Dreamcatcher

Chapter Thirty-Three: Secrets

When Joyce caught wind that there was an offer made to Rachel of her taking part in a competition, she felt compelled to celebrate with her loved ones privately. As a result, Joyce Price committed herself to preparing a feast for her son's girlfriend the day before she was expected to leave early the next morning.

On Rachel's second-last day in Arcadia Bay, Joyce Price and her son went shopping. It was late in the morning when Joyce was dropped off by her daughter to the shops. Rachel had been given time to herself to reflect on her life which was about to change.

Given the fact that Clark volunteered to assist his mother with the shopping showed that he felt capable of withstanding morbid delays over searching clothing stores and other such proclivities. However, as the day went on early into the afternoon did Clark and his mother make remarkable progress in collecting all of the essentials and ingredients she required to make a feast specially for Rachel.

"Is that everything?" Clark asked persistently, merely out of annoyance to ensure that he and his mother acquired everything she needed so to avoid returning to the store to waste more time searching for something.

Joyce sighed frustratingly. "Yes, that's everything. Now if you ask me one more goddamn time-"

"Okay, okay! I'll call Chloe to come pick us up."

There was hesitance on Joyce's part when she heard this. Thoughts rolled in her mind, replaying what happened the last tine she had somebody pick her up from the shops.

She wasn't keen to tempt fate a second time.

"N-No, Clark, honey. Wait just a minute. Why don't we walk?"

"Walk? I walk enough going to school and you do plenty of walking going to work every morning, so... let's just call Chloe to pick us up. Actually, now that I think about it, she probably could be doing whatever Chloe does. Drugs."

"Drugs." Joyce agreed.

"Yeah, let's walk. Here. Give me that. I'll carry that."

Clark gestured for a bag of groceries, taking one bag to relieve the weight his mom had to carry. Once they started walking, it wasn't long before9 they eventually found themselves walking up to the front door of their home. Joyce unlocked the front door and slipped inside before Clark followed, aching arms from the heavy bags of groceries he willingly carried so that his mother wouldn't have to deal with the strain.

It took what strength and effort Clark could muster to deliver the groceries to the kitchen where Joyce immediately started to unpack the groceries.

In order to avoid any drastic consequences with dinner preparations, Joyce commanded her son to avoid the kitchen for the next two hours whilst she prepared dinner. Clark agreed to her demand and isolated himself in his room.

Hours came to pass until Rachel made the decision to return to Clark's house. It had taken Rachel a lot of time to prepare herself for her leaving Arcadia Bay the next day, at the start of a new month. When Rachel entered the household, dinner was just being set on the table the the moment Rachel walked through the door. She then made her presence aware to the family by casually strolling into their line of sight, where everyone greeted her except David Madsen.

Rachel then joined them all at the dinner table. She took her place opposite Clark who sat between his mother and sister, his sister beside their mother's boyfriend. Now with Rachel in their company, they included her into their conversation.

"Pass the salt, please, Chloe?" David requested.

Doing as she was asked, Chloe grabbed the salt and passed it over to David, but not in the way he'd hoped. Instead, she dropped the salt before David could grab it and they both stared each other down. Joyce sighed in annoyance and scolded her daughter before asking her to apologise.