Chapter Thirty-Eight
"I mean I don't understand anything anymore, really, Alex. I just—today has been a fucking day from hell. And hearing about this is literally the icing on the cake," the redhead stated once she found the words to speak. Everything she spouted out was the complete, utter, truth. Her mind felt broken, like it couldn't compute another morsel of information within it. The events of the day wore her out rather heavily, she couldn't take in anymore information even if she wanted to.
Alex sighed, getting up from the recliner with her empty mug in hand and momentarily leaving the room to place said item in the sink in her kitchen that wasn't more than five steps from the quaint living room. When she returned a few seconds later, she decided on sitting next to Nicky on the sofa. It was clear to her, while looking the younger girl over, that she could use the comfort of a best friend.
Placing a comforting hand onto Nicky's shoulder, the darker haired woman fixed her stare on her and felt the eyebrows above her eyes curve up attentively when she realized she still hadn't really known the reason behind CPS's being called on Lorna. "Ya wanna talk about what happened? You look pretty drained, Nicky. Everything okay? I mean aside from the whole Lorna's mom situation. Were ya there when they took Lorna away?"
Was everything okay? The query replayed itself in Nicky's head. She covered a hand over her mouth to stop herself from unintentionally letting out a laugh. Laughing seemed like the only thing she could do at a question such as the one Alex had just asked her. Nothing was okay right now, she mentally established, all that occurred in less than twenty-four hours, she felt as though she was dreaming it all. Because she certainly was unable to wrap her mind around what had wholly taken place.
And, unlike her angelic—yet very naïve—girlfriend, Nicky wasn't about to pretend it had been okay. The sensation of Alex's hand on her shoulder came as a welcoming one. She hadn't realized how badly she craved comfort until then. "No, nothing is okay. Lorna has been fucking suffering silently probably the entire time I've known her and I was never aware of any of it. I'm fucking pissed because she's been going through all this fucking shit alone and her sister—Franny didn't have the decency to do a damn thing about it."
She stopped herself to take in a breath. Hoping that breath would calm some of the anger but instead only strengthened it. All she yearned to do was take Lorna in her arms but couldn't even do that now that she had been hauled away to some random family's house that none of them knew. The fury that whirled through her was focused heavily on that damn Franny. If Franny would have just fucking taken her aside and explained to her what all was going on, maybe the events of the past day could have been avoided.
"I can't even talk about it without wanting to fucking punch someone's face in, Alex. Everything that's happened—it all could have easily been avoided if Lorna's sister would have just fucking talked to me about it. I don't understand why the fuck she was such a coward about it all, I really don't."
"She knows damn well how much Lorna means to me but she didn't have the decency to come to me with what was happening. I can't blame Lorna for any of this because I can see that somethin' ain't right with her mind, I noticed that a long time ago. But Franny, her head is screwed on right so she should have reached out to me so I could try to help Lorna but she didn't even try to do that. Didn't care enough to try and I'm just beyond pissed. I don't even know what the hell to call what I'm feeling right now."
Hearing how upset the younger girl blatantly was brought a tightness over Alex's chest. If only she'd been more conscious of what she was saying and maybe this conversation could have been avoided for the time being. She shook her head, however. Putting it off would have only made things worse in the long run, Alex finally came to realize. It was a good thing all of this had come to fruition. Clearly, there was something very toxic going on in Lorna's home life.
Still, no matter how either one of them looked at it, nothing negated the fact that the present situation sucked. It sucked terribly for everyone involved, including Franny. Alex sighed and moved her hand so that she gripped Nicky's inside of it. Her eyes fixed themselves onto her face and for the first time, she noticed a glistening moistness that seemed to shine on her cheeks. That was when she came to the acknowledgement that such moistness was actually due to tears falling from Nicky's eyes. A sight she'd never witnessed before in the two years that she'd been friends with the girl.
