Chapter Fifty

Another half-hour went by before the sound of knocking jolted Lorna from the bed. Her eyes squinted, she hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep. The sun had almost set along the horizon outside the window. She grumbled slightly and pushed herself up so that her feet were pressing onto the hard wood underneath them. As she strode past the mirror behind the dresser, she caught a glimpse of her bruised eye and shuddered. Hopefully whoever was on the other side of the door didn't notice it.

When she opened the door, she was swiftly greeted by none other than Piper. And by the way she was glancing at her Lorna concluded that the bruising on her right eye was a bit too noticeable. Her feet unnervingly shifted beneath her. "Can I help you?" Rapidly, she regretted the words she allowed to slip out of her. Though, she had no clue what Piper was doing knocking on her door so her question was a valid one. A sigh escaped her and she averted her eyes to the wall behind her.

"Erm, I was just gonna tell you dinner's ready," the blonde started off, her voice a bit on the shaky side after observing the blatant discoloration underneath Lorna's eye. She tried not to stare at it too much but it was as if her eyes were glued to that spot. A lump made its way into her throat and she swallowed hard. "What, uh, what happened to your eye, Lorna?"

Lorna focused her eyes on the wood pattern of the wall they were staring at. A tightness quickly formed in her chest at the query. She hadn't the first clue how to answer it without mentioning what actually happened. With the lie she already fed her girlfriend during their earlier phone call, she felt rather lied out. But she also wasn't about to share any personal matters with someone she hardly knew.

"Oh, um, I'm real clumsy and got hit in the face with a ball during PE today is all. I'm not real sporty, I guess." She subtly shrugged her shoulders while a faintly sheepish smile sat upon her face. Though that wasn't the honest reasoning for her black eye, she knew it would be believable as she was truly the most uncoordinated person when it came to any sort of sport or physical activity, actually.

Piper gave a slow nod, eyes still lingering on the bruise. Despite the explanation given—which was rather convincing—the faint mark of what looked to be a fist where the discolor was made her wonder if there was more to the story. However, she kept her ponderous thoughts to herself and pursed an uneasy smile onto her face. "That sucks. You should take some Advil or something so it doesn't swell. I'll have my mom get some for you. Come on, everyone's waiting at the table and if we don't get there soon, Cal may end up devouring everyone's plate."


If Lorna thought that was the end of her eye being conversed about, she was proved wrong when she sat down at the dining room table between the two Chapman siblings. Everyone paused what they'd been doing the second she sat down and all eyes fell on her. The sensation quickly caused an unwavering amount of discomfort to overpower her. She swallowed a large wad of saliva that had built up beneath her tongue, shifting her eyes down on the plate of food that sat in front of her. A colorful, pleasant to look at, meal. Yet a meal of foods she wasn't too sure were good for her to consume.

The distraction she tried to provide herself by focusing on the foods laid out in front of her was soon interjected by the sound of Mrs. Chapman's voice from across the table. Lorna inwardly sighed and lifted her head to peer over at her with curved eyebrows as she did her best to piece together what she was saying.

Carol held a tight gaze on the young brunette. There was a disdain mien upon her face as she looked her over. She knew the day she and Bill had agreed to take her in that she was certainly a problem child. And now, with Lorna sitting at the table a black eye on her face, her impression had been proven right. She shook her head frustratedly. This was all her husband's fault. If he hadn't have had that damn inclination of his to foster, they wouldn't be in this predicament.

"Did you get in a fight at school or something?"

The flesh on Lorna's forehead creased into puzzled lines above her eyes. That was a question she expected to hear from Cal not Mrs. Chapman. It stunned her enough that she had to take a moment to process it before responding. She looked around the table, watching almost longingly as everyone else seemed to be picking food from their plates and eating it without a thought. How she wished she could do that, too. A sigh escaped her and she returned her focus back on the query.

