âIâm not trying to hurt you Aqua,â Thatâs what he said after he broke up with me, not that it helped at all.
âYouâre just too submissive and thatâs not really what Iâm looking for.â Maybe he was right, but I wish I knew before I wasted all that time with him. âI thought it was hot at first but I'm a little bored with it now.
I had a good time with you, but I canât picture this going anywhere.â They always get bored so why do I bother dating at all? Maybe because I thought love would save me from my depressing life.
I couldnât help the tears and he couldnât help wiping them away before he walked out of my life for good. Later that week my therapist had to dive deeper into the situation in every way. I didnât have much to rely on now for happiness but thatâs nothing new. I thought things would look up soon because I was with him, but you canât put all your hope in a relationship. My parents knew it wouldnât last but thatâs because they didnât think everyone was cut out for relationships. I was one of those people to them.
When I came home from my therapy appointment, we had guests. No one Iâd ever seen before, but I didnât think too much of it since I didnât know all my parentâs friends or co-workers. I was supposed to be on my way to class, but I dropped out of college a few weeks ago. I didnât tell my parents since I didnât really drop out, well not officially. I just stopped attending my classes and a few already dropped me. Sometimes I wondered what this was all for because I donât know if I was living for myself or just to fit into social structures and economy. Maybe it was my ADHD that made me feel so disconnected or maybe it was more than that. âAqua, you should join us,â my mom said when I almost slipped away to my room.
It seemed like they were arguing before I came in, so I wasnât going to bother introducing myself. I walked into the living room where they were all seated on two separate couches. On one were my parents and on the other were two oddly dressed men. One looked a little older than me and the other could have been his father easily. The older man looked familiar but distantly. âIâm Aqua, their oldest daughter,â I introduced myself since nobody else wanted to speak first.
The younger man muttered, âThatâs up to debate.â
A faint sigh came from the older man in response to the younger. âIâm Konn and this is my son Cade.â
They seemed different than anyone I had met before and I wasnât only talking about appearance.
âWe should tell you something first, Aqua.â My father blurted out. âIâm ashamed we havenât already had this discussion. We should have had it in private a long time ago.â
I didnât want to have this conversation because I already knew. âYou mean about how you found me when I was a baby-â I wanted to get straight to the point since anticipation was frustrating for me.
âYou know, but how?â my mother cut me off as usual. âWe made sure you wouldnât know⦠weâll not this soon.â I never suspected until I was fourteen or fifteen. Somehow, I knew but I was hoping every kid felt that way. Itâs not like I looked that different from my parents. Sure, we didnât look identical but from what I seen not all families did.
Konn stepped forward. âItâs the intuition. We donât have much time approved, so I have to cut to the chase.â He looked down at me. âIâm your birth father and I left you in this world nineteen years ago. I didnât plan on coming back but now I donât have a choice. I must bring you back with me. I canât say anymore in front of them.â It shouldnât have felt as real as it did.
âFather we need to leave, we donât need anyone's understanding or permission.â Cade looked down at his watch nervously.
âOf course, you need permission, we raised her.â My mother wasnât going to just let me go with them but itâs not like I was a minor. If I wanted to go I could, in fact I felt drawn to them. âYou donât have any proof that sheâs your daughter. Youâll get a test done then weâll figure the rest out.â
Konn didnât pay my adoptive mother any attention. He looked at me as if It was my decision. I couldnât stop thinking about how he said he left me in this âworldâ as if he lived in another. A lot hit me all at once and I wasnât even over my breakup yet. âCan we slow down?â
Cade scoffed. âNo, we canât.â He started to pace. âThey told us we had an hour to be here and back with the possible holder of the almost lost abilities. The outside world is already insufferable enough.â
Iâd be crazy to disobey my adoptive parents and go along with them wouldnât I be? I would be stupid, naive, and gullible. I turned to my parents and really saw them. I saw what they represented in this moment and how I never really felt a family bond with them. I had my chance to start over somewhere new. If someone asked me now, why I was even considering leaving with these two strange men Iâd smile and say I had nothing to lose. Iâd say nothing could be worse than existing the way I was in an empty day to day life where I couldnât feel whole or even barely satisfied. I looked away from my adoptive parents and up at Konn. He looked like a clean responsible type and not like someone Iâd even get along with. If what he was saying was true, then he abandoned me with no plans to come back. The only reason he was here now seemed to be an order from someone they saw as important.
For some reason I knew Iâd be fine, call it âintuitionâ like Konn did but I knew. âGet me out of here,â I said with exhaustion.
Konn simply nodded and my parents followed us outside yelling. My mom went back in after threatening to call the police as if I werenât over eighteen. âAqua, Iâm so disappointed in you for leaving like this, you donât care about your siblings, us who raised you, or anyone else but yourself!â Iâd be lying if I said those words my adoptive father said didnât hurt. I didnât reply to what he said because after feeling a heavy wind, the ground shake, and a loud noise I turned around to see two large⦠dragons in our front yard. Thankfully, we lived outside of town and there wasnât another house for miles, but they wouldnât have even believed their eyes.