Discharged

11

11

Lizzie's first update came the next morning. Somehow, she had managed to calm both her parents down and got them in a room together again. She had even managed to get her father to apologize for hitting his wife. It turned out that Lizzie was her dad's weakness. As vile and sociopathic as he was, his daughter was one of the only things that could keep him in check. By some miracle, Lizzie's family was starting to repair itself.

Lizzie was something else, and I found myself amazed that she had chosen me of all people. She truly was a magician when it came to her words.

And I thought I was the one with superpowers.

As of now, things weren't back to normal yet. Lizzie was doing everything she could to have them recognize that their argument was overblown and a big overreaction on both sides. Both still stood by their stances on each other's family but seemed open to the idea of agreeing to disagreeing and letting it all go behind them. Lizzie's mother had made omelets for her husband and he had reciprocated with warm and seemingly genuine physical affection. There was some hesitancy on both sides, but they were working on it, and for that, Lizzie was confident things would ultimately repair itself.

"Mom's been asking about you a lot actually," she added.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Well, firstly she's just concerned about you after your 'accident.' But mostly she's just feeling a bit responsible for the fact that our vacation ended early."

I sighed. Ramona LeClair was too sweet for her own good. "Well, you can tell her on my behalf that I'm doing really well, and not to worry about the vacation. Her needs were far more important than ours. We'll have plenty of memories to look forward to."

"Yeah, we will," Lizzie echoed pleasingly. "With what you can do now, we'll be having all kinds of fun."

"Lizzie..."

"Oh shut it, no one's near me, and you know I'm half-joking. And don't kid yourself, you've been secretly charging your phone with your finger and floating it to your pocket. You'd be wasting yourself if you weren't and disappointing me in the process. Hell, I'd bet that you're not even holding your phone right now and it's locked to your ear like a magnet."

I snickered. "I probably would do that if I weren't in public."

"Oh, shit..." she said, getting suddenly anxious. "You're not on speaker, are you?"

I laughed harder. "Who do you think I am? I'm not that reckless."

"Your mom would like to have a word about that."

"You have no idea..." I mumbled, looking around at the store I was just outside of.

"So where are you then, if not at home?"

I hesitated. For a second I was going to tell her, breaking all kinds of rules of relationships in the process. I knew that it wouldn't really be a big deal, considering that I knew she felt the same way. But instead, a different idea crossed my head. "I'll tell you in a second. But first, would you mind if I talk to Ramona?"

She paused, taken aback. "I'm sorry, what? What do you mean you'll tell me in a second? What are you plotting?"

"Don't think too hard about it," I said with a grin. If she worked it out, she'd probably just laugh it off. "What do you think, can I get her on the phone?"

She obliged and a few minutes later I was talking to the overwhelmed voice of Ramona LeClair. "My goodness, Beck, it's so great to hear your voice! How was your trip back? I'm so sorry about having to cut it off early, it was incredibly rude of me to cut into your vacation so suddenly."