The Dollhouse

Chapter 15

THE image was now forever seared into my brain.

Recoiling in horror, I couldn't comprehend what I had just witnessed with my own two eyes.

Nothing could eradicate that scene from my memory. The way her hand touched the back of his neck. The way his eyes widened. Pure nausea washed over me in sickening waves that made me feel dirty to the very core. 

Disgusting, disgusting sin.

A fist seemed to clench hard around my heart, and there was no doubt I would be looking at a date with death had anyone been aware of my presence.

Sure, no one was a stranger to Violet's obsession with boys. But Rudy?  They had such a stark difference. If she was the sun, he was the moon.

They didn't even like one another.

I had hardly seen that level of intimacy between my father and Arabella.  Not that they were a shining example of marital bliss. Talk about a suburban scandal - I hardly recalled flitting back to my room and laying in the dark, my chest thumping. 

At school, I couldn't even glance in their direction. Neither of them acted as if anything had changed. They sat on separate desks, with little interaction, save the sarcastic banter they had in line for the cafeteria. Even then, Rudy sloped off to his usual bench of solitude.

Violet took a seat beside me.

"I heard that cow talking about you before," she opened dramatically.

"Who, Daisy?"

Our rivalry hardly seemed interesting any longer.

My friends set their plastic trays on the table. Today's menu included some grey-colored bread slapped together with bologna, with a side of apple slices. It was sort of gross, but I was grateful for an excuse not to engage with Violet.

"Yeah, she's been real nasty to you lately," Betsy waved her plastic fork about. "We should probably get her back before summer."

"Oh, we haven't pulled a prank war in ages," Nick said enthusiastically, while Danny nodded. "Things can get nasty. Truth be told, Brenning had it coming. But not without your permission of course, Lydia."

Sunlight streamed through the windows into the cafeteria. Outside, the trees danced in the movement of the breeze. Listening to my friends go on about random nuisance had never felt so reassuring. Mondays, nowadays, were lined with gold.

With a shudder passing through me, I thought about home. Everything in my life seemed to be strange and obscure since I had started my life in this unfortunate town. It was a opposite mirror of of my childhood - a wonderful school life, but a shaky household.

Now Violet and Rudy had complicated things even more. I mean, physically speaking, their relationship (whatever it was) - wasn't incestuous. They shared no blood. But the concept? Revolting.

And what would our so-called 'parents' think? Percival and Arabella, so renowned in the community for their successful lifestyles. I wasn't even sure if my stepmother knew anything outside church or couture.

It reminded me of the time I accidentally borrowed a copy of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita from the library back home. I say accidentally - more like I had no idea how pornographic it was until I flicked open the first page. Twelve-year-old me was disgusted that a man could become infatuated with a girl my age - however, a sick part of me wanted to read on.

"I'm just not sure where it can go from here," Violet said.

Nick wiped his hands on his jeans. "Worry not! I'm the master of schoolyard comebacks. Back in seventh grade, Howard Bletchley stole my biscuits, and later on that day we set his science project on fire."