"Nicky, what happened that CPS showed up to get Lorna? Let's just focus on that right now instead of Franny, yeah? Obviously talking about Franny is just making you more and more upset."
Nicky shook her head violently, pushing herself up off the couch and furiously pacing around her friend's living room. She brought her hands up to her head and ran them roughly through her messy curls. The rage was gripping onto her so tightly that she hardly felt able to breathe. All she wanted, yearned for in that moment was Lorna. She needed Lorna. But Lorna was god-only-knew where. She was stuck with Alex. Not that she thought Alex was bad, because she certainly wasn't. However, Alex wasn't Lorna. Not even close.
Her hands began to slightly tingle in the fists that she held against her sides. She felt her breathing progressively growing harder and harder the longer she paced around. Everything ached and nothing made sense. Comprehension didn't seem like a possibility anymore, she had no recollection of what said word even meant as she walked back and forth through the living room.
Observing the other's behavior, it certainly didn't take a rocket scientist to note how distressed Nicky happened to be. Without another thought, Alex got up from the couch and walked over to stand beside her heavily enraged redheaded best friend. She instinctively allowed her arms to encircle around the shorter girl in the hopes of stopping her from aggressively pacing. "Is it that bad, kid?" Her voice softly inquired, letting a hand pat comfortingly over one of her cheeks.
The sensation of arms wrapped around her, without a doubt, caused her pacing to cease. A breath of air finally drew in from her mouth as she gradually let her body relax in the older woman's soothing arms. It certainly wasn't the same as being in her Lorna's embrace but it would still suffice given the circumstances. "I drove Lorna home after school yesterday and had the luxury of meeting her father," she recounted, biting the side of her mouth to keep the emotions at bay.
Nicky drew in another breath, preparing herself to continue with recalling the previous evening's escapade that lead to the current dilemma. "It was the first time I really met him and he was an asshole. He got upset because Lorna and I are girlfriends and to make it frank, he tried to chase us in the front yard with a fucking gun," the redhead finished informing her, throwing her hands up in distaste.
To hear that, Alex only tightened her grasp on her friend. Her brain strained to understand what information it had just absorbed. Such a dangerous situation to imagine both Nicky and Lorna being in caused her throat to feel rather constricted. She couldn't begin to even envision how terrified being in an environment like that must have felt for the two girls. With a deep breath, she deterred her eyes down onto the redhead teen and allowed them to peer strongly into hers.
"Lorna's dad chased the two a ya with a gun? Oh, Nicky, that's fucking horrifying. Sounds like a horror movie, really. Did he shoot at either of you? Neither of you were physically hurt, yeah?" The queries came rapidly spurting from Alex's mouth out of an intense concern for the two teens who were comparable to sisters to her. She brushed a hand comfortingly through Nicky's thick red curls.
An unnerving pang formed in Nicky's chest at the obvious worry in her friend's voice. A lump was felt as she thickly swallowed the mount of saliva that had taken over her mouth. "Yeah, shoulda been a horror movie. That's what it feels like. It don't feel real, that's for sure. He did shoot the gun but he didn't point it at either of us or anything. So we're okay…well, in the physical sense. Although Lorna would beg to differ if she were here, I know she would," Nicky pointed out.
Exasperation quickly loomed over her once she closed her mouth. Lorna would be negating everything if she were there with them, she acknowledged. Nicky shook her head sadly at the mere fact. It stung how much Lorna seemed to brush significant occurrences right under the rug like she so easily had done before. That alone made her ponder if the brunette teen, deep down, thought that little of herself. Thought so little of herself that none of the pain or grief she'd been put through mattered.
"I'm so sorry, Nicky. How are you feeling? You look so pale right now. Have ya gotten any sleep since that happened, kid?"
Looking her over with meticulous blue eyes, Alex easily took notice of the faint circles that lay beneath Nicky's brown ones. She felt a slight sadness come over her at the discovery. Rather suddenly maternal instincts took over and she released her arms from her shoulders, grabbed one of her hands and led her down the hall to the other—spare—bedroom.
