Lapis Lazuli [Prequel To : For The love Of Chéri]

Chapter 8 : Swan Lake

"Everyone get ready! You're leaving for the photographer soon!" The housekeeper shouted.

"Lydia! Marcel! Eugéne! Where are you?!" Monique called as she knelt down and adjusted Beatrix's pinafore dress and Romain's bright yellow tuxedo shirt.

Monique was wearing an elegant blouse, full-length black pencil skirt with a modest back slit, six-inch heels and her hair had been lightly permed into flicks.

Eugene walked into the kitchen wearing a chocolate brown, high waisted corduroy suit with a bright yellow tuxedo shirt, "Belle-mère, why do we all have to dress the same for the photograph?"

"To look smart! You all look so lovely!" Monique said as she looked at Eugene wearing the latest fashion.

Lydia walked in wearing a pinafore dress and high necked blouse identical to Beatrix's, "I wish this skirt was shorter. I feel like an old woman!"

"Your size skirts are more like belts as your ass is on full display! No one wants to see that here." Eugéne joked.

"Don't talk to your sister like that!" Monique said, "Anyway, your clothes were tailored to your unique dimensions so you'll all look well turned out and identical for the family photograph."

"Yeah, mine's normal, but the freaks all needed alterations." Romain said flippantly as he fiddled with his tie.

"Watch your mouth, Romain, else I'll be getting the soap out. You don't want papa hearing you say things like that." Monique warned.

Marcel walked in wearing an identical high waisted brown corduroy suit, but Eugéne stared at him a moment and noticed that rough white stitches were sticking out all over his collar, "Belle-mère! Marcel has his shirt on inside-out!"

Romain glanced over, "He's doing it to try and be different! Belle-mère! If his is to be inside out then I'm wearing mine inside-out too!"

Monique looked up, "No! The family picture will be ruined!" She said before she turned to her stepson with a sympathetic look, "Marcel, go wear your shirt properly, please."

"No one will notice." Marcel responded flatly.

"We noticed!" Romain said, "And if you think no one will notice... then why do it?"

"Because, I will know it." Marcel responded emotionlessly.

"No more talk everyone! Your father is waiting so make yourselves presentable!" Monique said.

Marcel just threw his arms up and walked out of the room.

"Hurry up everyone! We have to get into the car!" Monique called.

In the bathroom, Marcel took his brown coat jacket off and undid the shirt and took it off, turning it the right way out indignantly. He looked in the mirror a moment at his abnormally thin physique with its unique features and disproportionately long, slender limbs. His chest and back were buckled tightly into a body scaffold with steel struts and leather straps. The classic symptoms of the Marfan syndrome he had genetically inherited from his father, along with Lydia and Eugéne.

He put the bright yellow shirt back on followed by the jacket, but then a wave of pure pent-up frustration came over him, and he ripped down the small pocket on the front of the jacket before walking back out.

"He's done it again!" Romain shouted as soon as Marcel sauntered back into the room with the ripped pocket on full display on his jacket, showing a flash of the plaid lining.

Monique turned towards Marcel and sighed, "Darling, you can't be in the picture like that! Your father will go absolutely spare!" She said as she got a large silver safety pin out of the drawer and pinned the pocket back up as Marcel stood there smiling at her.