Northern Lights: The end of chapter seven
Author: Monique Stone
Challenge: White chocolate: 13. Bitterness, Toasted Almonds: 9. The whole 9 yards, Chocolate Chip Mint: 22. Upside down
Rated: PG for a few swear words
Word Count: 958
Story: Northern Lights
Summary: Now that she's caught, it's time to face the music. Carrington finds out some information about Eli she's not sure she likes.
“Get your ass home,”
Carrington stared at her house, not sure she was ready to go in. She’d never heard her dad so angry at her. He hadn’t said much to her, it was more of his tone. Under his anger was something she wasn’t used to hearing from him. Disappointment. Carrington could count on one hand how many times the twins had been grounded through out the years. Usually it was for a day or two for sassing back. Their freshman year in high school they got grounded for a week for skipping school to catch the beginning of a sale at the mall. She had a sneaking suspicion this was going to be one of those times that she wouldn’t see day light for a very, very long time.
Shutting her car off, she mustered up all her courage and got out of her car. Why was Susan here? What did she have to do with this? She’d probably been instrumental in keeping him calm while Carrington was on her way back, but now that she was back this was between her and her dad.
Not wanting to face what was waiting for her behind the door but knowing it was better to face him head on, she opened the door.
“I just don’t know what that girl was thinking,”
“I’m sure she’s got a good explanation,”
From the sound of his voice, he probably wasn’t going to listen to her. Slamming the door loudly so they’d know she was there, she loudly said, “Daddy I’m home,”
Phillip had no idea that she’d heard his soft, parental frustration. Not with the way he came barreling through the foyer with his eyes locked on the bulls eye on her chest.
“I hope you enjoyed your little trip down to Detroit. It’s going to be a very, VERY long time before you see the light of day again,” the anger in his eyes took her breath away. She’d seen him this angry before. Usually directed towards her mother or something at work, but never, ever towards her. Susan held back in the door way. Was she looking for a front row seat to see Carrington’s demise? She looked like all she needed was some popcorn.
If she was going down, she might as well go in a blaze of glory. “Do you even want to know why I went down there?” nonchalantly, she opened her bag, pulling out the manila envelope.
“I know why. For some guy that you’ve known for two seconds. What the hell were you thinking Carrington? You don’t now this kid!”
Carrington stared blankly at her father. Was he being serious? Did he really think that little of her?
“No dad. Because of this,” she handed him the file.
He calmed down long enough to flip through the folder, “What is it?”
“It’s the file you have on mom. I went to see mom,”
Phillip’s head snapped up as Susan’s gasp was the sound track to the look of shock on his face. The tears that she wouldn’t allow Eli to see fell freely now. She didn’t really want Susan to them, but her emotions vetoed her brain.
“How the hell did you find these pictures?” That wasn’t exactly the response she was looking for.
“I accidentally found them under some things looking for a pen. Then I looked up some things on the internet,”
“Snooping, lying and sneaking around with strange boys. Get up to your room. I will come up and talk to you when I’m not seeing red,”
Carrington couldn’t take it anymore. It wasn’t just that he was disappointed in her but she’d just been crushed and need her dad, “Lying? Lying? I lied? You’ve been trailing her for months and I’m the liar? I asked you about it and you told me everything was okay. And in case you’re interested, no, I didn’t find her. But then again you probably don’t believe me cuz I’m such a freaking liar,” she didn’t realize that she was yelling until she stopped and her throat hurt.
“I don’t care how mad you are. Don’t you ever raise your voice like that to me again. Get up those stairs,” emphasizing his point he yanked thrust his finger out towards the stairs.
“Whatever,” she grumbled, not apologizing when she pushed by him. She pulled out her phone to tell Eli that he probably wouldn’t hear from her for a while. Flipping it open, she noticed a screen saver that wasn’t hers. Instead of a basket of puppies that said “Daddy’s little girl” there was a plain black background with a sign that simply said I heart hot moms. Giggling as she wiped away a fresh set of tears, she realized that they must have accidentally switched phones. When Sheridan called her phone and Lip Gloss by Lil’ Momma rang through, he’d realize that he had the wrong phone. She’d probably be grounded until she gave birth to her third child so she’d have to figure out how to get his phone to him. Opening her journal, she grabbed a pen.