"No. I got hit by a ball in my PE class," she mumbled while looking down at the roasted chicken and potatoes that sat untouched on her plate. Out of guilt, and nerves, she grabbed her fork from the napkin it rested on next to the dishware and used it to move pieces of potato around the dish.

Mrs. Chapman gave a curt nod while biting delicately into a precisely cut piece of chicken. After chewing and swallowing it, she fixed her eyes back on Lorna who was still yet to eat any of the food. A frown easily formed on her face to notice that. The second time she caught the young teen not touching the food that was kindly prepared for them by their staff. A troublemaker and ungrateful teenager Lorna was proving to be, more and more.

Her hands reached for her glass of wine and she took a decent sip. She cleared her throat while observing the brunette pushing the same piece of potato around her plate in an almost mindless manner. "Is there a reason you keep moving that particular potato around, Lorna? Do you have a problem with the food?" The questions spewed out in a rather bitter voice.

Celeste Chapman, who sat at the head of the table, rolled her eyes at her daughter-in-law's antics. She sure wasn't subtle with her tone, that much she was certain on. Her hand instantly reached for her wine glass and she sipped it in one go. One glass wasn't enough to get her through an entire meal with that woman, she learned that long ago. "Maybe it's because you don't let your potatoes roast long enough," the comment was made under her breath.

Being that he was sitting right beside his mother, Bill swallowed hard when he heard what she said and threw her a hard glance. "Maybe you should slow down with that wine, mom."

Returning her son's stare, the eldest Chapman woman reached for the bottle that was in the middle of the table and brought it back to refill her glass with. Once it was almost at the edge, she stopped and replaced the bottle where it had previously resided. She took possession of her glass and chugged a good amount of it down. Blue eyes narrowing in on Bill. "And maybe you should respect your mother, William. You want me to sit through a family dinner every Friday? Then I will drink as much wine as I so please."

Mr. Chapman exhaled deeply, bringing a hand to his temple and rubbing at it quite profusely. He knew his mother hadn't ever been too fond of Carol. Even at their wedding she had threatened to leave multiple times because of her unrelenting dislike of the woman. Maybe the family dinners weren't the best idea, he thought, but the kids deserved to have time with their grandmother.

After taking a bite of potatoes and swallowing it, he looked back at his mother and shook his head. "I just don't see why you always have to try picking a fight with my wife, mom. She's just asking a question."

Celeste snapped her head at lightening speed when the words spewed from Bill's mouth. Despite the urge to say something back, she refrained and settled for taking another big sip of her wine.

Cal and Piper sat silently in their seats, eating their food as if what was happening had just been a normal everyday occurrence.

Lorna, however, grew more anxious by the second and that only caused her to push the potato around even more. She couldn't even get herself to perform the simple task of the sticking the prong of the fork into the vegetable to bring to her mouth. The sounds mixed together and echoed rather loudly through her mind. The clanging of silverware against dishes, the arguing between Bill and Celeste, and the interrogation of Carol to her—it was all too much. She tried covering her ears with her hands but that didn't do much to stop it.

"If all you're gonna do is sit there and play with the damn food then please excuse yourself," Mrs. Chapman curtly commanded the brunette. Tired of watching her mess with the food that her staff took the time to prepare for them all. She looked her over with disappointment in her eyes. "You need to learn to be more grateful, Lorna. This food was kindly made by good people and by playing with it, you show you don't care. Just take your dish and go."


Lorna was grateful to collapse onto the bed in the guestroom after having put her dish in the kitchen as instructed by the matriarch of the family. The snotty, distasteful, matriarch of the family she mentally corrected. A sigh escaped her and she turned onto her side to peer out the window as she had done earlier. The sun had long been replaced by the shining of the moon. A full moon, nonetheless, and it shone rather copiously through the window. She sighed and brought her hands up to her face, squeezing her cheeks momentarily.

There was a bird pecking its beak against the pane of the window and Lorna put her focus back on that for a moment. The bird was medium sized with a tan-colored tummy from what she could make out on her spot in the bed. She smiled slightly but then it took off and she was left with her thoughts once more. Her mind went back through the dinner debacle and she felt a breath of air expel out of her mouth. She was ashamed of herself for sitting there a fool. What kind of person can't even muster up a small bite of food?

