Hello strangers!
I managed to finish another chapter and I'm very happy with how it turned out! I also managed to write out something like a 'plot', it's kind of a small summary of what I intend to write for each chapter and I feel like it helped me a lot in terms of 'sticking to coherency'. I feel like I really needed that now that I got quite a bit into the story.
Anyway, for now Happy reading!
Warning! The first part (Annie's pov) has quite a dark theme so if that's something you experience difficulty with- please skip it!
Chapter 7. Revelations
Annie's pov:
A long time ago, she remembered to have longed for warmth… And she would have been okay with any sources of warmth really. Desperation had always been at an all time high in those horrid quiet moments of hers. Desperate to relieve some of the numbness hollowing out her chest- to feel something. Anything.
But on nights like these, where the heat of the Arizona dessert stifled out any hope of her catching some much needed rest, she foolishly found herself wished for the opposite. But then again this wasn't just warm. Warmth was comforting. It was being hugged by a loved one, it was curling up on the couch with a shit tone of blankets and being sat on by an especially picky cat. Heat was all consuming. Burning. And violent in the way it seemingly makes one experience every little sensation at ones. Heat was dizzying and simply too much.
So no, Annie didn't like extreme weather conditions. She missed the days where she could just step out of the house during mid-day and feel the sun's warmth glowing on her skin whilst a gentle breeze danced with the hems of her dress. She couldn't even recall if she had ever experience that in this new life of hers. Here is Arizona the sun scorched it's presence onto whatever sliver of skin she dared to bare. And in Forks there wasn't even a sun to bask in. Even the 'sunny' beach trips to La Push had been perpetually grey. She missed the benevolence of nature- especially the one she once found in the comfort of her aunt's thriving backyard.
She missed the sweet taste of homemade honey in her tea and the delicate perfume of wild flowers in the air.
Annie let out a long and strained breath. A sound much softer than the usual ruckus that came from the closely city- and yet Annie strangely found her ears stuffed with nothing but her own breathing. Was it always this loud? It was almost offensive how it shut out the white sound surrounding her. Making her aware that she was, in fact, a person. And not just something vaguely abstract. It had been the one thing she'd appreciated about her death- the sheer nothingness that she remembered being in the in-between. It had been oddly pleasant and peaceful to simply not exist and be everything at the same time… If not a little bit alarming at first.
"I know you never liked it when I talked about it." It was a rather dark topic after all. And Kurt tended to spiral in his worry whenever she brought it up. He didn't understand it. And a part of her could only be thankful that he never did grasp what she meant with it. She supposed that he was just more careful with that kind of stuff then she was, even if unknowingly so- or perhaps he was simply more afraid to reach that far into the dark and unpleasant places that most other people also seem to shy away from…
Her aunty understood though. And she wore that awareness almost regally like one would a flowing cloak- with her shoulders strong and squared and gracefully light steps. Her head held high and her eyes unwavering. A sight worth admiring. She could only hope that, one day, she too would walk through life the way her aunty had done… But as she lay restlessly on the old wooden lawn chair on the back porch of their suburban home on the outskirts of Phoenix, her limbs feeling weak and a little too heavy for someone her 'age'… Annie seriously doubted that she would manage to obtain such a stable mindset as such in the next couple of lifetimes of hers…Let alone this one.
"I miss talking with you like this though." He'd always been the one to listen to her- even when he couldn't for the life of him figure out a way to fix whatever troubled her or when she had little to nothing to say. He'd listen to her prattle on about whatever was on her mind. Whether it be on her deteriorating mental state, yet another 'special' interest she'd gotten into or even whatever trouble her cats had gotten into in the weeks past. Sometimes they'd sit for hours, dumping whatever they had going on onto the other while working on a project together or doing their separated thing.
She could still remember the first time she'd taken him for an 'adventure' in the middle of the night- He'd been incredible grumpy, expectedly so really, as she'd interrupted his beauty sleep. They'd gone to that one lonesome billboard just off of the highway. The one which she visited multiple times earlier that week to properly shut off the lights and get a feel for the patrolling police cars. She'd made him join her act of artistic vandalism- mostly so that they could cross it off of their bucket list but without them only drawing something stupid like a spray painted smiley below a low hanging bridge just to pass it off as a job well done. They'd spend the entire night with cold hands and drinking lukewarm coffee, their person slowly becoming more and more covered in colourful splatters of paint… She couldn't quite recall what they'd talked about back then- as many important conversations as such followed in the years after. But it was easily one of her favorite moments together as it truly did solidified their friendship with one another.
