Chapter 7
1190 Words
Of all the things she expected, having those violet orbs peering down on her again was not one of them. Her reaction was the same, jumping back violently to get a weapon. It was like he thought it was a strange tradition, so he just watched her do it.
“W-W-Why are you here again?”
“I came to take you with me.”
“I am not going anywhere! How do you keep getting in here anyway?!”
He turned and gestured to the open window.
“I didn’t leave that open!”
“Oh, I opened it. Pardon my rudeness, your highness but we truly need to go.”
“You know what? Screw it! I don’t ever want to see you again. Get out!”
Her eyes snapped open once again. This time, it was early morning and Lilith was already hovering over her, clamoring for her to get up. Her words were a jumble in Meryl’s head but she could more or less guess what she was saying. Lilith could be likened to a broken record most times.
Meryl’s eyes wandered to the window and found it was closed. She sat up and faced Lilith.
“Mama, did you close the window?”
“Yeah. Why would you leave it open? It gets pretty chilly at night. Were you up writing again? I told you to stop doing that…”
A simple answer and Lilith went off. However long her spiel was, it answered Meryl’s question. However, many questions were left unanswered.
Who was that psycho? How did he get into her room? Why her room? Why does he want her to come with him? And the biggest question she didn’t want to confront; was it all really a dream?
Having to ask that question and answer it sent a chill down her spine. If it wasn’t a dream, it would mean a man was arbitrarily climbing into her room at night trying to take her away without anyone noticing. It was scary.
Meryl entered the bathroom, trying to clear the thought from her head. If she couldn’t, she was doomed to have a bad day. Taking deep breaths, she prepped to brush her teeth.
There was no way that everything could be real.
Breakfast was incomplete. Lucas had left for band practice earlier and got Percy to drive him. Percy and Lilith, no matter how nice and gentle they were, would never let any of their children go out by themselves. Their daily routine consisted of going to school and heading back home afterwards. Hanging out with friends outside their house was a pipe dream.
Jessie looked a little sleepy, her hair still in its bed head phase. She almost dropped into her tea, grabbed by her collar just in time by Meryl.
During breakfast, a strange thought occurred to Meryl. She knew she was adopted. It was hard not to notice, seeing how different she was from Percy and Lilith. However, she hadn’t once asked if they knew anything about her birth parents or if they tried to find them.
“Mama?”
“Yes Meryl?”
“Do you perhaps, know anything about my birth parents?”
Lilith, who was busy spreading jam on her toast, abruptly stopped, letting her knife hit the floor. Shell shocked, her eyes slowly met Meryl’s. When Meryl say how spooked her mother was, she couldn’t bear to continue asking.
“Don’t worry about it. I was just curious.”
Lilith said nothing in return, picking up her fork silently, going to rinse it. Jessie, stuck in the middle of all this was finally fully awake. She looked at Meryl, who was picking at her breakfast and Lilith, who was washing the butter knife like it was the dirtiest thing in the world.
In many ways, it was bound to be a turbulent morning.
On getting to school, Meryl had to head for the outdoor field since the guys were in middle of practicing for the tournament. Her eyes were glazed over, staring into the distance as she sat by the water flasks. Coraline noticed this fron a distance and abandoned all she was doing to sit beside Meryl.
“Why so frowny, Meryl? It has only been TWO days after your birthday.”
“How long did you think I would be in birthday mood, Coral?”
“I don’t know, like a few months. You looked really happy when your birthday was still on the way. Now, it’s like you’re going to be dragging doom around till your next birthday.”
“I’m just bothered about something.”
“Is it your inability to land a date for prom?”
“No. It’s… I asked my mum about my birth parents.”
Coraline gasped.
“You didn’t!”
“I did.”
“Well, what did she say?”
“I guess she was too shocked to answer. I wasn’t trying to be ungrateful, I just wanted to know… I f****d up. I asked in front of Jessie too.”
“Aww, Meryl…”
Coraline hugged her best friend, offering her silent comfort. Meryl felt like crying but she couldn’t in the middle of practice, so she just settled with burying her head in Coraline’s shoulders, breathing in and out to try to control her tears. Coraline rubbed her back comfortingly, shaking her head frantically to try to get Gus to abort whatever he wanted to do.
Gus was anything but tactful so he ended up falling over them, trying to get into the group hug. He just came out of practice and the concentrated smell of his sweaty armpits were enough to identify him.
“Get off Gus.”
“Aw, I want a hug too.”
“Not when you smell like the sewers of all the towns combined.”
“Meryl! Do you have to be so mean?”
“I’m actually suffocating to death having to smell it. Step away please.”
Gus kissed his teeth and stepped back. Meryl raised her head to look at him. He was pouting, all while picking up a cup to drink water. She didn’t know why but she just laughed.
“What?” he asked, offended.
“Nothing. I just thought you look sort of cute, like a baby chick.”
“Thank you… wait, what do you mean baby chick?”
“You’re a little twitter! Twit, twit!” Coraline chipped in, flapping her arms like a chick.
“Oi! You can’t say that to me when you’re that short.”
Gus covered his mouth immediately after saying it. Saying Coraline was short was akin to stepping on a landmine.
“What did you just say?”
“Nothing! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Meryl cackled as she watched Coraline chase Gus with a vengeance around the field, kicking him whenever she caught up. It cheered her up, seeing her friends be themselves.
She still had to go home and confront the fact that probably offended her parents. A distraction, no matter how minute, was welcome.
- Writer
