[The name of my OC is Lydia Romanoff and is made up by me.]
"Can we hide here for a little while?" I asked Pip, who was dressed up in full uniform. Hat and everything.
When Dorothy had lost a tooth, I had no idea what we should do, but I was sure that she couldn't bypass the fact that there was a gap in the upper row of her teeth, so ignoring it was out of the question.
Telling miss Hepburn would be a valid alternative. Or would it? She would then know about the fight between Dorothy and Felicia, and later on the very cause of it. More drama and more involved military men wasn't good for anything really.
Calling the police seemed way too drastic, and an ambulance? Also too extreme.
Any dentists or hospitals were too far away. And we had no money, and no access to any bus.
So we decided to go and see Pip. An adult. An adult with combat experience more like. Who must have solutions to even worse problems than a knocked out tooth.
Dorothy sulked on a classic wooden framed sofa in the corner of Pip's suite with a wet towel stuck in her mouth.
Pip seemed to understand the situation, but all he did was nodding his head without looking at me, lit a cigarette and began walking towards the bathroom.
I sneaked after him and he seemed rather surprised when I did. I closed the door behind us as soon as we had disappeared unnoticed in the big bathroom and Pip stared at me. The man was puzzled.
"What kind of men do you hire in your force?" I asked him in an angry whisper.
Pip removed the cigarette from his mouth and licked his lips, swallowing one time.
"What kind of confrontation is this? Are you going to watch me piss?" he asked with a dry chuckle.
"What kind of men do you hire in your force?" I asked him again without whispering, not having time for his jokes.
"Men willing to take lives for a living." he replied casually.
"Yes I know... but some of them are downright..." I shook my head in disbelief, thinking about Daniel and all that odd stuff he had said to me.
I swallowed, trying to get myself together.
The bathroom began reeking of tobacco and Dorothy would get suspicious so I tried to act quick.
"Daniel. With the blue eyes?" I asked him, and Pip's eye widened in recognition.
"Why Lydia?"
He took one last fast whiff on the cigarette before tossing it in the toilet and flushed.
"Why did you speak with him Lydia?" he asked, obviously irritated.
I stared at Pip, feeling myself gape. I wasn't sure what to tell him, because I didn't know myself.
I met Daniel after Pip and I had that intense argument where we brought up those suicide ideas, and before that I had met him with Dorothy after we tried to find the dead deer in the forest.
I began whispering again, but this time, my words were made up right on the spot.
"I... I saw the bunny get killed, and... I checked on it, and I... I spoke to it. Well I didn't speak to it, I just watched it, and then he came and- We grieved... We grieved the bunny together! Oh, Pip! I'm sorry! I'm so stupid." I said, feeling those familiar tears prick my eyes.
It had almost gotten a habit of mine. Crying before Pip.
Pip shook his head and sighed.
"What should I do with you?" he asked.
"I didn't know any better! He said he was a tactician." I defended, and Pip leaned down to my level. Seriously. It made me nervous.
"And he is for a reason Lydia. I don't want to tell you what he did to the wives of the men he killed..." he said. No. Whispered, and I felt my skin crawl.
"Oh my God." I said, glancing around. Pip grabbed my arms.
"Listen to me Lydia. This is not anything new to you. We are not innocent men. None of us more good than another. Not even Leif." he explained slowly, like he wanted to print it into my brain.
"We are not ordinary people. We are scum, everyone. And you, my dear, you just happened to fall for one."
I looked at his face and let out a shaky breath.
"Yeah." I whispered in defeat, being well aware of that.
"And you are so brave Lydia. You are my brave girl. Even braver than me sometimes." he whispered and kissed the corner of my mouth. "Some people won't see it, but don't you ever forget that. You are my brave girl."
I hugged him close to me, nestling into the side of his broad neck. I felt him tense a bit.
"Daniel. Did he..."
"No he didn't try anything with me. I'm fine." I said, guessing that he supposed that I had experiened something uncanny.
"He only helped me with... Oh my God!" I pulled away from Pip and looked at him.
"Minnie!" I exclaimed in a whisper. "He made out with Minnie in the lounge so I could take pictures of them and blackmail them." I said, feeling my cheeks burn in shame.
"Did you?" Pip asked, and I couldn't look at him.
"Yes." I mumbled. "But I regret it now. Poor Minnie. I should've known. Daniel must've used the pictures as a means to threaten her with." I realized, feeling tears in my eyes again.
"Why did you listen to him?" Pip asked, probably feeling no sympathy for me about that.
"Because..." I swallowed. "I thought I could... secure our relationship." I mumbled.
"What?"
"I wanted to secure our relationship."
"Secure our relationship?" he repeated, making my words sound stupid.
"Or whatever it is what we have." I said, hearing myself annoyed at him.
"Oh mon dieu..." Pip sighed and adjusted his hat. He was frowning.
"Muttering in French won't help." I told him. "Whatever those words mean. I don't understand..."
Pip chuckled. "I wouldn't expect you to."
I did something crazy then.
I pushed Pip. But he barely budged. His grin only widened after my feeble hands had molested his chest.
