Satine [ONGOING]

GABRIELLE (XI)

Gabrielle had hoped that her hair would dry before reaching her house, however it was still dripping with cold water when she stepped inside, the young girl sighed in relief after noticing the obvious silence that gripped the house. If her mother were in, the piano would be in full motion, spreading an incessant melody echoing around all the walls of the house. Ever since Satine had come home the music was near constant, and deceivingly so, the reason for it was not happiness, quite the opposite. Her mother was using the instrument as a coping mechanism. It was fascinating to Gabrielle, how suddenly an entire village could refuse to speak to someone as involved and helpful to the community as her mother simply because of what her daughter had done. Suddenly, all of the older women in the village had taken a sort of sadistic moral high ground and excluded marie-Lise from close to everything. It left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she didn't quite know whom she should direct her frustration toward. Everyone was at fault, her mother, the old villagers, Satine. Gabrielle reached for a towel in the downstairs bathroom and tried to salvage the hair situation as quickly as she could. Squeezing all the water out methodically, praying silently her mother would not come home just yet and come to know about her little excursion up the mountains. Technically, she was grounded. Constance of course was fully aware of this, and yet she still came to throw rocks at her window and force her out of the house. Gabrielle smiled to herself thinking about it. The thing about Constance that fascinated her most was that she always seemed to know exactly what everyone else needed. Though she pretended to blame her and said she wished to scold her for smuggling her out of her bedroom all day, deep down she knew that she would have gone crazy without the taste of the fresh air, and the cool water against her skin. The young girl would have simply rotted in her bed all day. Somehow, Constance had perfect timing, a plan, and a smile. Gabrielle swore that sometimes being with her almost felt like telepathically communicating with someone. Clementine always quietly agreed. Suddenly, the front door opened, breaking the peaceful silence that reigned on the first floor. It gave a light crack and brought a snapshot of the wind whistling through the trees, the light song of birds and rustling of leaves outside. Gabrielle's breath caught in her throat.
"Merde," She whispered under her breath as she heard the door close behind the person whom she assumed was her mother. She let the towel in her hand fall into the sink with a thud. She had to somehow sneak past her up the stairs in some way so that she couldn't take a good look at her, even a quick look was risky. Her hawk eyes never missed a detail, ever. She tiptoed out of the dark bathroom, holding her breath, her almost perfect hearing would definitely detect her if she hyperventilated as her body felt was an appropriate reaction for this situation. The light filtering through the window hurt her eyes, and as she made her way through the kitchen after blinking aggressively to stop the itch she bumped right into her sister. She jumped back and let out a mix between a scream, but stopped it by blocking the sound with her hand over her mouth. She had thought it was her mother, in fact she was practically sure of it. Satine stared at her for a while, no doubt awaiting an answer as to why she was so terribly jittery and looked like she had met face to face with a ghost. Madeleine watched her too, with her wide curious eyes, looking innocent as ever on her mother's hip.

"Are you all right...?" Satine asked carefully. Putting hand on her sister's shoulder. She nodded vigorously. 'Yes! Yes, I'm fine." She managed to get out in the span of a second without tripping on her own words. They remained frozen ,facing each other for entirely too long, not knowing what to say to each other. There was a certain tension between them, an insurmountable awkwardness they had both seemingly decided to simply dodge over the course of the week.

She pushed past her and almost managed to reach for the doorknob that led out into the hall.
"Why's your hair wet?" Satine asked, halting her completely. Gabrielle sighed and turned around.
"I snuck out through the window and went to the lakes up by Le mont with Constance, do not tell maman. Happy?" She huffed.