The Holy Outline

Chapter 1: Lilly

August 9, 2018

Mare City, United States of America

            I got the raw end of the deal, I thought. Like really raw. At first, I thought that staying at Rafael Lamont’s house for two weeks wasn’t a bad idea. Like when Mom brought it up saying “It’s okay because if you get to sleep at his house, maybe you’ll sleep in his bed, and then I’ll have beautiful Italian-Japanese-French-German-clusterfuck-of-countries grandbabies to raise!”

            Yeah. That was back when I thought it was an okay thing. Not the babies thing, just being around him. Ruby, Rafael’s Aunt, and the scariest woman alive, opened the door to me and a duffel bag, since two weeks in the summer meant as many bathing suits as I could pack, a bunch of skimpy t-shirts, the smallest shorts to ever exist, flip flops, and the occasional pair of pants to sleep in since we all knew Rafael liked to keep his room at negative six degrees for no adequately explored reason. Ruby kind of stared at me disapprovingly, not like she didn’t like me, because she did like me, she just seemed to think that anybody in her house that weren’t her already appointed charges were kind of a pain in the ass. The woman herself stood at a small stature—around my size, five-three, small brown eyes, black hair for days, and paper skin. She had long nails, almost like talons because her fingers were already so bony. She looked kind of like a bird anyway, with a long nose and a long chin, and ears kind of flat against her face. She looked nothing like her niece and nephew.

            It was a bit odd.

            “Did Rikku just drop you off?” she asked. I nodded. Rikku was my mother, who had, in the dead middle of August, decided to drop me at the Seneria household so that she could go gallivanting. That was the word she used. She did not, however, specify where exactly she was going, just that it was outside of Mare City, the bay city we lived in. She told me two weeks was all she’d need, and until then, to be good, and get pregnant if I could.

            Ruby twisted her neck around to see of any sign of my mother, but I was telling the truth. She kicked me out of the car, screamed about her being late and missing the airship, then drove off and told me to say hi to Ruby. Which was exactly what I did once Ruby let me into the house. The Seneria House was a precious two-floor house, but it was secretly huge. You didn’t really know how big the property was until you went inside, and then you were treated to a living room with obnoxiously expensive technology, a state-of-the-art-marble-countertop kitchen, an office that surely none of the occupants used, and an exit to the patio, which led to the obnoxious backyard, complete with trampoline (this was for Rafael’s use only, apparently) and the swimming pool and otherwise large lawn to play soccer in. Upstairs were the girls’ rooms—Ruby’s, who was unmarried (so far as I knew), and Seigo, Rafael’s sister.

            Half-sister.

            Rafael himself lived in the basement, where it was cold and he had the whole floor to himself. He’d proceeded to creating some kind of man cave, which mostly consisted of workout equipment before entering his room, which admittedly, I’d never been into before. Despite knowing Rafael for six months up to the sleepover, I had actually never been in his room. Usually, if we did go to his place, we loitered in the backyard, or in his living room, but never his bedroom. When Ruby brought me into the house, I had expected her to take me to the staircase that led to the basement, but instead she took me upstairs, to a guest room I’d never seen, or so I assumed it to be a guest room. Instead I was faced with boxes upon boxes, useless junk, broken lacrosse and field hockey sticks, rollerblades (seemingly never used), a pair of extremely dangerous looking daggers, and a large black case sitting up against the wall. Ruby’s fist hit the wall in fury, and I watched as her right eye twitched at this sight, something she was obviously not expecting.

            “Well,” she started, “this was going to be where you were staying, but I see…Rafael has not cleaned it out.”

            “He was supposed to?”

            “Move all of this to the basement, since there was room down there, and it’s not like you’re the first guest to come here. Rafael and Seigo’s parents are supposed to arrive for his birthday, but this is a wreck…there’s no way they’ll be able to stay here now….”

            “Oh…uh….” I paused and dropped my duffel bag, but she instead insisted I lift it back up and follow her to the basement, which I did without question. We headed to the basement, to the left, to a room behind a closed door. This had to be his inner sanctuary, and I knew immediately that it was when we stormed in. Ruby turned the knob so fast that Rafael hardly had time to react—and neither did the girl in his bed.

            “Rafael Leonardo Lamont, I told you to clean the guestroom out for Lilly and now she has nowhere to sleep because you’re lazy!”

            “Um…Aunt Ruby….” Rafael’s face, I couldn’t see. I could only hear his voice, and the soft giggling of his company. “I’m…kind of in the middle of something here.”

            “Yes, a slut’s legs. Now get down here, go upstairs, and clean out the guest room!” Ruby’s hands had been planted firmly on her hips, though Rafael didn’t see her. Instead, he grunted roughly and changed his tone to something a bit more condescending. 

            “That’s unnecessary. You’re not a slut, are you, Ai?”

            “Rafael, I should probably go…”

            “Nah, ignore my aunt. She’s batty anyway…”

            “Rafael!” Ruby shouted.

            “You’re not leaving, are you?” I finally saw him emerge. Rafael’s bed was lofted; somehow, lofting a queen sized bed seemed like a bad idea, but Rafael did it. Good on him for head room—his desk was underneath his bed, as his bed was wedged into a corner of the room, near the door. His dresser, short with a large mirror pressed onto it, was sitting on the opposite wall from his desk, near the door that led to the stairs that led to the freak backyard. And next to his dresser was another door, which was what I assumed to be his closet. The door next to his closet was wide open—a bathroom. The room itself was a total sty; Rafael seemed like the kind of person who’d never had anyone tell him to clean his own mess, because it was the kind of wrecked that came from years of being served by hired help. The amount of clothing scattered about was insulting, and papers from old-fashioned teachers sat on a pile on his desk, and numerous places around his desk. It seemed like no one could really survive in the mess, but he seemed to be making it work. Ruby just seemed annoyed about it.

            When Rafael’s head finally appeared, high over our heads, it was obvious he’d been quite busy when we barged in. His champagne skin was decorated like blacked out lights with hickeys and lip-gloss. His soft, pink lips were chapped, despite his tongue constantly running against them to wet them again. His mahogany hair, always weightlessly wispy, was more sprawled about than usual, and he looked a bit tired; hard at work pleasuring someone. Outside of these annoying features, his bone structure still looked jarring in the sunlight peeking in from his high windows and the patio door. He had a thin jaw, high, powerful cheekbones, cute, round ears decorated with his latest earrings: a diamond stud in his left, and two more studs—one ruby, one silver—in his right cartilage, and his industrial. I could see the small, wolf tattoo on his shoulder from the way he leaned over. Perhaps most annoying about Rafael’s image, if I could even call it that, were the steel gray eyes that carried a serious intensity, no matter his mood or what he was looking at. I dropped my duffel bag with a thud at the sight of him and thought about sliding onto the floor for a minute while I soaked it all in.

            He. Was so. Attractive.