Chapter Eighty-Four
"Excuse the hell out of me? What are you two doing in my guest room bed laying together?"
Carol's voice boomed loudly through the room as she remained put in the doorway of the bedroom. Hands defensively resting on either of her hips. Her blue eyes narrowed in on Lorna, glaring at her darkly while shaking her head in displeasure. A finger wagged in the air at her. This shouldn't have surprised her. She was realizing more and more just how much trouble Lorna was. Ever since she and Bill took her in she'd done nothing but cause them grief. First with the sneaking out of the house stint and now this. Laying with her lesbian girlfriend in one of their beds. Infecting it with their lesbian germs no doubt, she thought. Teeth gritted together the longer her eyes lingered on the pair.
"Lorna," she called out, displeasure inflecting through her voice. "Lorna," she repeated, shaking her head and wagging a finger at her. "I was coming up here to apologize to you but now I'm recanting it. How could you lay in this nice bed with that girlfriend of yours? Have you no respect for mine and Bill's things, our house?"
A sharp, deep, breath was sucked in. The only thing that could cool Lorna's composure. She looked at Nicky, who refused to release her arms from her, and the two drew in their bottom lips at the same time to avoid letting out any snickers. The clearing of Mrs. Chapman's throat and the way her foot aggressively tapped against the wooden floor brought both of their attention back onto her. Lorna's lips instantly faded into a frown as she let out a puff of air.
"Mr. Chapman said it was fine for me and Nicky to come up here."
Mrs. Chapman scoffed, shaking her head with even more force. Eyes rolled so far back that both Nicky and Lorna were surprised they hadn't got stuck behind her sockets. Arms folded spitefully over her chest as she continued to glare the two young teens over. Nerves were being pushed beyond their limits, she acknowledged. The contempt she had towards Lorna escalated each second she spent in her presence. God did she wish she could go back in time and somehow convince Bill what a horrible idea it was to foster a teenager. Especially a teenager as unruly as Lorna happened to be.
"I don't care what my husband said, clearly he's not thinking right. I want you both up and off this bed right now. Now, the whole bed needs cleaned from top to bottom before your germs infect the whole thing," Carol demanded, throwing her hands up madly in the air after harshly clasping them together.
Nicky secured her arms even tighter on Lorna's waist to keep her from abiding by such a bitter-filled request. She swallowed hard while turning her head to stare over at the blonde woman. The blatantly pissed off blonde woman she confirmed. "Lorna and I were told by your husband that we could come up here so that Lorna could get some actual rest. Since, ya know, she's been stuck in the hospital for the past few days." Anger seethed through Nicky's teeth with venom as she spoke to the middle-aged woman across the room from them.
The more her eyes stayed fixed on Carol the angrier she got. The harder she gritted her teeth together to keep it from entirely spilling out. Who was Carol to talk to Lorna the way she seemingly had been? Head shook fiercely at the pondering query. She swallowed a wad of saliva, tightening her grasp on the brunette, and glared heatedly at the older woman.
Mrs. Chapman glared back with matching heat. Arms folded distastefully over her chest. The audacity. The fucking audacity she thought with a violent shake of her head. Who the hell did these two teen girls think they were? One disregarding all that she and her husband were kind enough to do for her while the other one spoke to her in such a mouthy tone. She shook her head. She didn't like them one bit. Didn't take too kindly to their behavior. Some nerve they both had.
Lips pursed together. "Do you speak to your mother in such a disrespectful manner?" Eyes pointed on Nicky, eyebrows positioned above them in a way that showed how disgruntled she was with the redhead.
Lorna felt Nicky's body tense drastically and gave her a comforting squeeze while raking her hands soothingly through her thick red curls. Guilt tore into the pit of her stomach. She couldn't believe what nerve Mrs. Chapman had to come at her girlfriend like this. Her girlfriend who had done nothing other than incessantly protect her. Veins boiled with fury. Fury towards the absurd Mrs. Chapman.
"Oh, my mother? She couldn't care less about me. Kinda like how you couldn't care less about Lorna. See how that works? You know, for an adult, you sure don't act like it. Not the way you talk to Lorna—ya know the girl you and your husband are fostering? You're supposed to be the ones making sure she's safe and okay but clearly you failed. And when she was in the hospital you failed again because ya couldn't even pick the damn phone to call her and check on her," Nicky muttered out.
And before Carol had the chance for backlash, Nicky pushed herself and Lorna up from the bed so that they could get the hell out of there. Not just out of the room but the entire house. She didn't believe Lorna should be forced to stay in a house where half the foster parents didn't truly care for her or her well-being. However as the pair made it towards the doorway, it was Nicky who halted and twisted her body in order to have direct eye contact with the blonde behind them.
