Break and Enter

Rain’s POV
About a week after first arriving at John’s, I awoke early. The princess digital alarm clock next to Jenna’s bed read 7:12 AM. I let out a puff of air and decided to get up. I would just have to entertain myself until everyone else got up. Sitting up, I looked over the side of the bed where Bryce still laid on a pile of stuffed animals covered in a furry pink blanket. He had decided to just sleep in here last night after one of our late night talks when he was too lazy to go back to the guest bedroom. I would have giggled at the sight if I hadn’t felt so depressed and sluggish.
I climbed out of the bed, gently placing my feet on the ground trying not to step on or trip over Bryce’s unconscious body; however, my attempts failed when my leg was caught in the canopy surrounding the bed and I went tumbling to the ground on top of him.
Bryce quickly awoke. “What the hell?” his muffled voice exclaimed.
“Sorry!” I whispered and quickly got up. “Just go back to sleep.” I climbed over him, this time successfully, and made my way to the door. I went down the second set of stairs at the end of the hallway that led to the kitchen. I looked around the room trying to remember where everything was. Going to the first cabinet on the left, I found pancake mix. I went over to the fridge to find all the other ingredients I needed. After a thorough search, I found a pan of reasonable size to make pancakes and began cooking.
Fifteen minutes later, and I had made enough pancakes to feed everyone. I then started to make eggs and bacon to go with the pancakes. Halfway through that process, Jenna came bouncing into the kitchen smiling wide. “Good morning, Wainee!”
“Good morning, sweetheart,” I smiled down at her as I continued to scramble the eggs.
“What are you doing?” she questioned.
“I’m making breakfast for everyone. Do you want to help me?” Jenna nodded her head vigorously. “Ok,” I grinned and placed the finished eggs on the serving plate with everything else. “Can you set the table for me?” She nodded her head again and sped away to complete the task. In no time at all, we had the table completely set with cups of orange juice at every seat. I looked to the clock to find that it was now almost 8 o’ clock. “You want to help me wake everybody up?” Jenna eyes lit up and she jumped up and down in excitement. “Hmmm, how should we accomplish this?” I put my fingers under my chin and stroked my non-existent beard.
“I have an idea!” Jenna exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘what?’ and she ran over to the cabinet and grabbed a pot. She then got a rather large spoon and banged it on the pot once. It created a loud obnoxious sound. She erupted in giggles as did I.
“I like this idea,” I complimented her. We both marched to the bottom of the stairs. I gave her a nod signaling that she could start the awakening process.
“Un! Deux! Trois! Quatre!” she yelled hitting the pan with each word. I smiled at her use of French and continued with her yelling in French as we pounded up the stairs loudly. We were all fluent in French seeing as we had all come from Quebec, Canada. Jenna was the only person who was born in Florida, but she knew both languages from her parents teaching her.
“Reveiller! Reveiller! Reveiller-vous dormeurs!” we both yelled while Jenna banged on the pot. We had told them to ‘wake up you sleepers!’ “Il est temps de dejeuner!” We told them it was breakfast time.
John was the first to actually make an appearance. He came out of his room looking tired, but smiling nonetheless. Jenna stopped her pot banging and grinned at him. “Daddy!” she screeched running to him and hugging him around the legs. He smiled and picked her up.
“Bonjour, bebe. Bonjour, Rain. Porquoi es-tu si tot?” he asked why we were up so early.
“Nous avons fait le dejeuner pour tout le monde,” I answered him, letting him know we were up to make everyone breakfast.
“Ah. Merci,” he smiled at me and began walking downstairs with Jenna babbling away about the breakfast that was awaiting us.
“Je t’en prie,” I replied with a smile.
Next, Bryce came out of Jenna’s bedroom looking tired and disheveled. “Bonjour,” he muttered to me, rubbing his already somewhat red eyes. I gave him a small smile in return and followed him down the back stairs. Entering the breakfast area that spun off the kitchen, I saw John and Jenna both soaking their pancakes in syrup. I smiled to myself and rolled my eyes as I took a seat at the table.
“Have enough syrup?” Bryce commented, taking a seat beside me and grabbing a few pancakes for himself.
“You can never have enough syrup,” John stated, but it came out kind of muffled due to the pancakes that were overflowing from his mouth. Jenna nodded her head once and made a sort of ‘hmph’ sound due to the fact that she was stuffing her face too. Like father, like daughter.
“Good morning everyone,” Laura smiled as she sat down across from me and next to John.
“Morning,” we all replied, most of us with our mouths full.
“This looks delicious. Did you make this?” she looked at me. I nodded my head in response. “Well, thank you.” She made herself a plate and ate along with the rest of us. The rest of breakfast was eaten in silence. Jenna was the first to finish her food and immediately went back to jumping around and being a happy toddler. Next, Laura finished her food and took Jenna to get her dressed. Eventually, we had all finished eating, and right as I was going to leave the table, John stopped me.
“Can I talk to you two for a moment?”
I sat back down in my seat and turned my attention to the dark haired man. “Sure,” Bryce answered for both of us.
