A/N: Thinking I may have done better naming this chapter Train Wreck, but since it's Alaric's pov...
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That was Kate's FATHER! He was crazy, both in appearance and in attitude. His face was no longer a face but a skull with skin on it. And there were sores all over his lips. The rest of him was nothing but bones as well. And his eyes... It was like something from a horror movie.
"Saving" money? She'd explained her living condition as a way her parents could save money. Saving only so they could go buy drugs.
The worst is I left her there. She begged me to go, saying he wouldn't calm down until I did. I'm not positive he did. For all I know, he could be beating the crap out of her right now.
What kind of boyfriend am I?
I punch my palm with my other fist. Well, I'm not the kind to just let that go.
"But what can I do?" I ask aloud to no one. "If I get her parents arrested, where will she go?" Different scenarios play out in my mind. I selfishly worry that she'll have to leave, go live with a distant relative, when I don't want her to. That selfishness just makes me hate myself.
I sigh. "There has to be a way."
The door behind me opens; I hear someone moving; and the door closes.
There has to be a way.
"Son?" It's Dad. At least it's not Mom. Dad forces me to speak to her, but I can't still can't find a way to forgive her for being my brother's whore. "What's troubling you?"
I let out a huff. Dammit, I need advice. I guess Dad's seen his fair share of crap. Maybe he can help.
"You have to promise not to tell anyone."
"I... can try." Right. That means he'll tell if someone's in danger. Well, someone is. But that's why I need help!
Fine. I'll tell him.
"I met Kate's... father." I say 'father' with disgust dripping off my tongue.
"Kate?"
"My girlfriend." Geez, Dad! Keep up.
"You met your girlfriend's father."
I know what he's thinking: He's thinking the typical 'boy meets girl's father and father hates boy just because he's dating his daughter.' That's not it.
I sigh, telling myself to be patient. I'll make him understand. "They live in a travel trailer; judging from his appearance he's been addicted to self-destructive drugs for a long time; and I can't be positive he doesn't beat her." He makes my parents, even my mom, look like saints.
"Brielle's father used to beat her too. I hated feeling powerless to stop it."
"Grandma?" Dad looks like his mind has gone back in time.
"Yeah. Then she ran away."
I take a step back. "Grandma?" I ask like I can't believe it. I've always thought Grandma was a bit flakey, not one to have the guts to do something like that. But I don't think more about it. I'm a man on a mission, so before Dad can elaborate, I get to the point. "I've gotta get her out of there, Dad." He knows I mean Kate.
He doesn't say anything, so I keep going. "I can't just stand by while this happens! Even if he's not abusing her, he's so trashed that he's ruining her life! Can't we do something?"
"Yes. We can go to family services."
"The government?! Leave her in the hands of the state? Dad, I mean us. Our family. Like you said, she can run away. She can live here. We have all this space! Plum, Dad! My room is bigger than their whole house, if you can call it a house."
Kate said all she wanted as a child was a playroom, that she used to dream about it. I understand more deeply than I did before.
"I understand what you're going through, more than you'll ever know." If he understands me, then WHY aren't we doing anything right NOW? "But you have to do this right or it will backfire. I know you feel like you've had a fire lit under you, but you have to realize that she's been living like this for maker knows how long, and one or two more days won't make that much of a difference in the long run."
"But, Dad, I can't just do NOTHING!"
"I'm not saying do nothing. But also understand that I don't think her living here is a good idea."
"But what if her only other family is on the other side of the planet? I can't... lose her."
"If you love her, you'll want what's best for her."
"But what if her other family members are also as*holes?"
"All of this right now is simply conjecture. You need to talk to her about it. Here's what we should do..." And he goes into a plan. A good plan. Of course, I'm more leaning toward one result of the plan to work better than the other alternative. Kate needs to get out of that trailer.
The plan takes ages to go into action, so I do my best to act like Kate's ghoulish father yelling at us was 'one of those things.' I make a grand attempt to follow the rules: having her home in time, not bringing up how I want her to leave her parents, acting like nothing's wrong when I'm going crazy inside.
Finally, a week after Dad thought it up, the plan can go into action.
Step One: Invite Kate over to the house.
Step Two: Leave her with Mom for a few hours. I hear they decide to go out to the spa.
