Sunset and Vine | Adopted By Elizabeth Olsen

21 | Home With You

Lizzie called Ashley to come pick her up from set, remembering that Scarlett had driven her this morning. She felt bad for inconveniencing her sisters, but her worries had been immediately reassured the second Ashley screeched down the line about being there in half an hour, and if they wanted her to pick anything up along the way. Lizzie had asked her to stop by a local target, not wanting to wait another minute to get Florence a booster seat, and the little girl hadn't been particularly amused. Lizzie hadn't even hung up the phone before Florence was whining, all worries about meeting her sisters out the window, replaced with the child Lizzie had grown to adore. She was thankful that Florence had felt reassured by her words earlier, even if that meant bickering about safety now.

"I'm nine, Lizard! I don't need a booster seat!" Florence sat with her arms crossed, a full pout on her lips as she gazed up at Lizzie through her lashes. Lizzie hadn't realized how much she missed this. They'd come a long way from silent lunches in the cafe, even if they had a fair share of temporary setbacks since then.

"Can your feet touch the floor?" Lizzie quirks an eyebrow, tilting her head in a silent plea for Florence to not argue with her about that.

"Your feet barely touch the floor when we're sitting at the cafe." Florence mocks, and Lizzie can't help but crack a smile and break the serious reserve she'd been attempting to uphold. Florence sees that, and for a second she thinks she's won until Lizzie just shakes her head.

Lizzie pulls Florence into her side despite the little girl being uncooperative, "It's for your safety, Flo. Your feet don't touch the floor, your head rests below the headrest. Is the seatbelt really comfortable when it's digging into your neck?"

Florence huffs, shaking her head, hating to admit Lizzie's right but not thinking lying would be her best option. That seatbelt really is uncomfortable. "But I'm not a baby!"

"And that's why you're not in a car seat. It's just a booster seat. Do you know the difference?" Lizzie asks, tilting her head again. This time Florence giggles, copying her head tilt with a smirk. "Cheeky."

"There's a difference?" Florence breaks, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. She'd thought booster seats were just an interchangeable name for car seats, and the thought of being confused to a small seat freaked her out. She's dealt with enough small spaces for a lifetime.

"A carseats what babies are in. Rose will be in a carseat when she's born until she's probably a five or six, but a booster seat just goes on the seat and sometimes they have handles on the side where you can put a drink. But, it's really just a little seat that makes you taller so the seatbelt falls over your chest the right way. Do you wanna see a picture? I asked Ashley to just get a black one, I can probably find a picture of one that looks the same." Lizzie offers, and Florence nods, biting at her bottom lip as she leans over to see what Lizzie's doing on her phone.

A text from Scarlett comes through, and Lizzie quickly swipes it away, but Florence already saw it. "Is Scarly gonna be mad at you're not going home with her?"

"Scarly, huh?" Lizzie smirks and Florence flushes.

"Well I'm Flo, and you're Lizard, and she's Scarly." The little girl elaborates, and Lizzie knows Scarlett will be over the moon to hear that despite her mood today, she does hold her close to her heart.

"I think she'd like to hear that one. But, no. She won't be mad. Scarly's having some pain in her belly, so she's going home too. We can see her before she leaves, she won't be here tomorrow." Lizzie explains and Florence pouts so deeply Lizzie fears her lips will melt off. "Why the long face?"

"I wasn't very nice to either of you today. I don't want her to think I don't like her. Alan just got to me, which he shouldn't have." Florence sighs, "He usually doesn't. But he's never brought up Gloria and Margot, and if he was right about that I thought he'd be right about you and Scarlett. He saw you in the car. Asked who you were. That's how he got into you both leaving too." And they're back to tears, both looking like their hearts were breaking into pieces at the information and the reliving of the event.