"Lorna's coming with me to my house. Where she won't be subjected to whatever this shit is."
Red was just setting a pan of cookies into the oven when the sound of shuffling footsteps gained her focus. She closed the lid of the oven and turned towards where the noise appeared to be coming from. The light giggling that was being shared between the two teens standing in the archway influenced suspicion to build within her. She folded her hands on either of her hips though a smirk displayed on her face. "What are you two laughing about huh? Nicky, did you break Lorna out of the hospital by chance?"
The inquiry only intensified their laughter. Lorna placed a hand on Nicky's arm to steady herself from how hard her laughter was affecting her balance. Her eyes, however, peered across the kitchen onto Red. The laughter finally faded into a light-hearted smile upon her face. "I wouldn't put it past Nicky to do something like that," Lorna admitted with a gentle pat against Nicky's forearm. "But no, she was breaking me outta the Chapman's house."
Lorna's revelation had Red's head tilt to the side and her eyebrows arched a near foot above her blue eyes. She lifted both of her arms and crossed them over her chest. That wasn't a good sign, she thought. Of course she didn't mind having Lorna at the house with she and Nicky but also hadn't been fond of the idea of having a police officer come knocking on her door in the middle of the night again. Eyes caught glimpse of the teakettle nearby, so, she settled on preparing a fresh pot for the three of them.
"As long as you made the Chapmans aware of that then I'm fine with it. I just don't want a repeat of the last time you slept over here, Lorna."
Another bout of laughter was shared between the teens. It took a few moments for the pair to collect themselves before their heads nodded simultaneously. Nicky waved a hand in the air, lips curved up in a smirk as her mind played out the memory of that night. Nothing like getting woken from a dead sleep in the wee hours of the morning to police banging on the door, she thought. "Oh, don't worry, I made it very clear to Mrs. Chapman that I was brining Lorna home with me, ma. She's lucky that's all I did, I was ready to fight her."
Flicking the switch on the stove for the kettle to work, Red twisted around with perked up eyes. "Why were you ready to fight her foster parent, my Nicky?" She narrowed her glasses down to the tip of her nose while retaining an unreadable gaze on her daughter. Her very impulsive daughter she deemed.
"Well, first it took five days for her to finally give a shit about where Lorna was. Which, might I add, the only fucking reason they found Lorna was because Mrs. Chapman is a psychopath and had Lorna's shoes chipped. Whatever the fuck that means."
Nicky paused and waved a hand in the air. She walked fully into the room, Lorna right behind her, and settled on sitting at the table. Lorna sat down beside her seconds later causing Nicky's hand to naturally reach for one of hers. Fingers stroked delicately over each knuckle while her eyes still gazed out onto Red. Her nose caught a waft of cinnamon mixed with a hint of nutmeg which instantly brought a comforting aura over her. "I'll just say this, Mrs. Chapman isn't too fond of Lorna and I didn't think it was fair for Lorna to have to stay there tonight with people who don't truly care. Is that so wrong a me, ma?"
The kettle started to boil. Red retrieved a few mugs from the cabinet above, placing them neatly in a row on the counter to the left of the stove. A fresh jar of her most-treasured honey sat catty-corner to the cups making it easy for her to reach. She placed a spoonful in each mug except for hers where she placed two spoonful's. Once she finished readying their tea mugs, she turned back around to fix her attention on the teen girls who now resided at her kitchen table.
What she heard had her lips morph into a displeased frown. Hands once again folded up on either side of her hips. She couldn't blame Nicky's earlier comment of wanting to fight Mrs. Chapman any longer. Hearing what she heard, Red wanted to do that as well now. "No, my Nicky, that's not wrong of you at all. I'm glad to have Lorna here with us. I just put a batch of cookies in the oven and have a kettle of tea going. We can have a little tea chat if you girls are up for it?" Eyebrows curved ponderously above her two eyes.
The suggestion left Lorna's body feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Her head nodded rather enthusiastically much to the surprise of both Red and Nicky. A smile easily slipped onto her face as she twisted her head around to glance over at the Russian matron. Seeing her in her baking apron, reading glasses hanging slightly from the tip of her nose, it brought back memories of her mother. Memories of her mother that widened the smile she had. Mrs. Morello spent a lot of the evenings—especially during the winter months—baking cookies or other sweets just out of the pure reason of enjoyment. Lorna remembered how the house smelled like vanilla nearly all winter long.
