Chapter Text
Severa hated lawyers. She hated their stupid legal documents, their stuffy and uptight offices, and most of all, she despised how involved they were. She hated how they spoke in hushed whispers around her and acted like she wasn’t there, all because she was ‘just a kid’.
She picked at her nails. Her father’s stupid fucking lawyer insisted that she stay in the office and wait for her ‘mother’ here, instead of waiting in the temporary foster home they’d put her in (she didn’t hate the foster parents, they were alright, but the other ‘kids’ were fucking awful. Still, she’d rather be there than in this uptight, stuffy, and downright miserable law firm).
She didn’t want to live with her mother, but she didn't have much of a choice. Her mother had legal custody of her, and she couldn’t really fight it. Well, she could try for emancipation, but it was more trouble that it was worth and she didn’t want to have to spend any more time around lawyers or in courtrooms than she had to. All of it was awful, in her opinion.
Severa tapped her foot, staring at the clock. Any minute now, her mother was going to walk through those doors and bring her to wherever the fuck she’d run away to fourteen years ago. Her father had never been clear why her mother left, or where she went, but Severa didn’t care about that. Her mother left her with that horrible man and never even tried to come back for her.
The door creaked open and her father’s lawyer, Cervantes, poked his head in. His huge mustache twitched.
“Your mother is here, Severa,” He said. “Do you have all of your things?”
Severa stood up and tossed her bag over her shoulder. “Yeah,” She grumbled.
“Good, good,” Cervantes smiled. “Come on, then.”
She sighed and walked towards the door. She did not want to leave this room, as much as she hated it. She wanted the floor to swallow her whole and spit her out ten years later when she had a job and was far far away from her mother.
Two women stood in the lobby, though it was obvious to Severa which one was her mother. She had the same red hair that Severa had, and she could already point out the similarities in how they looked. The other woman did not look like Severa. She had light brown hair and was shorter than Severa’s mother. Severa had no idea who she was. A friend, maybe, or a partner. She didn’t really care either way.
“Severa?” Her mother asked quietly.
“What?” Severa snapped, clutching her bag tighter.
Cervantes sighed, his finger twirling his mustache. “As I told you, she’s… not exactly a ray of sunshine.”
Severa glared at Cervantes. “At least I’m not a fucking lawyer.”
He shook his head. “Your father always loved to talk about how you couldn’t stop starting fights.”
Severa tried to explode him with her mind. It didn’t work.
“Thank you, Cervantes,” her mother said. “I, uh, I assume you don’t remember me.”
“Of course I don’t,” Severa crossed her arms. “I last saw you when I was one.”
Her mother sighed. “Right, well, my name’s Cordelia, and I’m your mother,” she said. “And this is my wife, Sumia.”
“Hello,” Sumia said softly.
“Whatever,” Severa grumbled. “Can we just go already?”
Sumia and Cordelia shared a look. “Yeah,” her mother finally said. “Yeah, we can go.”
----
The car ride was incredibly awkward, and it made Severa want to jump out the window on the highway and get hit by a semi going 65 miles per hour. Cordelia and Sumia kept trying to talk to her, but Severa wanted nothing to do with them. She was pissed she had to live with them, and the fact that they were being weirdly nice was even worse. They gave up eventually, and the only sound was the radio. If she hadn’t packed her earbuds at the bottom of her bag, she would have put them in and outright ignored the two of them.
“Before we get home,” Sumia started.
It’s not my home, Severa wanted to say.
“You should know that you have a stepsister,” She finished. “Her name’s Cynthia. She’s about a year younger than you.”
So, her mother ran away and found another family? Could she just tell that Severa wasn’t the perfect daughter she wanted after only one year?
“Great,” Severa replied dryly.
Cordelia looked back at her for a moment. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then sighed.
“I’m… sorry about your father,” She finally said.
Severa huffed and looked out the window. “Whatever.”
A few minutes later, they were pulling into a driveway. Severa stared at the house for a minute. It was a much bigger, much nicer house than the one she had lived in with her dad. It wasn’t in a run-down neighborhood, and it didn’t have broken front steps. It was an upgrade, but the upgrade also came with her mother and that made it almost worse than where she used to live.
She followed Sumia and Cordelia into the house, her bag clutched tightly in her hand. They didn’t have to unlock the door, which if this had been her old neighborhood, the house might’ve been broken into (robberies weren’t that common, but if you left your door unlocked there was a pretty high chance someone would rob you, especially if they say you leave without locking it). She stepped inside cautiously, looking around.
It was a nice house, all things considered. The decor was rather plain, but it fit the idea Severa had of her mother. Everything seemed perfectly placed, down to each dust particle resting on the shelves. Many pictures hung from the walls, including ones of Cordelia and Sumia, along with a young girl who Severa assumed was her stepsister.
“Cynthia!” Sumia yelled up the stairs.
“One sec mom!” A voice shouted back. Seconds later, there was a loud crash. “I’m okay!”
