Country Mile

FORBIDDEN FRUIT

Genna shuffled in the front door with Delilah hot on her heels. The slightly younger blonde was still berating herself for missing the interaction with Valerie, and therefore missing her chance to release her pent up frustrations and finally pounce on the little tormentor.

The two girls hung their backpacks in mutual silence: one not in the mood to speak; the other unsure of what to say. They were making their way towards the kitchen when Genna abruptly stopped and turned around to whisper to her sister.

"Not a word to Dad, okay?" she asked with large begging eyes.

"Are you kiddin' me? Why the hell not? You should tell him everything and get that bitch suspended!"

"Because," Genna pulled her hair tie out and used her long brown locks to hide her deeply bruising temple, "I don't want to make things worse. Her getting suspended would only be temporary, and she'd use her little vacation to conjure up new ways to piss me off or screw me over. If I keep ignoring her, eventually, all of this will simply go away."

Delilah stared at her as if she had two heads. "That makes no sense!" she whisper yelled. "She won't stop until you break up with Archer! And honestly, I'm
beginnin' to think maybe not even then. She has it out for you in a bad way, Genna."

Taking a deep breath, Genna sighed, "Just keep a lid on it for now, okay?"

With a roll of her eyes, Delilah reluctantly nodded her head.

"Thank you," Genna mouthed as she walked backwards into the kitchen. She turned around to see Adam standing at the island counter; the familiar sound of him chopping up some sort of fruit or veggie for them to eat as he did every school day.

"Whatcha doin'?" Genna asked as she stood next to the counter.

"Makin' you girls a snack," Adam answered. His focus never left the red pepper he was cutting as he asked, "How was your day?"

"Oh, ya know. It was school so it was something akin to being skinned alive, then burning in the fiery depths of hell."

At that, Adam stopped chopping and looked up at her with raised eyebrows. "That enjoyable, huh?"

"So enjoyable. I can't even begin to tell you," Genna sassed amicably. She went to the fridge and grabbed two sodas.

Taking a seat across from her sister at the table, Genna slid one of cold cans of Dr. Pepper over. A slight smile adorned her lips as Delilah accepted the obvious peace offering.

"How about you, sweetie. How was your day?" Adam asked Delilah as he set a large plate of peppers, broccoli, and carrots with a bowl of ranch dip before them.

"Oh, ya know. It was school so it was somethin' akin to watchin' Jerry Springer live, then bein' threatened like you're on the show cops."

Genna nearly choked on her drink at Delilah's mocking statement. As she coughed into her sleeve, she realized the girl didn't accept her peace offering after all. Her eyebrows furrowed, almost as deeply as Adam's. His was in sheer confusion, while Genna's was in warning.

"Don't you have homework you need to do?" Genna asked pointedly.

"Don't you have something you need to say?" Delilah snapped back.

Genna sat momentarily shocked that her sister would narc on her. Instead of feeding into Delilah's blatant attempt at dragging her into an argument and forcing everything to come to light, Genna stood from her chair without a word and began to round the table to head upstairs.

"Hold on just a minute now," Adam spoke out, lifting a hand up signaling her to stop. "I don't know what's gotten into y'all, but if there's somethin' I need to know, someone best tell me."