Lilith

 

Lilith closed her gaming system and glanced out the airplane window. Sometime while she had been playing a game that had been a gift for her recent sixteenth birthday, the lush grass landscape outside the plane had transformed into desert sand.

    After a horrendous couple of weeks, all she wanted to do over spring break was spend time with Dirk, but those plans had changed when her mother sat her down and told Lilith that she was going to be spending the week with a family friend she hadn't seen in about two years.

    “You've given me little choice,” her mother had told her. “Due to your recent behavior, you haven't earned the luxury of spending your break the way you want.“

    “But if you have to ship me off somewhere,” Lilith had retorted, “can't it just be with Grandma and Grandpa?”

    “I'm not bothering my parents with your problems,” her mother had said. “It's already been arranged. You're going. Now the Goths have been kind enough to open their home to you and I expect you to treat them with respect while you're there.”

    So her mother had wanted her gone, even after clearly being upset that Lilith had run away from home. At least she didn't have to pack, since her suitcase was still full.

    “Think of it as an adventure,” Dirk had suggested when she had given him the news. “You'll be away from home. Away from your sister and your parents. Isn't that what you want?”

    “I want to be with you,” she had told him.

    “I'm not going anywhere, Lilith,” he had gotten closer to her, speaking against her lips. “I'm going to be right here when you get back.” Then he had kissed her, slowly, yet deeply. “You can call or text me any time,” he told her. “I'll pick up, even in the middle of the night.” She looked at his caring gaze before he kissed her again and she had forgotten that they were being watched.

    Privacy was a rare privilege now that their parents knew about their relationship. The night they had been caught, Lilith had suggested that they split up when it had become obvious that the police would catch one of them.

    “No,” Dirk had told her. “You're not going down alone this time.”

    A few days later they were sitting on his couch looking up at her mother and his father. She clutched his hand in hers, absolutely terrified that they wouldn't allow her to see him anymore. They had no right to force her to lose the one person with whom she could be herself. The one person who had been by her side through everything. The one person who made her happy.

    “I don't care what you say,” Lilith had said firmly, “you are not making me give up...”

    “Lilith,” Dirk had interrupted, “they haven't even said anything yet.”

    Lilith and Dirk listened as their parents laid out the ground rules – no more sneaking out at night, no more secret visits to each other's houses, and unless they were out in public, they had to be supervised at all times. They would get their freedom back once they had earned their parents' trust again. Her mother hadn't even trusted her to get on the plane on her own, and had gone through the hassle of airport security just to make sure Lilith boarded her flight.

    Lilith sighed and looked out the window at the desert landscape. Here she was on a plane to the middle of nowhere. It would have felt like an adventure if Dirk was by her side. But at least she would be away from all the fighting and the people she didn't want to be around. It just hurt that she had to be away from the one person she did.

 

Cassandra

 

Cassandra drove her father's car through Sky Harbor Airport, turning when she saw the sign that read “arrivals.” She had left the van with her parents in Strangetown, just in case they wanted to take the family somewhere before she returned, which they had time to do considering Cassandra still had a two and a half hour drive ahead of her. That was the thing about living in a small town – the airport was never close. Her mother's friend Scarlett had let her stay the night in her suburban Phoenix home so that Cassandra wouldn't have to make the drive twice in one day. She also could have waited out any delays at the house, but fortunately she didn't have to. The flight was on time and Mary-Sue confirmed that Lilith had, in fact, boarded it.

    The last time Cassandra had seen the Pleasant twins had been a couple years ago. Mary-Sue had been busy with work and Cassandra had been raising her family. They had mostly gotten together for lunch while their children had been at school. She'd seen the latest family portraits, however. What baffled her the most is how they even got the family to pose together for that long without some sort of fight breaking out. Daniel and Mary-Sue looked to be in love, and the girls had been next to each other smiling as if they were the best of friends. Cassandra had shaken her head. On the outside they looked perfect. But the truth was that family was far from it. As much as she wished she could give her children a more traditional family, at least everyone in her family loved each other.

    It wasn't hard for Cassandra to find Lilith. She was the only redhead in the crowd and her dark clothes were in contrast to what everyone else was wearing. Upon seeing her, Lilith headed toward the car and silently threw her suitcase and backpack in the backseat before taking the seat up front. She immediately pulled out her phone and started texting. Cassandra sighed and pulled back into the swarm of cars circling the airport.