Not even five seconds later, someone came storming very loudly down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, Severa got a good look at her. She was about as tall as Sumia, if a bit shorter. Her hair was a much darker brown, though, as were her eyes. She wore the biggest smile Severa had ever seen, and she did not seem to be able to stand still.
“Oh, you must be Severa!” The girl exclaimed. “I’m Cynthia!”
Severa could not handle the amount of energy radiating from this girl. “Yeah, okay.”
“Could you show Severa her room?” Sumia asked.
“Yeah!” Why was this girl so fucking loud? “Do you… have more bags?”
Severa looked at her like she was stupid. “Uh, no?”
Cynthia looked at Sumia. “That’s—that’s fine,” She stuttered. “Follow me.”
Severa followed Cynthia up the stairs. Again, the walls were covered in frames, though not all of them were photos. There was one frame that held a newspaper, and another that held what appeared to be a degree of some sort. She didn’t care enough to actually examine it.
“Voilà!” Cynthia grinned. “Here it is!”
Severa’s room was the last in the hallway, across from what looked to be Cynthia’s room. It was nothing special, just a bed, a dresser, a closet, and a desk (then again, Severa had never had a desk before. She’d never really needed one, and it felt a little weird to have one now). As expected, the room had no personal possessions. Severa wouldn’t be surprised if this had just been an extra bedroom and they hadn’t had to do anything to prepare it for her.
“Uh, thanks,” Severa said, stepping into the room.
“You're welcome!” Cynthia grinned. “I’ll come get you for dinner in a little while, okay?”
With that, Cynthia disappeared downstairs and Severa was alone for the first time in hours. She sighed and closed the door behind her.
She didn’t like this place. She didn’t like that she had to live with her mother, and that her mother didn’t think she did anything wrong when she left Severa. It was infuriating, and if they had made her talk any longer, Severa probably would’ve screamed at them. She knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but it’s what she wanted to do.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and dropped her bag on the floor. She ran her hands across the blanket and sighed. Three days ago, she was in the back of a cop car as her father was being taken to the hospital, and now, she was in her mother’s house. Her mother who had an entirely different family and didn’t seem to feel bad about leaving Severa behind (she was enraged about it. How her mother could pretend that her leaving hadn’t fucked Severa over completely made her blood boil. How her mother had the audacity to give condolences about her father’s death? That was downright despicable in Severa’s mind)
She wasn’t entirely sure what she was supposed to do now. She was hours away from the people she might’ve considered friends, and miles away from anything she knew. She didn’t like new things, and this entirely new environment was nothing different. Severa had never been good with people, or anything, really, and she didn’t want to have to navigate all of this right now. She could pass it off as missing her father, sure, but the problem was she didn’t miss that bastard. She couldn’t say she was glad he was dead, no, she’d never have to deal with her mother if he was still here. But a part of her was happy, knowing that she’d never have to deal with him screaming at her again. She’d never have to clean shards of glass out of her feet again (or she hoped. She had no idea what Sumia and her mother were like. She wanted to hope they were decent people, but her mother had also left her ).
She unpacked her things quickly, though there wasn’t much to unpack anyway. She had her clothes, a few pieces of jewelry, and her… drug memorabilia, to put it simply. She hid that very far in the closet, behind a shelf. While her father hadn’t cared about anything she did, she figured that her mother, the perfect person with the perfect family, would not be pleased to see it. She had to actually be careful with it (she used to be careful around her father, but he saw her one day and just grumbled at her to not smoke in the house. It was one of the nicest things he’d ever said).
Severa sat on the bed for a while. She had been staring out the window but found the scenery to be too boring. It was just a view of the backyard plus the neighbor’s backyard. She could barely see the next street over, and there was no one out for her to watch. She didn’t particularly like people watching, but it was better than sitting and doing nothing, which Severa was currently doing.
She eventually gave up on doing nothing and pulled out her phone, scrolling mindlessly for a while. Back home, the people she used to hang out with were probably doing something fun, and she was stuck in this perfect fucking house with her mother’s perfect fucking family (she would never tell the people who referred to themselves as her friends that she missed them, but she was alone, so she was admitting that she missed them). She’d told them she was leaving soon, but neglected to say the day, or where she was going. Partly because she hadn’t known exactly where she was going until today. Not that it mattered; they didn’t care that much about her. She was just another person to skip class with, nothing more, nothing less.
Severa scanned the room again and paused, spotting an envelope on the desk. She must’ve missed it when she first walked in. She stood up and grabbed it. Severa, it was labeled. The handwriting was perfect, which meant her mother must’ve written it. She scowled and tossed it back on the desk. No way she was fucking reading that.
She heard movement in the hallway and her eyes stared at the door. There was a beat, and then, a knock.
“What?” Severa asked, turning away from the desk.
“It’s Cynthia!” the person on the other side exclaimed. “Mom wanted me to let you know dinner’s ready and that you should come downstairs.”
As much as Severa wanted to say no, she wasn’t hungry, her stomach betrayed her.
She sighed. “Give me a minute.”