It was nine when I called Tori to let her know I was coming over with a box of Little Caesars pizza and some crazy bread. When I showed up the Vega sisters were both on the couch, curled into balls whispering together about something, both looked up when they saw me and Trina slowly slid off the couch.
"You can stay and eat if you want, I'm sure there's more than enough." I tell her, she pauses and looks back at Tori who nods and goes into the kitchen to grab plates and three bottles of water. We ate in silence. I actually only took one piece, offering up the rest of the pizza to the Vega sisters. Together they managed to finish off the pizza and two pieces of crazy bread each before they sat back and rubbed their stomachs while sipping water.
I don't comment on how much those girls had eaten, but I do notice how baggy their clothes look on them, "I'm going to go take this stuff out to the trash." Trina said, holding up the box with our paper plates inside, "and then I'm going to shower." She marched toward the door with purpose, pausing once she opened it, "thanks for the pizza, Jade."
It was very un-Trina like and made me wonder what was up with the two. I'd come over here originally to complain about Beck and his newest girlfriend, but as Vega and I went upstairs I became more and more interested in why they were eating like they were starved.
I'd only been over here by myself once, and that was to cry about Beck, but even now things seemed weird. The house felt empty downstairs, like it was hardly lived in, and so did the hallway and her parent's bathroom. The bathroom they shared was messy, and when I went inside I noticed most of their products were from the dollar store or hotels.
They had low grade toilet paper, shitty almost empty toothpaste, no hand soap, and everything just seemed off. I walked into Tori's room and peered around. She had her laptop sitting on her desk under piles of school things and clothes; I could just barely see the edge of it. She had her back to me, pulling her shirt off over her head.
I could see every ridge of her spine and the outline of her rib cage, her shoulder blades were like a birds, sticking out way more than they should. She pulled a ratty shirt on over her head and turned to me, "so what did you want to talk about?" she asked, smiling as she sat down on her bed.
"Why are you so skinny?" I asked bluntly. But I didn't get an answer, a door opened downstairs and Trina darted inside and up the stairs, yelling about their parents being home before she went in to take a shower. I could see Tori's skin crawl as she pulled her knees up to her chest. Not too much time after Trina ran up her mother and father stumbled past. I heard a door slam open and Tori winced.
I sat still as a tree, listening to them thumping around, "Tori!" her father shouted angrily. She jumped up from her bed and practically flew down the hallway. I stood by the door straining to hear them, "you ungrateful bitch! I put a roof over your head and clothes on your back and you can't manage to keep this fucking house clean? You can't do any of your chores? You and your sister are such fucking wastes of oxygen! I expect this house to be clean when I get home from work!"
He swung at her, I saw in the mirror, but she stumbled back out of the way and he drunkenly slammed his fist into the wall as she scrambled down the hallway, like a dog with it's tail tucked between it's legs. His door slammed shut as Tori tumbled into her room, forcing a fake cheerful smile on her face when she saw me, as if that hadn't just happened in front of me.
Cautiously, I did the first thing I thought of. I walked up and wrapped my arms around her thin shoulders, hugging her against me. She didn't react at first, nervous and confused, but then she threw her arms around me and her whole body sagged. I backwards walked to her bed and pulled her down next to me, rubbing her arm soothingly.
Tori was starting to drift off when Trina stepped in, towel wrapped firmly around her chest, hair dripping, a decent sized bruise forming around her eye, "is she okay?" Trina whispered, reaching out and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"She's fine…well…not hurt." I corrected, "Are you going to be okay?" I ask, my eyes lingering on her cheek before I met her eyes, she shrugged her shoulder and looked back down at Tori with a sad sigh.
"She's all I've got left." Trina says, "They hate us, as I'm sure you heard. What did he say she needed to do by tomorrow?"
"Clean the whole house." I mumbled, looking down at Tori myself. Trina and I decided to stay home from school the next day and clean the house, without telling Tori. She left for school while I drove my car around the block and parked back out front once Mister Vega had left. Trina and I started cleaning after Holly left, having gone off to buy cleaning supplies to kill time. Luckily my father, while ignoring me, still provided me with money and food.
When we got back I started with the downstairs, mopping the kitchen, vacuuming, cleaning the back door windows, the counters, and even the oven. Trina started upstairs with her parent's room and bathroom, washed their clothes, and sheets. Slowly we worked our way through the house, and by the time Tori came over we were bent over the tub in their bathroom scrubbing away at whatever had started to form in there from months of having no money to buy products for cleaning.