It felt both heartwarming and out of place to have Alex acting so Red-like towards her, Nicky thought while following the much taller woman inside the doorway of the room. Yet, with how truly exhausted she did appear to feel, she had no desire to fight her on any of it. Her body welcomed the comfort of a bed right then more than anything the more she pondered on it. She didn't hesitate at all as she simply allowed herself to fall back against the mattress of it once she'd made her way towards the bed.
"I honestly can't tell ya if I did or not because today has been so exhaustively long that I can't even remember if I had a cuppa coffee this morning let alone if I ever even fell asleep last night. Is it bad that right now all I wanna do is give in and sleep instead of texting Lorna to see if she's okay?" An eyebrow arched over a clearly drained eye that hardly peeped from its lid.
Shaking her head gradually, the older woman sat down on the mattress beside Nicky and comfortingly pulled the blanket up to wrap around her body before placing a hand onto her head to comb soothingly through her hair. "No, it's not a bad thing that ya wanna sleep right now. Sometimes I think you put too much energy on Lorna and forget to take care of yourself as well. And from what you're saying, it's obvious some rest will do you good. You've had a long day, kid, and been through some shit. It's okay to take time for yourself once in a while, yeah? What good are you to Lorna, anyway, if you yourself are not doing okay?"
Nicky burrowed closer to the blanket that wrapped around her body. She let her eyes shut as she took in the wise words of her best friend. A breath erupted from her lungs. Those were sensible words to live by, she realized. What good was she for Lorna if she hadn't been taking care of herself either? The question pondered repeatedly through her mind. Exhaustion took over her body shortly thereafter and she was unable to fight off the sleep any longer. It took only seconds before she involuntarily allowed sleep to overtake her.
As if Lorna hadn't already gone through an environmental shock since first entering inside the Chapman household, sitting at the table for dinner hours after her arrival only added to that particular sensation. It seemed apparent that each room the house contained was stuffed to the gills with some elegant décor or another. All of such bringing with it a looming uneasiness. She longed to go home, back to normalcy. Back where everything was just normal and plain and not full of the most extravagant items that would cost her entire family five lifetimes worth of working to afford.
The table was set with fine China and a beautifully crafted plate rested on the surface in front of Lorna. Her eyes were easily able to distinguish that it was delicately a handmade delicacy with such intricate detailing around the rim of it. She almost felt it was too delicate to place any food on as if the contact would instantly erase the details of the plate. Clinging of silverware against the other plates around her had her cautiously lift her head to focus on who else occupied the same space.
Everyone around her was neatly piling portions of roasted chicken and sautéed vegetables onto their plates while Lorna sat there with slightly widened eyes. Eating in general caused her a great deal of grief but to have to do so in front of a family she hardly even knew, that was enough to tense her whole body up. She inhaled sharply and held it for a few seconds to coax herself into joining them in consuming the nicely prepared meal. Clearly, they took pride in the food they cooked.
"You're not a vegetarian, are you?" Mrs. Chapman glanced up from her dish to peer across at the brunette. She used her knife to cut a small piece of chicken, not shifting her gaze once.
Vegetarian? The word echoed through her mind. Maybe that was something she should have looked into becoming, she pondered. It would give her even more reason to skimp out on meals. However, for the time being, she shook her head and timidly reached for the salad bowl that rested between the chicken and veggies. "Oh, no, I'm just, erm, I like to watch what I'm eating," she quickly commented, taking a couple of spoonsful of the salad mixture and placing it onto her plate.
"Ya like to watch what you eat, huh?" Cal inquired between bites of vegetables. Lightly-colored eyebrows arched over his blue eyes. "I watch what I eat too," he stated after swallowing and grabbing another forkful. His hand gestured between his eyes and the piece of broccoli hanging from the fork he held. "See, I watch my food and then I eat it." And with that, he placed the green piece of produce in his mouth.
