Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews and sorry about the delays, work and classes starting again, I needed time to get through th pace. Anyway, here's the new chap.
Enjoy,
So ;)
Act 21: Sara
"Nice house," I state in appreciation.
"My great grandfather built it," Catherine informs me.
We're in the family house for a three days week-end. Apparently, once every six months or so, Catherine and all her siblings gather her for the week-end; a way to keep the bounds tight.
Today, I'm going to meet Catherine's brothers and more importantly her mother for the first time. To say that I'm stressed would be a lovely understatement, but I try to find comfort in the fact that I have three allies instead of one, Nancy being somewhat on my side.
"So this is it, the place I grew up in," she declares with a long sigh.
"How was it?"
"This house has seen bad days but for the most part it was warm and welcoming."
I smile at her fondly, she comes closer to me and I can see a glint of mischief in her eyes. "You know… we have," she looks at her watch. "This place to ourselves for the next two hours."
"Yeah?" I snort but I can feel the heat rising to my chest.
Lindsey wanted to come with her cousins so she's travelling with Nancy, she should be there in a few hours.
Catherine kisses me. "Uh huh," she kisses me again.
"What do you want to do?" I ask coyly.
She kisses my jaw and move to my ear, nibbling on my earlobe; I shiver and put my hands on her waist needing some support to remain steady. "I've always wanted to fool around here…" she whispers moving her mouth to my neck.
"You…never…" I can't formulate more but she gets my question just fine.
Her chortle reverberate against my skin, my knees are slowly giving up under her ministrations. "I lived with three brothers, boys had better chances breaking into Fort Knox than crossing our threshold."
"Cath…" I protest feebly while my body happily gives in her touch.
There's this voice at the back of my head screaming that this is not a good idea; time seems to fly when we get caught into our making out sessions and people could walk in and…
"We…"
This isn't a good…
"Relax, we have time," she murmurs against my skin.
"We shouldn't…" my words dissipate in a deep moan when Catherine nibbles on one of my weak spots and her hands start to map my body.
Oh to hell with it, reason's overrated.
I grab her face and crash my lips onto hers.
I think people undervalue making out, I know I used to; before Catherine it was pleasant and fun but I wouldn't spend so much time into it, too eager for more.
But now…
Making out with Catherine is like receiving a high dose of adrenaline straight into the heart, it's like being high on the most powerful drug, it propels you to heights at an orbital level and the craziest thing is that it doesn't matter how many times you take that shot, every time is like the first time only higher, and higher, and higher.
I grab Catherine's thighs and pull her up, she whimpers at the movement but wraps her legs around me almost immediately. I end up sitting her on the living room table, one of my hands stroking her thigh the other one slipping under her top to feel her skin.
I'm weak, I'm a goner. I couldn't resist Catherine even if lives depended on it; in fact I'm fairly certain that I'd sell people out just for a kiss, just to feel that rush, that's how bad I got it for Catherine.
Soon my shirt is half open, pushed over my shoulders; Cath's mouth is marking my neck, one of my hand holds her head in place and the other is squeezing her backside, my eyes are close as I'm enjoying every sensation…
"Catherine Mary-Elisabeth Flynn, you have a room for that kind of inappropriate behaviour."
"Mom!"
Please let me wake up, please let me wake up…
Within the next three seconds I'm disentangling myself from Catherine, try to be presentable again and wish for the apocalypse to come so that the ground would open beneath my feet and swallow me into the limbos.
The temperature of the room as dropped dramatically. I can barely sustain the glare of the woman a few feet away from us.
I am mortified; meeting Catherine's mother while I'm half decent making out heavily with her daughter in her house was definitely not the way I wanted things to go. I was afraid I'd screw things up with my awkward words and clumsiness but I outdid myself.
"Mom…" Catherine clears her throat. "Welcome home, how was your trip?"
Mrs Flynn simply continues to stare at us with so much cold in her eyes that I could swear I feel my fingertips freezing. I find the courage to step forward and pray that I don't get sick when I open my mouth.
"My apologies for this," I speak with an unsteady voice and profound embarrassment. I extend a shaky hand "I'm Sara Sidle, please to meet you Mrs Flynn."
Green eyes fall my hand before setting on mine again with a complete indifference. "Byron, get my suitcase into my room," she speaks again before moving past me. It takes me a second to fully understand what just happened and eventually drop my hand at my side. "I'm going to lie down, call me when Nancy and your brothers get here."
