Kates POV
I opened my front door to let myself as well as Lilly inside. We stepped inside and shut the door and proceeded to take our shoes off. Lilly then walked over to the kitchen while I walked to the living room. I sat down on the couch and exhaled as I closed my eyes to relax.
"Heads up" Lilly said. I opened my eyes to see that she tossed a water bottle to me. I caught it and opened it up.
"Thanks Lills" I said. Lilly didn't respond, she just sat on the couch next to me. She then proceeded to lay down and put her feet on the arm rest.
"Hey Kate can you toss me that blanket?" Lilly asked. I grabbed the blanket on the back of the couch and threw it over to her. It landed on top of her and she stretched it out to cover her body.
"Thanks" she said. I just took a sip of water and then placed it on the coffee table. I then laid down on the couch, I just didn't have a blanket.
"Want the TV on?" I asked.
"No. I kind of like the quiet '' Lilly answered. I hummed in agreement. We laid there for about five minutes until Lilly spoke again. "Hey Kate… have you noticed that mom and dad have been fighting lately?" she asked.
"It's over me… dad hates the fact that I'm having sex while mom thinks that its good for me, I dont know how to feel about it, the other night I yelled at hi to. Dad just gets so aggressive, he made Rick fell unwelcomed the other night" I explained.
"He did? What did he say?" Lilly asked.
"He said that he should be going home, not too bad but you could tell by his tone that he was being aggressive" I said.
"Mom and dad… don't even know that i've been doing it for two years now" Lilly said.
"Mom won't mind but dad… I don't know why he can't see that we're not doing it out of lust… for the most part" I murmured.
"You should have heard them at our grandparents that night. Mom threatened dad and slapped him" Lilly said. My eyes widened and I sat up to look over at the couch. I just saw the top of Lillys head but she ended up turning to her left slightly to face me.
"Mom… hit dad?" I asked slowly.
"Yeah…" Lilly answered.
"But… she's never laid a hand on any of us" I exclaimed.
"She was really upset that night. Dad kept pushing her and she hit her breaking point" Lilly explained. I laid back down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling with my hands laying on my chest.
"I feel like I'm ruining our parents… they seemed normal up until the whole sex thing… I don't understand why me having sex is such a bother to him" I said.
"Well Kate… sex is a big thing. And you're not ruining them either, they always had their disagreements" Lilly explained.
"But it never lasted this long," I said.
"Kate… it's not your fault. This will pass and dad will start to get along with Rick again, just give it time" Lilly said. I nodded even though Lilly couldn't see it. I took a deep breath and shut my eyes.
"Ricks coming over later" I reminded her.
"Yeah, I know. And since Humphrey's over at Shaky's I'll have to listen to you guys" Lilly said.
"I'm sure he'll bring Angel over," I said.
"Yeah, then we can both listen to you," Lilly complained.
"Lilly, do you realize how many times we've all had to listen to you?" I asked. Lilly laughed.
"Sorry I can't help it," she said. I laughed again. "Angel sent me a picture of her tree, it looks beautiful. It made me realize that we haven't put up ours" Lilly explained. I felt a wave of sadness as I realized that it was true. Mom and dad have been so busy arguing and working that we haven't decorated for the holidays.
"I hadn't thought of that… I felt like something was missing" I said.
"At this rate we'll have to decorate ourselves" Lilly said. I opened up my eyes and sat up again.
"Why don't we do that? We've always had fun helping mom and dad decorate, so why don't we just do it ourselves?" I suggested.
"Really?" Lilly asked. I could see her tail start to wag through the blankets. I giggled.
"Really" I said. Lilly lifted the blanket up and stood up.
"Well come on, I'll help you get the stuff from the basement" Lilly said excitedly. I got up and followed her down to the basement. We picked up multiple boxes and brought them up the stairs and placed them on the larger couch. "Wait but, what about Rick?" Lilly asked. I forgot about Rick for a second. How were we going to spend time together when we were decorating? We couldn't. Unless he wanted to help out but I wasn't about to ask him for that. He's done enough.
"I'll call him," I said. I then pulled out my phone and swiped over to Rick's name. Lilly went back down to the basement to grab the Christmas tree while I hit the call button. It rang a few times before anyone picked up.
"Hey Kate," I heard Angel say. I giggled.
"Hey Angel, is your brother there?" I asked.
"Hold on" Angel said, I heard her call for Rick and then put her ear back to the phone. "He's coming, he wanted me to answer it because he's in the shower" Angel said. Now I felt bad, was he getting ready? Poor dude. I faintly heard Rick come in and thank Angel before putting the phone to his ear.
"Hey Kate, what's happening?" Rick greeted.
"Oh um, don't be mad but me and Lilly are gonna put up the decorations around the house and such,not sure if you wanted to be around for that so i'm gonna have to cancel" I explained.