"Aunty… She gets me differently, I think. She just knows what I talk about sometimes because she was like that too when she was younger… But you- you experience everything with me. You grew up with me and helped me become a better version of myself… The kind of person which I never even dared to imagine myself becoming-" Annie snorted quietly, a noise of meager amusement. "Middle-aged for one... Sorry, sorry, I know you hate it when I make jokes like that…But it's just so hard to keep a level head nowadays, especially so considering that there's nobody around anymore to scold me for my bad posture…"
Annie let out another sigh as she turned her sight away from the moon and the handful of stars shimmering in the darkness above- she'd always thought it a shame how the light of the bigger cities polluted the night sky but in the moment couldn't help the feeling of nostalgia. New York City had the same night lights. She turned her head towards the lawn chair to her right and felt the hollow fester in her chest when a small set of shiny black buttons greeted her instead of the glasz pair of eyes she hoped to see. The dolls barely resembled the people they represented but even with the restless practice of her dexterity, she still lacked the necessary skill to draw the pictures she so desperately needed to get out of her head and see before her eyes.
"I-" Annie pathetical attempted to clear the lump that shot into her throat, her eyes fluttering and darting back to the familiar sight of the stars above her. "I think it's getting bad again… I keep seeing faces in the crowds that I know can't be there. And sometimes I think that I hear…That I hear little starfire crying and- and I can't… I-I need to talk to aunty or- or another family member, but I haven't met anyone like me since-" A sob escaped her without her permission, it wreaked havoc through her being and Annie clenched her fingers almost painfully around the ends of the lawn chair's armrests to keep her from falling entirely off of the point of no return. "I-… I miss everyone and I m-miss everything. How am..? H-how am I supposed to this? How many more..?"
Another sob and Annie cursed the desert heat that clung to her sweaty skin and filled her lungs with barely satisfactory air. She hated how it encompassed her being, making her feel claustrophobic even though she was practically in the middle of a sandy plane, a sky filled with open air mocking her from above. She never once experienced trouble with that particular disorder before. But laying there in that lawn chair, weak boned, surrounded by darkness and barely able to take in a breathe- Annie's overactive mind didn't have a lot of issue imagining what it would be like for her to wake up in an enclosed coffin.
Bella's pov:
A centralized pain blooming on the side of her head oddly enough woke her before the loud music did. Her eyelids fluttered in their exhaustion only to squeeze shut again as yet another bump in the road rocked her head back into the glass window. Another pulse of pain shot through her newly formed bump and Bella sucked in a gasp of air, sluggishly moving herself upright and gingerly cradled the side of her head in the hopes to ease away the pain.
It took her all but a second to realize that she was in a moving car- a familiar sight, really. As her mom tended to take both her and her younger sister on little fieldtrips around the desert- even if they were tight in cash. There was always something for her excitable mother to find in straying advertisements around the city… A new monument to see, a time sensitive attraction or event… But normally she would remember getting into the car before they headed out on their next 'adventure'. As it was, Bella was pretty sure that she'd gone to sleep in her own bed the night before too…
In the front seat of the car, her mom swayed gleefully to the peppy beats of some pop idol Bella vaguely recognizes but couldn't for the life of her name. Next to her mother, in the passenger seat sat another woman- this one Bella didn't know. Though knowing her mother's habits of befriending every single person she seemed to come in contact with, Bella didn't think it too farfetched to assume that her mom offered the woman a ride to whatever place she was driving them. Bella warily eyed the other woman for a bit, wondering if this new person would turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing…
"Ooh! This is my jam!" The strange woman suddenly exclaimed just as the radio went to the next song- and Bella felt her worry melt away as the two adults started to shimmy, laugh and sing along with the rapper Bella definitely didn't know and could already tell she wouldn't like his music off either. The stranger's personality was a spitting image of her mother's- so Bella reasoned that she must have come on this little field trip with them for a good time.
Huffing, Bella released the side of her head, picked up the lukewarm water bottle out of the little pouch behind the passenger's seat and settled herself back against the warm fabric cushions of the back seat. She sipped idly from the water with little hope of it easing off the heat- it never really helped as much as fanning herself did but she doubted that her mom minded to bring their little plastic fans that they'd bought in china town along and well… Desperate means called for desperate measurements.