Step Three: Go pick up the tux we bought earlier. We also did some shopping. I guess all that should've been step one because it was done before step one happened, but eh, whatever.
Step Four: Stand in the foyer and wait for Kate to be ready. Dad distracts me from our small talk conversation when his eyes look behind me. I hear movement. Then I turn around.
And my stomach falls through the floor to the center of the planet. My mouth goes dry, and I float towards the vision at the bottom of the stairs.
Step Six: Wait no. Six? What number was I on?
Kate watches me nervously. She whispers, "What's going on? I feel like a princess going to the ball."
I've gotta hand it to Mom: She knows how to do elegant. Kate looks perfect. Not that she was bad before, but I mean... Oh forget it. I don't know what I mean.
I take her hand. "That's because you are." I want to kiss her fingers, but my parents are staring at us. Instead, I lead her to the door where we have a car waiting.
"You two have fun," Dad says on our way out.
Just before I close the door, I lock eyes with Mom and mouth 'Thank you' to her.
Dad set the whole thing up. We go to a small place. It's not the most expensive place in town; Kate would feel even more uncomfortable there. But it's perfectly romantic.
"Hello, we have a reservation under Goth," I tell the lady at the hostess station. I notice her ink. A very-high-class establishment would've made her cover that up. I like this place.
The woman's eyes snap up at the name, and dollar signs flash in them as she looks at us. The effect is almost funny. Before I'd walked up, she looked bored. Now, she's practically kowtowing in her 'schmooze the client' persona.
Dad really knows what he's doing. He could've put the reservation under 'Alaric' or 'Alaric Goth,' and that would've been fine. But putting it under just 'Goth' was like a power-play. It's all to impress Kate, and for once, I really like my surname.
"This way, sir. We've had your table ready." She leads us to the back, to a private gazebo-ish area. Come to think of it, every table here has a kind of private feel to it, but ours is the best.
Kate stares at the menu while I stare at Kate. That dress... How did they know? Mom and Dad already had the dress picked out, but this is the first they let me see it. I'm glad. Seeing it for the first time on Kate's body... My knees shake if I look too hard.
"I think," she says, "I'll just have the side salad."
"Why? I hear their grilled Mahi mahi is outstanding." I know what she's doing. Her frugal mind is in overdrive. I'll bet she's never been pampered in her life like she was today.
I watch her eyes travel to the part of the menu where the dish is listed. They widen. Honestly, it's not THAT expensive. My hand reaches up and closes the menu while taking it away from her. She gives me a shocked look.
"Tell me what you want. If they don't have it, they can go out and get it." A strange surge of power goes through me with the knowledge that what I just said is completely true.
She gives me a deadpan look, determined. "I want the side salad."
Dammit!
I stand up. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the waitress act like she's coming over, but she stops with the smallest shake of my head. Not yet. Apparently whatever step this was supposed to be needs to happen now. "Come here." I hold out my hand. Confused, Kate gets up.
"I bought you a present." I awkwardly pull it out of my inventory. This was a hard present to shop for because what I wanted to buy was what Kate would consider outlandishly expensive. Dad and the jeweler helped me find an appropriate alternative.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to."
"Alaric, this is all a little much as it is: the spa all day, the dress, the restaurant... What's going on?" Her eyes travel over the restaurant.
Can't a dude just flex his 'my dad is ludicrously wealthy' muscle now and again?
"I'm trying to impress the plum out of you, Kate." I decided to be upfront about it. She's probably figured out that much at least.
"You don't have to. I'm not a complicated person, Alaric. You don't need to do this." She looks down at her hands.
"I know. I want to do this." Pause. "Would you just open the present at least?" I lightly pout and hope it looks cute and not pathetic.
Exasperated sigh. She takes it.
Slowly peeping open the lid, she has a look at the necklace and earrings I bought her. While simultaneously snapping it closed, she spouts, "Oh my Maker."
"It's not what you think."
"You're crazy."
"No I'm not."
"I can't accept this."
"Yes you can."
She pushes the box into my stomach. "No I can't. You don't understand."
I open it and carefully remove its contents. Unclasping the necklace, I walk around her. "Please. For me." I put the brilliant handiwork around her neck. She breathes faster, so I decide to throw in a little more clarity. "They're white sapphires. It's not my first choice, but Dad thought this would be better."