"Oh I don't mind, as long as I'm spending time with you I don't care what we're doing" Rick responded.
"Rick I… it's gonna be boring, why don't you hang out with Angel tonight and we can hang out at the party tomorrow?" I suggested.
"You sure?" he asked.
"Yeah, we'll hang out, just be with Angel right now" I said.
"Okay Kate, I should probably wrap my gifts anyway, let me know if anything changes" Rick said.
"I will… I love you" I said.
"I love you too," Rick said back. I then hung up and slid the phone back in my pocket just as Lilly came up the stairs with the first two halves of the tree.
"Want to get the last part?" Lilly asked. I simply squeezed past her and went down the steps as she placed the two pieces down and started opening up the boxes. When I came back up Lilly already had the tree stand in the corner of the room. "Want to do the tree first or last?" she asked.
"Let's do it last, that way we can spend some time together" I said. Lilly nodded and grabbed some decorations and started placing them around, making it look neat and pretty. I followed along but did so in the kitchen. We did this for a half an hour before putting on our jackets and placing some decorations outside. Not lights on the roof or anything crazy like that but lawn decorations such as a christmas train that Lilly always loved, as well as an inflatable santa. We put lights around the door as well and then decided that was enough. All that was left was the tree.
"Fuck its cold out there" Lilly complained as she took off her jacket.
"Yeah, hey do you want me to door dash something while we decorate?" I asked.
"Sure, what were you in the mood for?" Lilly asked me.
"I don't care, your pick" I said as I pulled out my phone again. Lilly looked up to the side as she thought.
"KFC? I kind of want a bucket" Lilly said. Fuck that sounded good. I gave her a small sign that said it was on and started ordering. While I did that Lilly put the tree together. It didn't take me long to order. I hit order and then started grabbing ornaments. "You know you didn't have to cancel your plans with Rick '' Lilly said.
"I know, but we haven't spent time together in so long, plus this needed to get done" I said as I hung a few up.
"Oh Kate hold on" Lilly said as she plugged in the tree to turn on the lights around it. They lit up and as always it looked beautiful. I went back to hanging the ornaments.
"You know mom and dad are gonna feel a type of way about this" I said.
"Well I don't know how long they wanted us to wait, it's already the sixth, we have less than twenty days to enjoy these '' Lilly explained. I sighed. She was right, nineteen days until Christmas and then these would come down and it would be a whole other year until I would see them again.
"Hey Lilly, you mind if I ask you something?" I asked.
"You already did," Lilly said. I snickered and then Lilly said. "No but of course you can, what's up?"
"Well… I still haven't heard the whole story of what happened with Angel and Humphrey. Could you tell me?" I asked. Lilly froze as she was leaning over to grab more ornaments. She unfroze and grabbed them, leaning up to place them.
"Well, it started with simple kissing lessons, she wanted to impress Shaky because he had experience. You know, put the other girls to shame? I was the one that offered. It ended up going pretty well so I offered sex lessons" Lilly explained.
"You offered?" I asked.
"Yeah… I'll be honest with you, as much as I wanted to help Angel, I also really wanted to watch Humphrey fuck another girl, he wasn't going to finish do you know that?" Lilly asked.
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah, I had to tell him to," Lilly answered.
"Well…what were you doing?" I asked.
"Coaching," Lilly answered. I laughed.
"Coaching huh?" I said.
"I really wanted to have a threesome but… I had to do it for Angel, she didn't want to do it. After she kissed Shaky she tried telling me she didnt want to do it anymore but I convinced her to do it" Lilly said.
"You did? Why? You knew she was going out with him" I responded.
"Yeah but… they were not that serious you know? I still felt bad after but… I'm sure she got something out of it" Lilly said. I giggled again.
"Yeah , I'm sure," I said.
"I don't feel like it affected our friendship in a negative way but… the worries still there, when you dropped us off at her place that day she broke down, crying and beating herself up over it all. I felt awful. I'm just glad she wasn't mad at me" Lilly said. I looked over to see she was standing there, holding one of the ornaments looking down at the floor.
"Hey, don't worry about it Lilly, like you said everything's fine, things will go back to normal" I said trying to cheer her up.
"I hope so," Lilly said. She hung the ornament and looked up to the top of the tree. "We're missing the star," she said.
"You always loved putting that on top, remember when you were little and dad would always lift you?" I asked. Lilly giggled.
"Yeah, those were good times," Lilly smiled. I picked up the star and handed it to her. She took it and tried reaching up but was just a tad too short. "Maybe I should get the step stool," Lilly said.
"Nah, I'll just lift you, I've done it before, remember a couple of years ago when dad wasn't here? I did fine then" I said. Lilly smiled at me and then stepped over to me.