A warm liquid seeped its away along the flesh of her face. Her thumb reached up to touch it and she shuddered slightly when she realized it was a tear. She didn't even know she had been crying. Another couple of tears followed in the previous ones path and she used the palm of her hand to wipe them all away. Maybe she thought too soon. Maybe her life wasn't turning around for the better, after all.

Instinctively, she reached her hand in her pocket for her phone and used her thumb to flip it open. She scrolled through her contacts until she came to Nicky's, quickly clicking the call button. Holding it up to her ear with her shoulder, she sighed and hoped she didn't appear desperate by calling Nicky twice in the same day. Though, this time she needed the distraction badly. So the thought of coming across as desperate didn't play too heavily on her mind.

Waiting through the rings she could acquaint to watching paint dry. An eternity could have passed before she finally heard the line pick up. She swallowed a lump that had formed and took a few small breaths to make sure her voice wouldn't sound as though she'd been crying. "Hi there, hon," Lorna chirped into the receiver, a little too perky she acknowledged after she'd already spoken.

Nicky, however, being the observant teenager that she was, could effortlessly note the subtle disdain that oozed out from her girlfriend's voice. The fact, also, that Lorna was calling her a second time had been quick to alert her that there was something amiss before she even answered the phone. She got up from her spot on the wicker bench on Red's front porch and turned to head inside the house to get some privacy. Once she was in the concealment of her bedroom, she plopped herself stomach-faced down on her bed and instinctively held the phone closer to her ear.

"Hey, doll," she finally murmured into the receiver, brushing the tips of her fingers along the edge of it. "Is everything okay?" The query slipped out rather quickly. Her eyes peered ahead at the wooden pattern of her dresser. She covertly hoped that her girlfriend would be honest with her and not fall into her old ways of pretending things were fine even when that couldn't be further from the truth.

Resting her head back against the pillow underneath it, Lorna drew in a breath of air and pushed the phone upon her ear with a raised shoulder. That was a question she truthfully had no clue how to respond to. Everything that happened during dinner were normal occurrences for most people, yet, for her she felt suffocated sitting there. Lost in her own drowning mind of thoughts. Ears swamped with echoing sounds of voices and clanging silverware and dishware. Normal sounds that, in her head, appeared exaggerated and drawn out.

"Yeah, course' it is," the words slowly came out. She drew a circle around the comforter of the bed with her thumb. Her body instinctively winced when she realized the tone of her voice wasn't as cheerful as it was upon her initial greeting.

On the other end, Nicky noticed the difference in tone as well which only added to her concern. Her chin naturally rested over the top of her arm that had previously been cushioned against the mattress below. "Yeah? This is our second call in less than two hours, doll. Not that I'm complaining, I could talk on the phone with ya forever," she gently pointed out while tapping her fingers softly along the edge of her phone. "But I figured, after our last call, you'd be busy finishing up that project a yours that you so stubbornly said your plan for the night was."

Lorna swallowed a big gob of saliva and mentally cursed herself for that. As always digging herself farther and farther into a steep grave with her own words. She lifted her head slightly, focusing her eyes upon the ceiling above. A sigh puffed out of her. God, she thought, even the damn ceilings in that house were fucking as elegant as ever. The light fixture had the same shimmer as the large one down in the sitting room which only caused her to shake her head. Someone like her didn't belong in an environment that divine.

The faint sound of Nicky's breathing on the other end of the phone innately brought a comfort over Lorna. She felt her body relax against the mattress beneath it, her eyes gradually shifting away from the ceiling and instead onto the mirror attached to the horizontal dresser directly across from the bed she occupied. The way she happened to be positioned meant she was unable to see her reflection in the mirror. A fact she was grateful for at that specific time.

A breath of air involuntarily expelled through her nose. "Yeah, that was my plan."