    “Hello Lilith,” Cassandra said.

    “Hi,” Lilith replied before going back to her phone.

    Clearly Lilith wasn't in the mood for talking, as Cassandra could only get one word answers out of her.

    “How was your flight?”

    “Fine.”

    “Did you use the bathroom?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Do you want anything to eat or drink?”

    “No.”

    Lilith then put in her ear buds and stared out the window until they left the Phoenix metro area. Cassandra left her alone. She had learned to never bother a teenager with their headphones on from Randy, and trying to get Lilith's attention while she was maneuvering through the Phoenix traffic was a bad idea. Once they were out on the open road however, she saw her chance and took it.

    “Lilith?” The girl had an annoyed look on her face but she didn't say anything. “Can I talk to you for a second?” Lilith silently removed her ear buds which Cassandra took as a yes. “We need to go over a few ground rules.”

    “You sound just like Mom,” Lilith muttered. Cassandra ignored her.

    “First, you are to be inside the house from 9 pm until morning.” Silence. “Second, either me or my parents need to know where you are at all times. For this week, you will be part of the family, and that means following all of our rules and treating everyone with respect. Do you understand?”

    “Yeah,” Lilith replied, although Cassandra got the feeling she had heard only half of what had been said. Mary-Sue had often said that talking to Lilith was like talking to a wall, but Cassandra didn't really understand that until now. She couldn't help but wonder if this would be what her six year old daughter Amanda would be like when she got older. In being a parent to her own strong willed child, Cassandra had learned to hold her ground in a power struggle, something Mary-Sue apparently had never mastered.

    “Then repeat what I just told you.”

    “You're kidding, right?” Lilith shot her an angry look, a similar look she had seen from Amanda several times.

    “Okay, this needs to stop, now,” Cassandra warned. “I know you don't want to be here, but if it makes you feel any better, we're happy to have you.”

    “Yeah right,” Lilith said under her breath.

    “Your actions have consequences, Lilith. Your mother's not going to let you off after how you've been behaving. That wouldn't be fair.”

    “And some of us do what we have to do to make things fair.”

    Lilith's statement lingered in Cassandra's mind, and she realized that maybe Lilith was just lashing out at her as a way to release her pent up anger. Another sign of some not so great parenting. Still, Cassandra couldn't blame her. It hadn't been that long since she had been a teenager herself, and mixing raging hormones with a negative life change was a recipe for disaster. That, Casandra knew all too well, having been through it herself. She wanted to tell Lilith that she knew what she was feeling, but Lilith had already turned her music back on, so Cassandra knew there was no point in trying to say anything else, and she definitely wasn't going to start any kind of argument while she was driving. Instead, she focused on the current task at hand – getting herself and Lilith to her house safely.

 

Bella

 

“Can you believe Lauren's boss called her in on a Saturday?” Jessica asked.

    “At least she's making money,” Bella told her, sitting down with her friend at

the kitchen table.

    “True enough,” Jessica said. She opened a jar of peanut butter and dipped her pickle inside of it.

    “No. Jessica,” Bella warned her, “you're not sticking pickles in our peanut butter.”

    “But it tastes so good!” Jessica exclaimed as she took a bite. Bella held back a cringe. Why did weird food combinations seem so appealing to pregnant women? Sure, she'd had cravings with both of her pregnancies, but not for anything this crazy. “I'm not grossing you out am I?” Jessica asked.

    “A little bit, yes.”

    “Sorry, I'll stop.” Jessica closed the jar and shoved the last bit of pickle into her mouth. “But poor Lauren,” she said when she was done chewing. “I know we don't have the kind of jobs with the luxury of having weekends off, but come on. At the last minute on a Saturday? Give me a break.”

    “Why don't you think about something more important?” Bella said. “You have a baby coming in two months. Have you thought about having a baby shower?”

    “Isn't that not appropriate for an unwed mother?”

    “I used to feel that way, too. But the purpose of a baby shower is give the mother gifts for her new baby. The mothers without much money are the ones who need it the most.”

    “Didn't think I'd ever hear you say something like that.”

    “I'm just thinking about things practically, Jessica.” Bella saw Mortimer's car through the window. “Looks like Cassandra is back.” She got up from the table.

