Emma's POV
Drama. If I could explain my teen years in one word, it would be drama. I feel like that's all I had to deal with drama. Drama over my friendship with Miranda, drama over finding out about my mysterious cousin Tori, drama over my constant bickering with Jess, drama with my relationship with Noah. That's all I knew, drama. And right when I thought it was done, here I was again dealing with more drama.
"Tori has a sister?" I repeated still unable to wrap my mind around the fact that I had another cousin I knew nothing about "What the hell does Mike just knock up every one of his girlfriends?" I criticized harshly holding my head in my hands
"It makes sense when you think about it, Mona and Mike were dating when she got pregnant and she said they broke up because of it, but what if they broke up because Mike cheated?" Miranda suggested pacing nervously around her room "What kills me is that Mike abandoned Tori and yet he still visits Becca, he's still in her life"
"It just doesn't make any sense, Mike wanted to be in Tori's life. Hell he got Mona and Tori to move to New York so they would be closer together, so they could have a life together" I said getting to my feet stepping in front of Miranda to stop her from pacing the action driving me insane "What happened that made him disappear?"
"I don't know, I don't know!" Miranda whined leaning her body against her bedroom door smacking her head against it painfully as she racked her brain for any possible reason "Something obviously happened between Tori and Mike, I just don't know what"
"Why don't we just ask Tori, she's probably wondering about her sister by now" I said reaching for the door knob knowing that Tori was only a few houses down spending quality time with Jess the two of them discussing the family that Jess had met with
"No!" Miranda exclaimed holding her hands up in front of her stopping me from exiting the room "She doesn't know"
"You didn't tell her?" I said surprised by Miranda's secrecy "Why the hell didn't you tell her!"
"How am I supposed to start a conversation like that? Hey Tori you look nice today, oh and by the way I met your hot sister yesterday"
"Hot?" I interrupted shocked at Miranda's unintentional complement "Did you just call Tori's sister hot?"
"I mean yeah, she has the same dark eyes as Tori, and she had short brown hair I'm not gonna lie she was attractive she caught my eye" She admitted once again blocking my way out of the room "Please don't tell Tori, I love her I do I just can't drop this on her right now"
"Maybe you can't but I can" I groaned shoving the blonde out of the way quickly descending the stairs making my way to the front door only stopping when I heard Miranda tumble down the stairs "Dumbass" I chucked to myself extending my hand to help her back onto her feet
"You can't tell her" She begged rubbing her arm a slight bruise appearing "Please, if she realizes that Mike is more interested in Becca's life than her own she'll be devastated"
"And if she hears about her sister from someone else she'll be devastated. So make up your mind either you tell her or I will" I said crossing my arms over my chest "So what's it gonna be?"
"I'll do it, I'll tell her" Miranda answered holding her arm in pain glancing at the bruise "I'll do it tomorrow" She stated walking into the kitchen grabbing ice from the fridge "I promise"
"Today Miranda, you have to tell her today. The longer you wait, the less you'll want to tell her" I replied following her into the kitchen jumping onto the counter watching as she iced her bicep waiting for her to respond "Miranda, she's your girlfriend!"
"I know! I know she's my girlfriend and I love her, but you know how much she hates talking about her father. I don't want to force that on her" Miranda explained dropping the ice into the sink running her fingers through her hair "I don't want to be the reason that she gets hurt"
"Miranda don't you think that if someone found out you had a sister you never knew about you'd want them to tell you" I argued sliding off of the counter "You don't really have a choice she's gonna find out eventually it's better that she hears it from you"
"Fine" She whined grabbing her car keys from the counter spinning them in her fingers "Are you coming or not?" She asked completely ignoring my eye sight refusing to give me the satisfaction that I had won the argument
"I'm coming" I grinned practically skipping out to the car jumping into the passenger seat immediately blasting the radio once Miranda turned the car on "How are you going to break the news to her?" I asked
"Shut the hell up" Miranda demanded rolling her eyes angrily as she pulled into Jess' driveway "Damn, is she moving?" She questioned noticing the cluttered porch, the cardboard boxes blocking the front door
"She's probably sorting through her clothes for college, I doubt the closets in the dorm are big enough for her whole wardrobe" I joked quickly unbuckling and shuffling towards the house
"Crap, that's right I forgot to tell her" Miranda groaned bursting into the house not bothering to knock on the door Jess having given Miranda a key a few months ago
"Tell her what?" I questioned slowly walking up the stairs Miranda following closely behind me
"About my apartment" She stated simply
"Jess is gonna live there to?" I asked thinking that it was only going to be Miranda and I completely forgetting that Jess and Tori were both going to be attending the same school as us
"Yeah, and Tori probably I mean there's enough room for us all it's a two bedroom apartment. Jess and Tori can share and you and I can share" She suggested as we made our way into Jess' room Tori and Jess greeting us with warm smiles not attempting to interrupt Miranda and I's conversation
"Like hell! Do you think I want to get locked out of my room when you and Tori want to hook up? I'll share a room with Jess" I said finally addressing the other girls in the room "Right Jess"
"Why are we sharing a room?" The blonde asked moving from her position on the bed and over towards her closet throwing some dirty clothes into her hamper
"Go ahead Miranda share the good news" I smiled dropping myself onto the bed beside Tori
"Well my Grandma Ashley gave me an apartment near Dartmouth as a graduation present, it's a two bedroom which means there's enough room for all of us, and I hoped that you guys would want to live there" Miranda said her eyes darting back from Jess and Tori "What do you think?" She asked wondering what thoughts were circulating throughout their minds
"Holy shit Miranda! Why didn't you tell me sooner! Get over here blondie" She giggled pulling Miranda into a tight hug. Jess had been happier since meeting with the possible family, something about her was different, she seemed more relaxed as if she had finally moved passed the difficult patch of her life, a change I was overjoyed to witness Jess always having to be the one who dealt with the most "Come help me get my clothes from downstairs I don't have to cut my closet in half now" She said happily running down the stairs to retrieve the boxes of clothes
"Miranda!" I yelled pissed that she avoided telling Tori anything about her sister "Bitch" I whined dropping my head into my hands "Tori…..there's something you need to know"
"If it's about Becca, Jess already told me" She said her sudden confession shocking me "It doesn't make a difference, I don't want to know her, and I don't want her to know me" She admitted pulling her hair to one side braiding it quickly
"Don't you want to know why Mike is more interested in Becca?"
