at me.

As the silky, smooth packets hit my knee, I grab them and slide them under my bed and out of sight.

"I got pregnant at sixteen because no one ever talked with me about sex. And I love Jaxson I DO, but I would have loved to have had him later in life." For the first time, Maeve's face looks humbling. Maeve has always had such an arrogant air about her, which is why I can't stand her. But here and now, she just looks human.

I look down at Silas, resting his head against my chest. "What about Silas?" I ask, without thinking and instantly feel like an asshole.

"Well, not everyone learns from their mistakes the first time," Maeve says.

"Does it run in the family? Mistakes?" I'd never really put much thought into the complexities of relationships or sex, but somehow after the past couple of days, this conversation seems relevant?

"That's a question I've asked myself for years," Maeve laughs. She laughs.

Sila's little chest moves up and down against mine as he giggles back.

"Are you laughing at your momma?" I ask, looking down at the innocent smile.

"Who is he?" I ask as the smile fades from Maeve's face.

"Silas's dad?" Maeve rubs her eyes before sighing. She's embarrassed. "I met him at that Real Estate convention in Boise. It was a one-time thing."

"Didn't you tell him?"

"You know how they say history repeats itself? Well, just like Jaxson's dad, this guy wasn't interested in having a kid...or at least not with someone other than his wife."

"What about my dad?" It had honestly never bothered me that I knew nothing about him. But now, with everything going on, maybe he's important.

"Vel, I wish I knew. I wasn't living in Mom's house when she got pregnant because I was rebelling and off getting myself pregnant, but..." Maeve's eyes shift a little as if she knows something and doesn't want to say it.

"What is it?"

"You ever think it's weird how similar we look?"

"No, we're related. Why wouldn't we?"

"But half-siblings shouldn't look so similar, right?"

"We look just like Mom, how's that weird?"

"The older you got, the more it bothered me. How similar you looked to my baby photos."

Where is she going with this?

"My whole life Mom dodged any questions I had about my dad, and when I started asking about your dad, she got super defensive."

"Defensive?"

"Well, it was when she first started having issues. So, when you were eight, I took a sample of your hair, and I sent it to a lab...with a sample of mine."

"A lab?" What the hell? This makes sense with what I found in her office today.

"I had a feeling, and it turned out I was right...based on the samples, the lab said we had to have the same biological parents. Meaning, we have the same father."

"What?!" I didn't see that coming.

"We're so far apart, how is that even possible?"

"It's possible because Mom knew exactly who our dad was. She had to have."

"Could it have been a sperm donor?"

"That's what I thought, but when Mom lost it, and I became her medical power of attorney, I called every sperm bank on the west coast, and she wasn't in anyone's records."

What the hell? Who was my dad if my mom had to keep him a secret? And why would she have a second child with him if he was never there for the first one?

"This just doesn't make sense," I say, looking down at Silas's perfect red curls. "Why would Mom hide him from us?"

"Vel," Maeve says, leaning over to collect a sleeping Silas from my arms, "That same thought has worried me ever since the day I found out."

Any guesses as to who Vel and Maeve's dad might be? 

Enjoying the story so far? Please take a second to vote! Thanks.