My Favorite Bad Boy

"What do you mean we have to move? Seriously, this is shit at the very least", thinks Keith walking around his tiny room, "his mother had to be kidding".

Her mother was always paranoid about Keith, not in the sense that she thought someone was going to hurt her, but if she got sick, or had any kind of illness, she literally freaked out. And the outbreak was even worse if she had a fever, at these times she insisted that they should look for Keith's father, a father that Keith had never seen in his life, in fact Estela, Keith's mother, refused to talk about his father, only doing so when panics over something Keith is feeling.

And therein lies the problem, Keith has been constantly having a fever and a horrible headache for days. What she was sure had to be a virus or something like that, but Estela is in a panic, packing her bags and saying they are going to move. At these times Keith suspects that his father has some rare disease, and that his mother is afraid that she has inherited it.

But none of that mattered now, the only thing keeping her from screaming at the top of her lungs was that it wouldn't help at all, and she was still in danger of the headache coming back.

She remembers the tense conversation I had with her mother earlier, where she tried to argue every way she could, saying that she was in her last year of school, that classes had only started for a month, that she wanted to graduate with the people who he'd gone to school with her since elementary school, even told her mom about Kevin, who had been her friend for the last three years and now they were finally stepping out of the friend zone and into dating, not even when he reminded her that she would be turning eighteen three months from now and that I wanted to celebrate with my friends and Kevin, it helped her a bit.

Estela was adamant this time, and nothing Keith tried to change her mind.

She stops in front of the mirror and looks at herself, the image reflected there shows a tall brunette, with curly hair, golden brown eyes, she didn't think she was the magazine model type, her breasts are too big for her, she likes her thick, naturally shapely legs, and she thought a little more ass would do her good, in short she thought she was an average girl, perfectly average.

She was a difficult person to let go and make friends with, she felt that she didn't fit in anywhere but when they got closer and knew her better, they saw that she was a nice girl, not even talking about my difficulty in making friends helped to make Estela change her mind.

She touches the crescent-shaped birthmark on her neck, which is so perfect that she has been asked several times if it's a tattoo.

"Keith has finished packing, we're leaving in half an hour," says Estela downstairs.

Hearing her mother's voice, Keith couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy, as her voice shows weariness and concern.

She sighs and heads downstairs, determined to do something she's been avoiding doing, but now she has no choice but to make her mother see reason.

He walks into the kitchen and sees Estela crying, who quickly tries to hide it when he sees her, and Keith feels a twinge of regret, but his mother didn't give him a choice.

"Estela", she says, because whenever she is angry, she calls her mother by name, "since you insist on going looking for my father, then it's time to tell me how he abandoned you while you were pregnant, let you raise a daughter alone! He never even looked for me or you to find out if we were alive".

Estela shrinks all over, and Keith regrets talking so harshly to his mother, because every time she tried to bring up the subject, his mother shows so much pain that she simply gave up on knowing, after all, if my father didn't want her, she I didn't want him either.

Estela lets out a sigh, and starts to walk from one side to the small kitchen, their house was clean and organized but small in a bad neighborhood, because that was what Estela could afford.

Keith watches his mother without interrupting, because he knows Estela is debating with herself which is more important, to go find her father or hide the truth of Keith's existence.

Keith celebrates privately, as he has seen Estela have this internal struggle several times, and the winning side has always been hiding the truth.

"Okay," says her mother, surprising her, "but don't hate me when you find out the whole story."

Keith almost collapses on the floor, because that was not even remotely what she was expecting to hear from her, because since she was six years old, she tries to get some information about her father from her mother, but Estela has always refused to even touch the subject.

Keith is now conflicted, part of her wants her mother to give up on this moving thing, and another part really wants to know about her father, and what made him leave them.

"What does that mean, Mom? Are you really going to tell me about my father?" she asks Keith to make sure she didn't get it wrong.

"Yes, I will", replies Estela, walking back and forth, "but darling, you have to understand me", she says wringing her hands, "I did what I did out of ignorance, for being too young and above all for fear".

"Ok, ok, ok but what the heck is going on here" Keith thinks as he sits on the nearest chair because he fears his legs will give way.

"Better start then mom"

For Keith knew better than to delay, whatever the truth was, she would have to face it.

Estela stops walking for a moment, and looks at her daughter and the only thing she can think is Keith will forgive her when he finds out part of the story, because Estela couldn't tell everything, what really made her do it.

Sighing Estela sits down facing her daughter and says:

"OK let's start"

Keith is totally apprehensive now, his mother has always refused to give out any information about his father or the past, and now he's standing there about to open Pandora's box.

And what scares Keith the most is the fact that she was there telling Keith not to hate her as if it were her fault, which Keith very much doubted, because even though Estela was a beautiful woman, she never had a relationship with anyone again, making it obvious that Keith's father marked her deeply.