Sitting on the other side of her younger brother, Piper couldn't resist from shaking her head and rolling her eyes at his antics. Cal truly was a breed of his own, she thought. She reached for her water glass, sipping it, and stared at her parents to see how they reacted to Cal's little performance.
Carol only slightly rolled her eyes while Bill covered a hand over his mouth to hide the smirk that seemed to meld on his face. Leave it to their son to make an unusual comment such as that, he mutely understood. Though he had a hunch that their son's oddity sometimes caused embarrassment for his wife, he covertly acclaimed Cal's unique attributes.
"Well, obviously, you get your sense of humor from me, son," Mr. Chapman chuckled a bit with his words. He hoped to bring a lightened atmosphere to the typically stuffy dinner table.
Clearing her throat, Carol gave a stern look towards the father and son duo. She shook her head at them and grasped onto her wine glass in front of her, carrying it up to her lips for a graceful sip. Her eyes held contempt within for the two of them; their antics easily frayed on her nerves when it happened during the evening meal. "Anyway," she spoke aloud, turning her attention back on Lorna. A smile was pursed to her lips. "It's good to watch what you're eating at such a young age, dear. I'm very health conscious myself—I only buy organic ingredients so you can feel safe about eating the food here."
Lorna nodded in response. Organic. Safe. Health conscious. Her teeth clacked together each time those words sounded through her subconscious awareness. She bent her head slightly, letting her eyes look precisely over the food that sat on the plate below. Dressing oozed from overtop of the lettuce. The sight instantly formed an uncomfortable knot in her stomach. She squinted her eyes at the sensation. Since when did a simple salad cause her physical pain? Air escaped her lungs rapidly as she continued to just sit and stare at it. Time appeared to stand still.
"Yeah, I wish you could be like normal moms who just buy regular human food," Cal retaliated after polishing off his dish. His shoulders moved upwards into a shrug. He couldn't remember the last time his mother brought home a package of cookies or bag of chips like what made up the cupboards in the majority of his friends' houses.
Mr. Chapman gave a good-humored snicker at his son's remark. A remark that wasn't too far off from the truth, he recognized. "You and me both," he agreed, waving a hand up in emphasis.
"Sounds like the peanut gallery has spoken," Piper finally chimed into the conversation after swallowing a piece of the chicken. Despite her words, she couldn't help but stifle a laugh that tried to erupt.
Carol fluttered a hand in their direction and brought her glass of wine up for another sip. If it wasn't for her diligent attention to what types of food she was bringing into the house, she supposed the rest of her family would certainly be doomed to the unhealthy epidemic just like the majority of the country had been. "You're healthy, aren't you? Sometimes you have to sacrifice for a better purpose," she nonchalantly responded.
Satisfied with the faint nods that were received, Mrs. Chapman put her focus back on the young brunette who hadn't said more than a few words in the last several minutes. "I hope you're settling in well, Lorna. Tomorrow is a school day and unfortunately, you'll have to go to the public high school which is a ten minute drive from here. Cal goes to the private school that's a few blocks away but since we don't really know how long you'll be staying with us, we didn't want to uproot you."
To hear that, Lorna felt a hefty sense of relief come over her. At least some normalcy would remain in her life. It was comforting to know she wouldn't have to worry about attending a new school on top of everything else she was having to deal with. She finally stuck the teeth of her fork into a few pieces of lettuce and brought it towards her mouth for a small nibble. "No, I'm real fine with that. I didn't wanna have to go to a new school anyway," the brunette muttered, yet a tiny smile molded to her face. It hadn't reached her eyes but was a smile, nevertheless.