Looking around a bit more, Bella wasn't at all surprised to find Annie's form sleeping next to her- laying horizontally on the backseat with one of her self-made dolls clutched in the crock of her arm and dressed haphazardly in an outfit Bella was pretty sure existed partly out of a pajama top… Feeling drained, Bella looked down at her own clothes and sighed her exasperation as she noted how she luckily was not wearing any sleepwear but also wasn't wearing any of her own clothes. Her mom must have been in a real hurry to get them out of the house if she hadn't even been bothered to have them dress themselves. It just seemed like such an effort to go through, only for them to go on another field trip… unless, this wasn't just another field trip.
Bella frown deepened and she sent a silent stink eye towards her mother- she hated surprises. Surprises meant that there was something special going on. And last time she checked, it was not one of their birthdays nor was it an national holiday of sorts. So whatever her mom had planned probably wasn't anything that could be done on any other day- like going on hikes on a particular pretty desert trail or checking out a little marketplace downtown. This meant that whatever this trip was about was most likely going to cost them money.
Money they could be using on more important things like food, gas, school supplies or even set aside for emergencies.
Money they didn't have to spend.
Bella knew better than to complain though- out loud that is. Her mother, though someone she cared about more than anyone else in the world, tended to do what she wanted regardless of what anyone else thought. It was just easier to go along in her current than try to fight against it. The last time Annie and she refused to comply with their mother's desire to skip town, she'd mopped around for the entirety of a week. And it probably would have been longer if Annie hadn't started that fight… The memory still unsettled Bella in ways she couldn't explain. It had been the first time she'd seen her little sister that angry. And what was even scarier was that their mom had actually listen to some degree because after that week it had been close to another month or so before their mom had made another suggesting for them to go on another daytrip.
Bella let her eyes trail warily over the sleeping form of her sister. It had been odd to experience her sister yell at their mother back then- her little sister always seemed to have a better understanding of things, something Bella begrudgingly admitted to herself. Annie tended to catch onto certain things faster- despite the fact that she didn't do as well in school as Bella did… She didn't understand it. Didn't know how her younger sister, who only ever seemed to play around with those dolls of hers- who was much more childish than Bella was- could backtalk their mother like she'd done.
It had been rude for one. Extremely so. And even though Bella secretly appreciated that Annie had managed to talk their mother down from yet another trip to waste their limited money on- there was just something wrong with what happened during that fight. Something Bella had trouble putting her finger on- which honestly only made it worse. All she really knew was that she hated how upset her mother had gotten afterwards- even if she was happy to have stayed home for once. Annie shouldn't have raised her voice regardless. Shouldn't have known how to talk their mother into standing down- in relenting. And Bella worried that, with time, she wouldn't just have one overly excitable mull to worry about. What if Annie grew up just like their mom did? What if they'd both wished to go to different things and they'd fight again? Would Bella have to listen to the two people she loves most yell at each other? Would she have to do so over and over and ov-
Bella bit her lower lip in frustration, the water bottle in her hand creaked as she unknowingly squeezed it in her hand. She didn't like that. Not at all. Annie shouldn't have yelled at their mom in the first place- even if Bella agreed that someone had to stop their mother from wasting more money than they had to spend. It shouldn't have been Annie. Brown eyes glared down at the younger Swan sister as the girl slept on, the brown doll with the blonde 'braids' and expressionless black button eyes clutched tightly against her little chest.
Bella was the oldest- the most responsible. The one who talked the easiest to adults and knew how to be polite, even when she didn't want to be and who was the smartest between the two. But for some reason, Annie didn't seem to be aware of that. Surely her little sister knew that she wasn't as good as Bella at talking to people? She didn't have friends in, or out, of school- always following Bella around the playground even if she didn't always actively play along... And Bella didn't mind it- really, she didn't. She loved her little sister, even if Annie wasn't the best playmate and tended to get weirdly moody. Bella knew by now that Annie simply struggled to express herself…
Only that wasn't quite true, was it? Bella momentarily narrowed her eyes at her little sister again, though this time in confusion before turning her gaze away and settling it on the half empty water bottle in her hands. She started to fiddle with the ridges in the transparent plastic. She didn't understand it- didn't understand why her little sister was so quiet and- and… blank, most of the time. She was pretty sure that it wasn't something she did. Or something their mother did. Maybe Annie was just… like that. Or maybe her little sister just didn't know what else she was supposed to be doing.
