The Cynical Prince

It was the last tome I saw Dean. A bullet through his head trying to save me. I always hated myself for that. Feeling as if I had taken away my mother's last chance at happiness. Her beautiful blue eyes didn't shine like they used to. Not until my sister was born, but it made her sad also. Giving birth to her dead boyfriend's child wasn't exactly the most heart warming thing one would imagine it to be. However, I think that was the last time I saw my mother's eyes shine, besides the slight glimmer at my high school graduation.

I had refused to go to my college one, not wanting all the hysterics. I figured I had had enough of that in my life.

After Dean's death, I think things had just gotten worse. My mother went back to stripping after losing the apartment and refusing to take help from anyone until Eric came back. As much as I didn't like Eric, even to this day, he saved us when we were truly ready to hit rock bottom.

Eric provided a home, food, warm beds, everything. Yes, he did love my mother and we were all thankful for him, but as much as my mother wanted to believe that Dean was being just his usual cynical self to judge Eric, Dean had been right.

Eric wasn't a man to be trust. If my mother angered him, he had no hesitations showing that on her. Now, my mother was no push over but after everything that had happened took a toll on her. She wasn't the same woman I had grown up with, she had changed. She made herself fit in with Eric to make sure that we would be safe, to make sure that we would have a home. As much as she loved us and knowing that all that she put up with from Eric was from us just made me blame myself even more.

The moment I turned 18 she wanted to ship me off to college to remove me from the life we were all forced to live but I had refused. I had promised myself that I would take her and my sister out of there and soon enough I did.

Working at a local newspaper I covered crap-shit stories doing an internship but eventually I made it big. I covered the cold case that belonged to Dean's investigation about his fiancé who was killed because a cop did his job. Once I had made it big, I knew we had to get away from Eric and Los Angeles completely (we had moved to Los Angeles since that's where Eric lived). However, leaving him wasn't the easiest thing to do of course. He didn't want to let my mother go but when I threatened to break open his whole underground operation he had going in L.A. he backed off. I knew he would try to "scare" me in any way he could so that I would keep my mouth shut and he could keep my mother but he knew very well that that would go over well with my mother.

Since then my mother has gotten into her old ways. She's the woman I grew up with; I can see the light in her eyes and her smile shine. She was becoming the person that I knew every guy wanted and every woman wanted to be and it made me proud to be her son.

My mother is the reason I am who I am, she was my strength and being a teenager I always had conflicting feelings. Wanting to hate her at times because it was normal but then being oddly too attached. No one really understood the attachment to my mother. I never really had close friends until I met that one girl who became my best friend, my lover, and my wife.

The day of my wedding my mother's eyes were filled with tears as she helped adjust the bow tie on my tux. She was so happy for me and wanted the best for me. She loved Sarah, just as much as I did. Sarah is the woman I married that day, who understood where I came from and didn't care. She loved that I had been through more than anyone she had ever met but also hated that I did go through those things. I do believe I have my mother to thank for who I am today. And I couldn't be more grateful.

"Tagan!" His sister, Angelica, called.

"Dinner, hurry up!" Tonight was a special night. Tonight was a night set aside for the three of them to get together and talk to remember.

"I'm coming!" Tagan closed his laptop, proud of his autobiography. He felt like his mother's story should be told and Alessa loved him for it.

"Hey, you think you can go with me tomorrow to get a piercing?" Tagan looked at his sister as he walked into the dinning room of his mother's small house.

"Mom?" She threw her hands up in the air, giving the face of 'not my business' and sat herself down.

"Please? I don't trust those guys so I want you there to watch my ears!" Her mother laughed, shaking her head

"So cynical, like your father. Tagan, please pass the salt." Angelica paused her attempts to convince her brother when she had heard the mention of her father.

Alessa didn't talk often of Dean, so Angelica found out about her father through her brother and old journal's from her mother. When Alessa did mention Dean or Andrew's name both siblings would freeze.

"Really? I-I am?" Alessa smiled softly looking down at her plate of food as Tagan handed her the salt.

"Yeah, in high school he was the Cynical Prince."