"Wanna see my stomach jiggle?" Alexander pulled up the front of his shirt before Lorelei could stop him, and began to perform a belly dance. "Woooh!"
Teddy looked at Lorelei for guidance. "I feel like I should be sticking dollar bills down his pants."
Lorelei shook her head pleadingly. "This is gross enough as it is."
"Gross?" Alexander demanded. "You gross at my sexy moves--" Lorelei pushed him, causing him to spill his grape juice (which he somehow managed to spill-lessly hold while belly dancing) all over the front of Teddy's white T-shirt. "Look what you did."
"Ahhhh, I'm sorry!" she cried. "Ooh, stickiful. Come on, I'll find you a shirt of mine to change into. Although the purple look does good things for you. We'll have to find something in a similar hue for you to wear."
"Much like the pink shirt you made me wear last week after you squirted mustard at me?"
"Yes, but better."
With his hand in Lorelei's, Teddy let himself be guided to her room. He loved being in her bedroom. Besides the obvious reasons (ah, teenage-boy-dom), he just loved how safe he felt in her room. Not to mention it smelled good.
Flipping through her closet, Lorelei sang, "One-eyed-one-horned, flying purple--"
"I'm not going home dressed in purple," Teddy told her firmly.
"Oh," she muttered. "Sigh, kaput goes my fun."
She tossed him a flannel work shirt, belonging originally to her father. "You may change now."
"Thanks." He balled the shirt up, waiting for her to leave so he could dress. But she just laid down on her bed and flipped through a magazine. "Um, privacy?"
"Huh?" She stared blankly.
"Can you leave for a minute?"
"Why, do you got something under there you're hiding?"
"No, I just--would you like me watching you get dressed?"
"I'm not WATCHING. I'm READING." She sighed. "Fine, I'll turn away. Better?"
Teddy watched as she impatiently rolled over onto her side, her back facing him. He quickly peeled off his stained shirt and had just slipped on the clean one when Lorelei spun around. He didn't--he couldn't stop her. She began to say something, stopped, and just stared.
"I fell on a patch of ice. Did I say you could turn around, Lore?"
She shook her head. "I saw in the mirror…I didn't mean to, I just looked up for a second. God, you can get all that from falling on ice?"
"That's what I said, wasn't it?"
"How many fucking times have you fallen?" she demanded. "Look at all the fading bruises, Teddy."
"So I don't always watch where I'm going." Teddy bristled, wanting so bad to run away from her; to run straight to her.
Lorelei crossed the room to him. He took a step away, but was backed up against her dresser. "Someone beat you up." She reached out a hand.
The voice that came from his mouth was foreign to both of them. It was low, grating, domineering. "Don't touch me."
"Oh God. Was it your dad?" she murmured. Gentle fingertips brushed his battered ribs.
I swear to god if you touch me one more time I'm leaving I don't care get your hands off me
The next thing Teddy knew, Lorelei was standing two feet away from him. His palm throbbed.
Oh God.
Lorelei lifted her head and stared at him. It was the scariest sight he'd ever seen.
"Wh..What--?"
The broken-wing look of disbelief, fear and ultimate disappointment was clear on her face. "You hit me."
"No," he whispered.
"Teddy," she whimpered.
"I can't--I don't understand--"
"You hit me," she repeated, more to herself than anything.
"Oh, Jesus, no…"
"Why did I take it?"
He stared at her. Her cheek was red. He was his father. Lies of honour and bravery and watching fear fall as tears from black eyes waited for him. This was the start of his life. His beginning was hitting the girl he loved more than he loved himself.
"Leave me," he said.
"What?" Her voice was tiny and disconcerted, like there were a million things going on her head and she just remembered he was still standing there.
"Tell me to get the hell out of your house."
"Teddy, I don't understand!" she cried.
"This is who I am, okay? This is all I can be!"
"That's not true," she snapped.
"Lorelei, I am so sorry. Christ, I am sorry. I love you. Do better than me. Just please."
"Teddy, you are not going to be like your father."
"I already am!" he yelled, taking off his glasses and wiping his eyes. Whenever his father yelled, his mother flinched as though she'd already been struck. Lorelei didn't even move.
"You're sorry, I know you are!"
"Right. Like him. He hits us. He says he's sorry. He hits us. He says he's sorry."
Crying, Lorelei ignored her fight of flight instincts and went to him, wrapping herself up on his arms. "The only thing I trust is your touch. For me, there is nothing better. You are better."
"Why are you giving me a chance?"
"If I don't, who will."
"Lorelei," he said, crying freely. "You can't save me. Not from him, or myself."
Lorelei closed her eyes, unable to ignore the relentless sting the side of her face throbbed with. It couldn't happen again or she would have to walk away from him, and she didn't know if she could do that without falling. He was right. Because without hope, there was nothing to save.