Beyond Her Exterior

Chapter 20: welcome back Vincent

The both of us had to wait for Brett's younger sister to head off to a sleepover at her friend's house before we could start our search in his parent's office.

We sat around in the living room for a couple of hours watching television and eating junk food before Valerie finally came jumping down the stairs with a bag in her hand and headed out the door without mumbling a simple goodbye.

She didn't really enjoy seeing me sometimes.

With Valerie gone, we got off the couch and went to the back of the house to the office his parent's always worked in. "Okay, so we'll search it for anything that has to do with your mom. Just be careful and make sure to put everything back afterwards." Brett explains, as we tiptoed into the room. I closed the door behind us and walked over to the desk.

Pulling open drawer after drawer and basically reading every single paper in each one in hopes of finding anything that was remotely connected to my mom.

I hadn't found anything, and we've been searching for a good twenty minutes. I groaned as I closed the bottom drawer to the desk.

Everything had to do with meetings or just business cards to multiple industries. "This is hopeless." I muttered.

Brett picked up a book and chucked it at my face, but luckily I ducked and it hit the wall behind me. "Say it again, and I'll actually injure you." He warned, turning to face the bookshelf again.

I sighed and went over to where he was, I started sorting through the books on the shelf. I don't know why we expected anything related to my mom to be possibly found in a book shelf. Considering the fact that from what I can remember my mom hated books and reading more than she hated anything in the world.

I recalled the nights before bed when I'd ask her if she could read me to sleep only for her to give me a nasty glare and tell me to just go to bed. It was always like that with her, she wasn't the mother I wanted. She was the mother, I got stuck with because I don't deserve to be happy.

The only true happiness that I have in my life is the people who actually care for me. Having Lindsay and Caleb, my two best friends was one of the greatest things I can be thankful for. Also, growing up with Brett. Not that I didn't grow up with Dean, Madison, and Austin aswell.

It was just with Brett we always seemed to be together. My mother and his mother were always close so Brett and me always hung out.

Also, meeting people like Grayson and Gabe who haven't once let me down this entire time I've known them.

It astonishes me how a girl like me, who's life is so fucked up with having little to no guidance by parents still ended up getting lucky with an amazing group of friends.

It all evens out in a way. I may have a shitty ass parent life but I have an amazing friend group, who basically are my family now.

I was thankful for that.

I never want to lose them.

Without them, I had nothing.

I set the book back on the shelf and sat on the floor. I put my head back and looked up at the ceiling as I released a breath. "Nothing. There's nothing in here." Brett said as he hits his head on the bookshelf a couple of times.

I glanced at him, and stood up dusting off my pants a bit. "It's fine. We tried, that should count as something right?"

"Not a lot though." He said putting his heads in his hands as he plopped down into one of the chairs. I reached out to him and put my hands on his shoulders. He looked up at me, quirking an eyebrow.