Thoughtfully, Bella blinked as her hands stilled. Last summer, Bella and Annie had spend a lot more time than usual with the Black family in La Push since dad had been a little busy patrolling the nearby highways- Bella wasn't sure what could possibly happen in Forks, of all places, for their dad to be that busy for almost a month straight… Regardless, Bella had spent a lot of time around Rebecca and Rachel because of it. And it had been eye opening- sort of- to sit with them as they went about their way clearing out their shared closet. Bella had regretted not going along with Jake's plan to go make a club house out of the drift wood on the beach- but it had been raining and Bella really didn't want to catch another cold again.
So Bella had stayed with the women of the Black family in their little home- getting a front row seat to the appalling spectacle of the two pre-pubescent girls fighting over what clothes were of who and what they were okay with sharing… In the end, neither were okay with sharing and despite the fact that she didn't quite understand what the big deal was- after all Annie and her also shared one closet and neither had any problems sharing clothes. Most times, they just disliked some articles which then wordlessly were made the property of the other… But the memory clicked and Bella now kind of thought to understand what was wrong with Annie.
Her little sister didn't know who she was yet. Because they shared everything and she's always following Bella around, so obviously she doesn't know yet that they were their own person. Bella already knew this, of course she did, she wasn't the oldest for nothing. It was clear that the two of them had some growing up to do. After all, Rebecca and Rachel were twins too and way older than them. So they had to know how to fix this. And Annie and her could just skip all the dumb unnecessary fighting now too, because the Black twins had already done that enough for the lot of them. And the only thing that Bella could say had actually done those two some good was them becoming their own people.
What's even better was that she and Annie had already started. Once more, she glanced back down at the doll in little sister's arms and Bella let out a quiet huff of amusement. She wasn't even aware of it, but Annie could already do things Bella could not and- more importantly, didn't even want to be able to do. Additionally, Bella was also noticeable more intelligent if their grades in school were anything to go by so obviously Bella too had things that Annie couldn't do.
All that was left to do was for Bella to make her little sister aware of these differences and then the both of the will be all okay. No yelling matches needed.
Brandon's pov:
'How did his evening turned into this?'
He'd lost count of how many times he'd ask himself that exact question, yet the answer still evaded him and his coworker was still soaking up his shirt with gross body fluids. This wasn't how he'd imagined his Saturday night to go- not by a long shot. He was supposed to be relaxing on his couch with a glass of iced coke in his hand, robed in his most comfortable pair of sweats and the new remake of 'Scream' playing out on his television screen. It was supposed to be a 'Brandon night-in'. Something private and close to holy in his humble opinion. It wasn't a 'come bother Brandon' kind of night. Those were reserved for Cynthia and Cynthia alone because somehow that woman had a hidden gift for knowing when Brandon felt the slightest bit charitable.
Renée wasn't such an exception. And the only reason why he hadn't pushed her off of him and out of the door yet was because he just lacked the social skills needed to properly deal with a bawling woman. So he'd resolved to simply let her cry herself out whilst he continued to awkwardly pat at her back. The toddlers that he works with during his day job sometimes got weepy like this- though obviously they didn't sound half as drunk during their nonsensical babbling and usually it only took them a few minutes before they ceased their crying and set their attention on something else.
But Renée had already been crying for the better part of half an hour and still wasn't showing any sign of stopping anytime soon… Though he considered it a victory when the woman finally- finally- relented her hold on his person and seemingly settled to soak one of his couch pillows instead. It was progress, he supposed though he didn't like it. With the way this entire interaction was going it seemed to be more and more likely for his usually preppy coworker to sleep over on his couch- the sight of her all but melting into the soft pillows irked him to no end. What does a guy got to do to have a night to himself?
He sighed his annoyance as he marched himself into the kitchen to gather the woman a glass of water.
He held it out in front of her once he returned and the woman stuffily thanked him before she started downing it.
"Slow down," Brandon told her monotonous, "you're going to choke if you keep that up." He wasn't actually sure if that ever even happened to people but it was just something he tended to say to his kids to get them to calm down. This was starting to become familiar ground. Giving a kid something to drink was a 'calm down' technique he learned from one of his dorm mates during college. Dave had been the older brother in his family- always the one to look after the younger siblings whenever their parents weren't home. And apparently he'd picked up a lot of useful things over the years- like how nobody could bawl their eyes out and drink something at the same time… Though it had been weird for Brandon to visualize his 'prone to bad choices' friend from college to be the kind of person parents entrusted to look after their kids. There was a reason why the dude didn't obtain his credentials. But Brandon supposed that the whole 'moving out of his childhood home' thing must have been freeing for the guy…
Either way, the drink was doing its trick and his overly emotional coworker slowly but surely seemed to ease out of her previous hysteria. Still stuttering in her breath every now and again but at least she wasn't full on crying anymore.
