i cradled you in my arms!
at y'all vld fans out there... wassup
oOo
Glenn drew a +4 card from the deck and hid a grin. "Your turn," he told Alice. Something in his voice must've given him away. Alice narrowed her eyes at him.
Alice threw a reverse card to the pile and the corner of her lips lifted in mischief. Glenn played the +4 at Felix with a sympathetic 'sorry, bro'.
"Noooo! Bro, you ruined my play!" Felix whined.
"Grow up, bobo," Alice said with a grin, pulling a card from her hand.
Glenn wiped the sweat off his brow and cleared his throat. "Hey, guys. Uhm, if you don't mind my asking, what's the deal with your aunt?"
Alice's hazel eyes met his. "What you mean? There's no deal there. Mom said there's nothing we can do."
"Yeah, Diana told me that. She was kinda upset about it, I think. I can't really tell."
"The girl's a freaking open book." Felix played his hand and scratched his chin. "You'll get used to it."
"I'm sure. But I mean, before this all went down." Glenn glanced at the siblings. "You guys were supposed to be at her place, but you were out camping?" He shrugged. "I don't get it. I've caught some pieces from conversations with your sister, but I don't get the full picture."
Alice scoffed full of disdain, her eyes on her cards. "Our grandma was there. Abuela's a stone-hearted, cold-blooded snake," she said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
Felix murmured in agreement as he nodded.
"I'm still lost, guys."
"We come from a big family," Alice explained, "there's always some shit happening with someone. Our grandma, our aunt – not this one, our other aunt from mom's side –, her two sons and daughters-in-law, and two of our cousins from dad's side. All of them had it out for our mom."
Glenn blinked in surprise and disbelief. Irene was such a sweet woman. He wondered why so many people – family members no less – disliked her so much. "Did she… do anything to them in particular?"
"She lived her own life and kept to herself. Her only crime was having her life put together and having a family that loves each other."
"Jealousy and pettiness," Felix added, "And just a bunch of assholes with no lives of their own."
Glenn spluttered, "But even her own mom?"
"After grandpa died it got worse, 'cause she'd always been his favorite," Felix supplied.
"The others more 'cause some of them worked with mom and she was their Teamleiterin, their uh-" Alice snapped her fingers at Felix for help.
"Boss, so to speak."
Alice pointed at her brother. "Yeah, thanks. And some people can't separate business from personal life."
Glenn put the pieces of the puzzle together. "So your aunt set you up by inviting your grandma along?"
"Yeah, she was hoping for some kiss and make up, but Abuela was being a super mega bitch so we took our shit and we left."
"Like mom says, God writes straight with crooked lines."
"I guess he does," Glenn murmured and drew a card from the deck. "How long has Diana been gone, anyway? What is she even doing?"
Alice's mouth fell open in shocked offense. "What, you don't like hanging out with us? Did your coolness outgrow ours?"
Glenn tried to reason with her. "It's not that. How does that even work?"
She showed Glenn her palm and turned her face away. "No, it's okay. I'm not hurt. We get it."
"But I do like you. I love spending time with you." Glenn looked to Felix for help, but the boy just rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation at his sister's antics.
Alice put a hand to her chest. "You're saying that, but in my mind, I know how you truly feel," she said dramatically.
"Alice…"
She shook her head with averted eyes. "No, it's okay, you hate us. Go, go be with your best friend or whatever."
"Alice…" Glenn had no idea what to say. He couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. So he decided to play along. "Fine. I admit it."
"Oh, you do?" Alice quirked an eyebrow. Glenn knew he'd made the right move.
"Oh my God!" Felix exclaimed with a groan. "Why are all of you so extra?"
Alice shushed her brother, "Yeah, then what are you, Mister Drama Queen?" Then she turned back to Glenn. "Come out and say it, you coward."
"I've been lying to you all this time," Glenn lowered his voice, trying to sound as villainous as possible. "My ultimate goal was to destroy you from the inside out. You just had to find out about my true plans, ruining everything."
Alice shook her fist at him, her nostrils flaring in anger. "Curses! Damn the day I thought I had found a friend in you, you wretched man!" She pointed at Glenn with a flourish.
"Would y'all stop?" Felix complained. "I just wanna finish this round and take a nap. You're making my life a living hell."
"This shall end when one of us dies at the hands of the other," Glenn said, folding his cards away and putting his fists up.
Felix rubbed his hands down his face, his cards forgotten on his lap. "I thought my sisters were a bad duo. Boi was I wrong."
Glenn broke character by laughing at the exhausted look on Felix's face. He turned to Alice. "To be continued?"
"Definitely," she said. She stretched her hand out to him. With twin grins, they did their handshake.