I'm as stunned as if I had been punched; the last time I felt so insignificant my father was still alive.
"I'm Byron," a man introduces himself with a soft smile.
I shake myself into action and shake his hand. "I'm Sara, nice meeting you."
He puts a hand on my shoulder. "I'll be right back," he announces before disappearing.
"Fuck me swinging!" I'm surprised by Cath's swear. "This was not supposed to go this way…" she growls putting her hands over her face. When she looks at me there's hurt in her eyes. "They weren't supposed to be here before 2 p.m."
I look at my watch and frown. "It is 2 p.m."
She glances at her own watch and groans. "Figures… for once that time is of the essence my watch died… fantastic," she sighs. "I'm so sorry."
"On the plus side I don't have to worry about making a wrong impression, that's covered," my wit only earns me a ghost of a smile. Joking is the only thing I can do to stop me from running out of the house and take the first plane back to Nevada.
We decide to settle in her room, and I find myself praying to survive this week-end. After hiding for an hour Byron insists that I accompany him to the airport to get their other brother Jude. I'm not ecstatic at the prospect; something tells me that he won't be giving me a congratulating tap on the back once we're alone. He swears he won't bite but that's only a small relief.
The first five minutes of the ride are silent and the air is thick with tension.
"Relax, you have my vote of confidence," he breaks the silence.
"How come?" I ask suspiciously.
"Nancy gave the green lights; that is rare enough to be a sure value."
I think that I might hug Nancy when I see her.
"We don't have much time so listen carefully to what I'm about to say. Regardless of the fact that you're off on the wrong start; this week-end is all about trying not to die at the words of my mother."
"Oh good and here I thought you were about to say this week-end is all about having some fun," I hear myself say.
"I repeat, we don't have much time and there's a lot to process," he chastises me. "This is a very cruel, perverted and tough game and my mother is the undefeated master; she makes grown people cry," he goes on. "The first thine you need to understand is that you're on your own, this is your fight; so don't flinch, don't back out, first sign of weakness and you're done, she will break you like a toothpick given the chance. There might be moments when you think she has used all her ammunition, don't kid yourself. It only means she's taking the game up a notch. Again, you're on your own, so there's no need to look at Cath or Nancy, or Jude or Cooper or me, none of us will provide help because if we do it'll be worse. It's all about you, this is your fight," he repeats.
My stomach is lurching and I think I might lose my lunch at any second.
"You make your mother sound like such a lovely woman," I reply breathlessly. Panic is the master of me right now, so much I'm contemplating jumping out of the car while it's still moving.
"Dragons are lovely, Sara. My mother is the dreaded beast coming straight out of the bowels of hell when it comes to test our partners. You keep your cards close to your chest, and choose carefully every moment of retaliation, too soon and you'll bite the dust."
Maybe he's just pulling my leg. That's it, he's winding me up and as soon as we get back to the house everything will be joyful and easy.
"Right now, you're thinking I'm probably overdramatizing everything or playing a prank on you," he waits to stop at a red light to turn to me. "I'm not, on both account," he says looking at me dead in the eyes.
Breathe, I need to breathe…
"I just wanted to give you the heads up, so you can brace yourself."
I think I'm going to be sick…
"Thanks," I manage to say. "I guess."
I'd like to say that the afternoon turns into a hug fest. There are laughter as long as I'm interacting with the kids or Catherine's sibling, but I found out that Byron was not exaggerating. At all.
In fact his warning seems tame compare to the real thing now. Mrs Flynn is quick and so skilful by the time I understand that I've been knock out, I'm already facing another hit. I play smart and make sure I'm always surrounded; I can hardly keep up with people around so a one-on-one is out of the question.
I'm relieved when we call it a day and I'm alone with Catherine in the safety of her room.
"Come here," she pulls me to her so my head is resting on her chest, she starts caressing my head in a soothing motion. "I'm sorry," she whispers softly. "I never meant for things to go this way."
"It's alright," I assure her. It's draining, truth to be told, mostly because I'm constantly on alert, her mother is very good at delivering kicks from my blind sides. I don't want Catherine to worry about it though, or to worry that I'll run because her mother is trying to wear me out.
I take comfort into our embrace, letting go of all the tension of this long, tedious Friday. I fall asleep under Catherine touch.
The next day I realize that yesterday was just a warm up to Catherine's mother; things get serious as one of the first things she does is casting me aside, and I'm not being paranoid.