"Now…" Brandon started carefully, and settled himself on the other side of the couch- Mindfully, at a bit of a distance to not encourage Renée to cling onto him again in the off chance that she were to fall back into her more emotional state. "I understood about 5 percent of what you were saying earlier. Can you… start again?"
"I-I met this guy at the grocery store a-and we started dating about two months ago... Honestly the sweetest man alive! He's attentive to me and he even didn't seem to mind spending time with the girls… J-just, he was just such a good guy, you know?"
"Alright." Brandon noted and furrowed his brown as he noted the 'was' in her last sentence, "so what happened?"
Renée sniffed loudly and scrunched up her face a little as she seemingly steeled herself, "Annie-" Brandon felt the muscles in his back tense up, though he wasn't entirely sure if it was because of the sudden anger resounding in Renée's voice or the fact that the name of the demon child was vocalized. It had been years since he'd last heard of her, as it had been quite a while since she was last in his classroom… And to be honest, he'd been kind of hoping that that was also the last he'd ever see or hear from the she-devil. The universe clearly had it out for him.
"-called the p-police on him. Can you believe it?" He can. "She got him arrested and questioned for child abuse! It's ridiculous; honestly, I've seen Henry interact with the girls. Even had to help him through his nerves before he got to meet them officially since he got so insecure about them liking him- and God, I can't even blame him for how much he seems to be avoiding me now… I just don't understand how Annie could have gotten it in her heard that that was the way to deal with her dislike for Henry." Then Renée's scoffed and threw the pillow from her lap as her hands accompanied her story in wild gestures. "Actually, Charlie probably taught them to do that- No scratch that, he definitely did. And- Wait, hold on, did he… plan this? Did he tell Annie to-? Oh my- I can't believe-!"
"Uh, Renée? Renée." Brandon called out loudly, grasping a hand tightly onto his coworkers shoulder and Renée clammed her mouth shut as if to show that she had a handle on herself but her jaw remained clenched in unchecked anger and defiance. "Okay, you're starting to spiral again… Just hold on for a second, okay? You went pretty fast just now, I couldn't really follow…"
Renée huffed out through her nose, "Sorry, I didn't mean to- I just… the whole situation is so-"
"Messy?" Brandon filled in dryly, "Yeah, I got that much… So Annie called the police and Henry got arrested... But was there actually anything going on there or..?"
"Henry would never!" Renée exclaimed with near over spilling confidence, "You know how my girls are- they don't- Well, Annie doesn't really 'socialize' like normal children do, you know?"
Mentally, Brandon found himself agreeing almost instantly with woman next to him- Annie was a weird fucking kid. He would know. He'd spent up to two years with the little girl- unwillingly, but as it was standard for the younger classes to remain with the same teacher for a while to help them out with the whole 'get used to a daily school schedule' thing… Yeah, so he got saddled up with the demon child for an additional year- which was long enough for Brandon to feel assured claiming that he knew the kid pretty well. Annie, for instance, was as observant as she was unsettling… which meant a lot.
Brandon pause.
Child abuse claims were no joke. And children, especially kids this young, usually tended to not understand- well, weren't mentally developed enough to know why certain behaviors of others were odd or telling of certain things. But they saw plenty. Which is why, in the usual cases where kids came to the authorities with a story, they tended to be treated as unobscured witnesses.
Wariness narrowed Brandon's eyes as he regarded the woman next to him. He didn't know Renée well. He tended to filter his words and actions in the workplace since there were usually quite a number of impressionable kids around on the school grounds. So he'd assume she'd do the same. Though what he did recall seeing of Renée during those times didn't differ much from what he'd seen of her when Cynthia dragged him along for a night out. Except for, you know, not being at least a little bit tipsy.
