Florecer

Patching Up

     Dinner was silent and only slightly awkward.

     Lily kept wincing when hot food would touch her split lip but she remained quiet and chewed as softly as she could. Christina, forgiving but still anxious, ate slowly with her eyes darting again and again to Lily's beat up face. June, not yet calm, munched roughly in agitation.

      No one mentioned what had happened on the front lawn and no one was planning to.

     Lily was the one who cleaned up the mess when everyone was done. Christina was still tired so she went straight up to bed. No one stopped her, more so because it was late, far later than they had ever had dinner before. Lily didn't stop June, either, when she went up to bed. She only remained in the kitchen, washing dishes and throwing out crusted napkins. When she was finished she took her time locking all the doors and windows and making sure all the lights were off. She was deliberately taking her time, and knowing she was doing it saddened her.

     She trudged upstairs cloaked in darkness. The hall was dark, too, the lights already turned off by June, presumably. Lily's shoulders dropped further and her steps slowed. It appeared as though she wasn't wanted. She stopped in the middle of the hall, staring at the light illuminating the edges of June's bedroom door. She wasn't sure if that light meant she was on her way to heaven or if she was simply dying. The couch was comfortable, she thought with despair.

     Then the light went out.

     She lowered her head in shame and picked at her hurt lip with her teeth. For her relationship to end because she decided to fight back seemed completely ludicrous. So she hardened. And she got mad.

     Taking steps with purpose, she flew down the hall and opened June's bedroom door swiftly and hard enough for it to bang on the wall behind it. She flipped on the lights and put her hands on her hips to stop herself from shaking.

     "I'm not going to sleep on the couch," she boomed. But the tremor was obvious. She cleared her throat and tilted her head back slightly, looking directly at June, who was sitting up in bed, dumbstruck. "I refuse. You may still be mad at me but you can't make me sleep on the couch. You- you said this was our home, so that's what it is. Now I'm going to sleep in that bed, our bed, because it's mine, too."

     June stared. She stared and she stared. Lily's nervousness was obvious and she realized that she had the power to shatter Lily's little speech if she so pleased. But she was tired and already near over herself.

     "Turn off the lights and get into bed," she told Lily as she laid back down.

     Lily's heart skipped a beat. She switched out the lights then changed into pajamas. Licking her lips she hesitated bedside, but shook herself and slipped under the covers. She wasn't so dull that she didn't realize the bed felt larger and June felt further away. She laid on her back and rolled her head to look at the back of June's. What was that thing she once heard? Never go to sleep angry.

     "I love you, too," she whispered with every ounce of feeling she held within her.

     June shot back up, distressed, and slapped the bed, turning swiftly to look down at Lily. "Don't tell me that!"

     "I love you so much."

     "Stop saying it!"

     "But I-"

     "No, cut it out. I don't want to hear it. You shouldn't tell me that right now, after what happened. You don't say things like that when we're fighting."

     "That's the perfect time to say things like that. And I'm not fighting with you. You're fighting with me."

     June slapped the bed again. There was the suggestion of a scowl on her face. "You don't say things like that unless you mean it. Do you mean it?"