My lovelies, my darlings, I'm so sorry that this took so long! Something like a month? Oh wow.
Though partly the reason this took so long is because some of the keys on my laptop have mysteriously stopped working, so I can't really type anything, and the on-screen keyboard is a bitch to use. I'll be forced to type chapters on my phone from now on until I can get it repaired. Sorry all.
This chapter was a little difficult to write because, well, Edgar is just hard to write in general. Little Seth was fun though.
Hope you all like it, and once again I'm really sorry :)
Review?
Chapter XIV - Indigo
As soon as she started, Edgar could tell there was something bothering Leah the second she'd ripped the lid off the paint bucket with a viciousness the plastic did nothing to deserve.
The older girl had done it in a huff -basically throwing the lid to the side uncaringly, before shoving an old wooden stick inside and mixing the paint with the same amount of force someone would use when churning butter, and to be perfectly honest, Edgar thought it a bit overkill.
She continued to watch in silence as Leah then proceeded to savagely drown her paint roller in the grey liquid, making drops of silver fly everywhere, staining both herself and the white material that covered the floor. The chocolate eyed girl roughly wiped her brow where a glob had landed with a deep growl of irritation, eyes suddenly watery as her chest heaved deeply and her fists were clenched tightly with emotion. Her mind was obviously plagued by some deep problem that was affecting her greatly, and judging by how she was acting, it was probably something that wasn't going to sort itself out easily.
Edgar stared a moment longer, seeing how the other girl pressed the roller on her wall as if she were working tar instead of paint, knuckles white around the handle and muscles on her bronze arms flexing with each movement -before turning away and deciding that she didn't really care anymore.
Other people's personal problems weren't her concern, least of all Leah Clearwater's. She could deal with whatever it was that was bothering her herself, and anyway, Edgar knew she wasn't the most emotionally savvy person in the world, so she couldn't really be expected to help even if she did care.
And so she'd rather just stay in her own corner and finish the job as quickly as possible -which by her estimate, would only take about two hours, fourty-five minutes at most, Leah's room wasn't all that big. In less than no time, she would also be able to complete the overly-enthusiastic brother's room and she could be on her merry way.
People with extreme feelings made Edgar entirely uncomfortable.
They worked in silence for a long while, working steadily and methodically, disturbed only occasionally by Leah's sniffles and sounds of heart-wrenching anguish, all things Edgar was perfectly willing to block out and ignore completely, and by the time she'd finished her half of the first wall, she was feeling pretty satisfied with the time she was making.
Leah, in an apparent attempt to make her bedroom more 'mature' and suited to her tastes, had decided to paint her bedroom three colours. She'd chosen to paint one half of each wall a dark shade of grey, and the other half a rich indigo, each halves separated by a band of the light peach her bedroom had previously been. It wasn't a hard job, simply sticking a long strip of tape to the wall on the middle, bottom and top, all horizontal wise, then painting over them. Once dry, they'd peel away the tape, revealing the light borders.
It was really one of the simpler jobs Edgar had ever been commissioned to do, and though she'd been slightly annoyed with her father for forcing her into it, she was starting to think it was not so bad. She'd be busy throughout the ten day break, so perhaps this could be her last chance to paint for leisure for a long while.
Just as she was about to bend down her bucket to move and move on to her half of her next wall, there was a loud clang, followed by a splash and a cry of outrage, drawing her attention back to Leah on the other side of the room.
She stood, wiping away the splatters of paint that had fallen on her when the roller had slipped from her hands, -or at least, that's what Edgar assumed, judging by the abandoned item sitting submerged in the paint bucket-, though her actions only served to smear the paint on her skin even more and cover her palms. With each failed attempt to wipe herself clean, she only grew more angry, scrubbing harder at her skin.
Edgar blinked at the oddly pitiful sight, before walking over to Leah and handed her the blue towel that hung out of the pocket of her apron. "Keep it with you until we're finished." She said. It wasn't as if she used it herself anyway -the black girl had no qualms about simply using her hands to wipe away paint that had splashed on her person, though most times it was simply ignored.