"Was? What changed your mind, kid? You sure everything's all good?" Concern easily inflected through each word that came from Nicky's mouth. She pushed herself up so that she now sat Indian-style on her bed. Her ear opened up while listening to even the most minute sounds that the phone she held to it picked up on. Though it may have been subtle, and unnoticeable to anyone else, Nicky could effortlessly hear the defeat that came from the younger teen's voice. Which, in turn, only fueled the concern looming over her.

Shutting her eyes momentarily, Lorna contemplated whether she should comment on the dinner fiasco or keep it to herself. Of course, she knew the smart thing to do would be to open up to the girl she loved about it—however, her inner-self was busy convincing her how telling Nicky would only drag her further down and that wasn't something she wanted to do.

She lifted a hand up to place over one of her temples, rubbing at it a bit harsher than she should have. The desire to ignore her inner voice was strong, especially considering how she'd already had to conceal the truth from Nicky over the whole Annalisa incident from earlier. She certainly hadn't felt keen on the idea of lying to her again, now. Her fingers dug slightly further into the flesh of her temple. Why did she—Lorna—have to be so difficult? The question ran through her mind.

"Are you there, Lorn?"

The husky voice rapidly shook Lorna out of her ramped mind and back to their phone conversation. Despite her inner-self telling her not to, Lorna made the decision to be somewhat honest over what had currently been bothering her.

"I'm here, hon. Sorry. I was just tryna think," she started off, eyes mesmerized by the embedded wooden flowers carved onto the wood of the dresser. Her free hand was used to slick back her hair. Opening up was never a task she particularly enjoyed doing, however, she loathed herself for constantly keeping things from Nicky just a tad more. "They just had dinner down in their fancy dining room."

Lungs forced air out which exerted itself through Lorna's mouth. She utilized a couple of fingers from the same hand that moments ago slicked her hair back to now—nervously—twisting around strands of it resting on the side of her face. "It was real awkward, Nicky."

Tilting her head, Nicky felt a sigh push its way from her throat. Her arms desperately craved for Lorna's petite frame to be cradled in them. For the pair of them to be in the same place right now so that she could properly have a look over the younger girl. Instead, she had to settle for hugging a pillow in her arms. A pillow she wished was her Lorna. "What happened during dinner, huh? Are you okay, kid?" She interrogated gently, her lips pressed up closely against the bottom of her phone.

"I'm fine, hon," Lorna answered the latter first while she tried to piece together a comprehendible response to the earlier query. Honestly, she wasn't entirely sure how she was feeling after the whole ordeal. It was a stupid thing to be bothered over, she reasoned. Another sigh easily came up out of her mouth. "I just, erm, I don't really know. I mean nothin' bad happened. It was just—there was so much happening and I guess maybe I got real overwhelmed or somethin'. It's stupid, honestly."

The pillow was instantly tightened in Nicky's arms. As if it truly was Lorna she had been cradling in them. Her eyes peered to the left where the window was located, watching as the stars lit brightly in the merely pitched black sky. "First, nothing that bothers or upsets you is stupid. Ya hear me, kid?" She waited until she heard a muttered 'Mhmm' before continuing to speak. "What was going on that ya got overwhelmed, doll? Maybe if we talk about it, it'll help," her voice carefully suggested, knowing how resistive Lorna could be when it came to discussing what ailed her.

Shoulders shifted up and down in a repetitive, almost robotic-like, trance. Talking about it would only put her right back in that overwhelming moment. Or, at the very least, she'd feel overwhelmed once more. Besides, she didn't even know what there was to discuss. It was only dinner. A time where most families spent sitting together eating a meal and talking. What occurred wasn't anything out of the ordinary, she knew. Why she sat now, on the bed of the guestroom, in near tears was beyond her.

