Chapter 62- Sleepover
"Your mother was distraught when you were missing," Myrtle told Kendall as they still sat at the table with Erica. "She was out of her mind with worry. And today, Erica and I went to confront Luis Alcazar about it."
Kendall leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and stared at Erica. "How much did you pay her to say this? Is this just a sick, twisted game you're playing? Or is Myrtle lying because she wants us to magically get along?"
"I do not tell lies!" Myrtle insisted.
"This is not a game," Erica said. "Rae and I were searching, and it was my idea to begin with!"
"Painting yourself as the hero?" Kendall scoffed. "You really think I'm going to buy that? If you don't leave right now, then I am."
"Now you listen to me young lady, I have made mistakes, but you don't ever speak to me that way," Erica said.
"I still don't know why you're here to begin with. I know you have this delusion that Myrtle is now your mother and want to see her, but you can't stand to even be in the same room with Rae!"
"Maybe I couldn't before but I've learned to tolerate her," Erica said. "That's something you should try."
Kendall laughed. "Erica Kane is preaching to me about tolerance?"
"She is not preaching," Myrtle cut in. "She is simply telling you what she has learned and suggesting you try it. She and Rae are becoming good friends."
Erica rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't go that far."
Myrtle smirked. "You know it's true, darling. In fact, that's three generations of dear friends. First, it was myself and Mona, now it's you and Rae, and Kendall and Skye. And I couldn't be more thrilled."
Kendall groaned. "Please don't compare me to her."
"But you both are so much alike, that's why you butt heads so much."
FargateFargateFargate
Rae found Skye sitting on her bed hammering the Whac-A-Mole she got Myrtle for her birthday.
Rae walked in. "Getting out some frustrations?"
Skye looked up at her. "This is my room, and you can't just walk in without knocking."
"Oh, so now you want to practice some house rules."
Skye lowered her gaze to the moles.
"Listen, Skye…" Rae walked over to her. "I know the idea of therapy is scary, but your grandmother is right—"
"You should've told me," Skye interrupted.
Rae sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "Things were going so well when you got home. Alan was your hero and you seemed so happy—"
Skye lifted the Whac-a-Mole and hurled it at the wall. It dropped to the floor and Skye hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face in them.
"Skye… come on… talk to me…" Rae reached for her hands, but Skye flinched.
"I thought you were different," Skye mumbled.
"What do you mean?"
"Just leave me alone."
"No," Rae said. "What do you mean, you thought I was different?"
There was a long pause before Skye finally spoke. "They lied to me my whole life. My whole life was a lie. I worshiped Daddy but it was a lie. Everyone was a lie. Everything I thought Daddy was… And for the first time in my life, I was feeling safe… with you, like an immature loser, in your arms… then after talking to Grandmother Quartermaine it made me realize I can feel safe just by being in this house with you and Grandma and I didn't need to constantly be cuddled… maybe sometimes though because I liked it… But then I find out that you lied to me too about you. Didn't you think maybe I'd want to know? How do I know that Dad and Grandma aren't just illusions too? It turns out you're a liar too just like Daddy and Mother, and maybe I don't know you at all."
Rae sighed. "Honey… I wasn't intending to lie to you. I didn't want to take away Alan's thunder. You needed to have him as your hero—"
"Now you're telling me what I need. Like I can't have any control over my life or my feelings. Didn't you think maybe I would've liked to see you as my hero too? Even if I didn't, you took that option away from me."
"I'm sorry, sweetie. I didn't think of it that way. I am the same person you thought I was, I really am. My intentions weren't to hurt you, it was to protect you. Can you forgive me?"
Skye shook her head and kept her face buried. "Go away…"
"Skye… you can be angry at me, but I'm not giving up on you. I never will. I will do everything I can to prove to you I'm different from them, whatever it takes. And that starts right now because I'm not going anywhere. And I'm going to make you laugh…" She began to tickle Skye's side and neck.
Skye started giggling and she wriggled and squirmed. "Stop. Stop…"
Rae stopped and smiled at her. "I got you to laugh, so that's a start. I would never intentionally hurt you, Skye. I'm really sorry that I did hurt you."
"Get out of my room," Skye said. "Just get out."
"Skye—"
"Get out!" Skye repeated.
"Okay, I will give you some space. But like I said, I'm not going anywhere and we're going to talk about this tomorrow."
"Out!"
Rae frowned and passed Kendall on the way out. Kendall closed the door and walked over to Skye's bed and sat down. "Well, you're stupid."
Skye looked up at her.
"At least you have a mother fighting to be in your life," Kendall said. "So what if she lied? She lied about a good part of herself, not something bad she did."
"That's what makes it worse."
"Does it?" Kendall asked. "Oh, come on. She took on mobsters just to find you, yet you're just focused on her not highlighting that? It wasn't about her lying to you, it was about her being humble and modest and letting your dad have the spotlight. Why was that so horrible?"
"She should've told me," Skye mumbled.
"She's so much different than Erica. Erica always has to have the spotlight."
"Well, look at you. I think you need to practice what you preach," Skye said. "You're telling me to ease up on my mother, yet you won't do the same with yours? The story is that both of them searched for us for days and stormed a mobster's house, but you won't ease up on Erica."
"There is no way that Erica did that," Kendall said. "She's just trying to take some of the credit of what Rae did. And you're just pathetic that you won't appreciate that."
Skye and Kendall didn't say much more on the matter for the rest of the evening. They talked more about their business venture and their old boyfriends. They both noted they each had an obsession… though they called it a crush… on brothers Edmund and Dimitri. Skye mentioned her new interest in Jax, but he wanted to stay friends. Kendall mentioned an interest in Ryan Lavery and a guy she met at GH (she was referring to AJ but didn't tell Skye his name since he is her half-brother).
Kendall fell asleep first—both were on Skye's bed—and just as Skye started to drift off, Kendall began snoring very loudly and pulled away most of the covers. Skye grunted and rolled onto her side, facing the wall as racing thoughts came on. Was Kendall right? Was she being stupid? Rae did after all search for her for days just like Alan yet didn't steal the spotlight. And storming a mobster's home is a big deal. And it's not like Adam and Althea lying her whole life about who she was and where she came from. And Rae was still there in so many more ways than Adam and Althea ever were.
Suddenly, Kendall turned over and whacked Skye with her arm and Skye groaned. "That's it!" She pushed Kendall's arm off her and dropped onto the floor crossing her arms. Kendall didn't budge awake, if anything she snored even louder. "I'm not going to get any sleep like this… Kendall has taken over my bed. The couch it is…"
Skye adjusted her nightgown and made her way to the hallway and passed Myrtle's room, then Rae's. She was going to keep going when she caught Rae at the corner of her eye, sleeping with a framed picture hugged to her chest and her eyes were red and blotchy like she'd been crying. She made her way in and slowly lifted the picture from Rae's grasp. It was the picture of six-year-old Skye in her choir gown. Her eyes began to well with tears. "You are different, Mama."
She set the photo on the night table and moved to the other side of the bed and climbed in. She pulled the covers over herself and rested her head on Rae's shoulder.
Rae slowly opened her eyes. "Skye…"
"I'm sorry, Mama. You are different."
Rae smiled and wrapped her arms around her.