Life, Love, & Lies

Twenty

⚠️ TW// low ⚠️

"Anja, I'm home." LoLo yells as she closes the door to the apartment she had missed, feeling safety wrap around her like a blanket as she hooks her jacket on the wall beside the door.

"I is cooking!" Anja calls back excitedly, getting LoLo moving down the small hallway towards the kitchen space, her smile growing as the aromas of her childhood fill her nostrils.

"It smells amazing, Anja, you didn't have to cook for me though."

"Hush. My Schnucki is home so I cook." Anja turns from the stove to envelope LoLo in a much needed hug.

"I've missed you." LoLo mumbles, sinking into the older woman and letting some of her stress ease from her tired muscles.

"How is my Lyssie?"

"Confused, exhausted, and slightly afraid." LoLo smiles at Anja as she uses her former name, reaching for a drink from the fridge before settling onto a stool at the bar.

"Vhy all zee big emotions?" Anja asks genuinely as she turns back to the pot on the stove

"It's been a lot, working for Matt and Milo, and working so closely with them. Plus after I wrote and published that stupid stupid letter to my dad everything got even worse... I should not have done that."

"I tell you not to."

"I know, but then Mark called me, and I was so angry, and I just flipped. But I also made a mess, and I hurt Matt and Milo with the letter... and someone from high school shared that Matt and Milo knew me and that made things worse. Oh and at one point Matt informed me that I remind him of the girl he got his ballerina tattoo for, he got it for me... Luckily he's too stubborn and emotionally attached to Lyss to realize what's right in front of him, and Milo won't believe it either. Then, so great really, I get a call from Thomas last week, and he is accusing me of cheating on him, with Zach. Like I could every date one of the band, or would, especially without Matt knowing the truth and being okay with it. Because lying about who I am is hard enough, the guilt dating one of his best friends would put on me... it would ruin me. And also I'm just not interested in dating anyone else and I would never cheat, not after the shit I lived through with my dad. But of course Thomas doesn't understand that because he only has a vague understanding of my parents' relationship... So we haven't talked in almost a week and I'm not overly excited to see him tomorrow and Reese is now in a hard spot too, caught in this love triangle the media are playing up without actually being an active participant in it." Her head falls into her hands as her elbows rest on the countertop, breathing heavily as everything comes crashing down in her again.

"Oh Schnucki, you are so strong. You vill know vhat to do." Anja hurries over to pull her into a hug.

"To top it all off, it was five years ago tomorrow that I found mom in bed holding that letter she wrote me...." LoLo whispers, "and Mark called again last night to inform me dad's whole shit show got moved back a week, so it's happening the night of the New York concert. Dad wants me to come spend the last couple hours of his life with him and the judge allowed it. So now it's up to me if I go or not..."

"He is a ferry bat man Lyssie, but he is your Fazzer. I sink for you, you go."

"I'm terrified." LoLo whispers, leaving her head into Anja'd hold.

"I know."

"Thank you for loving me through all the hell, you didn't sign up for this but I would not have made it through this all without you."

"I signet up to care for you, Schnucki. Until I die."

"Can we eat the stew in the living room and watch movies? I want to hide from the world for a night."