Negative Creep

The House

"Isn't it beautiful?" Ben asks, his voice almost dreamy but it's not in the romanticized way. His voice sounds as if he's disconnected from the world, as if he's checked out of everything and is trying to convince himself that he'll like it here. "The light is different from Boston. Feels like I can see more, I thought it was supposed to be all foggy." Vivien adds. You ignore both of their comments opting to look out the car window. The car races past the trees making them look no more than little green blurs among the horizon. It's nice in a way, the scenery is always a welcomed sight, especially since it lets you block out the uncomfortable air your parents have formed in the car; not quite checked out of their marriage but not happy around each other. It's annoying how they're trying to act as if everything is ok and how they act as if running away from their problems will fix anything.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Violet says blankly, looking at your parents through the rear view mirror, her face matching her voice.

"It's just a little while longer." Ben chimes in but violet isn't having it. you glance over at her, deciding that this interaction is suddenly very important.

"I need to go."

You smirk as Violet says this and you decide to egg her on. "Violet said she needs to go. I think I need to go as well." This was your turn to look directly into the rear view mirror, attempting to play as innocent as possible. Ben lets out a 'tsk' before speaking up, a false kindness to his voice this time. "where would you like me to pull over, my darling girls, the bay or the pacific?" there's that sickeningly sweet voice your parents use whenever they're about to scold you. it annoys you to high hell and you lay off but violet isn't having it. Violet leans over toward you to speak, "bet you if baby substitute had to shit they would find somewhere." You raise your eyebrows at her but nod in agreement. Violet obviously wasn't trying to keep her statement under the wraps and everyone knew that. Vivien is quick to respond. "I don't like that word, violet." There she goes again dodging the statement. you notice both of your parents have been doing this often where one of you will make a jab at them and instead they'll ignore it and pull something completely random about the statement to complain about. A week ago you had complained about the tension in the house and instead of talking about it your mother just shrugged and told you to lower your voice if you're in the house.

You roll your eyes before going back to looking out the window. Violet speaks up again, this time she's also looking out the window. "Thirteen hundred people have jumped off this thing, at least that's what they think. They don't see them all and they stopped counting right before a thousand. I looked it up. Twenty six of them survived. You know what they all said their first thought was once they stepped off?" There's a slight pause before she continues.

"oh shit."

Vivien looked clearly uncomfortable while Ben ignored her comment. You and Violet snickered in the back seat of the car. You take this as the perfect time to build off of what violet was saying. "It's kind of how I feel about this move. I'm not going to the like the school. LA is filled with hippies and freaks and drug addicts. I might end up as one of the unaccounted people who jumped off this very bridge." That comment makes violet giggle and the two of you subtly high five each other.

"I'm so glad we named you two what we did instead of our second options." Ben states flatly. His statement however peaks your interest.

"which were?"

"sunshine and rainbow."

Everyone in the car chuckles. the tension in the air disappears and for a minute everything seems ok. the illusion painted so perfectly that your father tries to take your mothers hand. The illusion shatters instantly as she pulls her hand away from him. You watched as that scene unfolded and you frown, going back to looking out the window.