A New Beginning

An Unhappy Birthday

Each tick of the clock was like an eternity it seemed. It was a Friday though, which made up for the slow time. Not only was it the start of the weekend, but today was my 18th birthday and I was going to celebrate. My parents had something to tell me and then I could leave for the night. My parents usually never get this excited about me being another year older, so this was a big deal. One minute to go until complete freedom. Gathering up my stuff I got ready to dash out of the room. I looked over at my friend Lexi to see that she was in sprinting position as well. With the sound of the bell I was off like a prom dress and went straight to the parking lot. I shook open the door of my rust bucket on wheels and sat down.

“Hey, after you get done with the whole ‘family’ thing, call me and we’ll go out to Nathan’s cabin.” Lexi said through my rolled down window.

“Hokey pokey smokey!” I shouted as I peeled out of the parking lot.

I blasted Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo just to be stupid. Turning into my driveway, I stepped through my front door to find my parents already waiting for me. They both had this distant look in their eyes as they stared at me.

“Layla, we’d like to talk with you now if that’s possible.” My dad said quietly.

“Sure, that’s why I’m here.” I laughed.

Mom gave me a half-hearted smile as I led them to the living room to sit down. Silence filled the area as I waited for them to start. My dad was the one to terminate the quiet.

“Layla, now that you’re 18, we felt the need to make you aware of something now that you’re a legal adult.”

I nodded for him to continue figuring that this would be some talk about not doing drugs and staying pure until my wedding day.

“After your mom and I got married, the only thing that we wanted was to start a family. Never did we imagine how hard that would for us. Not to put any blame on your mom, but she was unable to conceive a child. The only option that we were left with was adoption.” He paused.

My breath was stuck in my chest. I hope there was a happy ending to this story.

“You see sweetie,” Mom said taking over, “we really wanted a baby. When we went to the agency to talk with them, they said that we were really good candidates. The first baby we saw was you Layla.” She said softly.

I could feel my bottom lip start to quiver. The floodgates would soon flow open.

“We love you as if you were our own Layla. The reason we’re telling you this now is because a member of your family wanted to get in touch with you when you were 18. He’ll be here tomorrow to spend the day with you.”

“He’s your brother Layla.” My dad stated.

“My brother?” I whispered.

“Please don’t hate us for not telling you sooner. You can’t imagine how hard this has been for us. In a perfect world we would never have had this day come.” Mom finished.

I felt my phone vibrate in my hand and I glanced at the caller I.D. to see whom it was. A picture of Lexi on a carousel popped up. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, even my best friend. I threw the phone to my mom, well, the woman in front of me, hoping she would know what to do. I heard her answer the phone but I closed my bedroom door before I could hear what she said. Sprawling out on my bed I stared at the posters on my wall. Why couldn’t I just escape and follow my favorite bands around like they use to do in the 70’s?

“You guys are my true family.” I said to myself.

The eyes of H.I.M., MCR, Papa Roach, and Avenged Sevenfold just stared down at me. With the lack of energy I was dealing with I started to doze off. My last thought that went through my head was how cool it would be if someone like Jacoby Shaddix was my brother.