Experiment
"Thea." Five year old Cassie whispered, standing by her biggest sisters bedside, swaying back and forth nervously, "Thea." She whispered louder, poking Thea's arm as she watched her sister asleep.
"Hey, what's up?"
Cassie watched her sister's boyfriend sit up in bed beside Thea, being Jackson of course.
"Uh… I… I want to talk to my sister." Cassie told him seriously, brushing her bed hair from her face.
"Thea." Jackson nudged Thea, "Wake up." He nudged her harder as Thea woke up.
"What?" Thea shook her head.
"There's a man in the bathroom." Cassie whispered as Thea looked at her.
"What?" Thea looked at her, half asleep with confusion.
"There's a man in the bathroom and I need the toilet." Cassie told her.
"There's a man? Are you sure?" Thea shook her head.
"She's sleep walking or something." Jackson shook his head, turning around in bed and folding his pillow over his ear.
"Did you have a bad dream or something?" Thea asked her, sitting up in bed, dangling her legs off the edge, "Did you have an accident?" She asked.
"No." Cassie said with frustration, "But I might because I need to go." Cassie said desperately as Thea looked at the clock, noticing it was 6am, suddenly hearing noise coming from the bathroom.
"Uh… stay here." Thea stood up, opening up her bedside drawer, taking her hair brush out and a can of deodorant as Cassie followed curiously, "I said stay here." Thea warned her as Cassie folded her arms and waited in the room.
Thea had only assumed her little sister had been dreaming, or was perhaps sleep walking. But hearing noise in the bathroom made her rethink, and she came prepared with her weapons.
She walked out into the hall and towards the bathroom, slowly pulling the handle down and kicking the door open, squealing as she indeed saw a man standing half naked in their bathroom.
She threw the hairbrush at him just as AJ opened up her bedroom door.
"Thea." AJ shook her head with confusion, noticing Joey standing in the bathroom.
"Hey, I'm not a burglar." Joey put his hands up as Thea panted a little with fear, turning to her mother with confusion.
"W-What… what the hell?" Thea turned to AJ.
"What's going on?" Jude opened up her bedroom door, looking on as she saw a man half naked in their bathroom, turning to her mother who she saw was in a bath robe. She immediately walked back into her room and slammed the door over as AJ jumped a little.
"Joey, can you just… leave, please." AJ nodded to him.
"Joey?" Thea turned to the man, "This is Joey?" She questioned, "What happened to us having dinner with him first?" She turned to her mother.
"I'll uh… I'll see you at work." Joey nodded, putting his shirt on, doing whatever he could to get out of there as quickly as he could.
"Maybe lock the door next time. My five year old sister doesn't need to see you getting dressed." Thea batted, practically chasing him down the stairs as AJ grabbed her back by the arm.
"Stop it." AJ shook her head, feeling embarrassed, listening to Joey leaving the house.
"Are you serious with this?" Thea turned to her mother.
"I don't know… I don't know who you think you are." AJ shook her head.
"He's half naked in our bathroom and I've never even been introduced to him yet, mom." Thea said, "None of us have."
"I'm sorry about that. He was… He was leaving before you girls woke up. I didn't think you'd hear him." She said as Thea shook her head.
"So he wears a suit and a tie?" Thea questioned, "Really?"
"What's wrong with that?" AJ shook her head.
"How can you go from dad to… that?" Thea questioned, "It doesn't make any sense."
"You don't even know Joey." AJ said, "He's… He's a nice guy."
"And this is just an experiment." Thea said.
"What?" AJ shook her head tiredly.
"To see if you can get over dad. We all know it. Jude knows it. I know it. You know it." Thea said, "So if you're gonna try and get over dad you might wanna find someone you have a little more in common with-"
"You can be such a little shit sometimes, you know that?" AJ nodded, "Seriously. You don't even know the guy."
"Fine. Then prove me wrong." Thea shrugged.
"This actually has nothing to do with you." AJ said, "For once this is something that I'm doing for me. This is something I want. Whether it's… gonna last or not. I have busted my ass for you, for your sisters, and all I want is just one thing for me." She shook her head, "And you're not even letting me have that." She said as Thea looked across at her.
"You're still in love with dad. You… sleep with his sweaters every night and spray his cologne everywhere. Don't kid yourself." Thea said.
"Well maybe I don't know what I'm doing, Thea. Maybe I'm a little confused. I think I'm allowed to feel like that for once." AJ shook her head.
"I just don't want you to get unnecessarily hurt." Thea said, "Ok?"
"No. Not ok. I just want you to butt out of this. You can't make judgement on him just from seeing how he looks. And we actually do have a lot in common. We like a lot of the same things and… we have the same humour." AJ nodded as Thea just shook her head, "I don't know whether I'm coming or going with you sometimes. One minute you're blaming your father, telling me I deserved better… next you're trying to protect him."