"Alright… do it" Lilly said. I grabbed her by her sides and slowly but surely, lifted her up. It was really shaky but only because Lilly was almost as tall as I was. Lilly put the star on quickly and then I dropped her on her feet, out of breath. "Come on, it's not far off from that year, you must have gotten weak since then" Lilly teased.
"No it's not that, it's because now you're old and fat" I teased back. Lilly hit my arm playfully and then we started cleaning up the boxes. After a while the food came and we made a plate and ended up watching Christmas specials for the night. We spent couple of hours watching TV and going for seconds and thirds on the bucket until finally our parents came home around 9:30
"You guys put up the decorations?" mom asked. She sounded a bit sad.
"Yeah, you guys have been busy lately and it's getting close to Christmas so…" Lilly explained. Mom sat down next to me and sighed. "I would have decorated with you guys, '' she said.
"Why didn't you wait for us?" dad asked. I'm not gonna lie, it kind of made me mad when he asked that.
"How long did you want us to wait?" I asked.
"Kate, you know your father and I work," mom reminded me.
"We know that mom but whenever you guys are home not working you just… fight, it's been like this ever since…" Lilly chimed in but didnt finish. I know what she wanted to say but she didn't want to throw me under the bus so I finished her sentence after she froze.
"Ever since me and Rick got together, you two have been arguing about what we've been doing, we just wanted to decorate without the arguing" I said. Mom glanced over at dad quickly as if saying this was his fault. I couldn't exactly blame her, he was the one with the problem. My dad on the other hand just looked a little ashamed.
"I just… dont think that your old enough to have sex is all" dad said quietly.
"Winston, Kates not little anymore, she's going to do these things, why can't you just be happy that she's doing it with someone she loves other than some random guy to try it out" mom said pleadingly.
"If he really loved her then he wouldn't have to deface our daughter" dad said.
"Why do you see it like that? If you must know dad I came on to him, I wanted him to do those things to me" I said. Dad just stared at me with his hands on his hips as he thought.
"Of all the people that would be okay with this I'm surprised it's you Eve" dad said, changing the subject.
"What are you saying?" mom asked aggressively.
"You were always chasing after Kates other boyfriends, making sure they didn't lay a finger on her and now all of a sudden this guy comes along and because he has some history with us, you think it's okay for him to just come along and use our daughter" dad said.
"He's not using me," I yelled.
"Kate, if you were old and mature enough you would see that he is, this is what im talking about" dad said.
"Winston, Kate is mature and Rick isn't a bad guy, he saved our daughter, she wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for him" mom explained.
"STOP, USING THAT AS AN EXCUSE!" dad yelled, making me step back. I turned around to see Lilly with her ears down and backed into the couch. I walked and sat with her, putting my arm around her trying to calm her.
"And you say that I scare our daughters," mom said.
"Oh for fucks sake, why cant any of you see that im upset like this because I care about you" dad ranted.
"Why can't you see that this is the best thing for Kate? She's going to marry someday Winston, don't you want her to marry the right guy?" mom asked.
"They can love each other, but why the sex? Okay. Lilly has been dating Humphrey for what is it, two years now. And they haven't done anything of the sort" dad said, putting Lilly on the spot. I expected her to be silent but…
"I have had sex dad…" Lilly said, the whole room looked over at her as she looked down with her ears flattened. "Me and Humphrey have been doing it for two years," Lilly said in a low, embarrassed voice. It was quiet for a moment so she slowly looked up to see the shocked expressions of dad and mom just staring.
"Did you really think Humphrey was staying over all this time and they weren't having sex?" I asked, aggravated. Mom turned back to dad and…
"Winston they-" mom started to say but was cut off when he turned around and rammed his fist through the wall, scaring the shit out of all of us. Even mom. Dad breathed heavily as he then ripped his fist from the wall and shook the plaster off of it. He then turned to mom.
"Thanks to you Eve… this place is a fucking whore house.." he said. I felt my heart ache a bit as it felt crushed after hearing what left my dad's mouth, he then turned to us and I tried to prepare for the worst. "Those boys should be fucking dead" dad said. He then turned again over to the front door and walked outside, not closing it as he walked to his car, hopped inside and sped off. Mom slowly got up and walked over to the hole in the wall as Lilly started to sob, I hugged her and tried to calm her but it only seemed to make her sob harder. Mom then walked over to the front door and shut it before coming back to the living room and sitting down once again. I looked over to mom with my arms around Lilly. Mom looked at the both of us and sighed.
"You girls know he didn't mean that right?" mom asked. We didn't respond. "He's just… hurt," mom added. I stopped looking at her to lower my head and try to make eye contact with Lilly.