    “Really, that soon? Didn't she just get to the airport?” Jessica asked trying to move without her belly getting in her way. “How fast was she going?”

    “You know Cassandra. She never goes over the limit.”

    “If only this pregnancy could go by that fast. I'm so uncomfortable.”

    “You'll have your baby in your arms soon,” Bella told her.

    They walked into the entryway to find Cassandra enter the house with a teenage girl behind her. The last time Bella had seen the Pleasant twins, they had been small children. The girl standing in front of her was a young woman. She was wearing a black top and skirt as well as black, lace up boots. She had cuffs around her wrists and a spiked color around her neck. Her lipstick was as black as her outfit and her eyes were lined with dark makeup as well. The only colorful part about her was her red hair that was partially pulled back.

    “Not what I was expecting,” Jessica whispered into Bella's ear. That wasn't really a surprise. Jessica always had an idea in her head about what a person looked like and it never matched the person. She'd drunkenly admitted to Bella once that she had the same reaction to seeing Mortimer for the first time.

    “Shouldn't you get going?” Bella asked.

    Before she could, however, the front door opened again and Randy walked into the house. He took one look at their house guest and said “You have a great fashion sense.”

    “I also have a boyfriend,” Lilith said dryly.

    “Wow. You just got friendzoned,” Jessica said on her way out.

    “No, I'm serious,” Randy continued as Jessica left the house. “I really like the spikes.”

    “You were walking down the sidewalk with two girls,” Lilith said. “Why don't you go hit on one of them?”

    “Randy,” Cassandra warned.

    “What? I wasn't trying to hit on her. I was just giving her a complement.”

    “That may be, but she's all but told you to stop...”

    Lilith had moved to the end of the entryway and was now staring at the plaque Bella's friends had given her when she and Mortimer renewed their vows, under which were four pictures. Two were from their first wedding - his and her favorites. One was a posed picture, which Mortimer liked because of the classic feel to it. The other one was a more natural pose. Under them were two photos from their vow renewal ceremony. Lilith was looking at it with interest, like she couldn't quite figure out what to make of it.

    “Welcome to our home, Lilith,” Bella greeted her.

    “Thanks.”

    Amanda and Anne rushed down the stairs, excited to see their new housemate. Amanda ran up to her mother and gave her a hug and then went straight to Lilith.

    “Hi, I'm Amanda,” she said. “Why are your lips black?”

    “Amanda.” Cassandra's warning cut through the air.

    “It's just black lipstick, sweetheart,” Bella explained.

    “I didn't know they made that color,” Anne said.

    “Can I try it?” Amanda asked.

    “No,” Bella and Cassandra said at the same time.

    “Why not?”

    “Because you're too young to wear any kind of make up outside of the house,” Cassandra answered.

    “What if I took it off before I go outside?”

    “Here,” Bella said, leaving Cassandra to put an end to that power struggle. She took Lilith's suitcase. “Let me show you where you will be sleeping.” They went up the stairs to the third floor landing where a couch had been set up.

    “I don't get a guest room?” Lilith asked.

    “All the other rooms in the house are occupied,” Bella told her.

    “It's a big house,” Lilith observed.

    “And we have eight people living here,” Bella explained. “It's not that bad. You have your own landing, but if it doesn't suit you, I guess you could share a room with the girls.”

    “This'll work.”

    “We're aiming to have dinner around six. We'd love to have you join us. Feel free to settle in until then.”

 

    Six o'clock came and went and while the whole family was gathered around the dining room table, Lilith was a no show. Bella didn't worry about it that much. This whole thing was a huge change for Lilith and maybe she just wasn't hungry. Bella had saved some food for her just in case.

    About 15 minutes into the meal, while Alexander was telling the story about his latest Chess victory, Bella caught sight of Lilith through the doorway that led into the kitchen. Lilith noticed them too and she came to the archway to see what was going on.

    “Dinner started at six,” Bella told her as she came into the dinning room. “You're late.”

    “Oh...” Lilith said, suddenly aware that the whole family was staring at her. “I was just going to get something out of the fridge...”

    “Perhaps I haven't made myself clear,” Bella replied. “As long as you're under our roof, you'll be following our rules. And one of those rules is if you want something to eat, you have to sit down with the rest of the family.”

