Florecer

Bad Behavior

        Christina was brought to Tracy's the day that Lily and June were set to see Jorge. Lily politely asked June to take Christina and Danny into another room a few minutes before they were going to leave so that her and Tracy could talk for a moment. Tracy was the one that wanted it.

     "I assume you knew," Lily said without malice as a starter.

     Tracy fidgeted slightly. "Yeah. Mom told me. I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you but I wasn't sure how you'd take it."

      "That's fine. I'm not mad."

     "You're not?"

     Lily sighed. "No. I'm over that already. And I understand."

     "I would have called but..."

     "Trace, it's fine. Really. It has nothing to do with you, anyway. I know how you've always been about my father but now that this is happening, you did the right thing to leave me alone with it."

     "And you're sure about doing this? About talking to him? You hate him."

     "I've got a few questions for him. Once they're answered I think I can go on in peace. I can stop thinking about him and move on."

     Tracy reached out and squeezed Lily's upper arm. "You can do this."

     "Thank you." Lily took hold of Tracy's hand on her and kissed the knuckles before letting it go. She inhaled and shook herself. "Alright. We're going to leave now. Thanks for watching Christina while we're doing this."

     "Of course. I can watch her overnight if something happens."

     Lily smiled gratefully. She wasn't quite ready to begin giving Tracy hugs again so she nodded then called out for June. After a minute June came round and glanced around, silently asking if everything was okay. Lily smiled sweetly.

     "Call me if you need anything," Tracy said as June and Lily headed to the front door.

     Lily stepped outside, palming her car keys. "Hopefully that won't be necessary. But thanks. Oh, and don't do anything remarkably special with Christina and say no whenever you can. We're trying to wean her off of a nice bender. My fault. Don't ask."

     Tracy gave a strange look but agreed. Then June and Lily piled into Lily's car and were on their way. It hadn't been difficult to find Jorge, and even less difficult to get him to agree to meet them somewhere relatively public. June had suggested that and Lily had gone with it because she feared the worst if they met him in a private place.

     June reached over the center console and grabbed Lily's hand. "You're shaking," she commented. "Try to calm down. Breathe."

     Lily shook her shoulders and exhaled messily. "I'm nervous. I feel like I'm going to throw up."

     "It's going to be okay."

     "I can't believe I'm going through with this. Why am I going through with this? Why don't we turn around? Let's go back."

     "Lily. Breathe. You have to do this for yourself."

     "I know. I know." Lily groaned, breathing rapidly. "I know. I hate that this is worrying me so much. He shouldn't have this kind of power over me."

     June touched the steering wheel when Lily swerved a little too far to be safe. "Please don't kill us before we get there. And he doesn't have any kind of power over you. You've been perfectly fine without him. This is just you overthinking. It's going to be okay- you're going to be okay."