"At least your dad has some sense, but Alaric, I can't have anything real." She doesn't want to, but she acquiesces to my eyes' silent request to change her earrings to the ones I bought her.
"But you should have something real." My stomach knots up again. "Because I really love you."
That wasn't part of the plan.
We both stand here and silently stare at one another. What just happened?
I told Kate I love her. How does this girl do this to me? The day I meet her, for real, in the park, I think she's cute but tell her she's beautiful. I can't stop myself in the library from deciding to playfully annoy her to going nuts and begging her to go out with me. I wanted to buy her something, and when I get to the jeweler, I pick out something over a hundred thousand simoleans (not what she's wearing). I wanted to tell her how much she means to me, and I blurt out I love her.
Plum. I DO love her. I have ever since... Well, I don't know when. I need to kiss her.
Kate makes a cute little Kate noise of surprise, but she at least attempts to kiss me back.
It's her eyes. It's when I wanted to see into her eyes... to know what color they were. Then they looked back at me. It wasn't her flashing HER life before her eyes, it was me flashing mine. I saw it all, and it scared me. Yeah, I'm still a little scared, but at least I understand myself better now.
She shakes like she's crying. Dammit. I pull back.
"I can't do this." She doesn't try to get out of my arms.
I smile to hopefully lighten the tension. "You can't what? Be my girlfriend?" I belie my attempt at lightening the tension by tensing up.
"You move so fast. I can't keep up."
"You don't have to keep up." I hold her hand as I lead her back to the table. "You just have to order something besides or in addition to the side salad." That works. She's so surprised by my quick change of pace that she mutely sits back down in her seat.
I continue to be charming after we order our food, and she slowly relaxes. She's almost back to normal while we eat, and I start to relax. After our plates are taken away, she excuses herself to visit the restroom. She takes a while, so I order dessert. I picture in my mind how we can share it when she comes back.
But she doesn't come back.
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Alaric
I get home, run up the stairs, and slam my door closed.
"Saving" money? She'd explained her living condition as a way her parents could save money. Saving only so they could go buy drugs.
The worst is I left her there. She begged me to go, saying he wouldn't calm down until I did. I'm not positive he did. For all I know, he could be beating the crap out of her right now.
What kind of boyfriend am I?
I punch my palm with my other fist. Well, I'm not the kind to just let that go.
I sigh. "There has to be a way."
The door behind me opens; I hear someone moving; and the door closes.
"Son?" It's Dad. At least it's not Mom. Dad forces me to speak to her, but I can't still can't find a way to forgive her for being my brother's whore. "What's troubling you?"
I let out a huff. Dammit, I need advice. I guess Dad's seen his fair share of crap. Maybe he can help.
"You have to promise not to tell anyone."
"I... can try." Right. That means he'll tell if someone's in danger. Well, someone is. But that's why I need help!
Fine. I'll tell him.
"Kate?"
"My girlfriend." Geez, Dad! Keep up.
"You met your girlfriend's father."
I know what he's thinking: He's thinking the typical 'boy meets girl's father and father hates boy just because he's dating his daughter.' That's not it.
I sigh, telling myself to be patient. I'll make him understand. "They live in a travel trailer; judging from his appearance he's been addicted to self-destructive drugs for a long time; and I can't be positive he doesn't beat her." He makes my parents, even my mom, look like saints.
"Grandma?" Dad looks like his mind has gone back in time.
"Yeah. Then she ran away."
I take a step back. "Grandma?" I ask like I can't believe it. I've always thought Grandma was a bit flakey, not one to have the guts to do something like that. But I don't think more about it. I'm a man on a mission, so before Dad can elaborate, I get to the point. "I've gotta get her out of there, Dad." He knows I mean Kate.
"Yes. We can go to family services."
"The government?! Leave her in the hands of the state? Dad, I mean us. Our family. Like you said, she can run away. She can live here. We have all this space! Plum, Dad! My room is bigger than their whole house, if you can call it a house."
"I understand what you're going through, more than you'll ever know." If he understands me, then WHY aren't we doing anything right NOW? "But you have to do this right or it will backfire. I know you feel like you've had a fire lit under you, but you have to realize that she's been living like this for maker knows how long, and one or two more days won't make that much of a difference in the long run."