Estela starts by saying: "I met your father on one of your grandfather's crazy trips to these picturesque towns in the middle of nowhere, and that was the best and worst thing in my life".

"Great", thinks Keith "a town in the middle of nowhere, and certainly surrounded by woods or forest, because grandpa loved to watch birds, she herself had already been dragged two or three times in those crazy adventures of grandpa".

"The thing is, on one of my visits to a snack bar, I met his father, and he loved me very intensely, at the exact moment he looked at me".

" Haaaa are you serious mom, there's no such thing as love at first sight right" interrupts Keith with a skeptical look.

"There's no other way to explain it darling, and please don't interrupt me or I won't be able to go on", says Estela shuddering, "well actually it was much more than love it was adoration, I of course didn't understand anything, although in a way in a very strange way I was attracted to him. Well he did everything to approach and his father was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, it seemed that everything about him attracted me. After two days of talking, your grandfather decided to go on an expedition and spend the night in the forest, but I convinced him to drop me off at the house where we were staying, and that was the night that we conceived you", says Estela skipping over the details, " it turns out that during the act, his father got carried away and out of nowhere bit my neck, after we finished he explained to me that he was different and that I was his partner, a kind of soul mate".

At this point Keith rolls his eyes, "seriously the Twilight saga hadn't even been released yet and your father already came with this one", she thinks. And of twilight she understood because she had already read the books twice and watched the movies. But she didn't dare interrupt her mother.

"At the time I thought he was joking, trying to scare me, but he insisted on the story, and when he saw that I wasn't going to believe it, he showed it to me, now at this point, dear, you need to understand that I was young and wasn't prepared for that, I was extremely scared with her father's special condition, he said that almost everyone in the city was like him, and that from that moment on I would be part of... hummm... let's say of their group. I said I was sleepy and tired that it was a lot to take in, that he needed to go away and let me sleep. As soon as he turned his back I packed my things I got in the van and went after his grandfather, he said he had been attacked I showed him the bite on my neck, I refused to go to the police station and made him go home with me, his father never knew where I was lived, or how to find me, I only knew my first name, after a few months I found out I was pregnant and then I was afraid that you were like him, I searched the internet, but I didn't find much reliable information, but all the information seems to find that the change occurs when the person has a fever and intense pain, that's why I can't help you, I don't know how to do that, that's why I have to take you to your father", says Estela almost shouting the last part and playing the Weird but beautiful mark on the neck.

"Wait mom! What did he show you, what does he have? what do you think I have?" Keith replies in the same tone, for although the whole story was close to Jacob Black, the fact is that his mother had seen something to run away like that, and not come back even to find out that was pregnant, it will be some physical deformity, because she said something about changes.

"That's enough Keith we're leaving now, and you'll understand everything when your dad explains it to you, you'll have to see it to believe it!"

Seeing no alternative, Keith helped her pack the rest of her things into the car, and close up the house that had been her home for the past seventeen years.

She sent a last goodbye to her friends via WhatsApp, and a last I will miss you to Kevin, although she had no hope that he would wait for her, even though he had promised that he and his sister who was Keith's best friend would visit her in the vacation .

He looked once more at home, not that she was sorry to leave that place, because sometimes she was afraid that everything would collapse on top of them, but she was afraid of the unknown that she had ahead of her.

But since there was nothing left to do, she got in the car and said goodbye and life as she knew it.

The car moves further and further away from Keith's old life and she begins to reflect on everything she discovered today, for her or her father had some deformity, or else he had played the biggest joke in the world on her mother.

Through the window she sees the old school, and her favorite cafeteria, soon after comes the neighborhood where her grandparents lived until last year, when they suffered a car accident that took both their lives.

So much history is being left behind, and it makes you wonder if it's really worth leaving this place.

"Three days in the car, seriously what the hell my grandfather found", Keith thinks irritably. They've been going into the forest for hours, along a strange little road, Keith doubted that it would end up in a city, maybe not much in a village, "goodbye technology, goodbye civilization", sighs Keith.

Keith's mood was getting worse by the minute, and not to mention this strange feeling that she felt like the forest was calling her.

Finally, after a sharp curve, she sees a small town, the kind you only see in movies, cute houses all the same, changing little from one to another, all with fences and beautiful lawns, "I don't think they know privacy around here", is Keith's sarcastic thought.

She quickly checks her cell phone and sighs with relief when she sees that there is a signal at the end of the world, now they go deeper into the city called Verdeval, a name that for Keith was perfect because she had the impression that she was in the middle of the forest, now they can see some shops, a snack bar, a supermarket that looks more like a little sale compared to the big cities, a police station, a medical clinic, and further on what would be her personal hell the school, why for Keith to transfer in the Senior year was torture no one deserved.

