Chapter 8: Someone To Count On
Violet could tell her mother was awake. She could hear her padding through the living room. She groaned when she heard to mother open the refrigerator; she knew her mother was trying to find some kind of alcohol to drink. Didn't you drink enough for one night, Violet thought to herself. She jumped when she heard the refrigerator door slam shut. Her mother didn't find anything which meant Violet had about five seconds before her mother would take her anger out on her.
Five seconds up. She stared at the door as her mother banged her fist against it.
"Open the damn door!" her mother shouted.
Just do what she tells you and maybe you won't get hit tonight, Violet told herself. She made her way to the door. With her hand on the knob, she took a deep breath and slowly pulled it open.
"Where the hell have you been?" her mother said.
"What do you mean?" Violet asked, fear creeping into her. "I've been in my room. You were asleep."
"Bull. Why were you late?"
"Because I had to go back to work," Violet said.
"Back to work? Why did you leave work?" her mother asked angrily.
Oh no, Violet had said too much. "I just did, okay?" She tried to push her way past her mother. She blocked her.
"Wrong answer," her mother said. She shoved Violet to the ground. When Violet hit the ground, her elbow slammed into the floor, causing her to grip it and scream out in pain. As her mother moved toward her, Violet got to her feet, pushed her mother out of the way, and ran out of her room and down the hall. She heard her mother coming after her.
An urge came over Violet, one that she had felt before but never gave in to. This time, however, she did. She turned toward her mother with her feet planted firmly on the ground.
"You're not angry that I came home late. Hell, you were past out on the couch. What you're pissed about is the fact that there's nothing left in this house for you to drink!" Violet shouted, causing her mother to stop in her tracks.
"What did you just say to me?" her mother asked, fury in her eyes.
"You heard me," Violet replied. It was as if Violet herself wasn't speaking. Like there was someone was inside of her being this newly confident person. Violet silently told herself to shut up but it was no use. The damage had already been done. Her mother was coming towards her with a new blaze of fire under her step.
"You little piece of-" Her mother's last words were cut off by the sound of Violet's scream.
Violet fell hard to the ground at her mother's first blow to her head. She scrabbled to her feet and turned to see her mother preparing to hit her again. Violet spun to avoid the next blow, but when she opened her eyes she was shocked to see that she wasn't in the living room any longer nor was she in the presence of her mother. She was in her bedroom. She stared at the open door.
"What the hell?" she heard her mother say. "VIOLET!"
Violet bolted to the door as fast as she could, slammed it shut, and locked it. She backed away as she heard her mother banging on it once again, screaming her name violently.
Violet had to think fast. Veronica. She had given Violet her number incase she ever needed it. Well, this was an appropriate time, right? She ran to her jacket and searched the pockets. In her frantic quest, she saw the piece of paper fall to the floor. She bent down and picked it up. Grabbing the phone, she dialed the number. After two rings, a girl picked up.
"Hello."
"Yes, hi, can I please speak to Veronica?" Violet said into the phone.
"I'm sorry. Veronica's at home for the night. Can I take a message?"
"Um, no. Would you happen to have her address?"
"Hang on, let me check." Violet heard Veronica's roommate sit the phone down as she searched. A moment later, she came back on the line. "Yes, here it is. 2327 Darcy Drive."
"Okay, thanks," Violet said. She hung up the phone and grabbed her jacket. Without even a single glance at the door, she climbed out of her bedroom window.
Veronica sat on the padded ledge of her window and looked out at the sky. It was almost completely dark now, with the moon making it's descend over San Francisco. She stared at the half moon, thinking about her day and what she just learned from her parents. It's a good thing they weren't freaking out about everything because she sure was. Just then, there was a tap on her door.
"Come in," Veronica said without glancing at the door.
It was her mother.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah," Veronica said, turning her head to look at her mother, "I'm fine."
"Okay, well if you need anything, I'll be right downstairs cleaning up."
Veronica nodded as her mother gave her a wink and softly closed the door. Veronica turned back to the window. She truly loved her parents. All of her friends in high school thought it was weird that she had such a great relationship with them. Because her parents were so warm and giving, she never saw it necessary to do anything that would make them upset. Her brother, on the other hand, was a different story. Ryan couldn't stay out of trouble. It seemed like every two seconds her parents were getting phone calls from his teachers and the neighbors about whatever mayhem their son was causing.
Speak of the devil; Ryan came bursting into Veronica's room, knocking the door into the wall with a bang. Veronica jumped.
"Ever heard of knocking?" she said, giving her baby brother an annoyed look.
"Yea, but I never understood it," he replied. "I mean, why waste your time knocking when you can just walk right in?"
"Because it's common decency," Veronica replied.
Ryan looked in the air with his face scrunched up. "Yea, no, I don't like that idea."
Veronica blew out a breath of frustration. Little brothers.
"What do you want?" she asked, not hiding her impatience.
"Just to let you know that you do have some friends in the world. Or at least one. She's downstairs."
"What?" Veronica asked, staring at Ryan.
"Yea, I know. Completely bizarre that someone's visiting you," he said.
"No, shut up! Who's downstairs?" Veronica asked getting up from her seat of the window seat.
"I don't know. Some girl. Mom and dad told me to tell you that she was here." Ryan started picking with the mardi gras beads Veronica kept on her bedpost. She walked past him to the door, smacking his hand on the way. "Ow," he said, drawing his hand to his chest.
"Don't touch my stuff," she said without looking at him. As she walked down the hallway, she stopped dead at the top of the stairs. Her jaw dropped. Starting up at her in the foyer was Violet.
Violet stared up at Veronica with a paralyzed look on her face. It was obvious to Veronica that something happened. She ran down the stairs.
