Infected

Chapter 2

I'm parking in the driveway in one smooth motion a minute later. Liv should be up by now and getting ready for a shift at her newest job. She'd secured a barista position at a coffee shop not far from the university no thanks to my connection with the shop owner, Louis. I was his favorite customer, always making sure to try new blends that he'd brought in to keep my tastebuds happy and in return he hired my cousin even though we both knew she wouldn't last more than a month. It wasn't like she couldn't hold down a job but her latest infatuation with bad boys and drinking had made it difficult to go in so early in the day.

I walk into the house and shout hello into the entryway. Liv responds in the kitchen, her mouth muffled with whatever she is eating. I drop my purse on the couch then check my phone for messages for the first time today. Liv had texted me at least forty times and called me twenty.

"Liv what was the emergency?" I skim the texts seeing them grow more and more infuriated as they approached the most recent one, which was sent three minutes ago.

"I guess it's not one anymore. You clearly ignored me when I tried to reach out to you."

I take down a mug and attempt to pour a cup of this morning's coffee without shaking from my sudden annoyance.

"I wasn't trying to ignore you on purpose. This is the hundredth time I've told you I don't have my phone on when I'm at work."

"You say that and yet I feel like it's so you can blow me off without feeling guilty."

"What crawled up your ass Olivia Tulle?" Even though we were the same age I somehow felt the need to discipline my cousin right now. My frustration stretches deep within me and pulls out my southern accent that I usually had no trouble hiding.

"I'm not the one coming home in the middle of the night and waking everyone up. Do you ever stop to think that what you do ignores me? you've become so fucking selfish since you started dating that creep."

"Leave Rucker out of this. He hasn't changed anything about what I think of you. All high and mighty with the personality of a door nail."

"High and mighty? Jesus this isn't some kind of review on who what mean to each other Liv. You're upset about something and lashing out at a small inconvenience. An inconvenience that I wish you would consider to be the thing keeping us in this house. But you want me fight back so you don't have to face whatever is actually bothering you."

"Don't you dare play that card with me."

"You forget too often that I know your habits, Liv. Stop searching for an excuse to start a fight with me and tell me what's happening."

I drink my lukewarm coffee waiting for her to swallow the last bite of her bagel. I put the mug in the microwave thinking of how long I should warm it for.

"You sound like my mom when you get like that." She smirks at her sudden thought.

The microwave beeps as I recall something my aunt did once.

Liv had come home from a sleepover with a new belly button piercing. This sleepover supposedly happened at my house on a night I'd been away at a piano recital.

"You're a devil child Lorelei Tulle and I'll be damned to see you ruin my sweet daughter's life" I recite in the exact tone she'd used. "Your mom's face was the reddest I'd ever seen it."

"Yeah, and how your dad couldn't help but laugh at her. That was right before prom and he made up that fake punishment for you so she'd be happy."

"'Please dad don't take away prom, it's the only thing that's important to me.'"