John looked down at his hands which he was wringing together out of nervousness. There was a moment of silence as John seemed to have been contemplating what to say. He seemed truly bothered by whatever was plaguing his thoughts. He opened his mouth, and then closed it once again as Bryce and I waited patiently for him to voice whatever it was that was troubling him. “I really don’t know how to say this,” John chuckled nervously. “Where to start…” he trailed off into his thoughts once again. Bryce and I exchanged a glance that expressed our own thoughts to each other, something we have always been able to do. He raised an eyebrow to me as if to say, ‘what is he going on about?’ and I just shrugged in response before turning my attention back to John. “Well, I might as well come out and say it,” John began. “Peter Cyntri isn’t your biological father.” My eyes widened a tremendous amount and my jaw dropped. John looked between the two of us trying to read or reactions. Mine was very obviously shocked. Bryce on the other hand, his face was unreadable. He just had this blank look on his face with maybe a slight twitch of confusion. He never was very expressive with his face.
“What do you mean he’s not our biological father!?” I exclaimed.
“Your mother started dating him a few months after Bryce was born. They got married a little bit after you were born Rain,” I opened my mouth to contradict what he had said. With the information he just gave me, that would make Dad not Bryce’s biological father, but he would still be mine. However, John stopped me before I could say anything. “I know what you’re thinking Rain and let me just explain everything first.” I nodded and leaned back ready to listen. “I found out about this when we were all at the station a week ago. We’ve been trying to put the puzzle pieces together since then.
“From what we’ve figured out, your mother was in an intimate relationship with a man named Jared Leto. At some point she got pregnant with you, Bryce. Sometime in the pregnancy, they broke up. When you were about three months old, she met Peter and they began dating. A few months later, I met Peter. We became friends, blah, blah, blah, you guys know that part. Anyways, about a year later, your mother was pregnant again, this time with you Rain. Everyone just assumed it was Peter’s just like we had with Bryce. However, on both of your birth certificates, it says very clearly that your father is Jared Leto. At some point, your mother must’ve had an affair with Jared. Peter obviously knew since his name wasn’t on the birth certificate.
“When your mother passed away, she had requested that you both stay with Peter instead of going to Jared. Whether she ever had any plans to tell you who your real father was, I don’t know. I think she tried to tell you, Rain, right before she passed.”
I nodded knowing that was exactly what happened. I remember that moment as though it were yesterday. I was almost three years old and sitting by her hospital bed, alone in the room besides my very ill mother. At the moment, I didn’t understand that mommy was going to die. I held my bear in my little toddler arms and sang quietly to myself. All of a sudden, the machine by the bed started beeping rather rapidly. My mom looked over to me as she began gasping for air. I will never forget the chilling moment when her dull, almost lifeless eyes met mine. I felt as though I could not move or tear my gaze away. Through her pants and gasps I made out a single word before the beeping of the machine became nothing but a loud squeal. “Jared.” My mother’s last word to me, my mother’s last word to anyone on this earth, was “Jared”. After that, the room flooded with doctors and nurses and I was left forgotten in the corner of the room as they rushed my mother’s lifeless body, clutching my teddy bear, who would later be named Jared, and silently crying.
“So, our real father is this Jared guy?” Bryce asked. John nodded cautiously. Bryce’s voice, void of any emotion, was chilling and cold. “We were lied to our whole lives. Well, isn’t that just fucking lovely,” he seethed. He stood from the table and stormed upstairs to what I’m guessing to be the guest bedroom. I looked over to John, who looked shocked beyond belief. I, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as surprised.
“Is he going to be okay?” John worried.
“He’ll be fine. He just needs time to calm down,” I answered looking down at my hands. I always hated when Bryce got angry. He usually didn’t get angry. The only times he did was when he was emotionally hurt, or at least those were the only times he’d let it show. I hated knowing that my big brother was hurting that badly.
We sat at the table in an awkward silence for a few seconds before John spoke. “I know that you guys will feel some resentment towards Jared for not being around, but try to be easy on him. I honestly don’t think he knew that he had kids.”
I raised an eyebrow towards him. “You say this as though we’re going to be meeting him?” The sentence came out more as a question than anything.
“Yeah, about that,” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “He arrived here in Florida today. The Childs Protection Services called him last week to inform him of the current situation you guys are in. He’s come down to meet you and your brother and if you’ll go with him, take you with him to live with him.” My eyes widened at this. I didn’t think we would be asked to live with this man that we’ve never met. “If you don’t want to go with him, you’re welcome to stay here,” John concluded. I nodded my head at him.
“I’m gonna go check on Bryce,” I told John before rising from my seat and heading upstairs to the guest bedroom. I knocked on the door, hearing a muffled groan emitted from the room. I opened the door to find Bryce with his head deep into the pillows on the bed. He was sprawled out like an eagle, his hands tightly curled around the sheets. He turned his face to look at me; immediately, I noticed the tear streaks that ran down his face. I ran to the bed and plopped down next to him. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into me. A sob ripped through his body as he continued to cry.
“Why is our life so fucked up Rainee?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know, Bryce. I really don’t know,” I whispered.