"The talking and dishes clinging together," the words automatically spilled out in a rather monotonous tone. She felt as though she were in a trance right then with her shoulders twisting up and down and her eyes staring blankly ahead into absolutely nothing. "And the questions from Mrs. Chapman and the other Mrs. Chapman kept chugging down glasses of wine. I just—I couldn't handle any of it. My brain kinda stopped working and I just—I sat there like a blob. It was too much, Nicky, too much."

"Shh, shh, shh." Nicky soothingly hushed through the receiver after hearing how worked up Lorna appeared to be getting herself. Which only made her yearn to hold her even stronger. She pulled the pillow she'd been grasping even closer and rested the tip of her chin against the top of it. Once she heard Lorna's breathing slow back into a more normal rhythm, she deemed it safe to respond.

"Two Mrs. Chapmans, ay? You're living with a lesbian couple?" Nicky couldn't stop herself from commenting on that, it was calling out her name. A smirk found its way onto her face despite still feeling rather concerned for her girlfriend.

The urge to let out a chuckle was there but miniscule to say the least. Lorna couldn't seem to wipe the damn frown that etched itself upon her face after the whole ordeal. She turned her head away from the mirror and dresser and gazed out the window displayed on the side of the bed. Wind faintly blew about causing tree branches to bounce back and forth in the air. "Nah, one of them is just the motha of Mr. Chapman. She told me she comes over almost every Friday for dinner," she informed her redhead girlfriend on the other line. Maybe it would have been better if she was staying with a lesbian couple rather than this—blatantly—dysfunctional family here.

Well, that certainly took some of the intrigue away from the foster family her lover had been temporarily living with. Nicky snapped her fingers for dramatic effect after hearing the revelation. "Damn it," she playfully muttered into the phone.

However, the still ever present defeat that oozed from Lorna's tone immediately caused Nicky to grow more serious yet again. She held her phone tighter to her ear and used her other hand to push a loose strand of hair from her eyes. "So, doll, what was Mrs. Chapman asking you? And which one was it—the dad's mom or the mom mom?"

"Uh, er… she just kept asking if I had a problem with the food on my plate. It was the regular Mrs. Chapman," the response spewed out swiftly without Lorna being able to process any of it until she said it. She facepalmed herself when she realized she just called Carol the regular Mrs. Chapman. Her head shook; what the hell kind of comment was that? Was Mrs. Chapman a coffee order now? The queries spun through her mind and she had to cover her mouth to stop from laughing and crying all at once.

On the other side of the phone, Nicky didn't even try to stop herself—a chuckle involuntarily made its way from her larynx. Leave it to her Lorna to make an innocent mishap of words that innately caused a laugh out of anyone who happened to hear it. She lifted her free hand up to push back her thick curls and finally caught her breath from the small fit of chuckling. "The, uh, the regular Mrs. Chapman? Is she a new type a coffee or something, babe?"

That was all it took for Lorna to find herself battling her own fit of laughter. No longer could she stifle them from escaping. She brought a hand up to her face, cradled it around her cheek, and sat there giggling for a near two minutes before they finally ceased. The wording Nicky used was just enough to trigger her laugh reflex, that much was obvious. "Yeah, I didn't really think that through. But are ya sure ya didn't just read my mind? I was thinking how dumb that was for me to say and, erm, how I guess Mrs. Chapman is a coffee order, now."

"When we go to the coffee shop next, I'm gonna order the regular Mrs. Chapman and see what Vause does," Nicky stated matter-of-factly.

Lorna shook her head as another laugh loudly expelled from her throat. "You are not, are ya?" She covered her hands over her mouth to muffle the loudness of her chuckles. Maybe this phone call along with her own stupid comment was exactly what she needed. It felt good to sit there laughing with her girlfriend on the phone. The fact that it was the weekend only added to the ecstasy.

The redhead nodded her head profusely even though she knew Lorna couldn't see it. A smirk had melded onto her face by that point. "You bet your ass I am, kid. And you'll be there to witness it. We'll go tomorrow or Sunday, I'll shoot Alex a text to see when she's working."

"Oh, dear god, hon. She's gonna think you're insane."