"You're so annoying." I told him, trying to sound upset at him but a small laugh escaped me.
"And don't change subject! I knew Minnie was a threat to us, even though Miss Hepburn decided to go easier on us. She remembered how devastated I was when you left for Poland, but she's starting to worry about my future and my grades." I said, almost wanting to roll my eyes, like it wasn't something to worry about.
"So meanwhile you decided to put Minnie in danger?" he asked.
"Of course not! I didn't even know he would do that. He just asked me to be there and then and I did just that and I saw him eating up her face in the lounge." I explained aggressively. "And aren't you supposed to be on my side? On our side? Why do you feel bad for Minnie?" I asked, feeling betrayed.
"I don't feel bad for anyone Lydia. It's not in my nature." he said and I snorted and laughed at his words. It was a mean laugh. I didn't recognize myself in it.
"Not even Dorothy and her tooth?" I asked, and to my surprise a large open grin cracked onto Pip's face and he laughed himself. But his laugh wasn't mean like mine was. He was genuinely amused by me.
"Crikey. Your quick-witted humor sometimes, Lydia!"
I blinked at his praise.
Was it a compliment? I couldn't tell.
He probably thought it was right for her, Dorothy. Who had rushed into our love act without a single care in the world.
That's why he laughed.
It was revenge.
He wanted to take revenge on Dorothy because she had prevented him from taking my virginity.
I watched when Pip approached Dorothy and tossed his phone genlty on her stomach.
She stared at him in annoyance, removing the bloody towel from her swollen mouth.
"What is it now?" she grumbled, and grasped onto the phone.
"I typed in the numbers for a dentist nearby. Thought you might want to check if there's a time available a soon as possible." Pip said, and Dorothy sat up slowly.
"Should... I call?" she asked like it wasn't her thing to do, and Pip frowned.
"Who else should call? It's your tooth that needs to get fixed."
"Yeah but... I daren't." she said, yet with a confidence that didn't match her statement.
"Then Lydia will. Lyidia. Make the call for her." Pip turned to me.
I felt a lump in my stomach.
"But I daren't either." I mumbled.
I had never called a dentist before. It made me feel like such a child, and I was certain Dorothy felt the exact same way.
Pip looked like he had seen the end of the world.
He snatched his phone away from Dorothy, pressed a button and pinched the area in-between his eyes as he walked to the middle of the room, his long braid following him like a tail.
"Is he making the call?" Dorthy asked almost nervously, yet sounding a small bit relieved and encouraged.
"I think so." I replied, sitting down next to her on the fancy sofa.
"Well that's very noble of him. Never thought he would actually do it." Dorothy snorted and examined her blood on the towel.
"Me neither, but he's doing it."
"Could you two shut up?" Pip raised his voice at us and shot an angry glare to his phone and we cursed our lips.
I sat beside her awkwardly and watched her mouth. It wasn't pretty. She showed me the towel and made a disgusted expression. When I flinched away slightly, she concealed a laugh.
"The line is closed but the dentist opens at six." he told us.
"Then what will happen to me?" Dorothy asked in panic.
"I can't let Minnie see this!" she yelled and turned to me.
"When does your first lesson start?" he asked. He was looking at me.
"Uh... eight forty-five." I told him and he nodded to himself, gaze darting away to the floor.
He sniffed and looked at Dorothy.
"If I drive you there tonight, will promise me to never bother me again?" he asked her.
Dorothy was frowning at first, but then she was exhilarated and nodded eagerly. Relief and hope in her eyes.
"Yes. Yes! With pleasure!" she said and jumped off the couch. "Where did I put my tooth..." she looked around.
Pip made eye contact with me and smiled.
"And don't think you can escape this. You'll be keeping me company on the road." he said.
And I thought;
"Yes. Yes! With pleasure!"
It felt almost unreal as we sneaked out into the parking lot in the middle of the night, having no idea if Miss Hepburn had heard anything about the fight or not.
Dorothy decided to take a nap in the back of the car.
I would keep Pip company on the road.
"Do you really have time for this?" I asked him, watching him adjust the hat on his head after stepping into the car.
"No. But we don't have any choice, do we Lydia?" Pip asked me with a big grin and shot a glance at the back seat, where Dorothy already had made herself comfortable with her tooth inside another towel.
There we sailed through the night's darkness in Pip's Volvo, without anyone else's knowledge than our own.
Without exaggeration, it may have been the most exciting thing I've done. A forbidden car ride in company with my best friend, and my true love.
Pip was the one true love of my life. I do believe in true love. Such love can change but it can never go away.
Despite everything.
After a wordless silence for about ten minutes, Pip glanced in the mirror at Dorothy's sleeping form.
"Is she asleep?" he asked in a whisper.
It was strange, hearing Pip whispering at times.
"Yes." I said. "Snuggled up. Dorothy have never had issues with her sleep. Waking her up is the tricky part."
"Good." Pip said, still whispering. "Because I need to ask you something."
He switched speed and I felt how the car went slightly faster. Soon we were on the highway.
I looked at him just in time for his question. His skin glowed in the traffic lights in the pitch black night. When he looked at me, his eye gleamed.