Case in point, as it turns out Cooper brought his girlfriend, so technically Karen – that's the girlfriend's name – and I were on the same boat, but she got welcome on the firm ground quickly. I do suppose that not being caught half dressed and fooling around helped, but the fact is that Catherine's mother gives Karen 'a please, call me Lilly, honey' this morning, whereas I didn't get that pass, nope I have to stay formal.
Lilly all but ignores me when we are alone together, and when we're not she makes it look like it was painful for her to talk to me; according to her standards I don't do anything right, a fact that she stresses every chance she gets; then there are the so-subtle-you-need-a-few-seconds-to-catch-up remarks; the inquisition in form of snide, sneaky questions that seems inconspicuous but are in fact nuclear bombs to mess with my mind or judge me. In short, Lilly Flynn has mastered the craft of mind fuck to a degree so high I have a certain admiration for her.
I never thought that the constant humiliation conga my father put me through would come in handy one day, as it is I have a thick skin, enough to get through this day calmly. I stand my ground though and act like it doesn't reach me, but in all honesty it's taking its toll on me.
Here's the thing, a tiny part of me thinks that she's taking a twisted pleasure trying to make me squirm under her unflinching attitude, but where she departs from my father is that I genuinely think it's just her mother instincts kicking in, mama bear power turned up to eleven.
Byron wasn't kidding when he said that I was on my own. It's not by design though, because to their credit they do try to stir the focus off me or make their mother back off a bit, but in those moments Lilly miraculously turns deaf or simply scold them and then makes sure to toughen her game with me.
The afternoon is actually pleasant because I spend most of it playing with Lindsey, Nancy's boys and their cousins; running around with them gives me a good opportunity to get rid of the tension Lilly puts on my shoulders.
After three hours of running around like mad, the children and I are glad to see Byron joining us with some ice tea. Lindsey and her cousins drain their glasses in a fraction of second before going back to play, I allow myself a longer pause and joke around with Byron.
My battle of will with Lilly aside, I found out that I get along very well with Catherine's siblings. They all have very different personalities but they all complement each other. They're constantly teasing one another, much like my own siblings and I.
They have accepted me easily, as Byron had mentioned Nancy's green light was enough for them, that didn't stop each of the boys to give me the 'break Catherine's heart and we'll break your neck' speech at one moment or another.
"Sara, come on we need help!" Lindsey calls after me.
"I got to go," I inform Byron.
"Thirty minutes, then you all have to come back, so you can freshen up before we all do something together."
I wave my hand as a sign that I heard him and jog back to the children, and work myself out even stronger than before trying to numb that feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach.
Once we're done playing outside that the children had a snack and freshened up we play a game of Pictionary. When dinner comes, Lilly puts me yet again on the spotlight regarding some discussions I have with her grandchildren and some things or another. I take it silently and never lose the grin plastered on my face.
I decide to take a break on my own when people are trying to decide what movie to watch or game to play for the rest of the evening.
I hear the door sliding open behind me and I grin thinking that Cath has joined me, but my grin vanishes when I notice Lilly walking out of the house.
There's a long silence during which I'm trying to come up with something to say but Lilly beats me to it. "Lets drop pretences and talk openly," she declares and I simply nod in assent. "You seem like a good girl, smart and well educated."
I chuckle inwardly, this is a dismissing line if I know one. "You don't approve of me," I finish for her.
"I don't," she confirms unnecessarily. "I can see why someone would enjoy your company, but I know what my daughter needs and you're not it."
At least that deserves to be clear.
"Putting aside the fact that I've seen my daughter upset because of you more than I can recall during the past few years, there's something about you just doesn't sit well with me. I don't believe you are completely truthful with Catherine, I don't believe you are a good influence on my granddaughter, or that you could fulfil any role in their lives; I don't think you're good enough for them. I understand that everything is new and perfect and fun at the time, but if you know what's best then you'll walk away before anyone gets hurt."
Thank goodness she's mincing her words, I bitterly joke in my mind.
Right, the gloves are off then. Surprisingly enough, her words don't affect me the way she intended them to.
"You're right, I'm not good enough," I confirm. "I have baggage and I have made mistakes in the past, but then again who doesn't?" I speak with a very calm voice. "You're a sound woman and I'm sure you do know what's best for your children. I respect the opinion you have of me."
I'm completely honest on that point. I disagree with her opinion, but I respect it, after all everyone is entitled to their own views.