"What are you doing here? Are you alright? Was there another attack?" Veronica said so fast, she caught Violet off guard.
"No, I-" Violet stopped and looked at the floor. "I just…didn't want to be home right now." She was silent, thinking of how much to tell Veronica. Nothing, she decided. "There's no one there. My mom's…in L.A for a few days."
"Oh, well," Veronica looked at her parents. They gave her a nod of approval. "You can stay here if you'd like."
A smile spread across Violet's face. "Thanks," she said.
Veronica put her arm around Violet's shoulder and led her to the kitchen. She couldn't help but feel a big sister role come on when she was around her. "Are you hungry?"
"Starved. There was nothing in the fridge at my place except…" Violet almost slipped up. "…water."
"That sucks. I believe we have some leftovers from dinner. I'll heat it up for you," Veronica said, making her way to the refrigerator.
As Violet ate, the girls sat in a comfortable silence. Veronica could tell there was something wrong, but she didn't want to press Violet about her personal life. Violet surprised her by breaking the silence with the topic of Varali.
"So, do you think she'll ever come around to this whole witch thing? Varali, I mean?" Violet asked, mid-chew.
"I don't know. I hope so. I mean, I don't think we can do this alone. It was meant for all three of us to be together," Veronica said.
"Yea." Violet was silent for a minute. "Hey, thanks for letting me stay here. Like I said, my mom's in Sacramento." Violet went back to eating.
Veronica stared at Violet, but didn't say a word. When Violet looked up at her, she forced an approving smile. Veronica learned something new that night…that Violet was a horrible liar.
Varali sat at the bar in her father's kitchen picking at the pepperoni on her pizza. She didn't have much of an appetite, not after what happened within that day. She didn't want to believe any of it, but after seeing her mother whom she thought was dead, it was hard not to. Then there was the whole birthmark thing. How the hell did she end up with a birthmark that was identical to her mother's amulet?
That little speculation was what was keeping her mind reeling at the moment. She couldn't seem to focus on anything else. Especially not her dad who was rambling on and on about some fitness thing. All Varali knew was that she wanted him to shut up for once in the nineteen years of her life. That wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
"So, what do you think?" her father was asking, mid-chew.
"About what?" she asked, looking up from her pizza with confusion in her face.
"Have you been listening to a word I've been saying for the past half hour?" he asked.
Varali couldn't let him in on the fact that she wasn't paying him any attention. "Dad, for the past half hour, you've been going on and on about so many things, it's hard to keep track." That seemed to work; her dad laughed and took another bite of his pizza.
"I was telling you about a new gym that just opened and about their family fitness club. I figured you and I could sign up that way we'd spend more time together."
"Oh, like every other day isn't enough," Varali laughed.
"Five minutes during the week when you duck in here, grab a poptart, and duck out does not count," he said. "I'm gonna stop buying poptarts. That way you'd have to sit and eat."
Varali laughed and put her head down toward her untouched pizza. She began picking with the pepperoni again. This time, however, the room was silent and her father was staring at her.
"Are you alright? You haven't even taken a bite out of your pizza," he asked.
"Not really hungry," she said shortly.
"Could have fooled me. You were complaining about how hungry you were when you kept calling me earlier."
"Yeah, well I lost my appetite," she said, her anger rising.
"Alright, chill," her father said, putting his hands at surrender. "What's got your panties in a knot?"
"Nothing," Varali said, "and don't refer to my underwear ever again."
Her father chuckled. "Sorry. Won't happen again, moonhead."
Varali looked up at attention. "What did you just call me?"
"Moonhead," her father said, confused. "You know, what I've called you since you were little."
"Yeah, I know. I just…uhh…" Varali was silent for a moment. "Um, I'm gonna finish this in my room," she said, grabbing her plate and heading down the hall of her father's condo to her room.
When she was finally in her room, she shut the door behind her and put the plate on her dresser. She couldn't believe it. Her father just lied to her, right in her face. Yes, her father called her Moonhead since she was little, but he never told her why he calls her that. Okay, so it wasn't a lie, he just neglected to tell her the true story, but still. Why couldn't he just tell her? This pissed her off beyond believe. As a gust of wind blew through her hair, she opened her door with such force, it bounced off the wall with a bang. She stormed down the hallway back to when she and her father were eating. She found him still sitting at the table, reading the newspaper.
"You lied to me," she said, her voice so dark it surprised her. Her father looked up from his paper. His face went from blank to fear as he looked into his daughter's eyes.
"Sweetie, what's wrong?" he asked, pushing the paper aside.
It was then that Varali felt the hot tears rolling down her face. She hadn't even realized that she started crying. "You lied to me," she repeated. "How could you?" Again, her voice was so low and dark, it sounded like it was coming from somewhere else.
"What are you talking about?" her father asked, getting up from his seat and making his way around the table towards her.
Varali smirked. "I saw mom today, dad," she said matter-of-factly.
"Wh-" Her father couldn't even finish his thought. He stepped closer to Varali.
"You told me she was dead, but nope. She's very much alive," Varali said. She seemed to be getting darker. "You know what else I learned today, dad? That I'm a WITCH!"
Her father stood there speechless. He watched as Varali went from angry to hysterical.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" she screamed, sobbing uncontrollably.
Her father reached for her arm. "Sweetie, I-"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Varali jerked her arm away from him. It was clear her father was hurt. His concern was clear on his face.
"Please, just let me explain," he said, a tear rolling down his face.
"Don't bother," Varali said. She turned away from him and headed back to her room. She never knew that her father stood in that spot for the next hour crying over his betrayal.
8