Lorna was astonishingly calm the next morning when she walked in the entrance of her familiar high school. Sure, she'd rather be anywhere aside from school—just the same as any other teenager—but the mere thought that she could have been enrolled in a private one made her more gracious than anything to be walking inside there that morning. Once she retrieved her books from her locker, she started walking in the direction of her first class. A little taken aback, however, when she hadn't run into Nicky. She felt a lump quickly mold into the pit of her stomach. She hoped everything was okay between them, especially after everything that occurred in the past couple of days.
The sound of the bell ringing alerted her attention away from her thoughts. Had she gotten to school later than her usual time? That might explain why she hadn't seen Nicky yet that morning. Before she could even process another thought, however, she felt a rough hand grab onto her from behind. Her eyes momentarily shut as she pondered over who the culprit for the touch was. It certainly couldn't be Nicky—she knew Nicky's touch, it wasn't rough and forceful like the hand that seemed to be digging into her spine presently.
"I heard on the news your dad tried to kill you and Nichols the other day," Annalisa retorted, a menacing smirk taking up space on her face. She had turned Lorna so that they were eye to eye now, her hands spitefully grasping onto her shoulders to keep her from being able to move away.
Eyes squinting at the absurd comment, Lorna did her best to comprehend the words that were only seconds ago absorbed into her ears. News? What the hell was Annalisa talking about? How could the news know of the incident? Her mind went ramped with questions that nearly made her dizzy. She swallowed the gathered saliva in her mouth and reopened it in attempt to respond but couldn't find the proper words.
The blonde didn't wait for her to say anything. Instead, she removed her hands from where they resided on her shoulders and used one to grip tightly onto the neckline of her t-shirt, dragging her along down the hallway towards the gymnasium. She continued to drag her through there until they came into the girls' locker room. Swinging the door open, she pushed Lorna inside and onto a bench that sat in front of a row of lockers.
Her eyes pierced fiercely down into Lorna's blatant timorous ones. "Ya gonna say anything? Is it true? Did daddy Morello try to kill you two?"
Lorna swallowed thickly, trying her hardest to keep her fear from displaying itself. Her legs threatened to shake beneath her but she dug her feet harshly against the soles of her shoes to steady them. "I-I don't know, erm, what you're talkin' about. Ain't nothing on the news," she mumbled, focusing her eyes on the floor so that her bully couldn't see the trepidation that oozed from them.
Pounding one of her fists loudly against the metal of the locker behind her, Annalisa shook her head while glaring darkly down at the smaller girl. "Don't play fuckin' dumb with me, Morello. You're the only fucking Morello in this damn town, who else would they be talkin' about?"
"Even if it was true, it ain't none a your business. Why do ya always have to bother me? I just wanna be left alone." Tears lined the bottom of her eyes but Lorna hurriedly sucked them in as she inhaled a sharp breath. All she wanted was to make it to her class so she could sit at her desk and not talk to anyone for the rest of the day. Why did Annalisa always have to ruin that for her? She sucked in her bottom lip to control the tears from leaking out.
"Yeah? You think it's none of my business? Hmm, okay, Miss Lesbo Lorna. I'll remember that while I'm sharing with all our classmates that you're a fucking dyke and a disappointment to even your dad. Hmph. That's why he wanted to kill you, huh? Cause' you're a dyke. Can't say I blame him," Annalisa admitted, sticking a finger in her mouth as she peered Lorna over with an intimidating smirk.
She receded her finger back from her mouth and used it to roughly push the brunette against the wall of lockers in back of her. "You wanna be left alone, do ya? I can arrange for that to happen, don't you worry."
Lorna gulped apprehensively, ducking her head away from the blonde's. This wasn't how she expected the school day to start off; that was for damn sure. And the simple fact that she had absolutely no idea what Annalisa was planning to do to her only increased her already highly flaring nerves. "What are ya gonna do? Try to drown me again? Go ahead, not like I got anything to lose," she shrugged her shoulders indifferently, doing her best to act unphased by the other's threats. Threats that were most-likely empty ones.