Renée was fun loving, energetic and animated. Everything a child could possible love in a teacher. But she was also forgetful and not always the most responsible if he were to be brutally honest. It wasn't exactly an odd sight for him or the other teachers to see Renée rummaging around the teachers' lounge looking for some paperwork that she lost or neglected. Worksheets she'd made the previous week that she misplaced or some 'still to be filled in' drawings that she meant to use for the kids so that they had something to gift their parents for the holidays… It had happened often enough for Nancy of the administration office to come and scold her personally during their shared lunch break. But Renée hadn't been fazed back then- had simply laughed it off as one of her quirks and claimed that the elderly administrator simply had it out for her from day one.
It was a given that Brandon didn't trust Annie. The little one was sketchy as shit. But he also realized that he couldn't trust Renée to be an impartial narrator either. And this was a serious topic that he shouldn't be messing around with.
"What did Annie dislike about Henry?" He decided to ask- it sounded the least suspicious in his mind. Infinity better than- 'Did your Ex happen to touch one of your daughter's in their no-no places?'
"I don't know!" Renée spat out in frustration, wildly throwing up her hands as if to further bring it home. "I swear, she's just had it out for Henry from the start! She wouldn't hold onto his hand while walking down the side walk. Continuously kept refusing his offers for playtime and she even managed to pull Bella along in her nonsense! She wouldn't let her sister anywhere near him- always just glaring at him as if he'd ripped up one those dolls of hers or something… And then- well, Henry disliked it too, you know? Since he wanted to get along with them for me… He'd even gone ahead and bought them some new toys to smooth things over you know? Like big presents for no reason whatsoever- and what does my littlest girl do? She threw them in the trash! That ungrateful br-" Renée screeched into the pillow then, finding no other way to voice her frustration and Brandon leaned away from the sudden noise.
"Then last week- last week. Oh, it was horrible." Renée seethingly went on. "I'd gone out to talk with one of our neighbour for a bit- I'd borrowed one of her recipe books and anyway- I'd gone out for, maybe half an hour, tops. And what do I come back to? Three police cars on my front law. Three."
"Annie called the police while they were home alone with the guy?" There were a number of questions popping up in Brandon's head simultaneously. "No seriously, what the hell happened? Where was this guy while she was making this call? Where were your girls? Were they hiding in the closet or something?"
Renée turned on him and shakily blew air out of her nose with barely contained rage. "Oh no. From what I've been told, the girls were both in the kitchen- Bella none the wiser, she hadn't even noticed the other two leaving since she was so busy with her new reptile book... And I have no idea what Annie was thinking throughout any of this. But the police found Henry locked up in the bathroom- completely baffled- and in a panic, of course. Since, you know, there was suddenly half a dozen police officers on him and manhandling him into the back of a police car."
"Did they find prove of-?"
"Of course not!" Renée all but shouted, seemingly annoyed that he'd even asked, "There was none of that because nothing ever happened! But he was still arrested and registered as a sex offender because of what my daughter said to the police! Do you have any idea what that poor man has to go through now? He can't even go out to buy milk without someone side eying him! And when I finally tracked him down and tried to apologize he'd practically ran for the hills!"
As Renée continued to spew on about the unfairness of it all, Brandon felt conflicted. The way he was hearing it, it all came down to whether or not Annie was lying about Henry's intentions. Either Annie was more conniving then he'd originally thought- or Renée had willing brought a pedophile into her home, endangering both her children in doing so and was now even defending the guy instead of worrying about the wellbeing of said children.
Here's the kicker though.
Annie, for all her demonic weirdness, had a very normal relationship with her older sister. Bella was the one kid who could always get Annie involved into whatever schoolyard game the other kids were playing at the time. Who could get Annie to break from her robotic routine, to get her hands dirty with finger paints and actually act like a child her age. It was exactly for this reason that Brandon had rewarded the older Swan sister with the 'medal of playtime'- which was really just a folded piece of orange paper in the shape of a star that got tapped to her shirt and kept falling off with the smallest bit of movement- because she was the only one who could get the entire class to get along. In a sense, Bella was Annie's weakness- one which Brandon learned how to abuse to get Annie to stop sporting those creeping dead fish eyes all the time. And whether or not this Henry dude had good intentions or not- the fact remained that Annie felt it unsafe for either her or her sister to be in the presence of the guy.
Brandon couldn't believe that he started this night hoping to cheer on some miscellaneous group of teenagers in their fight against some trashy horror movie trope- only for him to end up siding with the literal devil's spawn instead. God damn it.
He'd have to bring up his coworker's concerning priorities with their principal once Monday came around- someone like this shouldn't be in charge of children… or at least not alone and definitely not without a hefty doze of therapy. Brandon sighed, dragging a hand down his face in his exhaustion. "You… you also said something about a Charles? Who's that?"