When the door to the bathroom opened Trina and I turned toward it, finding Tori staring at us baffled, "what-did you two clean all day?" she asked. A range of emotions from elation to sadness and then to relief crossed through her eyes, "Trina! You're eye!"
"It'll be fine soon." Her sister shrugs, standing up. I stand too, grabbing the shower head from its place on the wall. I rinse off the shower walls and the tub while Trina ushers Tori out of the room. The only thing I can smell now is cleaner from the tub the windows and the tile floors. The whole house smells amazing and clean, and livable. But I know that the second David Vega returned home he'd find something to pick at them about.
Trina gave me something to change into while Tori folded some laundry and then we went downstairs where I ordered Chinese food for us. Tori sat beside me on the couch, leaning against my side as we watched Bones, Trina on the other couch filing her nails, hardly looking at the TV.
"Jade, why are you doing this?" Tori whispers, glancing at Trina who hasn't looked up from her nails, I honestly don't think she's aware of what's going on around her at this moment.
"Because nobody deserves to be treated that way by their parents." I replied looking away from her incredibly sad face, "You couldn't possibly clean the place alone and Trina had to skip school today because of her eye, so I just figured I could stay and clean too, I know my parents don't give a shit what I do as long as I don't get arrested."
Before she can say anything else somebody knocked on the door, I jumped up and pulled it open, coming face to face with the very terrified looking delivery boy, flanked by David Vega in his cop uniform, "did you order food?" Mr. Vega asked me, giving me a look meant to scare me.
"I did." I replied with a blank face, snatching my food from the kid, since I'd paid over the phone he was okay to flee, and he did as Mr. Vega stepped up into the doorway, trying to use his height to intimidate me, "Just because you don't want to feed your beautiful daughters doesn't mean I don't want to." I spun my back to him, silently daring him to lay a hand on me.
He doesn't, he just steps into the house behind me and slams the door shut while I dish out food to everyone and I look at him and then back to my food before I take out my chopsticks and eat my noodles. He sits nervously in a chair, unsure of how to handle me, since he can't actually handle me.
"The house looks nice, girls." He comments, looking around for any flaw he can rip into them about, but he can't find one, and the Vega sisters eat in silence. Trina is nervous, like she's ready to run, but calms down when her father leaves the room and goes upstairs.
"You know…I don't understand why you stay here." I comment, picking at my noodles, looking for some shrimp, "you're both over 18, why don't you just move out?"
"That would take money." Tori comments, sighing.
"You could always come live with me, I have like six spare rooms, and if you got jobs after a few weeks I'm sure my dad wouldn't give a shit if he even noticed." I pop a piece of shrimp into my mouth, watching the TV avidly, ignoring the stares of the sisters.
"Are you serious?" Trina finally breaks the silence, "because if your not I will literally kill you with your own scissors." The comment makes me drag my eyes away from the TV with a snort.
"Yes, I'm serious. My dad would literally not give a shit. Cat lived with me for like four months last year and he never said a word." I shrug, "she paid for her shit and that was okay with him. So if you want you can come live with me." Tori was the first to jump up, heading straight upstairs. Trina followed behind her and I cleaned up the living room.
By the time we got into my car my trunk held three suit cases for each of them Trina had two more for her stuff. They left their phones on the table in their living room with a note, the only thing they brought with them besides clothing were laptops their uncle had gotten them.
When we pulled up outside it happened to be a day my father decided he needed to be home, but he didn't bat an eyelash at the girls getting suitcases out. Instead he walked over and grabbed what he could from the trunk and trailed us up to the two rooms they could use. I think he saw Trina's eye, but I can't be sure.
Trina settled down into her room and asked to be left alone for a bit while she unpacked. Tori, however, was unpacking while I lay on her new bed and watched her curiously. Her steps were lighter just being out of the house, her smile was relaxed and she was humming while she put her clothes away.
She looked fucking gorgeous this way.
"You think I'm gorgeous?" I blinked; did I say that out loud? My cheeks got warm and hers were a nice shade of pink.
"I do." I blink at her trying to keep my expression as blank as possible, she bites down on her bottom lip and then looks away from me, finishing the transfer of her clothing to her drawers. When she's done she puts her suitcase into the closet and flops down on the bed next to me. We talk for awhile about nothing and then I leave to go shower.
As I close the door I hear her squeal with joy, out of the corner of my eye I see her kick her feet in the air happily. It brings a smile to my face as I close the door and go down the hall to my bathroom to shower; Trina is inside though, showering.
"This better not happen a lot!" I yell through the door.
"Get used to it Jade!" Tori yelled, inside the bathroom Trina laughed and so did I, shaking my head as I went into my room to wait for the shower.