Glenn's chest swelled with adoration. He loved those kids as if they were his own blood.
"Diana and I break into acting, too. Guess that's a thing you girls do together?"
Alice crossed her arms tightly. "So now you're comparing the two of us. This went from bad to worse," she joked. "Bitch got nothing on my acting skills, always starts giggling like a little binch." Then she broke into a toothy smile. "But yeah, we do that all the time. Sometimes she shakes my hand outta nowhere and we pretend we're at a job interview. Then we say the most ridiculous shit ever. It's really funny," she said and broke down laughing.
Glenn chuckled with her and ruffled her poofy curls. For all her pretending not to care, it was plain to see how much she actually did. If only one looked hard or listened carefully enough.
"Can we please just finish this fucking round?" Felix sighed, chin in his hand.
"You're just jealous Glenn likes me more," Alice said with a cheeky smile. Felix mocked her in a high pitched voice. Alice made a face at him and picked her cards back up. "Also, here. Go sleep, child." And she played her last two remaining cards, making her the winner. "I win. Three times in a row, bitches. Life's great, I'm the Queen."
oOo
"Guess who?" The hands covering his eyes were cold and smelled of soap. Glenn smiled.
"I'll give you a hint," Alice said across from him, "It's tall and dumb." And yet you love her, Glenn thought.
"Ha ha," Diana mocked. Glenn felt her kneel behind him as she removed her hands. Her face appeared in his peripheral vision. She rested her chin on his shoulder while her arms snaked around his middle. "What're you doing?"
Glenn lifted his cards to her line of sight. "Teaching your sister to play poker."
Alice pretended to flip her hair over her shoulder and puckered her lips. "I'm amazing, btw."
"Noooo, Glenn," Diana whined and her arms tightened around him. "It'll just be another game that she's better at than me!"
Alice clicked her tongue. "What're you expecting? You actually being better than me at anything? Keep dreaming."
"You witch!" Diana gasped dramatically.
Glenn chuckled softly and patted Diana's cheek in comfort. "Don't fret. Your knight will protect you."
Alice's nose scrunched in disgust and she covered her view of them with her hand. "Ew, go be lovey-dovey somewhere else."
Diana nestled her head on the crook of his neck. "We'll be lovey-dovey everywhere we feel like it. Our love cannot be stopped by the likes of you."
Glenn rested his cheek against Diana's temple and laughed. "Okay, I can see where the spontaneous drama comes from."
"Let's go, honey." Diana stood and tugged him up. "The kid's cranky, she obviously needs a nap."
Alice pointed at her. "I know you tryna make fun of me, but I actually do wanna take a nap, so joke's on you."
"I feel so caught in the middle," Glenn said. He stood, his left leg tingling from sitting for so long.
He saw Diana gesture something from the corner of his eye. As soon as he turned, there was a blur of something thrown past him. He looked at Diana, who smiled widely at him. Then at Alice, who was acting nonchalant to the point she was pretending to continue to play poker.
What there something going on?
Alice widened her eyes minutely past him, at her sister, so Glenn turned quickly. He caught Diana mouthing something while gesturing with big arm movements towards the tent. She fumbled to drop the act.
"Okay, what's going on?" Glenn narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
Diana laughed forcibly and waved her hand in dismissal. "It's nothing. So, are we going?"
She didn't give him a chance to respond. He turned his head to say goodbye to Alice, but Diana pulled him swiftly away. He saw the glint of something golden and they were gone.
oOo
"Oh my God, this is so much better than my sleeping bag." Diana sighed as soon as her head hit the throw pillow.
Glenn lifted her feet, sat down, and let her legs fall over his lap. He'd directed their path towards the RV, knowing that they could hang out there in peace and simultaneously escape the miserable heat.
"I miss my mattress," Diana admitted, burying her head onto the pillow. She grabbed Glenn's hand and intertwined their fingers.
Glenn breathed out a laugh. "Believe me, I miss mine too."
"Thanks for the book, by the way. I'm starting a nice collection." Diana swung their hands in the space between them.
Glenn hummed in acknowledgment. "It's alright. I think of you whenever I see one, and they seem like they could be useful." He shrugged loosely. He'd found another medical book on his latest run, a kind of compendium on pharmaceuticals. He thought that'd be right up Diana's alley.
"Thanks." Diana started massaging his hand. One spot she rubbed made a shiver run down his spine.
"Hey, so, where were you all afternoon?" he finally asked. She'd been acting weird before. Plus, he'd noticed that she went missing every afternoon without fail. "I'm not- I'm not trying to control you or anything."
"Oh, you know, doing this and that. Made some house calls… uh showered, too." Her forefinger was drawing patterns on the palm of his hand now.
