The Dome Chronicles: Lies

Eight

As soon as we walk back in the door, the twins run up to my mom to show her their battle scars and tell her about their double scoops of ice cream that they got. My mom is double feeding both Jaelyn and Rilynn so she's barely listening to their babbling. Right after we walk in, Keaton starts crying, too. I guess we're a jinx.

"I'll get him," I tell my mom and waltz over to his bassinet, which had been placed in the living room before the triplets were born. They also have a crib each in the kids' room, which is where they sleep at night.

I pick Keaton up and bring him over to the couch where my mom is sitting.

"Formula's on the counter." My mom states without looking up from the girls.

I grab the formula from the kitchen and make a bottle for him, all while still holding him in my arms. I put the bottle up to Keaton's mouth and he starts sucking.

I bring him back to the couch, where the twins are sitting by my mom, looking at Rilynn and Jaelyn. They're much calmer than when we were at the doctor's office.

Who knew?

"So, how did they do?" My mom asks, adjusting her feeding cover-up.

"Okay. Abby did well. Mason was the same as always." I reply, focusing on the baby in my arms.

My mother sighs. I think she's just as frustrated as I am. Having a child with special needs is hard, but having two makes it twice as hard.

"You've gotta admit, though, they bring us so much joy." I smile as Abby looks up at me and says, as if on cue: "Fr-aya, you the best sister ever."

I laugh. "Right on cue. Well, you're not too bad of a sister yourself, Abby."

She smiles and claps her hands, then skips away, chanting something I can't make out in a sing-songy voice. Mason sees that she's leaving and follows her. They're like two peas in a pod.

Literally.

Right after they leave, Nicholas walks in the front door with a weary smile on his face.

He comes over to the couch and gives my mom a kiss on the cheek, along with each of the babies. He makes an effort to avoid me.

Not that I expected anything more than a blank stare, which is what he gives me.

"How was your day, Nicholas?" My mother asks, just trying to make conversation.

"Yeah, Nicholas. How was work today? What'd you do? Wait, what exactly is it that you do, again? You're a mayor. So...kiss babies and boss people around? Can't you just do that at your own house?" I retort.

"Freaya Natalie, that is not the way to treat your father! Tell him you're sorry right now!" My mom shouts back at me.

"I'm sorry..." I pause, already choking back tears. "I'm sorry mom, but you are mistaken. This man is not my real father." I'm almost to the point of losing it.

My father is a touchy subject.

"Freaya, I..." Nicholas interjects, but I stop him.

"No. Please...just don't. You're not my real dad, and you never will be!" I sob as I run up the stairs to my room and climb up the ladder.

Once I'm in my cube, I lay down and sob. I feel like that's all I can do at this point. Cry.

I almost don't notice Nicholas walking into the room and knocking on the door.

"Freaya..." he starts.

"Nicholas, no. Just...go away. Please. I don't want to see you right now." I respond, pushing my head deeper into the pillow.

"Freaya, I'm your dad. Tell me what's bothering you." I hear him scratching his head, as if he's clueless.

"That's just it, Nicholas. The fact that you pretend like you're my real dad bothers me. It did when you and mom got married, and it still does. My real father is dead. You are, and always will be, my stepdad." I roll over in my cube, wishing I have a real bed.

Darn technology.

"Freaya..." I hear him sigh. He's fed up with the fact that I won't call him "dad", even though he isn't. That's all he wants from me; he wants me to run up to him, jump into his arms and call him "daddy."

Sorry to admit it, but this isn't some fantasy land where everything is butterflies and rainbows.

This is just reality.

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY THIS, NICHOLAS? YOU ARE NOT MY DAD, OKAY? AND YOU NEVER WILL BE, FOR THAT MATTER! STICK THAT IN YOUR TINY LITTLE BRAIN, WILL YOU?"

I finally close the door in my cube and turn the air on, something I should've done minutes ago.

I hear Nicholas yelling at me through the glass door, clearly livid. "CHILD I AM YOUR FATHER! IF YOU WOULD JUST LISTEN TO ME!"

He continues to yell until he somehow figures out that I stopped listening to him.

After a while, I hear silence and look out of my cube to find that he's gone. I guess he got bored and gave up.

It's better that way.

I keep crying for about 10 minutes until there are no more tears left inside of me. After that, there's nothing left to do but sit there and wait for someone to come and cheer me up.

I hear the door to the kids' room slide open, and then footsteps.

Lots of them.

Great, my whole family's come to try and comfort me. Yayyyyy.

My mother's voice is the first one I hear. I can't tell what she's singing at first because of the glass. I open the glass door with the push of a button and realize she's singing one of my favorite songs from when I was a baby.

She and my dad would rock me back and forth in the chair and softly sing:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

. You make me happy when skies are gray,

You never know dear, how much I love you. So please don't take my sunshine away.

After she finishes singing the first time, I hear Nicholas jump in. They sing it in a round so one person starts and then the second starts a beat later.

After they're done, Toby joins in, and after him, Peyton.

They keep going until the littlest one (that can talk), Charlotte starts in.

I'm surprised because even Abby and Mason knew all the words, and they don't talk in full sentences very often.

I laugh a little because Charlotte's only two but she can still sing that whole song, which is impressive.

After they're all done, I force myself to crawl out of my cube. I sit on the ledge just outside of the glass door and see them all smiling up at me.

I truly don't know what to say, so I sit there, speechless until my mom finally jumps in, "Freaya, we love you and you know that. What Nicholas said was wrong," she shoots a look at her husband to make sure he gets the idea, "and he's very sorry. He knows that he shouldn't be bringing up your father in all of this." She shifts Charlotte from her right hip to her left.

"It's fine," I mumble into my pillow, even though it's really not. We don't bring up my dad much.

"Great. Well, I was thinking we could all go out to eat tonight. There's this really good Mexican place that just opened up," Nicholas beams. He gets excited about his Mexican food.

"That sounds nice." My mom says as she brushes a few hairs out of Charlotte's face. "Freaya, are you in?"

"Well...I guess so," I say as I make my way down from my cube and follow my family out the door.

When we have everyone loaded into the mini bus, we take off for the restaurant.

I would have to admit I haven't had as much fun as I had when we went to that restaurant in a very long time, and it felt good.

I have to give props to Nicholas for coming up with that idea, even though it's basically the only good idea he's had in his entire life.

I might hate the guy, but he did help to create this beautiful family that we have now, and I couldn't ask for anything better.