She turns to face her mother, and is instantly concerned, her mother is pale, white lipped and trembling slightly.

"Mom, are you okay?"

"Yes of course, we need to find somewhere to stay, they know we are not from here".

When Estela says that, Keith turns to the window and notices that everyone on the street is looking at their car, Estela pulls up close to a store, rolls down the window and asks some little boys if they know a man called Dilan, Keith feels a tremor in his hearing the father's name for the first time, and is frightened by what he hears.

"The former alpha Dilan?"

"The ex what? Don't tell me I ended up in the middle of one of my wolf books, I must have heard wrong" Keith thinks.

Soon a woman comes out of the store and scowls at the kids, and it's like they're talking, not talking.

She looks at Estela with a smile that slowly turns into a frown, and then hatefully looks at the mark on Estela's neck who, because of the heat, is wearing a spaghetti blouse just like Keith, and says: "You You are not welcome here."

Keith straightens up, ready to tell this obnoxious woman some truths, but when he threatens to speak, his mother says:

"Keith please don't", and turning to the woman in a pleading voice she says, "please she's my daughter and only he can help if she's like him".

The woman looks scared at Keith and she's pretty sure she sniffs in her direction, which scares Keith but at that time she's overcome with an anger she's never felt and something inside her literally says she should attack the woman, Keith is taken from the fever, her head begins to spin and a voice that seems to come from inside her tells her that she must let go and accept the pain that will soon pass.

Keith turns to the woman and asks:

"What did you say?"

The woman replies with an understanding face: "I didn't say anything", and turning to Estela who was now looking at Keith worriedly says, "Dilan is patrolling the borders, he'll be back soon, go straight to the last house on the street on the left side it's his house, you must come in the spare key is in the vase outside".

As soon as she finished giving the instructions she turns and enters the store calling the boys, "how unfriendly" Keith thinks, "well as she knows where the spare key is and that we should wait inside, it was as if she had spoken to Dilan", Keith was determined to call him by his name, she didn't know him after all, "and there was no way the woman could have spoken to him, she didn't use a cell phone. My God what a weird place, well at least Dilan must not be a monster, he must be a policeman after all she said he was patrolling the borders, the alpha term the boys used must be nickname of policeman or chief", but that didn't matter and turning to his mother Keith asks:

"Mom, I don't think it's a good idea for us to enter a house that doesn't belong to us, what if he is as receptive as this woman? What if she sent us in just so we could accuse us of trespassing?"

"A good agent will only know how to take a risk, and we've come this far, I'm not leaving, your place is here".

Something inside Keith stirs in his head, as if agreeing with Estela's madness, Keith rummages in his bag looking for his pepper spray, which he got from his grandfather before the accident, with the promise that if anyone threatens to bite his neck she would empty the tube into the assailant's eyes.

Dilan's house was bigger than the others, except of course the mansion that was right across the street, which was breathtakingly beautiful, but Dilan's, close to the one they lived in, counting every penny to pay the bills, was a palace, it was all white , surrounded by a hedge with beautiful flowers in the well-kept garden and the back overlooked Floresta and had a deck with cushions and hammocks , in addition to a swimming pool , "seriously the guy had a pool at home when she learned to swim in the public pool in her old town" thinks Keith and a stab of anger hits her, even though she knows it wasn't her father's fault.

Estela takes the keys and goes inside, leaving Keith no choice but to follow her, "shit mom", Keith thinks.

The house inside is beautiful, everything is clean and organized, they go to the living room and sit next to each other to wait, Keith grabs the spray with one hand and Estela's hand in the other, who looks at her scared and says: "honey you're burning up with fever again, my god it's getting worse".

At that time they hear the back door open wide, and a man who looks very similar to Keith enters as if he had run a marathon, and his gaze is fixed on Estela and his expression shows several emotions, pain, anger, longing and love, "wow, does he still love mommy?" thinks Keith and turns quickly to Estela who is caught in Dilan's gaze, and it seems to Keith that she is also in love, "there goes my hopes of him kicking us back home", is Keith's sarcastic thought.

He slowly turns to Keith and stares at her, and to Keith it seems he smells her too, "What the fuck is this? I'm sure I'm sweaty but I can't smell, I used deodorant", thinks Keith.

Understanding dawns on Dilan's face and he moves towards Keith, "damn, damn, damn" Keith thinks, "he's not going to touch me is he?"

He seems to notice Keith's reaction and stops a few steps from her, and holds out his hand saying:

"Um hello I am Dilan, your father"

She hesitates for a few seconds and takes your hand and says stuttering

"Hello I'm Keith...hmmm I mean hello I'm your daughter".