A chuckle erupted from Annalisa's windpipe. She narrowed her eyes at the shorter girl and grasped onto the cotton rim of the head hole of her shirt once more, using that to pull her up and slam her against the lockers a second time. After which she continued to grip onto the collar of Lorna's shirt while making sure to keep her back touching the metal of the lockers directly behind it.
Blue eyes glowered sinisterly down into brown ones—brown ones, that despite trying to keep hidden the trepidation, Annalisa had easily seen right through the façade. A sneer molded onto her face, she brushed a cold hand along the sides of Lorna's arms. Her instinctive grimace at such touch only made the blonde's smirk widen. "As much as I enjoyed that the first time, I like to keep things fresh. No, if ya wanna be left alone then I think it's obvious the solution for that is I shove you in one a these lockers. No one would even know you're there, huh? You'd really be left alone just like ya wanted," she laughed when she noticed how wide Lorna's eyes had gotten from hearing her revelation.
"No, no. You-you wouldn't do that, would you? Please don't. That's not the kina left alone I meant. I just—I just want to go to my classes and focus on studying, that's what I mean by leaving me alone," desperation seeped from Lorna's voice.
The close vicinity between her face and Annalisa's didn't help the sensation of fear that appeared to take over her entire body. There wasn't anywhere for her to move, either, particularly not with the taller girl's tight grip on her shirt.
Using one hand to keep her hold on Lorna, the blonde used her other one to open the locker right behind her back. A chortle escaped her as she let her eyes look down on the younger teen. The teen who always underestimated what lengths she was willing to go through to maker her life hell. With the locker wide-open in back of them, Annalisa shoved Lorna backwards into it and hurriedly slammed the door shut. The sound of her feet kicking violently at the metal she was entrapped in brought a smirk to her face.
She stuck her fingers in the slit at the bottom of the locker door, letting them touch tauntingly over the calf that was pushed up against it. "You always undermine what I'm capable of, don't ya? I always stick to my words, Morello. Now, enjoy your alone time. It's better that you're in there, you don't have to be bothered by me anymore or anyone else. Especially that icky Nicky Nichols, you know being lesbian with her isn't going to benefit either of you. You'll get yourself lynched, trust me."
Confined within the very constraint walls of the skinny girls' room locker, Lorna kicked her feet loudly at the bottom of the door. She could faintly see through the slit at the bottom Annalisa's legs gradually fading away from her line of view. Both a relieving and unnerving sight to see, she mentally recognized. That meant she'd been left alone in the locker room literally stuffed inside one with no one there to hear her banging on the metallic object.
When she heard the sound of the door leading back to the gym closing shut, the finality of her situation set in and panic steadily crept up. Her heart pounded severely in her chest, breathing became louder and quicker. She kicked harder at the door of the locker, hoping it would eventually cause it to break off. Her eyes shut for a moment and she wondered if she would ever be helped out of there or if her life would end in a fucking high school locker room. A pathetic way to go, she deemed. No, her inner voice echoed, she was simply a pathetic excuse of a human being and therefore if that were how she ended then clearly she deserved it.
So engrossed with her thoughts, the sound of another person's presence went unnoticed by her until the clinking of the broken door from the locker she was crowded in against the tile floor on the other side caught her attention. Lorna regained control of her breathing once more when she realized there was an open space for her to escape out of. She swiftly moved herself towards the opening, twisting her body in a way she didn't think was humanly possible but the only way that would be sufficient for her to get out of that damn space.
It took some time before she was finally able to set herself free and once she stood back on the outside of that god-forsaken locker, she stared at it with a surprising mien on her face—from how skinny it was, she couldn't believe she was able to fit in the thing to begin with.
Slushing of a mop along the tiled floor instantly moved Lorna's attention away from the locker and over towards where it was coming from.
"Did you just come outta that locker?" It was Miss Warren's voice that spouted out the question while turning slightly from her cleaning supply cart to peer over at Lorna with pondering eyes.