"Where you serious back then?" he asked. "Would you actually have slept with me, despite everything?" he asked seriously.
Despite everything.
I looked at the road in front of us.
"What a question..." I said with a nervous little laugh.
"Don't act prude. I've seen you in another state." he said knowingly and I cleared my throat and swallowed, looking out from the side window instead.
I felt flames underneath my skin.
"Then why do you ask? If you managed to unlock that state."
"Unlock?" Pip asked with a laugh.
"You know what I mean." I said to him.
"What? That I heated you up a little? Turned you on?"
"Must we talk about this now?" I whispered to him harshly, glancing back at Dorothy.
He was easy to get annoyed with these past hours.
"She's fast asleep. You said so yourself."
"But the principle..." I mumbled and dared to look at him after a long time.
His eye was on the road. I began wondering if he even was allowed to drive, with half-vision...
"You truly want me. It makes me very proud, you know." he said.
"My little Lydia."
It was actually the cold that had woken me up. I had dreamed about Felicia having returned to the boarding house and that everything had gotten ordinary, but then I found myself in Pip's Volvo, freezing.
"There we go." Pip said just in time for when I had woken up and realized that it was early morning, and the daylight pierced into my eyes.
The car shook slightly before the engine stopped and Pip had turned the key. I rubbed my eyes and looked back at Dorothy. She was wide awake.
"Let's get this son of a bitch tooth back in..." she muttered and hopped out from the car and slammed the door shut without asking any of us to keep her company.
Dorothy wasn't a phone call person, but when it came to actual physical errands, she was truly that "Can I speak to the manager?"-kind of woman.
"This is not a gypsy wagon!" Pip yelled after her but she had already walked up the doorsteps to the apartment building with her tooth in a loving hold to her chest.
The dentist would be at the top floor, according to the information that we previously had received.
Apperiently, Pip had called them another time this morning when I was fast asleep.
"Is this where we drive off?" Pip asked me jokingly when we no longer could see any trace of my best friend.
The light still hurt my eyes and when I swallowed, the inside of my mouth tasted bad. I wanted to brush my teeth so badly.
"For how long did I sleep?" I asked Pip and looked at him.
His hands were still on the steering wheel as he glanced at me.
"About halfway through." he answered with a calming smile.
I was still freezing, even though the sun was shining like a godsend outside.
"How long will this take?" I asked.
"The woman on the phone told me that it generally takes about an hour to place a single implant." he replied and rolled down the window.
I mentally protested and felt my skin react to the sudden fresh air. Pip fished out a cigarette and I bit my lip, feeling myself getting a small bit irritated. He was taking too long and it wasn't too much for him to step out from the car and smoke outside.
He finally lit the burning stick and turned his head to breathe out a portion of smoke through the window.
"When will we get back to the boarding house?" I asked.
"Just in time for your English class." he replied.
Pip had an answer to anything. I liked that. I sighed and tried to make myself comfortable in the car seat. There wasn't much outside to be impressed by. There was a red truck outside of my window and before us was the apartment building/dentist that Dorothy had entered.
A young blonde runner ran on the sidewalk in front of the car and Pip's head followed after her bouncing ponytail. It made my heart sink in my chest. I felt ugly sitting there with that taste in my mouth, and I couldn't remove the feeling of jealousy. Pip's gaze landed on me again, like he had read my mind and knew that I noticed him staring after that lady.
"Are you tired Lydia?"
I knew he asked that because I looked tired. Not alert and healthy like the person who just was jogging before us.
"Would you still look at other girls if I had had sex with you?" I asked him and looked down at my knees, rubbing them with my hands. My legs felt cold too.
"What makes you think that?" Pip asked with a weak laugh as he took another blow on his cigarette.
"I noticed you staring at her." I said, and there I knew that I had done it.
I had gone bananas. Paranoid. Hypochondriac. Obsessive fake girlfriend.
Pip coughed and cleared his throat.
"Lydia..." he muttered.
I looked at him.
"It wouldn't have mattered to you, would it? I would've just been another intercourse to you." I decided.
Pip sighed and tipped some ash on the concrete outside. His arm was hanging outside the window.
"You see Lydia. This is why I'm happy it didn't happen." he confessed and I stared at him with a frown.
"You're happy..." I mumbled, and Pip's eye widened a little, like he had regretted his words.
"Lydia."
"You know what? Screw you." I said and unbuckled my seatbelt.
His hand grabbed my wrist.
"Lydia."
"Don't touch me!"
My sudden shriek made his hand dart away and I took that opportunity to open the door and spurt out into the cold air.
But Pip wasn't far behind.
"Where are you going?" I heard his voice after me, calm and completely done with me.
"Away from you." I said with dedicated steps, heading over a small field of grass beside the parking lot.
I spotted a lake nearby, which I was drawn to.
"You're dumb now Lydia. Get back to the car."
"Never."
I felt his hand on me again. He swirled me around to face him.
"Don't touch me!" I screamed
"Get back inside the car, NOW!" Pip roared.
"Is everything under control here?"
Both of our attentions turned to that sudden third part, who had interfered in this situation.
It was a police officer.