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“I can’t believe you.”
Dirty-blonde hair cascades from in front of her eyes as she turns her head up. As she expected, Rindy was standing there, hands on her hips, before she crosses her arms.
“Mom’s gonna kill you, you know.”
Rindy grabs Charlotte by the shoulder, pulling her out of the lonely wooden chair just by the door to the principal’s office. A fight, could you believe it? Charlotte got into a fight.
On the way home they stopped for lunch, on Rindy’s dime, despite Charlotte just having gotten her allowance. Charlotte practically inhales her burger, Rindy picks at her salad.
“Why’d you do it?” She asks, and Charlotte freezes.
She doesn’t really know. Well, she does, but she doesn’t really know how to explain it without making Rindy just as angry as she is. Just thinking about it now, the freckled blond boy who talked about her as if she knew her or her family, who laughed when she stomped up to him and shoved him. He wasn’t laughing for long.
“…He was m-… Making fun of momma, and mom.”
Rindy’s grey eyes hardened then, eyebrows creased in the way that looked so much like Carol. She understood, Charlotte thought, she knows.
“What’d he say?”
Charlotte sighs, wiping her mouth with the napkin in her hand. She takes a sip of her soda and her feet kick from her place in the booth across from Rindy.
That boy, Peter, was always getting on Charlotte’s nerves. The first day of third grade he made fun of her for her stutter, called her slow and other worse things, and then she had stopped talking altogether. When mom and momma got her to start talking again, they had a chat with his parents, and ever since he’s held that grudge.
They’re in eighth grade now, you’d think he’d be over it but he’s not, and it doesn’t seem like he’s wanting to do any maturing anytime soon.
Today he saw Charlotte while talking to some new students and pointed at her directly, laughed at her, like she was an animal at the zoo. The other kids laughed, too, and then when he informed them her mom was a ‘carpet-eater’, they burst into hysterics.
Bad enough, he went on and on, about how Charlotte gets picked up by the sissy in the afternoons, but dropped off by the dyke in the morning. She hardly knows what these words mean, but she knows it’s something bad, and she wasn’t going to have it.
So she pushed him, he laughed, then she kicked him in his shin, and he stopped laughing. She kept punching and kicking until someone pulled all ninety-eight pounds of her off of the boy, and took her down to the principal's office for humiliating the boy.
They called, Rindy was home thankfully, pretended to be Carol and said she’d pick Charlotte up right away. Luckily the principal didn’t insist on meeting her face-to-face, or they both probably would’ve been in big trouble.
The privileges of having a sister that graduated early, and got a job at mom’s furniture store…
“He called them— I don’t wanna… Say it…”
Rindy’s eyebrow furrows, she doesn’t push it, though. Just stabs into her salad with a little more force than necessary.
It’s quiet for a while, the only sounds being Charlotte while she eats, and they order milkshakes for dessert. Rindy finally cuts through the silence, clear as day.
“…You have to ignore people like that, Char.”
Charlotte huffs. She hates hearing that.
“You do. You can’t let him hold all that power over you, or he’ll drive you insane.”
“I don’t think… He’s going to— Do anything to me… Anymore…”
Charlotte doesn’t like the look she’s being given. It looks so much like Therese, she thinks, but Rindy wouldn’t ever admit that. She dips her head down further and Rindy just scoffs.
“Yeah, ‘cause you broke his nose. Lottie,” Rindy reaches for Charlotte, tries to grab her arm, but is pulled away from. Her nose wrinkles, “Charlotte.”
Charlotte looks up with a pout.
“If you tried to hurt everyone that’s said anything bad about our family,” She tilts the girl’s chin up higher, “You’d be fighting for the rest of your life.”
She remembers aunt Abby telling her something similar, probably a few years ago now that she thinks about it, can barely find it through the fog of being so young and everything else that was happening after she got adopted. Charlotte blinks, looks away, and Rindy grabs her hand.
“…I won’t tell mom, or momma.”
Charlotte looks back at her in surprise, then smiles, her cheeks creasing in a way that makes her dimples pop.
“Finish your milkshake, you’re not getting in my car with it.”
And Charlotte did, because she knows what would happen if she got into her sister’s car and spilled something.
