VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter five

act i

this shouldn't be happening.
( oh but it is. )

chapter five

❛are you still having boy problems?❜

━━━━━━

"Your mom didn't mind, right?"

Amara presses her lips together, staring out the window above the sink while she washes her hands, ridding them of the slick, greasiness from the cookie dough. A perfectly-clipped lawn and brick two-story house stares back at her. The neighborhood Rena lives in is a classic suburb, supposedly middle-class even though the meticulous upkeep of lawns and expensive cars says otherwise.

(Then again, Rena's parents — her mother, a nurse at the general hospital, and her father, a history teacher at another high school — have lived in San Antonio all their lives; they probably got their hands on this nice, two-story when it wasn't as expensive as it might be now.)

Amara winces at the screech of the sheet tray sliding into the oven and shuts off the faucet with her wrist, tearing a paper towel from the roll.

"You know how my mom can be," she replies vaguely. "And this is the first time I'm staying out past eight — in San Antonio, anyway."

On top of Rena's mom having to call and plead with her mom to let her stay out until at least eleven so she could babysit Ana, she had to clean the house before she left at two, agree to let her mom take most of the proceeds of the money she'd be getting tonight, swear — multiple times — that nobody would be coming over, and that there would be no illegal activities going on.

Lucas had been home — a rare moment, since he's usually slumming it with his friends, going to frat parties or clubbing — and decided to list every potential malignant activity that she could get up to, setting her mom on edge even more.

He's trying to joke, she thinks, but he's doing a shitty job of executing it. He's the favorite child — the only boy — so he doesn't get the brunt of their mother's distrust. Doesn't seem to understand the . . . privilege he gets for being a guy.

Though she would've thought after all that happened with Luisa, he'd understand, a little better, how terrible their mom is.

Evidently, that was too much to ask for.

She turns around, seeing Rena leaning her hip on the island, scrutinizing her.

"You seem bothered," she comments, crossing her arms.

Amara shakes her head, patting her hands dry with a paper towel. "I'm not. If anything, I'm wondering why you're still here. You have a date, don't you? Shouldn't you be getting ready?"

Rena gives her an appraising look, silently telling her that her deflection hadn't been missed.

"That's not for another thirty minutes, you know I get ready quick. You sure you're fine with this?"

"I can handle one baby," Amara replies. "What's with the insistence?"

Rena purses her lips. "I think," she hedges, "you should see if Chris is free."

She raises an eyebrow, tossing the paper towel into the trash. "Why?"

"He's good with kids. Besides, why don't you wanna hang out with him?"

She snorts. "I didn't say that. But," she waves a hand to the living room right beside them, where Ana is playing on her mat, gurgling happily to herself, "it's not like you even know him that well." Barring the past week we've spent with him.