"I know why" She stated laying back on the bed resting her head on the headboard "After the car accident things were worse than anyone knew even Miranda, it's still bad so bad that I don't even know how to tell you guys."
"Tell us what?" I questioned flipping onto my stomach resting my head on my hands as I listened intently to Tori's confession
"I had extensive brain damage because of the accident, damage that still poses a threat to my health today, the accident completely screwed up my mind"
"What do you mean?" I asked still not following what Tori was trying to say "I thought everything was okay, I mean the accident was over a year ago, you got your memory back, you're not having any trouble you seem fine"
"That's what I want everyone to think, I didn't want anyone worrying about me but I've been seeing a physical therapist and a neurologist for the past 6 months, my aunt and uncle promised to keep it a secret" She admitted shifting nervously in her spot "Ever since the accident I've had trouble with my attention span, concentrating, I can't sit for a long period of time without getting restless, I have trouble with my speech sometimes everything is messed up"
"But…." I stuttered unable to believe that any of this was happening to Tori, the brunette not showing any signs of having difficulty focusing or speaking "I….you…."
"I know, I've worked extremely hard to keep this a secret I didn't want anyone to know"
"What does this have to do with your father?" I asked not connecting the dots between the car accident and her father abandoning her
"A week after the accident the doctors told me what I would have to deal with, the problems, reasoning, talking, thinking, concentrating they told me everything that I would have to deal with, the thing is physical therapist, neurologists there not cheap and the insurance only covers so much…"
"Mike didn't want to pay" I finished knowing full well how stingy Mike could be when it came to money "That bastard"
"That's why he's not in my life, we got into a huge argument over my brain injury. I told him that I needed help, I told him I needed to get better if I wanted to get anywhere in life. I mean I want to be a freaking doctor, how the hell am I supposed to do that if I stumbled over my words and…..and can't focus for extended period of times, surgery can go on for hours and if I can't…if I can't…..can't…." She stuttered her voice suddenly disappearing from her throat the brunette rolling her eyes annoyingly as she dropped her head into her hands shaking her head violently "It's worrssee…..worse whennn….I'm upppsettt….upset" She explained lifting her head from her hands her face stained with tears
"Why are you crying?" I questioned wrapping my arms around her "You don't need to be upset, it sucks I know but if anyone can overcome this it's you"
"There's no way you can fit all these clothes into the apartment, its not that big" Miranda laughed reentering the room her arms filled with two large cardboard boxes Jess only a few seconds behind her carrying only one box
"I'll make it work" She smirked dropping the box near her closet "Tori are you okay?" Jess asked seeing the tears in her friend's eyes
"She's fine" I spoke for her knowing that she was still upset her speech most likely still screwed up "She's just happy that were all gonna be together" I lied watching as Jess jumped onto the bed throwing her arms around Tori
"I know! It's gonna be freaking amazing!" She giggled releasing Tori from her arms "Everything is gonna work out, everything's gonna be better once we get out of this town"
"Yeah" Tori said slowly looking at me with desperate eyes
Somehow I always ended up with everyone's secrets. Somehow I always ended up dealing with the drama of others. I loved these girls, I loved them with all my heart, they were my friends, my sisters, my life but our friendship was toxic. I knew it, Miranda knew it, Tori, Jess my parents everyone knew it, we shared secrets, we kept secrets, we hid what we were really going through out of fear that we would hurt each other. That was the best thing about our friendship we would die for each other, we would do anything to help each other but then again that was the worst part of our friendship as well.
Question (answer in reviews): What do you think will happen now that Tori's secret is out?