Together We Stand

CHAPTER FIVE

soundtrack for your backseat

Blaire Marjorie Everly

extremely unedited

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS SUDDEN change in her, Venus," Blaire muttered, talking on her phone. "She came like at twelve am, stinking of weed but she was smiling. And she smelled like perfume too, like some witchy perfume almost, at least that's the vibe of it."

"Witchy perfume?" Venus said, seemingly confused, like she was trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces. "Who wears that kind of perfume?"

"Certainly not her," Blaire shook her head, she felt a tear running down her cheek, knowing her sister was in a dark place. "And when I asked her where she went, she just said, 'oh, Blairie, you'd freak. I had a great time though.'"

"That means she was doing something illegal, Blaire," Venus explained.

"Oh."

"And it also means someone was with her, at least I'd assume. My Ruthie doesn't do that kinda stuff alone." Venus continued, but she slowly broke off, and Blaire tilted her head in confusion.

"What is it, Venus?"

"I gotta go, I think I might know who she was with," Venus hurriedly mumbled. "I'll update you soon."

"Venus, wait, who do you-," Blaire started, but the phone beeped. "And she hung up on me."

Blaire sat down on the edge of her bed, her phone falling into the pink fuzzy blanket that Ruth had given to her, even though she hated even touching the color pink.

"Oh, Ruthie," Blaire murmured, hugging a pink jellycat rabbit to her chest. "Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

And for the next five hours, Blaire couldn't sleep. One am, two am, three am, four am. She was kept up, crying here and there, but her eyes remained wide open. Her father had hit her sister, he was abusive, Ruth claimed. Why couldn't Blaire remember any of it? Her memory of her father was fuzzy, all she could remember was the faded image of him playing with her at a park, but she didn't remember the pain, the hurt, any of it. Venus said she probably blocked it out to cope with the pain, but no matter how far Blaire dug into her head, she couldn't remember any of it. She was thinking of Lucy, how she had been there bedside the entire time while she just felt numb. She didn't stop holding her.

At six am, her thoughts were interrupted when her bedroom door was quietly opened. You could open her door as quietly as you could, but the squeak would always make a noise.

Blaire stayed still, fearful of who it could be. Was it someone out to get her? When she was a little girl, she would always make sure to always be covered by the blanket, a little bit of extra protection if someone came to shoot her. She couldn't be more grateful for the comforter now. She delusionally wished it was Lucy once more, she really missed her.

"She's asleep, good," the voice murmured, so quietly Blaire could barely hear it. "I got here early, but she would need to know."

Venus, Blaire thought with relief. It wasn't Lucy, but it wasn't bad. She wasn't quite sure why Venus was here anyway, but she was glad it wasn't anyone who was going to hurt her.

Blaire found herself drifting to sleep, the aura of Venus calming her mind. She didn't understand how Venus worked, she calmed everyone around her. But it didn't take long for Blaire to fall back asleep.

---

"It's your cousin?" Blaire whisper-shouted. The sun was now up, and Blaire had woken up around twelve. She imagined it was hard for Venus to wait six hours for her to wake.