    “Whatever,” Lilith said, but she did come over to the table and sit down in the chair that was left for her between Alexander and Randy.

    “We saved some for you,” Bella told her as Mortimer handed her the plate. Lilith looked at it critically, but then started eating the homemade meal as Alexander continued his story.

    “So like I was saying, she had me in check, and I was trying to think of how I was going to get out of this one when I realized that the...”

    As much as she wanted to listen to her son's story, Bella couldn't help but notice Lilith pull out her phone and start texting.

    “Lilith,” she said, signaling to Alexander that he should wait for a minute, “no electronics at the dinner table.” She held out her hand for the phone. Lilith had an annoyed look on her face, but she reluctantly handed it over. “You'll get it back after the meal,” Bella said, placing the phone in the pocket of her skirt. Lilith continued eating in silence, and Alexander went back to his story.

    “So all I had to do was move that one piece and I had her in checkmate.”

    “That was some brilliant thinking!” Mortimer said.

    “Well done Alexander,” Bella told him.

    “Thanks. I didn't think I would actually figure it out. It surprised me, really.”

    “I don't think I would have that quickly,” Cassandra said as she handed some of her food to Alice, which the baby promptly shoved into her mouth.

    “Don't sell yourself short, Cassandra,” Mortimer told her. “I'm sure you would have.”

    “Lilith,” Bella prompted, “did anything good happen to you today?”

    “My plane didn't crash,” she replied.

    “That works,” Randy said.

    “No it doesn't,” Amanda said.

    “That's okay Amanda,” Bella told her. “Sometimes it's the little things we take for granted that matter the most.”

    “What does that mean?” Amanda asked.

    “It means that while we assume that her plane will arrive safely,” Cassandra explained, “we tend to forget that it's a good thing that it actually did.”

    It was just like being with her family every day, Bella thought. That was something that she knew that both she and Mortimer, along with the rest of the family, didn't go a day without being thankful for. Had Lilith ever thought that way? Bella remembered the twins actually getting along as small children. What had happened since then? She knew Mary-Sue hadn't been the best parent, Cassandra was constantly saying that she didn't want to make the same mistakes, but had that really driven Lilith to the point where she felt that she had to run away from home? Or was there something else involved? Mortimer took her hand under the table and squeezed it. It was a silent message, but Bella wasn't sure if it was reassuring her that he felt the same way, or reassuring himself that they would be able to make it through this meal.

    Lilith finished her meal and stood up to leave.

    “Lilith,” Bella prompted, “do you need something?”

    “Can I have my phone back?” she asked. Amanda and Anne snickered. Cassandra shot them both a look and they quieted. Lilith looked a little confused until Randy whispered something in her ear. “May I be excused?”

    “Of course,” Bella replied. She pulled the phone out of her pocket and handed it back to its owner. Lilith left the room in silence, and they could hear her heading up the stairs.

    “You're not going to make her stay for the whole meal?” Mortimer asked.

    “She's had enough for one night,” Bella replied softly before going back to her dinner.

 

    “Lilith seems to be settling in pretty well,” Bella said to Mortimer after dinner had been cleared.

    “Define well,” Mortimer replied, pacing around the formal living room. They were alone – everyone else in the house had gone upstairs for the night.

    “Trust me, she was a lot more agitated when she first got here. Cassandra thinks she's just angry about this whole thing and is taking it out on us because she doesn't know a better way to control her emotions.”

    “Dinner could have gone smoother, though.”

    “She's probably just not used to it.” Bella sat down on one of the camel back sofas. “From the sounds of it, her family has been barely hanging together. And from what I've seen, Lilith has never learned any emotional control skills.”

    “I'm still not sure about this whole thing,” Mortimer told her.

    “This will be good for her,” Bella said as Mortimer sat down next to her. “She needs to spend time in a loving environment.”

    “Do you think we can reach her?”

    “I think we have to try.”

    “Alright. I trust you.” He pulled her into his lap, brushing her hair out of her face. “I love you.” Holding her close, he kissed her deeply before she could even respond.

    A sudden gasp filled the room and Bella broke from the kiss to see their house guest standing in the doorway to the entry hall.

    “Oh... I... I'm sorry,” Lilith said. “I thought no one was here and... I'm just going to go...”