"I'm not trying to protect him. I'm trying to protect you. I think that's pretty obvious." Thea said.
"Well hey, I'm grown. I can handle it." AJ shook her head.
"Mommy." Cassie came out of Thea's room as Thea turned around, "I had an accident." She whispered as AJ looked over.
"Come here, baby." AJ sighed as Cassie ran over to her, taking her hand, "It's ok." AJ assured her, heading into Cassie's room and closing the door over.
Thea sighed to herself, walking over to Jude's room and walking in, noticing twelve year old Jude quickly wiping her tears away, making sure Thea didn't notice. But she noticed.
"You ok?" Thea asked as Jude nodded, "You sure?" She asked as Jude nodded.
"I didn't think she'd bring him here." Jude admitted as Thea pulled the bean bag over from the corner, sitting down on it.
"Neither did I." Thea admitted, "Do you think she actually likes him?" She asked as Jude shrugged.
"What if she does?" Jude asked, "What if she… doesn't care about dad anymore?"
"She still cares." Thea assured her, "I just think she's… trying really hard not to. Really hard." Thea nodded.
"But why?" Jude sighed, "Why can't she just go see dad again? Why is no one visiting him anymore?" She shook her head as Thea looked across at her. Jude was still young. Some things she didn't quite grasp. Thea tried her best to shed light.
"Sometimes it's… it's more upsetting to see him than to not see him." Thea nodded to her.
"No it's not. That doesn't make sense." Jude shook her head with frustration.
"Don't you hate it when you have to leave from visiting him?" Thea asked her, "Don't you wish you could… have dinner with him or… go out somewhere with him?"
"Well yeah but… I still get to see him." Jude shrugged, "I don't think mom loves him anymore because if she did…. She'd still go see him." Jude nodded. That was her take on the situation.
"It's not as easy as that." Thea sighed to herself, "You know they were like… best friends too, right?" She nodded as Jude looked across at her, "Mom and dad. Imagine losing all of that with someone." She shook her head.
"Why don't you come visit anymore?" Jude asked, "You haven't since you were sick."
"I don't wanna." Thea shrugged.
"But why?" Jude shook her head.
"Because it sucks. It sucks so bad, Jude." Thea shook her head, "It was making time go slower. Maybe it's because I'm older, I don't know." She shrugged, "And now mom's trying to give us some sort of… step dad?" She questioned.
"I can't tell dad this." Jude realised, "He'll be upset."
"Yeah, don't tell him." Thea agreed, "It'd crush him." She realised, "You know if… if mom is serious about this and… this guy… we're gonna have to accept it." She nodded to her sister as Jude sighed, "If… if somehow it works out and she really does care about him. We gotta support it. Support her." She nodded.
"Only if she's happy." Jude said as Thea nodded, "I don't know if she is."
"Me neither." Thea nodded, "It's not fair of us to make her feel like she's doing something wrong." Thea realised. She knew she was being harsh on her mother, but it came from a good place. It really did.
"Yeah." Jude agreed, looking on as her bedroom door opened, watching her mother walking in.
"Is Cassie ok?" Thea asked.
"Yeah, she's fine." AJ nodded, "I uh… I just want to apologise for Joey being here and… not telling you about it. That wasn't fair for me to do that." She said. The last thing she wanted was for the girls to meet Joey like this.
"You don't have to apologise." Thea shook her head, "I'm sorry for… throwing a hairbrush at him." Thea said as Jude smiled a little.
"Pretty useless if he was a burglar." AJ nodded to her as Thea smiled, "Just… listen to me for a second." She said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, "I know whether you're thinking about your dad or you're protecting me that this situation is weird. I know that. It's weird for me." She agreed, "And I'm… I'm always gonna love your father. There's not gonna be any falling out of love like you said." She said to Thea, "But… I… I have to move on." She shook her head, "I have to try." She looked at them both, "And I'm sorry if that hurts you, because honestly it kinda hurts me too." She nodded, "But your dad hasn't been here for five years, and when he does get out I don't know how things between us will be." She said as they both looked at her.
"You could visit him." Jude said.
"I could, but… sometimes that's harder." AJ said as Thea nodded, "I just need to try this. He's… He's a nice guy. He really is. And no, he's not your dad, not even close. But I get along with him really well." She nodded to them.
"Just want you to be happy." Thea nodded to her, "Seriously. That's… that's all that matters." She said as AJ smiled to her, turning to Jude, noticing she was getting upset and drying her tears.
"Come here." AJ sighed, shuffling over as Jude hugged her, "I know it sucks." AJ nodded, brushing her hand down Jude's hair as Thea watched. They all had their moments of feeling hopeless. What helped was that they were there for each other.