My Poor Lady

Good Company

“You have to come out and tell them at some point, Darling,” Melina told her in the morning.

“Yes, I know, but I have to focus on finishing school right now. Summer is coming and I’m itching to get out of that place. It’s quite like a prison.” The girl rambled, tying a tie on and adjusting it until it looked straight. “It’s not easy to come out, especially during this time.” She said as an excuse.

Melina laughed and turned to look at her “Fine then dear, but you mustn’t keep it a secret for long.”

On cue, Brianne came into the kitchen, taking out the last of her curlers and setting them on the kitchen table in a hurry. Brianne was a very cold, stone-faced person, whom Rogerina declared “heartless” at one point. She didn’t say that out loud, because she was her mother. Brianne was tall, stoic, and had a frightening lair of eyes that were much like her sister Melina’s, except without all the softness Rogerina cherished in her aunt.

She flipped her brown curls and they settled to the sides of her square face. She gave her daughter a grin. “Good morning Rogerina, Melina.”

“Morning to you, mom.” She greeted back.

“Hello dear.” Melina waved from the counter. Melina did seem to be the opposite of Brianne. Though similar hair and eye color, Melina had a busty figure that Brianne lacked, and their jawlines were different, both being strong, but in different ways. Melina’s face was less scary, according to Rogerina.

“Pull your sock up Rogerina. That skirt of yours is so short already. Private schools and their scandalous uniforms.” She complained. Her daughter slowly and ashamedly pulled up her socks. She turned to Melina, who just smiled and shrugged.

“You’re going somewhere today?” Rogerina asked, packing her lunch with a sandwich, an apple, and some veggies that Rogerina always took to make it look like she ate healthy. She noticed that her mother wasn’t wearing her pajamas and corny bunny slippers that she always did, and was instead wearing an all-black outfit with white clogs, and a scarf of the same color.

“Yeah. I have yet another score to settle with your father…” She rolled her eyes.

Brianne and her father, whom she didn’t know the name of due to the fact he and her mother split a long time ago, have been a 17-year-old quarrel that she knew little about. Whenever her mother said “It’s about your father,” She gave up on finding any more information. She wanted a simple life, although simple didn’t involve her mother being financially unsupportive, and moving in with her mother and older sister in order to raise a newborn girl.

Brianne kept adjusting her scarf. “Melina, can you clean the house today?” The annoyance in her voice was present.

“Sure.” Melina nodded, fixing her bob.

“Have a good day at school, Rogerina, I love you.” She kissed her daughter’s blond head. “Melina, walk her to school, please.”

Brianne was then gone as fast as a teleporter. She was a quick woman. Too quick for any man.

“I still have to be driven and walked?” Rogerina whined as her aunt passed her the lungs she abandoned.

“I’m sorry, but you have to be walked or driven so nothing bad happens to you again.” Melina put a hand on her shoulder. “At least we can talk while we walk and at least Grandma isn’t taking you.”

They both fringed when thinking of the last time Johanna took her to school.

“You have your bag?”

“Yes.”

“Those pesky drumsticks?”

“Yes.”

“Did you take your vitamins?”

“Right when I got up.”

“Alright, let's head out.” She reached into her shirt and pulled on the straps to her bra. “Say good to my mom on the way out.”

Johanna was sitting on the couch, reading the news like she did every morning. When they said goodbye, she waved a thin hand from behind the newspaper.

Rogerina’s sock fell back down three steps out the door.