Odd as this sounds, I couldn't help but laughing. I don't know what possessed me to do so. Once you know you've hit an all-time-low, you don't even bother to try to save yourself, and I honestly can't remember how I got myself into this crappy situation, but it's managed to shoot all the self-control I've built up for 16 years straight to hell.

Hiro was looking at me from the door. He probably thought I was crying or having a seizure. Not laughing. It didn't take a mad scientist to figure out I was in big trouble when I got home, but I didn't care, and my sort of brother really couldn't make me care either.

Hiro stood there by the door next to the mysterious man. You could see the disapproval oozing from his face. Better him than mother, I thought.

"Just came here to get my sister," Hiro said.

Purple hair and eyes matching. His skin was paler than a sheet of paper. His stature lingered over me. His tie was redder than blood, and his shirt was probably stained with some. Had a name tag, and I made out something like -saki Rotso when he glided past me.

Did he believe him. Probably not. With my luck, it wasn't a question.

"Your sister? I see you've gotten my call? Maybe you should teach your sister to stay out of trouble," he said. Despite his words, he had a sing-song way of saying them that it actually sounded like he was mocking me, you know, rather than an absolute insult. "I'll keep her out of trouble. This won't happen again. I promise." Hiro said confidently. At least as confidently as you could in this kind of situation.

Just like that, he let me go. His purple hair tickled my hand as he released me from the restraints of my chains. "You kids better get going," the man said. He didn't seem like he hated me entirely. He had every reason to do so. I had a feeling that I was making his life worse. I also had a feeling that Hiro hated me.
But Hiro's here. And this police officer didn't arrest me along with the others.

He didn't even bother knocking. Ringing the doorbell. Counting down from three. Hiro just entered through the door like nothing had just happened. He smiled at my mother like nothing had happened. He acted as if nothing had happened. He was setting me up for failure, and he knew it. I could not lie to my mother, and he knew it, but he smiled anyways as if he thought I could pull this off.
Hiro doesn't know me as well as he thinks.

"Hi... Mom," I started, "you think I could come back home?"

"Sure sweetie. You didn't even have to ask!" she replied. She gave me a hug, like nothing happened. Why was everyone so bent on pretending like nothing's happening? Why was she so happy? Did Tadou make her this way? Should I come to accept this reality, or should my mom realize that this is a fantasy?

I can play pretend too. I can act. I can make-believe that I have 'the world's bestest family ever.' Should I go on Facebook and add Hiro as my brother; delete my father as my own and add Tadou in his place. Is that what she wants?

I just don't understand why my mom's rushing into this. Your first marriage is a joyous commitment, and your first divorce is a painful ending. Your second marriage is just utter insanity and destined to fail like the previous marriage before it. She acts like it's nothing. She forces a divorce on her only daughter, she forces her new boyfriend down her daughter's throat, and magically informs her that they're moving in the house that she's been living in her entire life-time. The house I've been living my entire lifetime, with my father, and my mother. Not this wannabe and his stupid son.

Hiro brushes past me. "Siblings," he says, "this makes us..."

"I guess that's what we are," I say.

I can't look at him. I remember Hiro when we were younger. He was the school's official emo, as pre-teenagers would say. Black bangs caressed what seemed to be half of his face. His eyes were a muddy shade of brown. Rough, olive skin to top it off. He omitted an instant chill with his classic serious look; that was just a facade. When you got to know the kid, you learn that he's probably not even capable of harming a fly. I held his hands in 6th grade, when I first moved to Seiyo, to help him up when he had sprained his ankle on the playground. It was kind of awkward, because I had just 'kept holding onto his hands until some kids teased us about being together, and even then, the school was shocked that 'The Hiro !' had held a girl's hand THAT long. All in all, I hadn't thought about Hiro much. Being two grades ahead of me, he wasn't relevant to my life at all after that irrelevant day in sixth grade. That is-until his dad started dating my mom. That being said, Hiro's a problem. An annoying nuisance that needs to stay out of my way.

"Siblings." I say. I'm still getting used to that word; I've been an only child my whole life.

I don't need to start a fight with Hiro. Right now, it's better to have him on my side.

"You didn't tell mo-"

"What Mommy doesn't know won't hurt her," Hiro says, cutting me off.

He's right. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Hiro seems to be right a lot lately. Hiro said that I should've been staying with my dad. Hiro said that I shouldn't have gone with those people from the plaza. Hiro said that I should come back home.

Hiro may be right, but if this is so, I have every intention of being wrong.