Trust Me. I'm Lying - (SLOWLY EDITING)

To Irradiate Carefulness: Chapter 35

"Beauty can be like that. Beauty cannot be trusted. Beauty can slip through your fingers like water and burn on your tongue like poison. Beauty can be the shinning wall that keeps you from all you love."

--"Bitter Of Tongue", Tales from The Shadowhunter Academy, Cassandra Clare.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE:

To Irradiate Carefulness.

Carson's parents moved back from the town they had left him in when he was nine years old on May 28th. It was a shiny Sunday unlike one there had been all year; the sun hugged me in an uncomfortable way, and my tank top stuck on my back. The house was closer to mine than it actually was to Carson's; it was two stories high, a bright blue color, and with two cars in its driveway.

Adrian Samuels was by far nicer from what you would expect from a man who abandoned his child without a say. He had Carson's hair color and the resemblance literally stopped there. He had deep brown eyes, was rather short in height and had two deep dimples on either side of his apparently eternal smile.

"Ah," he said when he saw me. I'm not one hundred percent certain what my face looked like the moment we made eye contact, but it couldn't have been very friendly. Or remotely nice, for that matter. I didn't even want to see him, or his wife. Ever. Carson's hand in mine started to sweat. But that could have been because of the heat. "You must be Bells."

"Isabelle," I corrected him, and took his hand when he stretched it out for me to shake. I tried something like a smile. After all, they were my boyfriend's parents.

"Nice to meet you, Isabelle," Mr. Samuels smiled warmly. It was hard not to smile back when those dimples appeared, but I thought of Carson being unable to sleep, growing up without a family, having to deal with said family coming back and with a daughter they had kept, and dropped my hand quickly. "I'm Mr. Samuels. Carson and Olivia's father. But you can call me Adrian."

"It's good to finally meet you, Mr. Samuels," I responded politely, but it actually wasn't. I referred to the word good by lack of any other. I wanted to take Carson and run from this damned place.

But I couldn't. And from now own I would have to stand until who knows when my almost neighbors. Carson's hand in mine shook. While Mr. Samuels was speaking words I didn't want to and couldn't hear, I stole a glance at Carson. He had been pale ever since he came to my house, four nights ago. I couldn't blame him. I imagined my demeanor would be pretty much the same had my dad declared that all of a sudden he would come and live with us again.

"Come on," I whispered, tugging at his hand a little. Carson reacted in the way he had been doing as of late; like he wasn't paying much attention and the sound of my voice brought him back to reality. I glanced at the house. His mother was talking to the moving truck rental man who seemed to be in charge of the whole dreaded ordeal. "I'll get Olivia."

I dropped his hand carefully. Everything I did lately seemed to irradiate carefulness; careful to what you say around the house, careful about not letting slip anything related to Danielle to Mr. Langley, careful on the way you were around Carson. If I was honest, I needed a good night's sleep.

I sighed through my nose, rearranging my features into a pleasant expression. Olivia smiled and waved and tugged at her mother's hand when she saw me coming. Mrs. Samuels looked from her, to me, excusing herself from the man whom she had been speaking. "Mrs. Samuels?"

"Ah, Isabelle," she smiled. I didn't smile back. For a moment, it looked like she wanted to give me a hug, but my expression probably told her I would rip her eyes out. "It's nice to see you."