She was lying. Aside from the very obvious. Diana didn't enjoy casual conversation with her 'patients' outside a work environment. That's why she had the table outside. The shower might've been true, though; her hands did smell like soap earlier.
But she always looked to her upper right before lying, it was her tell.
He didn't press. She knew she could tell him whatever she wanted. If she was keeping something from him, he had to respect that, too. Everyone had their secrets.
They stayed in comfortable silence. Diana played with Glenn's hands and massaged them and ran her fingertips over his skin. And Glenn, well he tried not to fall asleep with the soothing touch.
His head snapped up when Diana interrupted the silence.
"You're a great friend, Glenn. I've told you that, right?" A light smile touched her lips.
Glenn shrugged and smiled smugly. "Only about a couple hundred times. Why?"
"I had a best friend in Switzerland. She was great, too. Is-was, I don't know." Diana lowered their hands on top of her belly.
Glenn tilted his head at her to continue and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. This was new, Diana had never mentioned her old friends. He'd figured it was too much of a trigger topic for him to mention. But if she was ready to talk, by all means, he was ready to listen.
"Her name's Mariana. And I didn't deserve her either." Glenn wanted to protest her assumption that she didn't deserve him, but then she continued. "She was patient and kind and would bend over backward to bring me out of my shell. She'd do anything for me. I don't even know why," her voice became watery towards the end.
Glenn squeezed her hand and his other found her knee in comfort. "Same reason I would. You're an incredible person, Diana. You bring joy to everything you touch."
Diana laughed sardonically and her hand swiped the corner of her eye as she sniffed. "I'm really not, Glenn. I made up excuses when she texted me and ignored her calls." She smiled bitterly. "I loved hanging out with her, but as soon as I came home, it was like I couldn't care less. I didn't miss her."
Glenn didn't know what to say. "Diana…"
She sat up slowly and wiped at her cheeks. "I never lied when I told that I loved her, but whatever I felt wasn't enough. It was all so… shallow."
Glenn pulled her to him.
"I feel so guilty because she'd do anything for me but I still thought twice before visiting her at the hospital." A sob broke out at the end of the sentence. "I don't even know if she's dead or not and I can't bring myself to care. I don't feel a damn thing."
She threw her arms around Glenn's neck. "What's- my damage, Glenn?" she hiccupped out. "Why am I- such a shitty person?"
"Hey, now…" Glenn coaxed her away from him to look her in the eye. Her brown skin was taking on a flushed tint and her features were twisted with desolation. It broke his heart. "You're not a shitty person, Diana. You can just go ahead and throw that out the window.
Whatever happened with your friend, there must have been a reason. 'Cause what I've seen of you till now… You're not that person anymore."
"But I feel that way now. I'm not missing her now." Her hand grabbed onto his shirt. "I am still that person, Glenn."
Glenn tried a different approach. "This Mariana. She can't have been perfect. No one is."
Diana sniffled and hesitantly shook her head.
"She was a great friend. But even great friends do things that hurt you. Even without meaning to."
Diana nodded in agreement, her lips quivering.
He hoped he was going in the right direction with this. He was talking purely out of personal experience. He decided to use an analogy his oldest sister had told him once.
"Imagine your love for this person's like a… a bonfire. It's bright and warms you up. Every time they hurt you, it's like they… they take away a piece of timber. And it dies down a little. Over time it gets smaller and smaller. You might not notice right away because it's still warm, but it's just not like before."
Diana leaned back. "So…"
Glenn nodded to finish his point. "So she hurt you enough over time that you noticed it here…" He pointed at her chest above her heart. "…but not here." He poked her forehead. "You're not a bad person. You've just been hurt by a person you trusted and it's taken its toll on you."
Diana's features smoothed out. She rubbed her face and eyes with her hands. At the end she sighed deeply and scooched forward, almost sitting on Glenn's lap.
She laid her head on his shoulder and Glenn pushed a stray curl away. "I can't fix your past, Diana. But I'm here now and believe me when I tell you that you are the best person I've ever known." She backed away to look at him with big brown eyes. A cheeky smile grew on his lips. "At least till now. Who knows what'll happen when future Mrs. Rhee comes strolling around the corner."
Diana smiled, then chuckled and then finally whispered, "I love you, Glenn."
She touched her forehead to his. Glenn felt the bonfire in his chest grow warmer and his smile widened. "Wow, whipping out the L-word so soon in the relationship. Pretty bold move." He closed his eyes and whispered, "I know."
Diana chuckled. "You fucking geek."
Please leave a comment. I'd greatly appreciate some feedback!
Some nice bonding between Glenn and the sibs.
Shit man, the end almost made me cry.