"But, Dad, I can't just do NOTHING!"
"I'm not saying do nothing. But also understand that I don't think her living here is a good idea."
"But what if her only other family is on the other side of the planet? I can't... lose her."
"If you love her, you'll want what's best for her."
"But what if her other family members are also as*holes?"
"All of this right now is simply conjecture. You need to talk to her about it. Here's what we should do..." And he goes into a plan. A good plan. Of course, I'm more leaning toward one result of the plan to work better than the other alternative. Kate needs to get out of that trailer.
The plan takes ages to go into action, so I do my best to act like Kate's ghoulish father yelling at us was 'one of those things.' I make a grand attempt to follow the rules: having her home in time, not bringing up how I want her to leave her parents, acting like nothing's wrong when I'm going crazy inside.
Finally, a week after Dad thought it up, the plan can go into action.
And my stomach falls through the floor to the center of the planet. My mouth goes dry, and I float towards the vision at the bottom of the stairs.
Kate watches me nervously. She whispers, "What's going on? I feel like a princess going to the ball."
I've gotta hand it to Mom: She knows how to do elegant. Kate looks perfect. Not that she was bad before, but I mean... Oh forget it. I don't know what I mean.
I take her hand. "That's because you are." I want to kiss her fingers, but my parents are staring at us. Instead, I lead her to the door where we have a car waiting.
"You two have fun," Dad says on our way out.
Just before I close the door, I lock eyes with Mom and mouth 'Thank you' to her.
"Hello, we have a reservation under Goth," I tell the lady at the hostess station. I notice her ink. A very-high-class establishment would've made her cover that up. I like this place.
The woman's eyes snap up at the name, and dollar signs flash in them as she looks at us. The effect is almost funny. Before I'd walked up, she looked bored. Now, she's practically kowtowing in her 'schmooze the client' persona.
Dad really knows what he's doing. He could've put the reservation under 'Alaric' or 'Alaric Goth,' and that would've been fine. But putting it under just 'Goth' was like a power-play. It's all to impress Kate, and for once, I really like my surname.
"This way, sir. We've had your table ready." She leads us to the back, to a private gazebo-ish area. Come to think of it, every table here has a kind of private feel to it, but ours is the best.
"I think," she says, "I'll just have the side salad."
"Why? I hear their grilled Mahi mahi is outstanding." I know what she's doing. Her frugal mind is in overdrive. I'll bet she's never been pampered in her life like she was today.
I watch her eyes travel to the part of the menu where the dish is listed. They widen. Honestly, it's not THAT expensive. My hand reaches up and closes the menu while taking it away from her. She gives me a shocked look.
"Tell me what you want. If they don't have it, they can go out and get it." A strange surge of power goes through me with the knowledge that what I just said is completely true.
She gives me a deadpan look, determined. "I want the side salad."
Dammit!
I stand up. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the waitress act like she's coming over, but she stops with the smallest shake of my head. Not yet. Apparently whatever step this was supposed to be needs to happen now. "Come here." I hold out my hand. Confused, Kate gets up.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to."
"Alaric, this is all a little much as it is: the spa all day, the dress, the restaurant... What's going on?" Her eyes travel over the restaurant.
Can't a dude just flex his 'my dad is ludicrously wealthy' muscle now and again?
"I'm trying to impress the plum out of you, Kate." I decided to be upfront about it. She's probably figured out that much at least.
"You don't have to. I'm not a complicated person, Alaric. You don't need to do this." She looks down at her hands.
"I know. I want to do this." Pause. "Would you just open the present at least?" I lightly pout and hope it looks cute and not pathetic.
Exasperated sigh. She takes it.
"It's not what you think."
"You're crazy."
"No I'm not."
"I can't accept this."
"Yes you can."
She pushes the box into my stomach. "No I can't. You don't understand."
I open it and carefully remove its contents. Unclasping the necklace, I walk around her. "Please. For me." I put the brilliant handiwork around her neck. She breathes faster, so I decide to throw in a little more clarity. "They're white sapphires. It's not my first choice, but Dad thought this would be better."
"At least your dad has some sense, but Alaric, I can't have anything real." She doesn't want to, but she acquiesces to my eyes' silent request to change her earrings to the ones I bought her.
