Chapped Lips

Chapter 1: Eos

Chapter 1: Eos

As Naina emerged from the airport she could not help but feel that she was out of place. The clothes, the hicks, the hats, it all just wasn't very her. She was used to big city life, fast cars, and 24/7 fast food restaurants, not tractors and mom and pop diners.

Her eyes met those of her father, Mayor Peter Bright, the corners of his eyes slightly crinkling as he took her in with a bright smile on his face.

"Oh honey, look how big you've gotten, it's been what, three years now?" Said Peter

"Closer to seven actually," quipped Naina.

He frowned.

Preya, Naina's mother, had never actually gotten married to Peter. They had been high school sweethearts and though they had always planned on getting married, something had happened along the way; Preya had realized she wanted more for herself.

A slightly more demure smile appeared on Peter's face.

"Well I'm glad to see you sweetie, you have no idea how much I've missed you." He realized she was struggling with her suitcase, and reached out to grab the one closest to him. He started off towards a pickup truck, in which a pretty blonde lady was sitting in the driver's seat doing her makeup.

"Hurry up Quinn we need to be on our way back home if we plan on reaching before dinner time. I cannot wait to finally have my entire family living under one roof!" exclaimed Peter.

Quinn was her father's wife. He had met her while running for mayor a few years after Naina was born. Quinn came from a well off family, and occupied her time as a stay at home mom. While there were no hard feelings between her and Preya, Preya had not so secretly been quite apprehensive of Quinn. Quinn was a whole decade younger than Peter, and though she also had a daughter around Naina's age, Preya had never quite liked that Peter had chosen someone else, even if it had been her fault.

As Naina got into the back seat of the Toyota pick up truck, Quinn turned around and gave her a warm smile. While she had aged since the last time Naina had seen her, her blue eyes and freckled skin were quite the same.

"So kiddo how do you feel about Texas so far. It's quite the beauty right?" said Peter.

Naina didn't know what to say. She was conflicted because the truth was that she didnt want to live in the middle of fucking nowhere, because while she had been happy to join her father and finally spend time with him, she could've done without the experience of living on a farm.

She instead went for the more moderate answer, and appeased her father with a simple, "It's nice." and an accompanying smile.

Quinn, seeing that conversation was stalled, decided to instead start up a conversation of her own. "So Naina what do you like to do with your free time? I'm sure Grace would love to show you around town, in fact they just opened a new bowling alley!" Ah. Grace. Grace was the bane of Naina's existance, an entity created solely to torture her.

Naina and Grace had been fighting since their first christmas together after Peter and Quinn had gotten married. It had started with the first family portrait they were to take together. Quinn had allowed both girls to hold one toy as to add incentive to keep them still.This had resulted in two broken arms. You see when Grace had gone to bring back her American girl doll Julie, Grace had tripped Naina and with Naina Julie had fallen as well. The doll had never recovered, a broken arm the unfortunate victim of the incident, but neither did Naina and Grace, the possibility of friendship out of the question. Since then both girls had treated one another with barely hidden contempt, being sure to interact as little as possible. They spoke on occasion during birthdays, and even during her mom's funeral, but other than that neither had talked properly in years.