A Chance at Life

Facing Reality

Marty came home at 4:30, Shelby was in the bathroom when she came in and Mrs B was in bed.
"Toni? You home?"
"In here" I hear her close the door.
"How was your day?"
"It was good how about yours?"
"Same as always. Shelby still here?"
"Yeah she's upstairs" Marty came and sat down on the single couch and noticed that all the blankets were on the bigger one.
"She's been upstairs all day?"
"No she's been down here, we've been watching Lucifer"
"Together?" She looked as shocked at Mrs B did when I woke up earlier.
"Together..."
"And neither of you died?"
"No, Lucifer is clearly our peacemaking show"
"You watched a show about the devil with a Christian?"
"Ironic I know, she got into it though"

Shelby comes back down and sees Marty on the couch.
"Marty you're home" she looks over and realizes about the blankets being all on one couch.
"Yeah, Toni has been telling me about your day"
"She has?" She looks at me nervously for me to say something.
"Yeah just how we've been sat here all day watching Lucifer."
"I was shocked neither of you tried to kill one another" Marty smiles and watches Shelby as she sits back down next to me.

"Shelby where does your dad think you are?"
"School, I'll tell him I'm staying over for dinner and go home later" she pulls out her phone presumably to message him.
"Hey Toni, can you go find my blanket? It's in my room"
"Sure" confused I start to walk upstairs to look for it and see Helsby try to follow me attempting to climb the steps. "You coming buddy? You've been learning to climb I see" He manages 4 steps before he's meowing for help. Picking him up, I go into Marty's room and look for her blanket. After about 10 minutes of searching I couldn't find it and gave up.

"Marty! I can't find it!" walking back into the lounge I see Shelby with her head in her hands and Marty next to her comforting her. "Shelby are you ok?"
Marty looks behind her to me and then whispers something to Shelby.
"I was just comforting her about Becca. There's been whispers today at school and questions on why she wasn't in. I didn't know if you knew"
I go sit on the single couch and watch as I can't comfort Shelby in the way I would normally.
"Yeah it got to Shelby earlier so we sat and spoke about it" she looked up at me and smiled slightly.
"I'll go make us some food" I get up and go to the kitchen.

Looking through the kitchen at what we could eat, I decided that pizza was the one of the options to cook before Shelby had to leave. I didn't really know what to do once the pizzas were cooking, I just sat in the kitchen on the floor playing with one of Helsby's toys. Being in the same room as Shelby and Marty when it was only this morning we got caught, is harder than I thought. On the bright side who found out wasn't anyone who would disrespect the privacy and secrecy. I'm just yet to tell Shelby that Fatin knows...we aren't even in a relationship yet we're going through these struggles together as if we were in one.

"Toni?" I look up and Shelby is stood in the doorway. "Are you alright?"
"Am I alright? Yeah I'm good, are you ok?"
"I'll be ok, Marty went to change"
"Cool" She stood there silently as if there was tension. "I don't-" "I think-"
We both kind of laughed at the fact we both tried to speak to remove the silence.
"It's ok, you go first Shelb"
"I don't know what to do"
"What do you mean?"
"I really like you Toni but I can't be in a relationship where I have to also be with a guy to keep my family off of my back"
"I told you I'd wait for you Shelby, we're getting through these things together. One step at a time. Baby steps."
"I don't know how you're being so calm about all of this"
"I trust you"
"I don't know what I've done to deserve that"
"Trust is gained and after these last couple of weeks, there's been ups and downs but it's been something good"
"Toni I-"
"I know it'll be hard but if it's easy then where's the reality of it" She slides down to the floor and sits with her back to the wall facing me.
"I'm so tired of it all. Checking it's safe before we even talk"
"You got this, you've got me behind the scenes and you have the others any other time. They've seen that we talk so it won't be as hard to comfort you"
We hear Marty's bedroom door open and shut so Shelby goes back into the lounge.

I check the pizza and it's finally done so I dish it up on 2 plates and take it into Marty and Shelby.
"I got pizza since Shelby has to go soon and it's just quick to make"
"Wouldn't want you burning the house down anyways" Marty laughs and Shelby joins in.
"It was one time, ONE time I burnt that toast. I make such great meals" I join in laughing. We sit and eat pizza until Shelby finally gets ready to leave.

"I'll see you tomorrow Marty, bye Toni" Shelby leaves and me and Marty just sit in silence.
"You back tomorrow?"
"Your mom has to come with me for a meeting at lunch but I'm back in tomorrow morning"
"You excited to return?"
"I'd rather die"
"Toni!" She looks at me with disappointment. "How was today really?"
"It was alright, got through quite a bit of Lucifer"
"No problems?"
"No, I'm not saying I get on with her. I'm just saying that I can stand to be in the same room without throwing up now" Marty throws a pillow at my head.
"Hey! I'm just saying."
We spend the next hour watching a movie until Mrs B comes downstairs to go to work.

"Hey girls, how are you?" I turn around to see her in the doorway.
"Good"
"I'm good mom, Shelby has gone home now. She left a while ago"
"Yeah I heard" she looks at me and then Marty. "Shelby's a nice girl, she's very respectful."
"Her family are real assholes"
"Toni, be respectful of them please"
"Marty would agree wouldn't you Marty?" I turn and she's barely even listening.
"Yeah sure, wait what?"
"Shelby's family are assholes"
"Oh uh...they're just religious and stick to the book"
"Bible thumping assholes!"
Mrs B shakes her head and puts on her jacket.
"Will you be home for my meeting?"
"Of course don't worry, sleep deprived but not late. Okay night girls"
"Bye mom"
"Night"

After Mrs B left I went upstairs and got into bed to settle for the night. It was around 8:30 and I was already ready to just sleep. I got a phone call but ignored it since me and Helsby were already comfy for the night. I put Lucifer onto my laptop and watched a couple episodes when I get another call.
Annoyed I answered it not checking who it was.

"Hello?"
"Hey" who else would it be.
"Shelby? What's wrong?"
"I just missed your voice?"
"It's been like 3 hours since you left"
"Doesn't mean I don't miss your voice"
"I'm really tired. I'm back at school tomorrow we can talk then?"
"No...people will talk"
"Shelby we can't go back to hating each other"
"Ok just can you stay on the phone?"
"Until what?"
"I fall asleep...it's hard sleeping when my mind runs constantly"
"Sure, I'll just continue watching this"
"What are you watching?"
"Lucifer"
"I enjoyed today"
"It was nice until Mrs B"
Shelby didn't say anything back...

"Shelb?"
"Toni"
"You ok?"
"Yeah just thinking"
"About?"
"Becca...you...Andrew...life"
"How's that going?"
"It's hard to think about 1 thing without connecting it to another"
"Try and think about our future"
"Our future?"
"Me and you. In a nice home, you're doing what you want to do in the future. I'm a top female player for basketball. We come home every evening to our animals and we have this 1 plant we have somehow kept alive"
"Can we call it Moss"
"The animal?"
"No the plant duh"
"It can be whatever you want it to be"
We sat in silence after that. My show was paused and all I could hear was Helsby breathing along with Shelby's breathing getting slower.

"Shelby?"
No reply.
"I love you..."
I end the call and fall to sleep watching the show.