"However, I don't value it," I add after a pause. "There's nothing you can do or say that will deter me from being with your daughter. I care about her deeply and my feelings are developing steadily into something more. I might not be the right person for her, for them really, as you put it, but I can assure you that everyday I do my best to get closer to that ideal, and I have no intention to stop. Therefore, until Catherine tells me that she doesn't want to have anything to do with me anymore, I'm afraid you'll have to compose with me as a part of the scenery."
We're staring at each other and it looks like she has swallowed several lemons at the same time. "With all due respect, Ma'am, you have yet to give me a chance and to know me. However, since I'm here to stay there's plenty of time to remedy that."
I nod to her curtly and walk back inside, not having anything left to say. The others are still debating about what to do, when they see me, they expose the different choices and decide to let me make the call for the evening.
I kiss Catherine softly after opting for a board game. She's surprised but smiles nonetheless. I've decided to throw caution to the wind, I held myself from displaying affection to Cath all day not wanting to give her mother any more reason not to like me. Now, that I know for a fact that she doesn't like me regardless of what I do, I indulge myself in little display of affection.
I've never been a fan of PDA, liking my personal space and not enjoying constant physical contact with my partners; with Catherine, however, much like with everything else, I've come to appreciate it. I seldom initiate the contact but it matters every single time I do.
When we call it a night, and we are in the confines of Catherine's bedroom, even though I felt drained when we came upstairs, I'm finding myself lost in an intense make out session with Catherine.
"Sar…" she breathes out my name. "Wait we…" then moans, distracted when I nibble on that spot she likes behind her ear. "God…" she pants then grabs my face to bring our lips together for a passionate kiss. She bites my bottom lip and buckle her hips but then breaks away from my lips to kiss my jaw.
She manages to get back on her first thought and rips her mouth from my skin. "My mom…is only three doors down."
Those words penetrate my haze with the sharpness of a knife. "Right… that is geographically too close," I remark, trying to get my breath under control.
"Yeah," she chuckles.
I kiss her again, enjoying the touch, the closeness and the desire radiating from each of my pores, then pull back. "I think I've used all my 'get caught with the daughter' credit with her," I joke.
"Yeah… It's just a rain check though."
"You really have fantasies about this place, eh?"
She laughs softly. "You have no idea."
I kiss her tenderly then change position so that she's holding me to her.
"I know my mother can be harsh…"
"She's just doing her job," I cut her off. I don't want to think about her mother right now, not when I'm lying in her arms.
"I'm glad you came," she kisses my crown. "And even more that you stayed."
For the first time I realize that this week-end might be just as emotionally weary for her as it is for me. Thinking back about Byron's warning, I can only guess that the one before me didn't stick around after the first confrontation with her mother, I don't think anyone can blame them.
I lift my head so I can look at her. "Where else would I go?" I smirk then kiss her worries away.
Two hours later Catherine is asleep but I can't quiet my mind enough to travel with her on the realm of Morpheus. I extract myself from our embrace; watch her automatically reaching out for me ending clutching my pillow. I exit her room and go downstairs.
I was so caught up in my own world that I didn't the faint glow coming from the darken kitchen until I walked in and almost jumped out of my skin facing Byron who quickly grabbed the top of his laptop closing it hastily as if caught doing something bad.
"Oh geez, you scared me," he whispers, obviously shaken.
There's an awkward silence where I wonder what I interrupted but at the same time dread the answer, and the guilty look on his face isn't helping. I can't decide if I should bolt back to Catherine's bedroom or just play it cool like everything was normal. Byron saves me from my inner debate.
"Do you want some milk?" he asks, choosing the 'nothing out of the ordinary just happened' approach and I go along to diffuse the awkwardness.
"Sure." I step further into the kitchen and try not to stare at his laptop or let my mind come up with what was running on it when I came in.
"There you go, come on," he hands me a warm mug then makes a move with his head to invite me on the back porch. "What kept you up?" he queries after a moment.
I sigh.
My last confrontation with Lilly has been slowly but surely eating at me; funny how even when she's not the one with the upper hand I still end up being the one with a knee down. I stood up to her and basically told her that she could shove her opinion of me right back where it came from, and that she just had to suck it up regarding me dating Catherine.
I was just being honest and I might add that I stayed very polite about the whole thing. On the moment I felt exhilarated because I finally took the upper hand at her own game. Afterward though, when everything settled back in I realized that maybe my moment of bravery could have more consequences than I can fathom. I mean, she could just start to play the devil on Catherine's shoulder and make her break up with me; whatever happens next may damage Catherine's relationship with her mother, and Catherine's a family person so if that happens then that would to some extend damage our relationship leading to an eventual break up.
