A lot of you hate me. I have a feeling that after the next few chapters your feelings won't change that much.
As it turned out, Cheryl had beat him home. But he hadn't really been focused on finding her anyway.
He was still in shock and felt like he had been violently sick; he was covered in a cold sweat and couldn't quite keep still, his fingers trembling slightly as he sat at his dining table. The room seemed to spin around him- it wasn't over with Lillian, it couldn't be- he glanced at the empty seat beside him, hardly daring to believe that she had sat there only a few hours before. Across the table his mother cleared her throat, her eyes slightly narrowed.
"Ash, I don't need to remind you that you're the man of the house."
He turned to his mother and his sister with hollow eyes, trying to pull himself out of his own head to focus on them. Another dull pang slapped him across the face as he noticed Cheryl's bloodshot eyes.
"I've noticed some... changes as of late. And I think it's about time we talked about them." His mother paused, waiting for him to say something. Giving him up as a bad job, she sighed and continued. "I worry about you Ash. I know what it's like to be young... Getting all these wild ideas in your head... Laney came and talked to me the other day."
"Laney?" He croaked.
"Yes, Laney." His mother sighed again. "She overheard Lillian talking to Georgia last week, and the two of them seem to think that you've been considering leaving Bluebell to run off on some sort of... Adventure."
"No, Mom... I mean, Lillian and I talked about it, yeah, but I wasn't really-"
But Jessica hadn't paused, and began to talk over him. "Now, I don't need to tell you what kind of position that would leave your family in. I understand you're young and don't realize how fragile the situation is but... We need you Ash. I need you here and to be committed to our family. So does Cheryl."
At this, his younger sister gave a great sniffle and rushed around the table, climbing into his lap and burrowing her face into his chest. "I don't want you to leave, Ash. Lillian's taking you away!"
He grabbed a pig tail and pulled her back, leaning forward to knock her forehead against his. "Hey, kiddo. Nobody is taking me anywhere." He found his mother's eye. "I'm sorry. It wasn't a serious plan or anything. I just... I just got caught up in a few things."
"So you're staying?" Cheryl sniffed.
"Always, kiddo. And I promise, we'll be playing together more from now on." He felt a pang at the truth behind his words, and tried his best to stay composed as he added a good word on Lillian's behalf. "And Lillian says to say sorry, too. She wants us all to play together sometime."
Cheryl seemed somewhat satisfied as she released herself from his lap, rushing off to bed at her mother's insistence. He waited until Cheryl was well out of ear shot before he turned to Jessica. "You know, you could have been a bit nicer to Lillian while she was here. It isn't her fault I've been such an idiot as of late."
His mother frowned slightly. "I know dear... Sometimes I regret telling you to go over there, that first day. But I had thought... Well, it seemed as if things had fizzled between you and Laney. I just thought it would be good for you to get out there... Maybe it would show you what you were missing. But here you are, in love..."
His stomach clenched. "Me and Lillian aren't in love, Mom. It's not... We've always been friends. That's all we've ever been."
But Jessica merely quirked an eyebrow. "So you're going to tell me you spent the night at someone else's house after the Music Festival?"
He didn't bother answering his mother and instead slammed the door behind him, needing fresh air to soothe his aching head.
Short, but I don't know how much more you guys can handle.