This is utterly ridiculous. He hasn’t even given me a chance to talk. I got bombarded with accusations that I left to just be with Eli. If he really thinks that then he doesn’t know me at all.
I need him right now. I need to know what to do with what happened today. It’s dawned on me finally that I may never get to talk to her. I may never get to look in her eyes. She was in town for months and didn’t bother to try to come up and see us. Or did she? Were they in contact? Did she leave because he wouldn’t let her see us?
Carrington’s pen stopped in the middle of making a second question mark. She’d never thought of that before now. That was a really good question. Before her common sense could remind her that she was supposed to stay in her room, she padded back down the steps and walked into the kitchen looking for her dad. When he wasn’t in there, she walked into the den, not bothering to knock. He was on the couch, head in his hands. Susan was next to him, rubbing his back while she tried to calm him down.
“Did she want to see us?”
The question sliced like a ninja through the room. She didn’t really want Susan around but this needed to be answered and it didn’t look like she was going anywhere.
She was really getting annoyed that her questions weren’t getting answered, “Why were you having her tailed daddy,”
“Carrington, this isn’t any of your concern,” his formal tone was usually something he saved for the office.
“Phillip,” WHY was she talking? “I know that this doesn’t have anything to do with me, but maybe it’s time to start treating the girls like adults. Carrington obviously has questions. If Delilah won’t answer them, maybe you should,”
Carrington stared at her dad’s new girlfriend. She just stuck up for her. Maybe having her around wouldn’t be so bad after all. After thinking about it for a minute, Phillip nodded.
“Susan, if you don’t mind, will you give me some time alone with my daughter?”
Susan stood up in response, “Absolutely. I’ll go make some tea and some snacks. It looks like it’s going to be a long night for the two of you,”
“You know, I like her,” Carrington giggled, sitting in the recliner across from her dad.
“Oh yeah, now that she stuck up for you. Princess, I would never keep the two of you from her,”
The words washed over her like water, “I didn’t think you would. I just don’t understand,”
“What don’t you understand?” The anger in Phillip’s face turned to concern.
“She was in Michigan and didn’t stop by. She used our names as her hidden identity. How’d you know she was in town?”
Phillip sighed, leaning back, “I got a call that she was using you and your sister’s social security numbers as hers. I put a trace on them years ago when she tried it after she first left. Doing that could really screw up your credit as you get older. Not to mention it’s illegal,”
Shock paralyzed her for a second, not sure she knew what to say, “You’ve got pictures did you talk to her?”
“No. I had her followed by a private eye, just so I could keep an eye on her incase she came up this way. And she didn’t try to contact me Carrington. I don’t know why she was here or why she left,”
“But you know she left?”
Phillip nodded, patting the seat next to him. Eagerly she moved next to her dad. She hated it when they fought. “Yes honey. I told the private eye to let me know when she left and told him that after he found out where she was going to just let her leave,”
Tears streamed down her face, “Why didn’t she want us?” After the events of the day, she was wishing that she wouldn’t have found the pictures.
Phillip pulled his seventeen year old daughter to him like she was a five year old that just skinned her kneed, “I don’t know why she chose to leave baby. She couldn’t handle the pressures of motherhood I guess. But don’t you think for a minute she didn’t want you. When she found out she was pregnant with twins, she was the happiest I’d ever seen her. She was never the same after being diagnosed bipolar. I think she thought she was doing us all a favor,”
Carrington nodded. Cassidy had angrily said that once and had said that she did the best thing she could for them.
“But she wasn’t. Even if you two didn’t stay together, she could have at least stayed around,” she sucked up another round of tears as she pulled back from her dad’s embrace.
