Villain x hero (GXG)

Chapter 13

It was a cold autumn day in South Burlington, children playing and laughing around– Bells ringing in the church at the end of the road.

"Carmen! Dinners ready!" Her younger brother Toby called out from their home.

She tilted her head back to glance at him. "What..?" Carmen hadn't seen her brother in years, much less this.... Place. As she glanced around she recognized the dull neighborhood, those same church bells ringing just as they did every day before dinner.

Her little sister pushed past her, running into the house with dirt covered hands.

"Remi...?" Carm whispered, hesitantly following inside. As she stepped inside the threshold she recognized that face.

Her Mother...

She glanced up and down, "Hun, I didn't see the bus outside. How did you get home?" Her mother smiled innocently.

"Oh-"

"Was it that Luke boy?" She smiled knowingly,

"No, Effie did." Carm heard herself say, eyebrows pinching together.

She scoffed, "I told you not to hang out with that girl.." Anabeth clicked her tongue, folding some laundry.

"I still don't understand why-"
"Don't play that game with me. You know why." She rolled her eyes, focusing her attention back on the clothes.

"I-"

"Carmen! Ana! We don't got all night" Her fathers southern voice called to them, causing her to jump a little.

The dining room is modestly decorated, with a wooden table at the center. A dim chandelier hangs overhead, casting a yellowish hue over the room. Her dad sits at the head of the table, his familiar stern and unwelcoming face was all there was to greet her.

Her Mom sits beside him, picking at her food. Her younger siblings, Toby and Remi, sit on the other side, each with varying degrees of discomfort and tension visible on their faces.

The family eats in silence, the clinking of utensils against plates the only sound.

Carmen was surprised that no one had spoken up yet, although immediately regretting thinking anything.

"You haven't said a word since you walked in. Got something to hide?" Her father James started, looking at Toby, a quiet and reserved teenager, shifts uncomfortably in his seat, avoiding eye contact.

"No, Dad. Just... tired from school." He fidgets, keeping his gaze locked on his food.

James snorts, "Tired from school. Right. Maybe if you spent less time hanging out with your "friends" and more time doing something productive, you wouldn't be so tired."

Carmen huffed, she was always the more outspoken of the siblings. She looks up, glaring at her father. "You don't even know who his friends are, Dad."

"Oh, I know enough. A bunch of sissies and fags. Is that what you want to be Tobias? A fucking fag."

Toby's face turns red with embarrassment and anger, but he remains silent. Remi, the youngest, looks down at her plate, trying to make herself invisible.

"James please. It's dinner. Let's just have a nice meal." She hummed tentatively, brushing her hand against his sleeve.

The father scoffed, "A nice meal. Sure. Like we can have anything nice in this house with all the Sissie's."