When they got home Therese was already at the coffee table, reading a book. She tilted her head up when she saw Rindy and Charlotte walk through the door, and she stands, immediately striding up to Charlotte and giving her a big squeeze, then Rindy.
“Thank you for picking up your sister, Rindy,” Therese smiles, unknowing. Though they both feel a bit guilty for lying, Rindy just nods, then shuffles off into her room across from the kitchen.
Therese looks down at Charlotte, who avoids those green eyes that are so much like hers. Therese feels something off about the little girl, she brushes her hand over Charlotte’s hair.
“What’s the matter?”
Charlotte tries to squeeze past but Therese takes her wrist. She looks down at Charlotte’s hand, seeing how tight her fists are clenched, the bruising on her knuckles. She gasps, pulls Charlotte close despite how the girl squirms.
“Charlotte!” She scolds, “What the hell happened?”
Charlotte’s head hangs, eyes planted on her shoes, avoiding Therese’s stern gaze. She feels her cheeks heat up and she mumbles out a half-assed “Sorry.”
Therese is about to question her again when Rindy steps out of her room, now just in her skirt and t-shirt. She takes Charlotte’s head in her hand and whispers something to her, and Charlotte walks off. Therese crosses her arms, looking up at Rindy expectantly.
“She got into a fight,” Rindy told Therese, whose jaw drops open for a good second. Rindy shakes her head.
“Don’t tell mom.”
“What do you mean, don’t tell mom? Why shouldn’t I—”
“Because you know how mom gets, and you know how Char gets when mom gets like that.”
Therese knew it was true, went to argue then was shut down.
“She did it for you two, you know.” Rindy turns towards the kitchen and rummages through the fridge, taking a bottle of soda from it as Therese watched.
“What do you mean, did it for?—”
“For you and mom.” She pops the top off with a bottle opener, throwing the cap in the sink, “Apparently that little prick that’s been terrorizing her since she was eight was talking bad about you and mom.”
Therese’s eyes widen a bit, “Who? Peter?”
Rindy nods, “That’s the one.”
“That was years ago,” Therese takes the cap from out of the sink, along with all the other ones Rindy keeps throwing in there, and disposes of them in the garbage.
“Kids hold grudges. Anyway, she beat him up pretty good,” She shrugs, “I would’ve done the same thing.”
“Are you forgetting? You already have.”
Rindy smiles at the memory, though at the time she thought she’d never smile again. Same age, same place, three years ago.
A girl she used to hang out with told all of her friends about Rindy’s totally-lezzed-out moms and the girl wasted no time tackling her and rubbing her face into the dirt, but it was so much different because Charlotte did it to protect her family, and Rindy had done it because she hated hers.
Finding out about Carol and Therese so young had its blessings. Rindy doesn’t treat it like it’s a big deal, never has, because realistically it isn’t. That being said, there was a rough patch, right around the time she turned fourteen where she was once again being jerked between the Airds and her mothers, with the Airds teeth sunk gum-deep into her.
Their main talking points have been the same since she was four. Carol is disloyal, unfaithful, sick. She had an affair on Harge, with a woman of all things, then after they divorced stalked after a girl worlds out of her own. Rindy was told all of this by people who had no right to even speak about her mother that way. It left her enraged and confused and all around miserable, simply because her mother was sick and it seemed like there was no cure.
She’s always thought Charlotte was stronger than her, ever since they were young. Charlotte can’t talk, can’t reign in her temper like Rindy can, but God does she feel like Charlotte is smarter at times. Knowing these things, about the world, about people that Rindy feels like she’d never know at that age and still doesn’t to this day.
For a moment she thought that this proves that, but Therese’s hand on her shoulder quickly pulls her out of her head.
“That’s not a good thing, Rindy. I don’t want you or your sister getting in trouble for us.”
Rindy scoffs, “That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have to go to school with a bunch of morons that dig at your lesbian mothers every time you breathe.”
“Arinda Aird.” Rindy tenses up, “You will not talk like that in this house.”
Rindy misses the Therese from when she was young, that would just giggle whenever Rindy said something a little risky. She takes another swig of her drink and hops up on the counter, “What did I say? That you were lesbians? That’s what you are, isn’t it?”
“You don’t!— It’s just a really intense word, alright?”
“Okay, intense as it may be, you both are lesbos and everyone else knows it, ‘cause you’re too lovey-dovey to hide it, and now Charlotte’s beating up any little boys who dare to call you a dyke.”