“I tried to tell her that the last time she was in town but she said that she’d been struggling with things and didn’t want you two to see her struggle. She’s doing what she’s doing out of love Care Bear, even as screwed up as it may seem,”
She knew that. Really she did. It was just hard to believe at times when the facts were laid out on the table. A soft knock on the door caused hem to look up. Susan materialized with mugs on a wicker carrying tray.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, I just thought you could use something to drink,”
Carrington untangled herself from the couch to reach for the hand crafted mug with her name on it, “Nope. Dad was just about to tell me how grounded am I. You picked a perfect time. Come on in, sit a spell, wanna play Scrabble? How ‘bout a rousing game of Monopoly. He won’t kill me if there’s witnesses,”
The adults laughed like she was joking, “Well you’ve got a couple more minutes. Phillip needs to take his night time blood pressure pills,”
“Yeah! Take your blood pressure pills, Phillip,” her eyebrows arched, pointing towards the pills on the tray.
“The way she takes care of me, you’d never know she’s seventeen,” he grumbled playfully as he popped his pills in his mouth.
“And when considering my punishment, let us remember that she IS seventeen and is allowed some room for debauchery and tomfoolery,”
Phillip laughed, again like she was joking, “This is a month of no Andrew, no outside activities. School, the nursing home and home,”
This wasn’t too bad, it’s not like she went a lot of place anyway. “No cell phone and no car,”
Okay. There was the problem. “No car? Are you serious?” she wailed. “How am I supposed to get back and forth. And if you say little yellow banana..”
“When you planned your little prison break, you should have thought of the possibility of getting caught. I’m sure Sheridan won’t mind carting you around,”
Even though she pouted, she knew he was right.
“So I’ll need your keys and your cell phone,”
“Well you can have my keys, but I actually don’t have my cell phone. It got swapped with Eli’s,”
“Go get your keys and just give me your phone tomorrow after work. Remember, I can check your phone to see if you used it,”
Sighing hard she trudged up the stairs. She knew when she was beat. It’d be useless and probably counter productive to argue at this point. Pushing the door open to her prison cell for the next month, she heard Eli’s phone going off. It took him this long to realize they’d swapped phones.
“Guess who has your phone?” she giggled, laying down on her bed.
“Who this?” an annoyed female demanded.
“Um, who’s this?”
“I’m lookin’ for Eli. Put him on the phone,”
Who the hell was this chick to talk to her like that?
“He’s not here. I’ve got his phone. Can I take a message?”
“Yeah, you can. Tell him his girlfriend has been trying to get a hold of him for four months and I don’t appreciate him duckin’ my calls. He knows who this is. He knows where I’m at and his ass needs to call me,” before Carrington had a chance to respond, she was listening to a dial tone.
His girlfriend. That just made things much more interesting.
Challenge: White chocolate: 13. Bitterness, Toasted Almonds: 9. The whole 9 yards, Chocolate Chip Mint: 22. Upside down
Rated: PG for a few swear words
Word Count: 958
Story: Northern Lights
Summary: Now that she's caught, it's time to face the music. Carrington finds out some information about Eli she's not sure she likes.
“Get your ass home,”
Carrington stared at her house, not sure she was ready to go in. She’d never heard her dad so angry at her. He hadn’t said much to her, it was more of his tone. Under his anger was something she wasn’t used to hearing from him. Disappointment. Carrington could count on one hand how many times the twins had been grounded through out the years. Usually it was for a day or two for sassing back. Their freshman year in high school they got grounded for a week for skipping school to catch the beginning of a sale at the mall. She had a sneaking suspicion this was going to be one of those times that she wouldn’t see day light for a very, very long time.
Shutting her car off, she mustered up all her courage and got out of her car. Why was Susan here? What did she have to do with this? She’d probably been instrumental in keeping him calm while Carrington was on her way back, but now that she was back this was between her and her dad.
Not wanting to face what was waiting for her behind the door but knowing it was better to face him head on, she opened the door.
