Les Belles: Growing Pains

Chapter Ten

Lux was re-folding sweaters to fit inside of her suitcase when Blaise knocked on the door, peeking his head inside. Lux smiled as he walked in. He looked a bit nervous. 

"What's wrong?" she asked, furrowing her brow. Blaise closed the door behind him. 

"Well... I've been thinking...," he started.

"Always a bad idea," Lux responded. She laughed at his offended expression. "Relax. I'm only joking. What have you been thinking about?"

Blaise sat down on the bed and grabbed her hands. "Lux, let's get married."

Lux choked on a laugh. "What? Get married? Where is this coming from?"

Blaise hesitated. "I... your dad talked to be at the Christmas party-"

She pulled her hands away from Blaise. "So you're listening to my father now?"

His eyes widened. "No! No! That's not what this is. I mean, he brought it up."

Lux scoffed and stood. "Of course he would say that. He's always trying to fuck up what's working for me. He always is."

"Look, I know that you're scared because of what your parents are like together, but we don't have to be like that," Blaise argued. Lux moved away from him. 

"My parents marriage was a business deal," Lux shot back. "A shotgun wedding. How can you expect me not to feel the same way about our own marriage if the very name businessman is involved in ours?"

Blaise bit his bottom lip. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought him up."

"Oh, and hide your motivations for trying to propose to me? How is that any better?" Lux exploded. She took a deep breath and tried to control her rage. "I don't want to marry you, Blaise. I love you, I love you so much, and I don't need a stupid ceremony with a white dress and some priest representing a god I don't even believe in to prove it. And two weeks ago, you didn't either." She grabbed some clothes off the floor. "Come talk to me again when you've gotten Douglas Lebellen out of your head."

"Where are you going?" Blaise asked in a small voice. 

"I'm staying in Jade's room," Lux announced, slamming the door behind her, leaving Blaise in her wake. He felt very odd, sitting there alone in a room that had suddenly grown two sizes too big. He felt as if he were a child again, realizing he had made a big, foolish mistake. After all, if Lux had proposed that the two of them should get married at his father's house, he would most certainly say no. And what a romantic moment he made it! There were supposed to be roses, music, champagne. At least that's what the movies and books said. He could see now why it felt too close to a business deal. Too close to what her parents had. 

Lux, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel as if her worst fear was coming true. Mixing her chosen family with her birth family had polluted it, changing those she loved most. Now it was all ruined. And it was all her fault. She never should have brought them here. 

She ran into her old bedroom and flopped down on the bed, cuddling her clothes like a teddy bear. Jade walked out of the bathroom, toothbrush in hand, and stared at her. 

"Wah hwappened?" Jade asked, ducking back into the bathroom to spit out the toothpaste overflowing her mouth. "What happened?"

Lux stared up at the ceiling. "Blaise asked me to marry him."

Jade sat down next to her. "Then... why do we look so depressed?"

She turned to Jade with an annoyed look. "Because he only asked me because my father told him to."

"Oooh," Jade said, nodding. "That's not good."

Lux grabbed a pillow and hid her face with it. "And I yelled at him." Her voice sounded muffled. 

"Oooh," Jade repeated. "That's not good either."

"I'm staying here tonight," Lux decided, pulling the pillow away to look at Jade. 

Jade patted Lux's hair. "That's a good idea. Much better than the one where Blaise proposed to you. Or the one where you yelled at Blaise."

Lux rolled her eyes. "Yeah, no need to remind me. I know."

Jade pulled back the covers of the bed and pushed Lux into it. "Come on. Let's go. I get the left side, yah freak."

"Whatever, weirdo," Lux mumbled, curling up on the right side of the bed. Jade got up to turn off the lights before returning to her. 

Jade looked over at Lux in the dark. She didn't like to see her so sad. Fighting with Blaise always broke her heart. And watching it always broke Jade's. That was why she was glad it didn't happen very often. But being trapped in here, in Lux's childhood prison... Jade supposed she should have guessed it was only a matter of time. 

"He'll apologize," Jade tried. Lux turned to face her. 

"What if he turns into my dad?" she asked softly. Jade snorted in response. 

"Blaise and your dad are literally polar opposites," she said. "You would have to Hydra brainwash Blaise to turn him from Bucky Barnes to the Winter Soldier. And Hydra, to my knowledge, doesn't exist, so Douglas is all out of luck there." She paused. "But you gotta stop running away from shit. Just talk to him and apologize. You'll work it out. You always do."

Lux chuckled. "I love you, you know that."

"Yeah, I know," Jade grinned in the dark. "G'night, Mom."

"Night, weirdo."