How Kisses Can Lie

Spilled Milk

My eyes are so brimmed with tears, I can barely tell that there is now a figure standing in the kitchen doorway, but whoever it is lets out a bloody high pitched scream, followed by a loud thump like something fell onto the floor, and I scream too.

When I finally stop screaming and open my eyes I instantly recognize the intruder: Mom.

At her feet, there's a pool of milk flowing out of the bottle she just dropped, and in her right hand, a brand new cellphone.

Then came running in the devil child, imitating our screams, circling the dinner table a couple times before jumping into the milk puddle on his way out, leaving a trail of milk steps all over the wooden flooring all the way up to his bedroom.

And for once that sound was like music to my ears.

"Vinci!!" My mom shouted, exasperated by my brother's antics.

Then she turned to me again.

"Are you out of your mind?! You scared the living daylight out of me!! What is wrong with you?"

Oh, right. I almost forgot I was still holding the butcher knife and probably had ridiculously stereotypical streams of mascara down my cheeks.

I probably do look kind of crazy.

Scratch that, I look completely bat-shit crazy. I'm surprised my mom isn't already looking up multiple asylum's addresses on her new... iPhone 6? She got an iPhone 6?

"Mom really, you bought an iPhone 6? You don't even know how to send or read a text message!" I blurt out.

"So this is what this whole thing is about? You pull a knife on me and start crying hysterically because you disapprove of my choice of technology? I'm getting you anger management therapy Ariel." She states, bending down to retrieve the now empty bottle of milk.

"What? No! I-I thought something happened to you two! Do you know how worried I was? I thought you were an intruder! No one was here when I came home, and your cellphone was smashed and -"

"Oh that old thing? It got on the last of my nerves, and well, I'm not too great with managing my anger either as you can tell." She joked, letting out an airy laugh as she moved past me to get the mop.

"So you smashed it against the wall?" I followed her.

Vinci came tumbling back down the stairs and into the kitchen, this time with Colgate toothpaste all over the tee-shirt my mom had just given him for Christmas.

"I'm HUNGRY!!!" He growled aggressively, plopping down on the chair next to me with a frown on his baby face.

"Jesus, when's the exorcism scheduled?" I asked, earning a disapproving glance from my mother.

"Well Vinci gets on the last of my nerves and you don't see me smashing his head on the wall."

Speak of the devil (literally), when I turn around I see the little spawn of Satan attempting to bite off the top of my phone.

"Although you might in a second! GIVE ME THAT VINCI!" I say, snatching it from his sticky toothpaste hands.

Mom moved back past me, making her way towards the milk pool, which was more like an ocean now that it had spread.

"I thought some waiting witches might have come after you." I speak, making her stop dead in her tracks.

She turns around and stares into my eyes almost as if, if she were to look long enough, she would uncover all the secrets they hid.

"This is because of what happened to your father isn't it?" She states more than questions.

I look down to the floor. I don't like people staring into my eyes. I like to keep my secrets, secrets. And I strongly believe the eyes are the windows to the soul. I'd rather keep my windows shut, you never know what nuisances will come flying in if you open them.

"It's okay. What happened to your father won't happen to us. We'll be fine." She speaks empathetically, pulling me into an embrace.
"That's why we stay hidden. I trust I have taught you right, and you respect what I taught you. I know you stay hidden too." She whispers into my ear, softly kissing the top of my head.

"HIDE AND SEEK! HIDE AND SEEK!" Vinci tugs at my sleeve from all the way down there, startling me a little.

My mom smiles slightly, and turns her back to me to pick up the mess she made.

Strangely, I feel I'm a little like spilled milk. Well no, I mean that sounds weird. What I mean is, when I broke, when that one event shattered me, I became a mess, and at first it was just a tiny puddle, but if no one's there to clean the mess up, it keeps spreading until eventually, the tiny puddle has become an ocean. I just need someone to wipe me off the floor.

It's just that no one noticed the mess yet.

Okay, I think I just vomited a little in my mouth. I'm officially a very sappy teenager. I mean I just compared myself to milk on the floor.

"Ariel! Are you even listening?" Vinci snaps me out of my daydream, "I seek, you hide!"

"No. I'm tired of hiding." I say, grabbing my phone and heading upstairs to a place where I can be alone.