Therese throws her hands up in disbelief, “Go to your room until your mother gets here.”
Rindy smirks, “You gonna tell her?”
“I think I have to.”
“And I think if you do that, your daughter will never speak to you again.”
God damn this kid. Therese sees that mischievous glint in those grey eyes, and for a moment she wants to kill Carol. Carol is the one who brought this little thing into her life, who raised it to be so damn sly and confident and stubborn, and to top it all off she looks just like her mother. Therese grumbles, pulling a wine glass from the cupboard and then a red bottle sitting on the counter.
“How long is she suspended for?”
Rindy chews on her lip, “Three days. And you need to sign a form.”
Therese draws in a deep breath before sighing, “Of course I do. How do you plan on hiding this from Carol?”
“Mom and Abby are training some new hires, they’ll be in at seven, won’t be home until four.”
Therese rubs her eyes, takes a swig of her drink. It’s quiet, and then suddenly Rindy goes for a low-blow, “You can’t be mad at her for something you did when you were her age.”
All the fights Therese has gotten in over the years flood back to her one by one. When she was seven, twelve, fourteen— How she’d lash out on staff, the nuns, the other girls in her bunk. Her head whips back toward Rindy, who avoids her intense gaze.
“I didn’t have someone to tell me any better, she does. The problem is her troublemaking older sister who she idolizes, covering for her anytime she does something wrong.”
Rindy grips the edge of the counter, knuckles turning white as she counters, “Sorry your park-rat isn’t the precious little angel you say she is. It’s not my fault she keeps lashing out over stupid shit—”
Rindy jumps when Therese stomps over to her, grabs her by the arm, not enough to hurt but enough to emphasize her point. She looks the girl in the eye, and there’s an undercurrent of hurt there somewhere that makes Rindy feel awful.
“Do not ever, ever call your sister that ever again. Do you hear me?”
Rindy’s chest tightens, she swallows, then nods. Therese keeps glaring at her, then she lets go, closing her eyes.
“…I shouldn’t be yelling at you, she’s the one who got into a fight, and got suspended,” Therese acknowledges, and Rindy rubs her arm, “But she does look up to you, and she does love you, so when you do the things you do she wants to copy you, you know that don’t you?”
Rindy nods again, and Therese gives her a reluctant hug that Rindy takes a moment to accept.
“She’s grounded for the next few days, and because of how you talked back to me, you are too. You understand, right?”
“Yeah, I guess…” Rindy murmurs.
“Go to your room. I’ll talk with your mother— I won’t tell her anything, though, I promise.”
Rindy slinks off the counter, takes a step towards her room before Therese hugs her again, whispers to her.
“Thank you for protecting her, Rindy,” She kisses the taller girl’s forehead, making her huff, “Really. You’re the best big sister ever.”
Though embarrassed Rindy smiles at the words. She pads off to her room, shutting the door, flopping down on the bed.
She’s always felt like Therese is just as much of a mother to her as Carol is, this is one of those times that she remembers this is just Therese’s job, and she needs to do it.
Still, though. She hates being grounded, and for a moment considers throwing Charlotte under the bus to make up for it.
She doesn’t do that, obviously, but she considers it.
“What’s wrong with the girls?”
Therese hears the question, and for a moment pretends she doesn’t hear it. Carol asks again, and Therese sighs.
“I don’t know, I think they got into an argument.”
She hates lying to Carol, really, she does but sometimes Carol’s reaction to these things makes bigger mountains out of the smallest molehills. Carol leans on the counter and gazes out to the dinner table, taking a drag from her cigarette.
“They’ll be over it,” Carol seems to believe this lie, and comes around to Therese, hugging her from behind and swaying with her as she stirs a pot of noodles.
“They always get over it. Here, try this,” Therese lifts a spoon of sauce to Carol’s lips, and the older woman has a small taste. She smiles.
“My my, miss Belivet. Your cooking is getting to be somewhat tolerable after thirteen years.”
Therese considers punching her in the arm, remembers what Rindy said to her, then simply remains still. Carol’s eyebrows furrow, she tilts her head.
“…Is something the matter?”
Therese studies the pans in front of her, not responding for a second. Eventually she shakes her head.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Can you grab the wine from up there?”