SILHOUETTE

Chapter 30

Simone clicked the pen over and over staring at the confirmation on the screen. She had done one good thing for herself and she needed it. She signed out of the computer and went home - her own apartment for once and did some grading. She had her phone on do not disturb. As much as she wasn't home, somehow her place still needed cleaning. She set a timer and got to work.

A nap did her in before she finished grading more assignments. There was nothing she hated more than late work but she knew high school was well.. an experience. She needed to take a moment to process everything. It didn't feel like two weeks had passed. She had enough of the calls from her aunt and parents that blocking them seemed like the right thing for the time being.

She wasn't as ready as she thought.  Simone didn't want to meet her real dad. She didn't have any desire to form a relationship with a man that only helped with donating his sperm. He was simply that - a sperm donor. Nothing more and nothing less in her opinion. Yet, she still wondered just how much things would've been different if her actual birth mother raised her and not Tina Hicks.

The notification from her ring app pulled her away from her thoughts. She looked seeing Liv and Ava on the other side with bags of food. Simone thought she could escape from a Baker twin for the day. Maybe if she played possum, they would go away.  The thought didn't hold much weight as Liv unlocked the door since she stole Jordan's key.

"Why did you knock if you had your brother's key?" Simone continued going over the rubic she had making sure the student hit all the marks of what she wanted.

"I wanted to give you an opportunity to get the door for us." Liv closed the door entering in the security code numbers that Simone had called out to deactivate her home security.

"Why are you grading?" Ava helped herself to a water bottle.

"Because unlike you, I like to keep up when I assign things and promptly return them to my students and maybe because it's my job to grade them. Secondly, have some home training and don't go in my fridge." Simone moved on to the next piece.

"Are you sure you're okay? I know you said it ... but you missed lunch and were so quick to leave work." Ava continued.

"I ate in my office. I am fine."  Maybe if they got the hint, they would go away.

"We're just worried you, Simone. Even Jordan mentioned you stopped coming by after work and sleeping there. You guys are literally obsessed with each other. He's worried about you. We know it's a lot to take in and I meant what I said. I am here if you need to talk about anything."  Liv didn't know how many ways she could express it.

She understood where Jordan was coming from. She didn't want to see something like this break Simone. Liv couldn't begin to understand because she knew what her life was. She also knew that Simone's life was hitting another rollercoaster drop and she didn't want her to overwhelm herself with thinking about the possibility. Simone on the other hand didn't feel like Hicks anymore. She surely didn't feel like Patterson either. She knew she didn't lose her identity but it felt like it.

"I am... debating legally changing my last name."

It wasn't impulsive. Simone was going to marry Jordan regardless and it seemed like she minus well get it out the way now.  It would be one step that she wouldn't have to worry about for when the time came. A progress that would be easily eliminated and it was a legal thing to do if she wanted too - which she did. She would rather be a Baker now then continue to feel like fraud as a Hicks.

"Is that crazy?"  Simone knew it sounded a little crazy.

"No, it's not crazy." Liv said after a while.