Nicky chuckled and pulled the pillow in her arms even closer. Naturally pressing her lips on the top of it and then surprisingly pushing it away when she realized she kissed a pillow and not the top of Lorna's head. Lorna's precious head that wasn't even there to begin with, she reminded herself. "That's the fun of it, kid. It's just a joke." A sigh tumbled out of her when she remembered she hadn't questioned Lorna on the plate of food she had mentioned. Something she wanted to do, out of worry and concern, but also something that would take away from the lightened mood. Another sigh escaped. She didn't want to sour the mood by bringing that back up. Lorna needed the playful distraction, she knew, and so she decided to save her interrogation for tomorrow when they were together in person.

"Just so ya know, doll, I just kissed my pillow because I forgot it was my pillow and thought it was your head I was kissing."

The heart inside of her chest nearly tripled in size from the sweet disclosure that Nicky had shared with her. It simply molded a warm, affectionate, smile onto Lorna's face. She found the gesture so sweet and precious—it showed how truly pure of a soul Nicky was, how loving and angelic she'd been. "Aw, honey, that's the cutest thing I've ever heard," her voice lovingly gushed through the receiver. She tapped her fingers against the back of her phone.

"Yeah? Is that so? Well, I'll have you know I have been holding that pillow since we started talking on the phone. I call it my girlfriend pillow. When I wanna hold ya and can't because we're not in the same place, I grab the girlfriend pillow and pretend it's you," the older teen huskily murmured in response. Her lips so close to the phone that her breathing was transmitted through it as well.

This time Lorna's heart merely melted from the pureness of her girlfriend's actions. It made her acknowledge how Nicky was not just pure but the purest person and soul to ever grace the entire universe. It also caused her to want to be there in the same room as Nicky so that she could take her in her arms and douse her head and face in all the kisses she possibly could. "Okay, that's it. You're the cutest and sweetest person I've ever met, hon. You're making me melt over here, Nicky, with all your precious words."

Nicky warmly chuckled and sat up to reclaim the pillow she'd thrown only seconds ago. With it securely back in her arms, she laid back against the mattress and curled up on her side with the pillow spooned up to her. "I'd much rather it be you in my arms right now than the pillow, though. You need to be cuddled, doll, always," she gently murmured.

"I wish we could be laying in the same bed right now, too, hon. I wanna cuddle you and kiss ya all over the place," Lorna murmured back, her breath deepening the more she fantasized about the two of them all snuggled up in bed together, arms thrown around each other in the most affectionate of ways.

Her body craved desperately to be touching Nicky's, to be pressed up against the warmth of her sweet lover. For their lips to smash together and their hands to wrap around each other's fleshy cheeks. Their foreheads naturally resting atop each other. She shut her eyes, easily becoming lost in her daydream. She could picture Nicky's angelic face right next to her own and their noses touching as they pushed their lips together in a hot, heated, kiss. Both of them already stripped of their pants and shirts, the bare skin of their abdomens pressing together as if they were one being. Hands rubbing frantically up and down the sides of each of their bodies.

"That could easily be arranged, baby."

It wasn't until that comment was spoken from Nicky's mouth that Lorna had realized all of what she had been entrenched in was all only in her head. But then, after her eyes reopened, she sensed a sticky warmth in her panties and came to the conclusion the journey she just went on in her mind had simply caused her to orgasm.

She swallowed a wad of saliva—a built up she hadn't known was there until now—and forced herself to sit up. "Oh, hon, as much as I'm tempted by that…I, uh, I think we oughta just stick to our plan for the sleepover tomorrow. I kinda don't think the, erm, Chapmans will let me come over tonight, anyway. Mrs. Chapman is kinda mad at me, I think."

A reluctant sigh made its way from Nicky's mouth. "I guess we can do that, kid. I don't want to get you in trouble with the Chapmans. But we'll talk about that tomorrow, yeah? I wanna know what's going on. I'm worried about ya, babe. I love you. Sleep well, my sweet Lorna and I'll see ya tomorrow."