the bucket list | lrh

54 - maybe it'll be okay

It was the following night that Scout and Kellianne had spent frantically gathering supplies and food in order to overcompensate accidentally. Truth be told, the adults felt awful. They knew they were supposed to be the strong ones, the ones the girls could look up to. They were all tied together in some twisted web, and Adeline, Valentine, and Mary heavily relied on that. Having their parents be their stability was all they knew. But in that moment where Valentine laid eyes on her name printed on an unfamiliar birth certificate, it became a whole new world. Not only had Valentine and Luke just taken off without a word, but Mary had been out at Calums half the day. Upon first arriving home again after her rendezvous, she spoke not a single word to either her mother nor her sort-of-stepdad, and safely tucked herself away upstairs in a respectable amount of time.

She wasn't avoiding them, she just couldn't stand the idea of looking at her mother's face. She was disgusted by what they'd done to Valentine and how they'd so blatantly and cruelly lied to them both.

So Scout and Kellianne only finished about half of that food they cooked to try and apologize. It was a sad sight to see, Scout volunteering to wrap the leftovers up for Mary in case she got hungry later on. The couple barely spoke to each other, and Mary didn't even leave her room to humor them. And those leftovers went uneaten too, because Mary just really wanted to escape that hellhole of a home. She'd found a new safe haven, and it was in Calum's arms.

"You want to stay the night? I guess we don't really have much to worry about now that the girls are out," Kellianne smiled, sympathy painted across her features for the poor man who'd been run from by the last daughter he had left. It was a tragic night for them, they were both trying so desperately to stay positive and persevere for their children at the least. It was like some unspoken promise they'd made. Like they wanted to stay together through anything, be the thing that helps the other.

"Yeah, I will. She'll come around, you know?" Scout looked up at her from where he sat at the end of the now cleared and cleaned dining table.

"Yours will too. She's different, she needs time," Kellianne comforted the man right back with a sweet smile. It was forced, but no one would ever guess that. Kellianne was good at painting a pretty face for people to admire. And as many already knew, she was a damn good liar.

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"Do you like chicken, honey?"

"Sure," Luke mumbled, adding yet another meat to his plate that had already been stuffed due to Rebekah's grandmotherly-like tendency to feed her company.

"Nana, are you going to eat us after tonight?" Valentine joked, acknowledging the pile of food that had started building since Luke first stood from his seat. Rebekah had cooked much more than enough food for everyone to have seconds, and she wasn't going to allow them to be frugal.

"No, I just want you to eat well in my custody," Rebekah shot back, pinching her granddaughter as she passed by, reaching for a plate to fill for Valentine next. The young girl tried to say no to the extra green beans, but Rebekah didn't really care about that.

"You're difficult," Valentine huffed, crossing her arms as she sat down at the informal dining room she'd grown up eating in. It wasn't strange for her to be in those wooden seats, loaded up on food she had no room in her stomach for.

"Do you say prayers?"

"Nana, we never do that," Valentine scolded her grandmother, Luke shifting uncomfortably in his seat as the woman looked to him with bright eyes. "Sorry, she's weird and you're a boy," Valentine apologized on the woman's behalf, regarding the strange behavior and personal questions.

"No, it's okay. I've never really said prayers traditionally," Luke shook his head, trying to be polite to the woman without completely dismissing Valentine apology. He thought it was cute that she was looking out for him, trying to protect him from some uncomfortable situation.