She closed her eyes and happily allowed herself to take in the scent of Mrs. Reznikov's kitchen now. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. And a slight hint of warm vanilla. Maybe even a dash of honey mixed in there, she thought after another deep sniff of the air around her. Eyes opened back up, the smile on Lorna's face hadn't faltered once. "I definitely like the sound of that, Red. My mom and me used to do that a lot. Well, we drank coffee and chatted and it was usually on school mornings but I guess that's basically the same?"
"You could say that. Tea chats are the evening version," Red pointed out with a warm chuckle.
The beeping of the kettle interjected so she turned around to pick it up off of the stove and carried it a few feet to the left where the mugs were resting. Each mug was filled with steaming hot water right up to the three-quarter mark. Red set the kettle back on the stove, making sure it was placed on one of the cooler burners so the bottom of it didn't become scorched, before taking out three apple cinnamon teabags and dousing them in each of the cups.
Two at a time, Red carried the mugs over to the table. One placed in front of Nicky and the other in front of Lorna. She went back to retrieve her own, then returned to the table to claim the chair across from the two girls. Steeping the teabag in and out of the hot water, Red kept her eyes on the pair settled on the other side of the table. "So, Lorna, how are you feeling? What happened with you and Mrs. Chapman?" The questions cautiously spilled from her mouth.
Stirring the water with the teabag, Lorna swallowed a lump while keeping her eyes fixed on the inside of her cup. Watching as the water gradually changed from clear to a dark brown color. The smell of the apple and cinnamon tea hit her nose and brought a slight comfort over her. She cleared her throat to rid herself of the uncomfortable lump. "Mrs. Chapman just doesn't like me. And I don't like her either. I just wish I could get the fuck outta there, already. They're not my family and I don't want to live with them," her shoulders recoiled and eyes observed as the liquid sloshed from one side of the cup to the other.
Nicky instinctively snaked an arm protectively around Lorna's waist while nuzzling the side of her head with the side of her own. Fingertips soothingly caressed along the length of the waist she held her arm around. "Do ya know if your sister's heard anything yet about the legal guardianship?" She queried, turning her head slightly in order to be able to glance down onto Lorna's face.
Sipping her tea, Mrs. Reznikov looked between the two attentively. She nodded her head in agreement with what her daughter was asking. Interested to hear what Lorna's response would be. It was clear to her that Lorna should be living back with people who really cared. Who really wanted to look after her and help. Three things that the Chapmans were not capable of by the actions they displayed over the last several days.
"I'm not real sure. I think I might see if Fran can come get me from school tomorrow and I'll talk to her about it then." Eyes remained peering into the mug sat on the surface her hands held it to. Satisfied with the tint of the liquid, Lorna lifted it up and pressed her lips on its rim. A decent sip of the tea was brought inside from the sucking of her lips around the mug's ceramic rim.
"School?" Nicky's face scrunched up as she moved her head to have a better look at Lorna's. She brought her free hand up to her forehead and slicked back thick strands of her red hair. "Did the doctor clear ya to go back to school, kid?"
Eyebrows curved inquisitively over her eyes. Lorna sipped her tea and then folded her arms over her chest while returning her girlfriend's odd stare. That was a question she hadn't planned on hearing. Didn't think needed to be asked. But yet here she sat being asked a very question she never expected to be asked in the first place. Shoulders shifted upwards. "What do ya mean? The only reason I wasn't in school the last few days was because I was stuck in the hospital, Nicky. I'm out now so I have to go tomorrow," she stated as if it were the most obvious thing. And in her mind it was the most obvious thing.
There was no choice. Her grades were so bad already and they probably slipped even further in the crack now that she'd been absent almost half a week of school. She had to go tomorrow whether she wanted to or not. Whether she felt ready to or not. Because what she surely hadn't wanted was to end up repeating the ninth grade. Having to spend a whole extra year in high school. She refused to allow that to happen. Not over her dead body would she.
The tips of Nicky's fingers softly stroked up and down along the length of Lorna's spine. Slowly and in the delicate of touches. A long, drawn-out, breath was sucked in through Nicky's mouth as she retained her gentle gaze on the brunette sat beside her. There was a knot her fingers came across as they stroked along Lorna's back, which easily formed her lips into a distasteful frown. She caressed soothingly around the area, letting her fingers draw soft circles until the knot lessened and lessened.
"But, Lorna, even Dr. Poussey was concerned about your bloodwork. Maybe going to school tomorrow is too soon, yeah?"
Red narrowed her eyes on the brunette, deciding now was the perfect time for her to renter the conversation. Eyebrows arched above her blue eyes. "What did the doctor tell you before you left today, Lorna? Did the doctor say it's a good idea for you to be going to school tomorrow?" She followed Nicky's questions with her own little interrogation. One hand slid inside of the handle of her mug while the other rested on the wooden surface of the table.
