Inhuman Being

Chapter 3

Andrea and Emma are the first to come home. Just. My. Luck.

Andrea lets out a huge obnoxious scoff before she yells, "Why does the house smell like it's burning, and why is it so cold in here? Rowan! Where are you?" I can hear her heels click rhythmically below me, still calling my name before she stops.

She must've seen the dining room table set up because she stopped shouting for a moment.

Three knocks are all Andrea gives me before she swings my door open. "Rowan, are you asleep?", she asks in a mellow voice.

I wasn't, but I was too exhausted to talk. I had just finished cooking, and all I wanted to do was cool down and be alone.

Regardless of my unresponsive behavior she took my silence as an open invitation and came in anyway. She pounced on my bed only missing me by mere centimeters. I panicked when she did this and flipped out of bed. Afraid she'd touch me, accidentally or otherwise. She's completely ignorant of my disease. "What is wrong with you!" I didn't mean to yell that. I didn't even mean to say it, but I panicked and that's what came out.

She let herself become serious before she started, "I wanted to apologize for this morning. I shouldn't have hit you."

"It's fine", I quickly spat at her. Truthfully, I didn't even want to talk about it. It was embarrassing enough to experience it the first time. I didn't want to relive it, I just wanted to forget about it and move on.

"So, you made dinner?" I can tell she's trying to make conversation with me. So she willingly ignores my response.

I inhale deeply realizing she's not leaving anytime soon exhale, and respond. "Yeah", I pause, "Yeah I did."

"It just smells like its burning downstairs is all, and I see the table is set. Your dad told me you liked cooking, so -"

"I don't like cooking," I snap at her. I know she doesn't know anything about me, but I couldn't help but explode. "I loathe even the thought of it, but I do it for my dad because I love him unconditionally."

"Well, if you really did love him you think you'd make more of an effort to accept his new wife and child."

Over and over again her words replay in my mind, each time louder than the last. They scream so loudly at me until I finally blurt, "Get out".

"Excuse me?"

"I said, get out, Andrea. You have no idea how hard this is for us. Do you know how many different women we had come in and out of our lives? How many "moms" I've had. It got so bad that we had to move states, and then you show up. All chipper as if you could fix anything that goes on in our lives. Money is hard to come by as is. Then you add on two extra mouths to feed, and it all becomes a shit show. So, no I will not accept you or your daughter into this family because you're not my family. My dad is. You're just another burden that we're going to have to deal with after you're gone."

She smiles, then lets out a light chuckle, "I'm not going anywhere, Rowan."

"You won't last. You'll try like the rest, and fail like the rest, just wait.

"You don't understand anything that goes on in this house."

"I understand that you're a gold digging bitch that's just here to collect my father's life insurance."

That struck her. I can tell that she is absolutely livid, but I've already unconsciously pulled at the seems prior to that statement anyway.

"I don't need to understand anything to know a fake when I see one, get the hell out of my room."