"Lilly, are you okay?" I asked soothingly. Lilly looked up at me and sniffed. I hugged her and then stood up. "Come on, it's getting late, you should get to bed" I said. I know it sounded childish but it was the best I could come up with. Mom stayed silent as I walked Lilly up the stairs and to her room. I laid her down on the bed and tucked her in as she continued to sniffle.
"Dad… he's never…" Lilly began.
"I know Lilly, but Mom's right, he didn't mean what he said" I told her. I knew he was just upset but I felt as though he did mean it, even though deep down, I knew that he didn't. It still hurt though. "He just wants what's best for us," I said.
"But what about Humphrey? Where did dad go just now?" Lilly asked.
"I don't know Lills, but I highly doubt he's doing anything to harm any of them" I said. I then pulled the blanket under Lillys chin. "You get some rest now, I'll be in my room in a second" I said. Lilly nodded and then I gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Thanks Kate," she said.
"I love you Lilly" I said. Lilly smiled before closing her eyes. I smiled back and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind me. I proceeded to go downstairs instead of my room and meet mom in the kitchen where I saw her cleaning up me and Lillys food leftovers.
"I would have done that," I said. Mom looked over to me as she finished putting them in the fridge.
"I know, I just thought you were going to sleep," mom said.
"In a minute, I just wanted to clean up and… talk to you" I responded. Mom grabbed a water bottle and motioned for me to follow her into the living room. I did and we sat together on the larger couch.
"I'm very upset with your father, but you have to know that even though it doesn't seem like it, he's doing what he's doing out of love" mom said.
"So calling us whores is out of love?" I asked. Mom sighed.
"I will talk to him about that, and he will fix that wall tomorrow, I know you're upset as well so… you and your sister dont have to go to school tomorrow, just stay here, relax and take the edge off" mom instructed.
"Thanks but… i'm worried about Rick and Humphrey, you heard what dad said about them right?" I asked. Mom nodded.
"He wont do anything to hurt them, don't you worry but… I don't know how he'll be around them now" mom said.
"He was already being nasty with Rick, now Humphrey? They don't deserve that" I said.
"Kate, I know. Humphrey's a sweet boy and Rick is great too. I just wish Lilly had told me that she was doing… things, you know the night we went to your grandparents she promised me that she would tell me, I think she said that to calm me down at the time but… I still wish she would have told me" mom explained.
"You know… during thanksgiving when we were all together, that was a great day. And dad was totally fine with being around them, in fact before me and Rick got together he liked the thought of me dating him, what changed?" I asked.
"Oh Im not sure sweetie, I think he wants you to date and not have sex" mom answered.
"But sex is so vital in a relationship, its important" I said.
"I know, I've tried to tell him but I can't get through to him… maybe you can" mom suggested. I thought for a moment.
"Maybe" I said. I then stood up. "He should remember thanksgiving, how warm it felt with everyone here, it was chaotic, yes but, there were times when it was great… he should try and remember that" I said. I then walked up the stairs and over to Lilly's room again, poking my head in. "Lilly?" I whispered.
"Hm?" she answered, still trying to fall asleep.
"Mom said we don't have to go to school tomorrow" I said.
"Sweet," Lilly said. I smiled and shut the door. I went over to my room and laid down on the bed before undressing to my shirt and panties, and getting under the covers. I just needed to message something now.
K. hey Rick, sorry about today we'll hang out soon. I hope you're not mad.
R. Of course not, me and Angel had a chill time, how'd it go with you and Lilly?
K. it was fine, until my parents came home and fought again
R. again?
K. yeah, dad put his fucking fist though the wall.
R. damn…
K. yeah, things are getting bad here, my dads a great guy though he's just taking this rough.
R. Sorry to hear that, anything I can do?
K. yeah actually. Can you send me that picture of us at the carnival?
It took a moment but Rick sent it after taking a second to find it. I took a moment to look it over, I loved this picture so much. We all looked so happy, like the family I always dreamed of. I loved everyone in this picture, and I had to fight for them.
K. thanks, and two more things. One, well hang out soon, and two I won't be in school tomorrow
R. aww what's up? Doctor's appointment or something?
K. not exactly, dad scared the shit out of Lilly and me so mom told us we could stay home.
R. oh. Well we'll miss you here
K. I'm sure, we should all get together again and do something
R. like what?
K. not sure, maybe dinner or something
R. sounds good.
K. maybe, we'll figure something out, we always do.
R. I'll ask Angel for her two cents.
K. all right, I'll tell Lilly tomorrow, I'll talk to you soon okay?
R. alright, I love you.
K. I love you too, goodnight Rick. XOXO
R. sweet dreams.
I closed my phone and turned over to go to sleep. I shut my eyes and slowly fell asleep. Now that I had the picture I could convince dad how happy this group makes me. How Rick and Humphrey are great guys and they're not just using us. Either way, tomorrow is gonna call for a long conversation.