Horse Ridin' (Motionless In White)

Chapter 29: Silent Treatment

Written: 10/22/16-10/23/16

Note: Writing this is like a fucking curse. My back hurts so motherfucking bad right now I was legitimately in tears writing this. I need to stop avoiding and get this checked out so it doesn't get even worse :(

ALSOOOOO. I know the ptv/miw/btf tour was in the UK but for this it was US. Deal with itt!!!

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After a few minutes of tense silence, all 3 of them had migrated back to the couches. Rosaline was to Sirenia's right, still curled against her sister's side for comfort. Her face was buried in Sirenia's pajama shirt, hiding the bruises she knew were already forming from Jared's sight.

Jared was on the other side of Sirenia, watching the two of them with concern pooling in his eyes. Sirenia could only guess he was starting to piece things together in his head by now- he was smart enough to figure it out. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to have seen the resemblance between the girls and their parents. They were quite similar in that way, unfortunately. And it definitely made it easier to figure out if he'd overheard any of the talk about money being owed to them.

Sirenia was too afraid to open her mouth, though. She didn't want to speak about them at all- or ever again if she didn't have to. She was still shaking slightly, her mind clouded with the fear she'd tried so hard to hold back. She knew Rosaline's confidence was gone now, too, leaving the girl exhausted from her acts of boldness. No matter how stupid it had been for Rosaline to stand up to them like that, Sirenia was inwardly proud of her sister for standing up to them- even if it had gotten her beaten up.

But Sirenia would chastise her for that later. Right now she needed to figure out how to tell Jared what had just happened.

They'd never told Jared much of anything about their parents to begin with. Luckily he'd never asked, either. Probably because at the beginning of his job he'd been too scared to say something wrong and later because he saw the girls were uncomfortable with the topic. It had never really come up in conversation before, either. And time it had Rosaline had just dispelled the conversation and changed the subject completely. That seemed to have gotten the message across to Jared just fine.

But now the girls were huddled together, Rosaline still silent, leaving Sirenia to try and explain this by herself.

She sighed inwardly, looking over at Jared expectantly. "Aren't you going to ask what just happened?"

"Only if you're willing to answer." He responded, only continuing when Sirenia nodded halfheartedly. "Alright then- what the fuck just happened?"

"In case you hadn't guessed, those were our parents." Sirenia started, looking at Jared to try and gauge his reaction. He nodded, seeming to have already figured that part out. "And they came looking for money from the portion of Covenant they claimed to be owed."

Jared's eyebrows scrunched. "Why would they be owed anything? You two are adults and it's your business. It has nothing to do with them."

How was Sirenia meant to answer this? In one way Jared was right- Covenant itself had nothing to do with Robert or Denise. But that didn't mean for a second that their parents weren't going to try and worm their way into getting something out of them.

In a way Sirenia was surprised, no shocked, that they even showed up at all. After all these years- why now? It wasn't like Covenant had just become popular or something. The barn's Facebook page had more than 50k likes and their Instagram had over 70k followers, and that wasn't including their personal accounts (which weight in at about 20k or so each). People were contacting them to schedule lessons, clinics and such nearly 8 months in advance- and it had been like that about a year or so. Yet their parents just showed up now... why?