Chapter Text
Once upon a time, blah blah blah. Let’s skip the part where I tell you this is some kind of fairy tale because it’s not. Unless you ask my little sister, Sam. But this isn’t her version of the story, it’s mine; and I believe it involves more heartbreak than happily ever after.
Let’s start with our mother dying when we were young. Sam doesn’t remember her, but given I was ten months older than her, it makes sense. Perhaps that’s why she was closer to and more like our dad. It wasn’t that we didn’t get along, it was just that usual, mother’s baby boy and father’s baby girl sort of relationship.
Sam and I were best friends, but we were nearly as close to our dad as we were to each other. It helped that our birthdays made us just the right age to be in the same grade, so we acted like we were nearly twins, except for when I was the big brother, whether Sam liked it or not.
Now, because we were raised by a man who loved baseball, Sam was nearly as obsessed with it as he was. I, however, more interested in music, which also put a slight rift between my dad and I. Even so, I still watched the games because of them.
Our lives were nearly perfect, just the three of us. Our dad owned the hottest diner in town where everyone felt like family and loved each other just as much. It was one of those places you walked in and felt at home. Unfortunately, everything went to hell on Sam’s ninth birthday when a fake, manipulative bitch called Fiona entered the picture, along with her own set of twin girls, Brianna and Gabriella.
I’d never been one to keep my opinions to myself and I often express them in a blunt and harsh manner, but Sam made me swear not to tell dad what we both thought of the new step bitches. I regret taking that oath with Sam more than anything, because perhaps things would have been different if I had.
I just couldn’t understand how our dad was fooled by her, how he didn’t see past the obvious manipulations and lies. They were all just gold diggers and their only real talent lay with getting what they wanted. And what they wanted was to get their greedy hands on our dad’s money. Personally, I believes it’s the only part of their brains that work properly, the one that creates the desire for more.
The question Sam made me swear never to utter again, because it would hurt our father’s feelings, was how he could ever feel the need to put someone else, especially someone like her, in mom’s place. Sam and I were enough, we should have been enough for him, just like he was enough for us.
He didn’t see it that way though.
Of course, the oath I made didn’t prevent me from making my opinions known to others. While Sam despised Fiona and the twins, she put up with them because they made our dad happy. She put on a face and made us out to be one big happy family, while I made it perfectly clear to everyone except our father how much I hated them.
It was never obvious because our dad would notice, they just happened to turn a bit clumsy when I was around. Bad things just seemed to happen to them, whether it be humiliating or outright harmful, and they couldn’t say a damn thing about it because it would alert our dad to the fact we were unhappy. So, we all let him live in his little happily ever after bubble.
Despite being unhappy with the new living arrangements and ‘family’, our lives honestly weren’t horrible with our father around. We could avoid the three bitches unless absolutely necessary and pretend like nothing had changed. Until everything did. Everything changed and I still have nightmares about it… the memory was seared in my mind.
Sam, dad, and I were in Sam’s room, where our dad was reading us Sam’s choice of bedtime story. I wasn’t paying much attention to what fairy tale he was reading because they all ended the same, ‘... and they lived happily ever after’.
I was hanging my head off the end of her bed when Sam turned to our dad and asked, “Do fairy tales come true dad?”
“There’s no such thing as fairy tales,” I said with a snort and roll of my eyes.
“Seth,” Dad warned and I pressed my lips together as he turned to Sam. “Fairy tales may not come true, but dreams do.”
“Do you have a dream?”
“Yeah. My dream is that you and Seth will grow up and go to college, and then maybe you’ll build your own castles.”
“Can mine have a dungeon?” I asked with a mischievous grin as I sat up.
“Seth,” Dad admonished with twitching lips.
“Where do princesses go to college?” Sam asked, continuing to ignore me, as she’d learned to do over the years.
Dad hesitated, thinking, “They go, uh… where the princes go. They go to Princeton. But, you know, fairy tales aren’t just about finding handsome princes. They’re about fulfilling your dreams and about standing up for what you believe in. It’s like I always say, never let the fear of striking out -”
“Keep you from playing the game,” Sam and I finished.
“Right,” he smiled at both of us before turning serious again. “Just remember, if you look carefully, this book contains important things that you may need to know later in life.”
I felt the bed shake beneath me and frowned as the shaking grew more violent.
“Earthquake!” Dad shouted and Sam reached out to take my hand as Dad stood to lead us out the door.
“Hal, help!” Fiona shouted from across the house.
“Don’t go!” Sam pleaded, trying to keep him with us.
“I’ll be right back,” Dad tried to reassure and I dragged a shocked Sam into the closet and held her in my arms.
As the house fell apart around us, our reason for happiness fell with it. After that night, everything crumbled and all I could think was how I wished I hadn’t made that vow to Sam. Our father didn’t leave a will, meaning our step mother ended up with everything. The house, the diner, and to everyone’s dismay: us.