That wasn't part of the plan.
I told Kate I love her. How does this girl do this to me? The day I meet her, for real, in the park, I think she's cute but tell her she's beautiful. I can't stop myself in the library from deciding to playfully annoy her to going nuts and begging her to go out with me. I wanted to buy her something, and when I get to the jeweler, I pick out something over a hundred thousand simoleans (not what she's wearing). I wanted to tell her how much she means to me, and I blurt out I love her.
Plum. I DO love her. I have ever since... Well, I don't know when. I need to kiss her.
It's her eyes. It's when I wanted to see into her eyes... to know what color they were. Then they looked back at me. It wasn't her flashing HER life before her eyes, it was me flashing mine. I saw it all, and it scared me. Yeah, I'm still a little scared, but at least I understand myself better now.
She shakes like she's crying. Dammit. I pull back.
"I can't do this." She doesn't try to get out of my arms.
I smile to hopefully lighten the tension. "You can't what? Be my girlfriend?" I belie my attempt at lightening the tension by tensing up.
"You move so fast. I can't keep up."
"You don't have to keep up." I hold her hand as I lead her back to the table. "You just have to order something besides or in addition to the side salad." That works. She's so surprised by my quick change of pace that she mutely sits back down in her seat.
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Ohhh. She ran. Not surprised. But what was the last part of the plan? Schmooze her and get her to see what life could be like with him and then ask to run away and come live with them or maybe one of his relatives? I also wonder if this could be the beginning of him forgiving his mother for what Drake did to her.
ReplyDeleteWell, she certainly is taking a loooooong time in the bathroom...
DeleteThe last part of the train wreck *cough* PLAN is supposed to happen in the next Alaric chapter. But your guess is pretty much there. Although, it's hard to go from step to step when you keep screwing up the steps. He's such a terrific disaster right now.
And I will say you're right about the forgiving Mom bit. He's seen what real crappy parents are like, and all Emily wants is to help him, be there for him. And she merely saw this as an opportunity. She doesn't think Kate living there is a good idea, either (background info since we never see Alex and Emily talking about it), but she wanted to help Alaric have a really good date. The rest can get sorted out later.
She ran, and I wonder where she ran to.... she can’t go home dressed like she is....I worry.
ReplyDeleteMaybe she can sell the jewelry to get different (less noticeable) clothes. And, uh, have a "few" simoleans left over.
DeleteSorry for the worry. Some things will be answered.
Was this the whole plan? Or did Alex and Emily go to deal with Kate's family situation while she and Alaric went for the dinner? It's not like the problem would disappear just because they showed her a good time. I don't blame her if she bailed on Alaric. This just couldn't feel real to her. She'd probably get offended, because they treat her like a charity case. Poor poor Kate, we will feed her and give her shiny gifts and will feel good that we did something for her. I have so many conflicting feeling about this situation.😔
ReplyDeleteNo, there was stuff that was supposed to happen after dinner, but that can't happen if she's gone, right? :/ Yeah, it's perfectly understandable (to us) that she'd bail like that. It was getting too weird.
DeleteAs for Alex and Emily, Emily just wanted to help, and Alex is having some kind of weird flashback thing to his own teen years and how his parents handled the Brielle situation. They haven't spoken with her parents yet. They'd rather hear what she has to say on the matter first, but they're letting Alaric take the lead on that. (probably not the wisest) There's part of me that thinks that Alex hopes it doesn't happen, and that kind of makes sense when you think about how all that stuff in his teen years blew up in his face.
Now that you mention it, it is like Brielle situation kind of. Why does nobody ask Kate what she wants in the first place? Everyone makes assumptions. Emily should discuss everything with her, inculding whether she is interested in Alaric romantically at all. Maybe she just wants him as a friend. Sometimes people do stupid things not to lose a friend, like let the friend kiss them and stuff. 😁
ReplyDeleteSorry I didn't see this at first! Or I did and got distracted. Maybe the second thing. ?
DeleteJust a bit, yeah. Assumptions. Yep. Ems was just happy to help. In her mind, it was a surprise he was planning, the date anyway. That kind of a conversation might raise awkward stuffs, and screwing up her son's love life isn't the way to get on his good side. Meh, something like that.
LOL.