Lorna swallowed thickly. Nervous lines creased onto her forehead as her eyes raced between the two redheads. The mug against the palm of her hand warmed it just enough to keep it cradled steady around its parameter. Face scrunched slightly as she thought back to when the doctor was discharging her. She couldn't recall whether anything had even been mentioned about when it would be wise for she to return to school. A hand lifted up to scratch uneasily at the side of her temple, as if that would somehow make a response appear.
"All she told me was to come to her office next week or something. She never said nothin' bout' going or not going to school tomorrow," Lorna told the two, circling her hands in the air as she spoke.
Nicky chewed down on her lower lip. Eyes giving Lorna a thorough look over. She shook her head. Lorna certainly didn't look ready to go back to school tomorrow. Only a day after being let out of the hospital, she thought. The cup in front of her slid a bit, catching her attention, and Nicky forced herself to momentarily shift her eyes away from Lorna onto her tea. Hands reached out, encircling themselves securely around the mug. Carefully, it was lifted to her mouth for a small sip.
Once she was satisfied with the thirst quench the tea provided her with, Nicky set it back where it originally resided and returned her awareness onto Lorna beside her. "Then maybe ya oughta wait til after your appointment with her next week before ya come back to school, kid. I think that would be the smartest choice," she informed her and averted her eyes over onto Red. An eyebrow curved up as she peered at her mother, "What do you think, ma? Wouldn't it be best for Lorna to wait before coming back?"
Alternating her stare between the girls, Red crossed her arms over her chest and gave a slight shrug of her shoulders. If she were the foster parent of Lorna, she would have been asking all these questions to the doctor before even leaving with the teen. Clearly, these Chapmans were not very attentive. A breath huffed out of her. "I think the best option is to give this doctor a call in the morning and ask her what her recommendation is," was her honest response. Even though by glancing Lorna over it was effortless to see how utterly frail and pale she happened to be. But to appease her, she believed it was wisest to ring the doctor first.
"So, I'm assuming neither Mrs. nor Mr. Chapman thought to ask any of these questions before they took you home from the hospital? Is that right, Lorna?"
Red's head turned in the brunette's direction. She watched closely as Lorna's head shook from side-to-side in acknowledgement to what she'd been asked. Red nodded. She wasn't surprised at all. It was rather evident to her how little interest either of the Chapmans had in Lorna and Lorna's well-being. A shame, really. "Now, see, if it were me—those questions all woulda had answers before we even walked out of the building." Hands were thrown up in the air upon her statement. She couldn't comprehend the size of brains Mr. and Mrs. Chapman had to have had to not think to do that. It was only common sense to do so, she thought. Something those two must have been lacking.
Lorna sighed and tilted her head down. Eyes gazed into her cup, slowly becoming immersed with the gentle swaying of the liquid from one side to the other. It was soothing. Like watching the waves of the ocean come to shore. She felt her eyes naturally close and allowed them to stay that way for a few minutes. A breath trickled out of her. If only she could remain as calm as she felt in that moment. But the harsh reality was that she couldn't. Tomorrow she had to go back to her normal life where her grades were constantly slipping and Annalisa was likely plotting ways to torture her. To make up for all the lost time her absence had caused.
However, before she could voice any of her thoughts, the beeping of the oven interrupted their conversation.
Immediately, Red jumped up from table with her now empty mug in hand and swiftly made her way to the culprit of said noise. The empty cup was placed in the sink first, and then her attention was turned onto the beeping oven. She grabbed the oven-mitt from its spot on the railing of the lid, placing a hand inside of it so she could retrieve the pan of cookies from within it. Once said pan was set on the cooling rack just an inch off the stove, Red reclosed the lid and turned the knob to off position.
A few small plates were taken from the cabinet above the spot where the cookies rested and set aside on the counter beside them. She took a spatula from a drawer and divvied out a few cookies for each plate. The plates were all placed on a serving tray which Red used to carry them back to the table with. It was put down in the middle of the surface and Red made sure to hand a plate to each girl, knowing if she hadn't that Lorna would likely refuse to even touch one.
"I was bored tonight so I made some of my famous Sushki's. You girls know what those are?" Red quirked an eyebrow, taking the remaining plate for herself. She let it rest right next to her napkin while keeping her eyes focused straight ahead.
Both teens shook their heads. Lorna looked down and examined the pastry with a precise eye. After a minute, she popped her head up and gave a glance back at the middle-aged Russian matron. Lips curved into a small smile. "Looks like a miniature donut, Red. Is that it? Is it a Russian mini donut?" She squinted her eyes as she looked back down at the small, circular, pastry.