"Charlie-" Renée corrected him huffily, "-he's the father of the twins. He's lives up in Washington…"
"And you though he- what exactly? What did he have to do with all of this?"
"Well…" For the first time this night, Renée seemed to be unsure of herself, even a little bit ashamed if the way she refused to look him in the eye was anything to go by. "He's kind of over protective of his girls, I suppose. It comes with the job, I guess- he's a police officer. So it wouldn't surprise me if he taught those two about safety measures and what not. Which- isn't bad. I know. I'm happy the girl know what to do in emergencies. But thing like that aren't meant to be used for something like this either and I just- I just had this thought. It's silly really, I'm not sure why I even… Charlie wouldn't do that."
Renée trailed off as if she was waiting for someone to reassure her- but Brandon, having experience with breaking up fights and getting young children to voice out their issues, let the silence fester until the discomfort made it necessary for Renée to fill it in.
"I never really noticed before, but Charlie sometimes talks with the girls over the phone to catch up- not really sure why, very little happens over at his side I'm sure… I think he calls in every other month or so, or at least that's what he told me. What surprised me though is that it's usually Annie that he's on the phone with. Annie doesn't really… well, you've taught her so I'm sure you know what she's like. She doesn't really talk much. Like Bella I suppose, but less. And those two are pretty much the same back home too. It's a good thing we all like music. You have no idea how much my CD collection has expanded over the years... Anyway- sorry I got side tracked- the point I was trying to make is that Charlie seems to be the exception for Annie since those phone calls sometimes last up to two hours."
"It's normal for a child to miss their parent if they're away." Brandon commented absently. Once again finding himself weirded out at how… normal of a reaction it was. The visual of little Annie animatedly talking to someone over the phone felt foreign to him. But it was the nice kind of outlandish that he was used to getting whenever he'd catch Annie actually playing around with her sister- and being, you know, involved in whatever they were doing. Not the weird- 'I'm just doing this to appease you' kind that she sometimes seemed to fall back to whenever we asked her to put her book down and join the others in nap time.
"Yeah, but both Annie and Bella grew up without him though. I mean, Bella doesn't seem to be bothered with- although, she's always hated talking over the phone so I suppose it makes sense that she wouldn't want to talk with Charlie…" Renée momentarily shook her head as if to clear it off straying thoughts. She seemed to be getting tongue tied more easily now that she wasn't so upset. "I just had this thought that- well, all that talking between Charlie and Annie isn't what's the norm for them, so I thought- maybe… Why would Charlie call so much if not…"
"If not… what?"
"What if he made Annie call the cops on Henry?" Renée gasped out, barely loud enough for a whisper. Barely believing it herself.
Brandon frowned at the woman. He didn't really talk to Renée during work hours. He'd already found his extrovert friend in Cynthia and found that anymore tended to be simply too much- but Cynthia liked Renée. She was a wild fire, she said. Someone even Cynt had trouble keeping up with at times. So it wasn't unheard of for Cynthia to go off on a spiel about what transpired on the last night out whilst the two of them shared a pot of coffee and worked through following week's paperwork. He'd heard about the 'whirlwind' romance in Washington. How Renée had gotten pregnant before she was ready and how she'd taken the twins to life with her at her mother's place once the postnatal depression came in full swing. And you'd think that the father would hold it against Renée for leaving him and taking the children- but Cynthia had sworn up and down that Renée herself had told her that Charles- No, Charlie- had been nothing but supportive. Understandably upset, yes. But still willing to do whatever Renée felt was best for herself and their girls. So whatever this was that Renée was doing- only sounded like grasping at straws to Brandon. "Why in the world would he do that?"
"Well, I mean… Erh, Jealousy?"
"Renée, I barely know you and even I can tell that you don't believe that." Brandon didn't bother to roll his eyes, he was just glad that Renée finally seemed to have calmed down enough to doubt her own nonsense. "I mean, I guess I can see this Charlie person teaching his daughters how to call the emergency number for plenty of reasons. But to manipulate one of his daughters into ruining the life of your new boyfriend? I don't think that's something that actually happens outside of telenovelas."
"It could happen!"
"Do you think that's what happened?"
"…No." Renée crossed her arms in defiance and this time Brandon did roll his eyes. This all felt a little too familiar for him. "But you are still angry at Charlie because..?"
