7 A family secret

"Mhm..mm..mmm." Lysana was humming while putting some lipstick on her lips. She curved her lips into a smile as she got up and left her bedroom. She made plans with her friends to hang out at some restaurant today and was excited to get there as soon as possible.

She ran down the stairs, only to bump into someone.

"Lys." Samuel sighed. "You're not a kid anymore! Stop running around like this, will you? You'll get hurt!" He scolded.

Lysana's bright smile soon curved upside down.

"Come on, Sam!" She whined. "I'm fine. Calm down!" She yelled, running outside.

When she arrived at the restaurant she was supposed to meet her friends, she saw that the restaurant was already closed. She couldn't believe it! Her friends didn't even think it was necessary to at least let her know that the meeting place had changed!

"Argh! Talk about fake friends!" She huffed between her teeth.

"Oh dear, young lady." A young dark-haired man chuckled as he approached Lysana, causing her to have second-hand embarrassment.

"W-why are you laughing?" She hesitantly asked, as her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"Well… it so happened that today we are closed because the boss had an emergency and I'm here to just make sure everything was closed last night because the person in charge is a new person. However, may I ask your name?" The man kept his smile, as a professional waiter would to his clients as his eyes twinkled although they were dark green.

"Lysana," she replied, trying to calm her anger from earlier. "And you?"

"You can call me Yunen. Would you like to have a cup of coffee or some dessert? I wouldn't mind serving you. You seemed pretty upset earlier."

"U-uhh… no, thank you. I'll get going." Lysana smiled forcefully and rushed out of there.

Lysana took out her phone and started typing.

[ How could you people do this to me?! Did you forget that I was coming or what?! Or did you all really stand me up?! If you…]

Lysana sent the text message and hopped in her car, driving back home.

Her mood was already ruined and the weather had made it worse. It suddenly started raining out of nowhere.

The clouds were clear when she left home but they soon turned dark and heavy rain started to pour.

Luckily, she arrived home just before the rain got any worse.

She got drenched by the rain although she parked her car only a few metres away from her house. She ran quickly inside the house as the water dropped on the floor.

Samuel was leaning against the couch as he watched the TV peacefully until Lysana's yelling disturbed him.

"Millennn! Hurry up and get me new clothes! RIGHT NOW!"

"SHUT UP LYSANA!" Samuel stood up and walked towards Lysana with his fists clenched. "You're dis-tur-bing me." He stated carefully between his teeth, to make sure she understood although he was angry.

"You're so short-tempered! No one will like you if you keep acting like this! Asshole!" Lysana yelled at him and ran upstairs.

She slammed the door and locked it soon after.

Huffing in anger, she mumbled, "Hmph! Who does he think he is?! He is…" She gasped and quickly put her hand on her mouth, to stop herself from talking. Her eyes wide open, she stared at herself in the mirror. She removed her hand from her mouth and shook her head. "What was I even trying to say? Dad will kill me. I need to control my anger as well after all," she sighed as she started removing her makeup.

Just then, Millen knocked on the door disturbing her thoughts. Causing her to jump at her makeup table. Still a bit dazed, she slowly began to put down the wipes she was using to remove her makeup.

"Millen, are you here with my clothes yet?!" She snapped as she moved towards the door. She was trying to behave in her normal rude behaviour to hide the fact that she was shaken up by her thoughts.

She never knew much about her brother other than that they had different mothers. Whenever she tried to find out more from her father, he would always shrug her off saying she needn't worry about such things. He was her brother and that's all she needed to know. The same reply was given when she asked about his mother. No matter how hard she searched in her early teenage years, she could not find any records of her father's previous lover.

As she flung the door open Millen stood there cowering before she held her clothes, shaking in fear.

"I'm here, young miss," she hesitantly said with a faint voice tone. She held out the clothes in front of her offering them to her mistress.

"Tch, just come in. Next time, be quicker or you'll get fired!" She went back to her table to continue removing her makeup.

Just as Millen went away, Lysana once again shut the door. She turned around and slummed down with her back to the door and sighed.

"This is so annoying, I swear. I can't take it. Maybe I should tell that asshole? Or maybe he already knows we aren't real siblings? He changed a lot from a few years ago when I last visited him." Lysana muttered to herself then sighed, shaking her head.

"Never mind. It's gonna cause trouble for no reason. I'll let Dad do whatever he wants with him as long as he doesn't bother me too much. I'll keep this brother-sister act going for a bit," She smirked.

The ringtone of her phone interrupted her thoughts, bringing her back to reality.

She headed towards her makeup vanity where she had placed her purse. She took her phone out and the name on it brought a smile to her dark face: Selene.

"Heyyy!" Lysana exclaimed excitedly. "How have you been?! We didn't hang out this weekend at all! Were you so busy that you couldn't make time for this friend of yours? How mean, Selene. You're neglecting me already?!"

Selene chuckled, listening to her friend talk non-stop like always.

"Calm down! Calm down! You're worse than my grandmother, really! One question at a time, please!"

"Hmm… first. How are you?" Lysana asked quizzically.

"I'm good, how kind of you to ask, thank you and you?" Selene teased Lysana who was enjoying every bit of it.

"Heyyyy. Stop mocking me! I know it's not like me to ask these basic things but ever since you told me about that ex of yours, I've been quite worried about you." Lysana whined.

"Don't worry! I'm fine, really! I was just busy with the art club projects." she said reassuringly.

"And you didn't let me see it yet?!" almost shouting disappointment could be heard in her voice.

"It's a surprise!" Selene exclaimed as she took out her canvas that measured 12 x 16 inches with a bright smile. "Oh… by the way the reason I called you…" Selene muttered hesitantly.

Lysana waited for Selene to gather up the courage to say whatever was going on in her mind. She knew it was hard for Selene to express herself because of everything that happened in her past but she was happy to see her trying to improve herself. That really reassured her since she wouldn't want her best friend to be sad, ever.

"I was thinking… about starting dancing again?… maybe?.."

A few minutes of silence occurred.

"Never min—"

"HELL YEAH!" Lysana screamed, interrupting Selene. "We can go clubbing like we used to!" Lysana started giggling with excitement "Who knows what else we'll do!" She couldn't help but think of the possibilities that would come about if her friend would start dancing again.

"We can even find you a new boyfriend this way!" Lysana chuckled finally getting a chance to tease her best friend.

"Wha—! Let's not get ahead of ourselves shall we?" Selene replied nervously. She wasn't ready for a new partner yet and wasn't in any rush to get one. Her past relationship left her traumatized enough and she didn't even want to think about getting a boyfriend.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just too excited! Don't mind me." Lysana apologized. She knew what her friend was thinking about and she didn't want to remind her of the event at any cost.

"Anyways, what made you think about starting dancing again?"

"Well.. you see. At the art club event, I saw this one girl dancing. It reminded me of how crazy I was about it. My past isn't worth enough for me to ruin my future, right? That's what you told me."

Lysana was surprised by Selene's words. Selene became so cold and distant for the past year that her saying these words made Lysana feel like a proud bird mother who sees her children fly on their own.

Lysana let out a light laughter before continuing.

"Stealing my words, aren't we?"

They both continued to chat for another hour before ending the call.

Lysana was delighted to see Selene slowly becoming normal again.

Someone came and knocked at the door, bringing Lysana back to reality, away from her thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Lys, can… we talk?"

Samuel was on the other side of the door.

No response came from Lysana apart from silence.

"Please?" He asked.