The middle-aged woman allowed a warm laugh to escape her as she nodded her head in acknowledgment to Lorna's question. She broke a small piece off from one of the Sushki's she'd served onto her own plate and carefully brought it to her mouth where she released it inside of. "Kind of," the words came out upon swallowing the piece of pastry. "It's more of a cookie texture than a donut. But a lotta people think of Sushki's as the Russian take on donuts. I always made them when my boys were little."
Red drew in a few breaths but never once had her focus on Lorna faltered. "They loved it. It was the only thing that would get them the hell outta bed for school in the mornings," she couldn't resist from snickering at such memory. Those sons of her gave her quite the trouble growing up, but yet her heart burst for love for all three of them. She felt her lips easily curve up into a smile the more she shared. "The smell of fresh Sushki's carries through the house like nothing else. And those three boys made me make these every single day. But I wouldn't have done it any differently, I love the smell of fresh baked Sushki's myself. Reminds me of my own mother and my grandmother."
Matching smiles shaped onto both Lorna's and Nicky's faces as they listened to Mrs. Reznikov's heartwarming recollection. Nicky used that time to rewrap an arm tight around Lorna's waist, tracing her fingers slowly up and down along her spine. Eyes, however, were on Red the entire time she spoke, smiling right along with her curved up lips. There wasn't anything she enjoyed more—aside from time spent with Lorna—than listening to her surrogate mother reminisce about her past. It warmed her heart tremendously.
"Lucky kids you have, ma. Are they all in college now?" Nicky questioned with curious eyebrows curved upwards.
"The oldest is graduated but the younger two are. I still make Sushki's every once in a while to send in a care package to them. But I'm not sure they appreciate it as much as when they were little," Red's voice slowly drifted. She swallowed down thickly, letting her stare fall onto the plate laid out in front of her. Just as quickly as the wave of displeasure came over her, it dissolved away even swifter. A smile reformed onto her face.
"But now I have the pair of you to keep me company. So I'll have to have you guys bake these with me the next time I decide to make them. Would you girls like that?"
The teens nodded enthusiastically and Lorna waved her hands in the air, "I love baking, Red. Before my mom got real sick, she spent all a November and December making all kinds a cookies and pies for Christmas. She let me help her a couple a times and I really enjoyed it. And in the summer she baked all kinds a fruit breads. The house smelled so good." There rested a genuine, truthfully blissful, smile upon Lorna's face as she disclosed this to the other two.
Mrs. Reznikov gave a smile back to the younger teen. Hands clasped together in the process. "It's settled then. The next time I have an itching to make Sushki's, you girls will join me and we'll have a fun time. As long as neither one of you burns my house down."
It was nearing nine o'clock when the pair of them plopped down onto Nicky's bed. They both rested against its mattress with their backs pressing into it and the sides of their bodies pressing into one another's. Nicky breathed out a slow, airy, breath and allowed her lips to curve up into a smile. It widened when she felt Lorna's fingers intertwine with her own. She turned her head, gazing directly at the younger teen who had just cradled her hand around Nicky's. A matching grin on her face.
Sensing Nicky's eyes on her, Lorna turned her head as well and peered lovingly into them. The hand she had interlaced with her own she brushed her fingers delicately up along the flesh of with. Breath escaped rather quaintly from her mouth which remained in its grinning position as she allowed her stare to meld with her girlfriend's. There wasn't anywhere else she'd prefer to be than right where she was now. Lying beside the person she loved with every fiber of her being, their bodies ever-so-lightly touching at the sides and their hands melted into one.
The lids of her eyes closed shut. Air peacefully escaped from her throat. This felt like Heaven. Nothing else existed as the pair of them lie so quietly together. All the worries, stresses, fears, faded into the abyss. Lorna twisted her body onto its side and scooted closer until she was able to move her head onto Nicky's shoulder, right near the crook of her neck almost. Fingers from her other hand lifted up to lay against the flesh leading from her jawline to her chin.
"At least now we're safe from Mrs. Chapman tryna to walk in on us, huh hon?" Lorna nearly purred as she pushed herself slightly up from Nicky so that she could press her lips tenderly onto the nape of her neck.
Nicky's smile swiftly transformed into a smirk upon hearing the comment. Hands reached up and grabbed gently at Lorna's face, bringing it down to her own where she smashed their lips together in a heated kiss. A much-desired heated kiss. The back of Lorna's head became cradled by one of her hands while the other remained cupped around her cheek. "You're damn right on that, doll. No Chapmans can come in here and interrupt us now. We have all night to do whatever our hearts desire, babe."