Renée bit onto her lower lip, worrying onto it as her fingers clenched onto her arms and her eyes grew suspiciously wet- "The police called to inform him about the arrest. And then he called me- I've never heard him so angry before. He didn't even let me explain that it was all just a misunderstanding- that Annie had made a mistake. He just believed whatever the cops told him."
"Understandable." Renée instantly shot him a look of betrayal and Brandon quickly went on to explain himself- not wanting her fury to be directed at him at all. Especially not when there was no where left for him to go considering she was already inside his apartment… "He just got quite a scare- wouldn't you be just as upset with him, if not more- if the authorities called and told you that he let someone potentially dangerous near your girls?"
Renée looked as if she very much wanted to disagree with him, except she couldn't- she knew she would be upset too.
"Just give him a few days to cool down before you try and talk to him again-"
"He won't listen-" Renée cut him off, a few tears slipped out in her frustration and Brandon felt himself tense. "I know him well enough to know that. And as if that wasn't bad already, you haven't heard the worst of it yet either- he threatened to appeal the court to have our child custody agreement… thingy altered. He wants me to 'clean up my act'- whatever that means- or he'll make sure to gain full custody of the girls. He- he doesn't think that I'm a good enough parent for the girls. That I'm t-too careless-" A sob broke out of her throat and much to Brandon's horror, the woman reattached herself to his person as she wailed out her despair.
Brandon awkwardly patted her back. He didn't want to be in this situation- didn't know how to comfort someone whom he thought deserved the clash back she'd received. What was he supposed to say to her now? 'I'm glad your daughters have at least one parent to look out for them?', 'You should have gotten yourself and your girls into therapy years ago?' or perhaps 'I don't care about your issues, can you please just take your family drama and let me have my Brandon night-in?' He had to wonder why she'd even come here in the first place. They weren't friends. He barely respected her as a coworker. Cynthia- now Cynthia would probably make a much better option for Renée to unload her problems to- she might even pretend to sympathize with her too.
"Renée, it's not that I want you to leave or anything-" He does. Please just leave and never come back. "But why did you come here? As far as I know we aren't exactly friends- did Cynthia not pick up the phone? Was she not home?"
Renée let out a weak laugh into his shoulder, "No, no I- I went here directly."
Brandon made a humming sound that voiced his confusion.
"Whenever we go out, the girls sometimes talk about you, you know? Me, Cynthia, Mia and Lisa-" He knew the women Renée was talking about- he worked with them longer than she did after all. Had been there friend even longer. Cynthia, he'd known since diapers and Mia actually happened to be another one of his college friends and he met Lisa he through the other two- they were the ones that got her a job at the elementary school after all. "I heard all these stories about how nice and supportive you are to them- how you always have their back. And so I just- I just thought 'hey why not go to Brandon'?"
Goddamn it, why couldn't he just an asshole?
"And they were right!" Renée let out another small wet laugh, "I never thought that having a gay best friend would be this nice! And- well, of course you're Cynt's best friend first- and I wouldn't dare to get in between that-" Wait, since when was he gay? Why did Renée think he was- did Cynthia set this up as a joke? "-that connection you share. It's beautiful really. I've never seen two people from the oppositive sex be that close to one another without- you know-"
Ah. So she just assumed because- Is she actually that stupid?
"People from oppositive sex can be just friends without wanting to fuck each other Renée."
Brandon came back! I love writing in this guy's point of view. Maybe I can manage to squeeze him in at a later point again?
Also, I'd like to point out that yes- Renée went through quite some guys in the past few chapters. Which is sort of understandable since I kind of see this behavior of hers as Renée's way of 'getting over Charlie' and expressing her freedom. Saying that though, I'm gonna make her chill out a bit from now on. Finding a grocery store guy was actually Renée's first attempt at going long term… But aside from that, there is really only so much bullshittery a parent can get away with before the authorities take the kids away from them and I do need Bella and Annie to not be in Forks for a couple years longer… I still consider 'irresponsible' a character trait of Renée though, so I'm sure I'll manage to work that in differently without it immediately being borderline child abuse.
Also for the ones wondering when I'm going to involve the Cullens- It might still be a few chapters. But I have a plan! And they'll get some moments to shine before Annie and Bella move to Forks. Don't u worry.
Next up! Bella views on puberty, Annie hands in her ballet shoes for some competition gloves and what does some random kid in their middle school think about the Swan girls?