Chapter 3

I skipped down the stairs before I walked into the dining room seeing my parents and sister already sitting down. Which was quite strange even though they've been doing this for a couple of weeks. My family has been terribly divided since the day that I was born. We didn’t have the perfect family life that movies and TV series lead you to believe that families have. I was raised by nannies, in a home where my father was never home because he was travelling around the country, trying to get multimillionaires and billionaires to invest in his different business ideas. 

My mother also had her own career and she was a famous stylist that attended to only the biggest stars of Hollywood for a very pricey amount. My mother frequented the red carpet more than she frequented her own home. 

But I wasn’t upset about it because I understood that in order to live the comfortable life that I’m living, I would have to sacrifice a few things. I knew that my parents loved me and I knew that they loved me enough to ensure that I lived a perfect life. And the perfect life in this modern day and age was living in the heart of the most sought after Beverly Hills, with an underground garage where luxurious foreign cars lay to sleep waiting for its owners to race them down the California road. 

As a result of my parents absence, my older sister Jessalyn followed suit and decided to live her own life to her own terms. She was always out and about with the cars that my parents bought, driving her good for nothing biker boyfriend and maxing out her credit card every sing day. She lived without worry and fear because she knew that even if she wrecked the custom Ferrari or my dad’s collection of vintage Rolls Royce, it would and could all be replaced within a few hours. 

Maybe my words might mislead someone to believe that I don’t have a good or healthy relationship with my sister but that’s not the case. I love my sister, but I would never tell her that. We have the usual sibling relationship and that’s just fine. We don’t get to spend much time together even though she’s only eleven months older than me, she has a modelling career. 

She definitely takes after my French mother’s beautiful and perfect features. Jessalyn is a dark skinned beauty with flawless skin and the right amount of snobbish attitude that would make almost everyone we meet to suck up to her. Jessalyn’s high and defined cheekbones with full perfect pouty lips, a pointy nose and long full lashes made her the perfect model for mainstream media. She’s tall and skinny, she sticks her nose up to people and she knows she’s beautiful. 

Jessalyn is the sibling who manages to get away with everything unlike me. She on one hand is allowed to date a boy that is five years older than her. Mind you, they have been dating since she was only 16 years old. While I, on the other hand, catch smoke for simply bringing Billy the Nerd home to help me with my difficult homework. 

Back to the issue at hand, seeing my parents and my sister home for supper was surprising but seeing them home for dinner for the past month everyday was heart attack worthy. I didn’t care to ask though, because I wanted to simply enjoy their presence and this once in a lifetime opportunity to have my family sitting around the table together. 

"Good evening," I said with a smile as I sat down and everyone looked at me and we all slipped into relaxed conversation about school, parties and different things.

"Baby," my father called me and I turned my attention away from my empty plate after eating so much, "I just want to tell you that," he looked at Jessalyn, "I mean, the both of you, you know," he cleared his throat, "we do things that are always best for us as a family, you know that, right?" my father told us but looking at me specifically and I wondered what this was about.

My father and my mother are the perfect couple. I’m not sure personality wise but here in LA, it’s all about how you look together and my parents certainly got the memo. They compliment each other, in terms of complexions, height and looks. My father is tall and he stands at 6 feet, with deep dark rich skin and very strong facial structure. He’s got big broad shoulders and his body has been worked to perfection because my mother would never let anyone in this house look anything less than perfect. He’s got a bald head and a clean shaven face, he’s always dressed in designer and his got the loveliest and warmest brown eyes. 

"Uhm, ok," I shrugged, I don't really care, "are we like moving?" I asked them, frowning because it sounded like that's what he was getting to, "because if we are, I mean...it's ok."

"No," my father shook his head, "I just want you to know that every decision of ours is in the best interest of us, this family, the Bramley's. I just want you to know that, ok?" he stressed and I nodded my head, wanting to go back to eating.

"I love you," my mum said to me with a smile, before she looked at Jessalyn, "and you, of course. I love you too."

My dear French mother who never let’s anyone forget that she’s from France and that my dad is from England, is a lady who strongly resembles the likes of supermodel Naomi Campbell. My mother’s features are soft but her bone structure can’t be missed. She’s got cocoa coloured skin and her face is often seen without a smile. She’s tall too, she stands at 5’7 and her legs are pure leg heaven because when the woman puts on a short dress or short skirt, I swear the entire world stops and stares. 

Jessalyn smiled kindly at me and that's when I got suspicious. I said I loved my sister but I didn’t say that I could stand her. Last month she dragged me down the stairs...physically, dragged me down the stairs and purposely shoved my face in the dog's shit during one of our physical fights.

Yeah, Jessalyn and I get pretty aggressive when we fight. When we fight, we fight bad. We claw at each other, punch each other in the face and the once I pulled out a knife on her and chased her around the house as she screeched out of terror.

This usually happens when our parents aren't home but at times it does happen when they're home and this one time it got so bad, that my mum had to call for security because Jessalyn and I had gotten out of control.

"What are you smiling at?" I snapped at her, raising a suspicious eyebrow, "ass face."

Her smile fell of her face as she glared at me, "whatever, I hope you enjoyed eating that dog shit, you dumb bitch."

"Mum! Jessalyn called me a bitch!"

"Jessalyn! Stop that!" my mother scolded her and Jessalyn slammed her hands on the table before she shot up and glared at my parents.

"Some fucking parents you are, really," she snapped as she turned and left the table and I looked after her, rolling my eyes at her tantrum.

"What's her problem?" I asked my mum and I saw her face flash with shame and nervousness before she covered it with a smile.

"How about you and I go watch a couple of movies?" my mother changed the topic and like an idiot, I fell for it.

~~~