On and on my mind went once I realized what I had done. On the other hand, I couldn't just take that last blow without saying something.
"I couldn't decide how many pet dragons I wanted to adopt," I reply with wit, hoping he'll get the reference.
A chortle erupts from the depth of his throat. "What's the ball park figure?"
"I reckon I could handle a dozen at a time, easy," I reply with a pout.
"My mother has always known how to be a great motivator," he jokes.
"Tell me about it," I chuckle along with him. I debate for a second or two whether or not I should ask my next question.
"You know, in the end you're the one calling the shots," he states almost as if he had read my mind. "It's up to you whether people are right about you or not," he shrugs.
I grin a bit, maybe that's all I needed to hear right now. "What kept you up?" I return his question.
"Work… in a way. I suppose you probably get that too sometimes, you see gruesome stuffs day in, day out; every now and then your brain decides to gives nice little flashbacks."
Byron is a fire-fighter, and I can only imagine that he deals with as many dead bodies as we do.
"How do you deal?" he asks.
"Music, I like to get lost in music. I have vinyl records, there's nothing better for a great sound."
"Impressive," he nods with an admiring pout.
"What about you?"
He scrutinizes me for a moment then sighs. "Can I trust you to keep a secret?"
"I'm a tomb," I affirm.
He guides us back to the kitchen, drags a chair next to the one he was first occupying and invites me to sit next to him. We're both facing his closed laptop. I'm almost tempted to tell him that I don't want to know after all, but I don't say anything.
"Here goes nothing then," he press a key and his laptop comes back to life and I have to slap my fingers against my lips to contain a sudden laughter when a frozen frame of the movie he was watching comes on the screen.
I need a few seconds to control my grin and trying to be serious. I clear my throat. "So you guys are part of… a closet fan club or something?"
"Ugh…" he hangs his head. "My sis sold us out, didn't she?"
"Hey, to each their own haven," I point out. "Who I am to judge? You're entitled to Hakuna Matata your way to your happy place," I barely smother my giggle.
"It's good," he tries to defend. "I mean you have to at least admit that."
"That's a fair point."
"Want to finish watching it with me?"
"Let's do it, Simba."
"Oh, shut up."
I have to admit that when I go back to bed forty-five minutes later, I do feel like I didn't have any worries in life.
The next day, Lilly completely ignores me, I don't mind to be honest because it means no mind games, no reproaches, no remarks; I get to just enjoy the day. Everything goes by quickly and soon it's time for Lilly to go, I watch her saying goodbye to all of her children, then she comes to face me, her green eyes impenetrable.
"It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Flynn. Thank you, for having me over," I salute her formally, extending my hand in her direction.
She stares at my hand but makes no move to take it, eventually I drop it. She looks back at my eyes, still with an expression of utter indifference. "Lilly," she finally speaks. "Call me Lilly," she adds before turning away. "Don't be too long now Cooper, you know how I don't like to rush my way into the airport," she says, then exits the house.
I blink slowly, slack jawed, trying to wrap my head around the last ten seconds. I'm taken out of my daze by a tentative poke on my cheek, I look at Cooper with a frown of confusion.
"Yup, she's real," he states before cautiously stepping away from me.
I notice that they are all looking at me with weird faces, like a third eye had sprouted on my forehead. "What?" I query with apprehension.
"Personally, I'm waiting for you to give birth to a unicorn," Byron replies.
"I, for m part, was betting on gold coins falling out of her ass, but the unicorn works just fine… any moment now," Jude follows.
"Uh, excuse me, what?" I'm at a loss to say the least.
"Our mother wants you to call her Lilly," Nancy offers as a way of explaining. "Who are you?"
"She told Karen, to call her Lilly," I point out.
"Yeah but…that's different," Cath trails off. "I have to agree with them," she snorts. "My mother, never, and I do mean never approved of any of my female lovers. She tolerated them, but that was it. She understands that I would like a taste of the sweet flavour as she says but it's not a respectable thing when it comes to family, at least according to her," she elaborates. "For her to give her a pass to call her Lilly… well…she might as well have given you her blessing to marry me."
Oh.
Don't freak out, don't freak out, don't freak out, don't…
Oh well…
Fuck.
The movie Sara and Byron are watching is The Lion King
Alright, now that this is out of the way i shall come back tomorrow (hopefully) with more, focusing on the ladies again.
Thanks for reading