"Thanks." Leah murmured, using it on her arms. It didn't completely remove the colour, but it did help. She reached into the paint bucket and pulled out the dripping roller with a sigh. "It slipped." She said with a grimace, wiping the handle on the handle as well.
Edgar shrugged and moved back to her side of the room, seeing how Leah seemed a little more calm. "I gathered." She answered, "Although most people don't get so angry over an accident. Do you not like paint?" She inquired, only slightly curious. Perhaps that was why Leah had been in a terrible mood since they'd started. As unbelievable as it sounded, not everyone liked painting, according to her father. She'd been appalled to learn that sad truth, but in the end it was just something that added to Edgar's ever growing list of things that she didn't understand about the rest of the human species, and she'd been forced to accept it, despite her own personal feelings.
Leah could just be one of those people, strange as they were, and would've preferred to do other things instead. If so, Edgar would gladly work on the rest of her bedroom herself.
The girl in question frowned, before turning away and getting back to work. Edgar noted that she had almost finished her own half of the wall. They'd agreed to both do their own halves of each wall in order to work faster -so while Leah would paint the bottom half of each wall grey, Edgar would paint the top half of each indigo.
"The paint isn't the problem." Stated Leah, sounding annoyed, before cursing as she dropped the roller in the bucket once more, globs of paint splashing everywhere.
Edgar tried to think of another cause for the older girl's apparent irritation, but for the life of her, she could not think of a good reason. She'd been perfectly content to ignore the whole thing, but now that it was clearly interfering with her work ethic, it was time to intervene. Maybe she was just tired? "If the work is too much for you then I can do it alone..." She proposed.
Though her honestly good intentions only served to make Leah angry, judging by the way she just seemed to...explode, for lack of better word. "I said I'm fine, alright!" She declared loudly, throwing her arms in the air suddenly.
Edgar stared at her blankly, because she did not in fact, say anything of the sort, however something told her it wouldn't be the best course of action to point out that little fact, so instead she just nodded.
"...Alright." She acquiesced after a long moment of silence, before turning away.
Fifteen minutes later, just as Edgar was beginning to think that maybe Leah really was 'fine', there was a heavy sigh and Leah spoke again, "Look," she started, sounding weary. "I'm sorry for snapping at you, I'm just in a really bad place right now." She explained with another sigh.
Edgar frowned, confused. What exactly did she mean by 'bad place'? They were simply in Leah's bedroom, no where Edgar would think of as 'bad'. Honestly, Edgar didn't think much of it at all. It was just a normal bedroom to her.
But maybe Leah's dislike of her own bedroom was much more than she'd first presumed.
"Oh." She replied eventually, because really, there was nothing else to say.
The older girl bit her lip, brows furrowed. "Maybe you can help me, since you're a girl. Maybe you'd understand." She sounded vaguely hopeful at the end as she started straight at her.
"I doubt it."
Leah ignored her words. "I just went through a really bad break up, you see." She started, though Edgar did not see, because she had no idea what a 'break up' was in the first place.
Nonetheless she remained quiet and so Leah began her long winded explanation of how her fiance left her for her cousin with no explanation other than an apology. She then proceeded to pour her feelings out into the open, and by the time she finished ranting, she was wiping away angry tears and Edgar had long completed her part of the work.
Watery brown eyes started expectantly at her, "Well, what do you think?" Leah demanded, sounding angry.
What did Edgar think? Well, in all honesty, Edgar could not understand why Leah was so preoccupied with this 'Sam'. She failed to grasp the reasoning behind the other girls feelings. It was clear Sam was no longer interested.
Edgar frowned, "Why would you want to be with someone that doesn't want you?" She asked. Perhaps Leah would be able to explain so that she'd be able to understand more.
The older girl sputtered, her fists clenching as she glared straight at Edgar. "Because I love him!" She exclaimed heatedly, clearly passionate about what she said as she wiped away another tear that had made its way down her cheek, though all of her 'passion' did nothing to clarify the situation.
Love? Edgar understood the concept, or at least she thought she did. She could say she 'loved' her parents and her grandmother, or at least held a great level of fondness for them. How was someone able to tell if they truly 'loved' something or someone in the first place? None of the textbooks she'd ever read explained...
It all seemed a little too complicated for the black haired girl, and to be honest, she really couldn't be bothered.
But her father had always told her to show compassion towards others, even if it wasn't entirely genuine, and so Edgar nodded and pretended to understand. "It will all work out." Judging by the other girl's face, it wasn't the correct thing to say, but she decided to move on regardless. The topic was something she'd long grown weary of.
Standing up from where she'd sat on the bare mattress at Leah's behest earlier when she'd finished her work, Edgar pasted on the best smile she could. "I'm going to start on your brother's room now, since we're finished here."
The look on Leah's face was one of bafflement, one that Edgar thought had no place being there. Leah had presumed that she'd be able to help, and Edgar had told her that no, it wasn't likely.
It was her own fault that she hadn't listened.
Seth stared at the weird girl with creepy eyes from the doorway of his bedroom, watching as she painted the walls with the ease of long practice. He didn't like her, especially since she'd call him rude (if anyone was rude, it was her!), but he could grudgingly admit she was really good at her job. She hadn't even finished yet, and yet the dark blue of his room seemed to glow!
He was surprised that she'd even managed to find the time to do his room in the first place. He'd thought that she would have helped Leah with re-decorating as well. His sister wasn't as careful as she thought she was, either that, or she must have thought him dumb. Either way, he was entirely aware of all the new bedroom things she'd kept stashed away at the back of her cupboard. He'd seen her 'smuggle' them in the day she bought them.
He wasn't about to tell their parents though, he knew better than that, and it wouldn't be worth it in the first place. Leah could be really mean when she wanted to.
And anyway, he kind of understood why she wanted to re-do her bedroom in the first place. No matter how much she tried to hide it, he could see that she'd been really sad ever since Sam left her for Emily -an what a surprise that had been. No one had been expecting it. Their mother had even begun planning their wedding and he'd been totally down with the idea of Sam as an older brother.
The worst part was that their parents saw absolutely nothing wrong with the whole situation. Seth may have been young, but he wasn't too young to understand that leaving someone for their cousin was not okay, and whenever Leah was caught crying, or even showing her displeasure at seeing Sam and Emily together, their parents seemed to grow angry!
Seth didn't understand why, and whenever he asked about the situation -because Sam was a good guy who'd loved his sister and no way would he have just left her for no reason-, all he'd get was a frown from his father and a "Leave it alone."
It made him angry, the way they just brushed him and his sister aside, and he wouldn't have been so bad if it were just him, but Leah was hurting and it was like they didn't even care.
He was angry at Emily too. She'd been on their side at first, clearly refusing Sam's advances and defending Leah, even if Leah hadn't acknowledged her at all, and Seth had been grateful -but ever since Emily had been attacked by a bear in the forest (and gotten her super awesome battle scars), she and Sam had been basically glued together!
It was frustrating and the worst part was that Seth couldn't do anything to help Leah either, so he just pretended everything was fine in the hopes that she'd eventually get better.
But when he'd come from the bathroom, he heard her confessing everything to the weird painter girl, heard how sad she sounded and he realised that everything just wasn't going to just get better on it's own, and he had to do something because no one else would.
...And his best bet was the girl in front of him, no matter how much she creeped him out.
"Can you teach me how to paint?" He blurted out, the words leaving his mouth in a rush.
The girl paused in the middle of extracting the dripping paint roller from the bucket and stared straight at him. She was didn't say anything for a really long time, just stared at him, and Seth was beginning to regret asking in the first place.
"Why?" She asked, sounding curious. He swallowed and forced himself to not crumble under her gaze. He needed to be strong for Leah.
Maybe if he made something really nice for her, she'd realise she wasn't alone, and he was here for her, and maybe then she'd forget about Sam and finally be able to be happy again. "Because I want to help my sister!" He declared in what he hoped to be a mature voice.
The girl was silent, and he'd never met anyone who could go so long without blinking, and surely no one could win a staring contest against her, before finally, finally she blinked and gave a shrug.
"Alright."