“I just don’t know what that girl was thinking,”
“I’m sure she’s got a good explanation,”
From the sound of his voice, he probably wasn’t going to listen to her. Slamming the door loudly so they’d know she was there, she loudly said, “Daddy I’m home,”
Phillip had no idea that she’d heard his soft, parental frustration. Not with the way he came barreling through the foyer with his eyes locked on the bulls eye on her chest.
“I hope you enjoyed your little trip down to Detroit. It’s going to be a very, VERY long time before you see the light of day again,” the anger in his eyes took her breath away. She’d seen him this angry before. Usually directed towards her mother or something at work, but never, ever towards her. Susan held back in the door way. Was she looking for a front row seat to see Carrington’s demise? She looked like all she needed was some popcorn.
If she was going down, she might as well go in a blaze of glory. “Do you even want to know why I went down there?” nonchalantly, she opened her bag, pulling out the manila envelope.
“I know why. For some guy that you’ve known for two seconds. What the hell were you thinking Carrington? You don’t now this kid!”
Carrington stared blankly at her father. Was he being serious? Did he really think that little of her?
“No dad. Because of this,” she handed him the file.
He calmed down long enough to flip through the folder, “What is it?”
“It’s the file you have on mom. I went to see mom,”
Phillip’s head snapped up as Susan’s gasp was the sound track to the look of shock on his face. The tears that she wouldn’t allow Eli to see fell freely now. She didn’t really want Susan to them, but her emotions vetoed her brain.
“How the hell did you find these pictures?” That wasn’t exactly the response she was looking for.
“I accidentally found them under some things looking for a pen. Then I looked up some things on the internet,”
“Snooping, lying and sneaking around with strange boys. Get up to your room. I will come up and talk to you when I’m not seeing red,”
Carrington couldn’t take it anymore. It wasn’t just that he was disappointed in her but she’d just been crushed and need her dad, “Lying? Lying? I lied? You’ve been trailing her for months and I’m the liar? I asked you about it and you told me everything was okay. And in case you’re interested, no, I didn’t find her. But then again you probably don’t believe me cuz I’m such a freaking liar,” she didn’t realize that she was yelling until she stopped and her throat hurt.
“I don’t care how mad you are. Don’t you ever raise your voice like that to me again. Get up those stairs,” emphasizing his point he yanked thrust his finger out towards the stairs.
“Whatever,” she grumbled, not apologizing when she pushed by him. She pulled out her phone to tell Eli that he probably wouldn’t hear from her for a while. Flipping it open, she noticed a screen saver that wasn’t hers. Instead of a basket of puppies that said “Daddy’s little girl” there was a plain black background with a sign that simply said I heart hot moms. Giggling as she wiped away a fresh set of tears, she realized that they must have accidentally switched phones. When Sheridan called her phone and Lip Gloss by Lil’ Momma rang through, he’d realize that he had the wrong phone. She’d probably be grounded until she gave birth to her third child so she’d have to figure out how to get his phone to him. Opening her journal, she grabbed a pen.
This is utterly ridiculous. He hasn’t even given me a chance to talk. I got bombarded with accusations that I left to just be with Eli. If he really thinks that then he doesn’t know me at all.
I need him right now. I need to know what to do with what happened today. It’s dawned on me finally that I may never get to talk to her. I may never get to look in her eyes. She was in town for months and didn’t bother to try to come up and see us. Or did she? Were they in contact? Did she leave because he wouldn’t let her see us?
Carrington’s pen stopped in the middle of making a second question mark. She’d never thought of that before now. That was a really good question. Before her common sense could remind her that she was supposed to stay in her room, she padded back down the steps and walked into the kitchen looking for her dad. When he wasn’t in there, she walked into the den, not bothering to knock. He was on the couch, head in his hands. Susan was next to him, rubbing his back while she tried to calm him down.
“Did she want to see us?”
The question sliced like a ninja through the room. She didn’t really want Susan around but this needed to be answered and it didn’t look like she was going anywhere.
She was really getting annoyed that her questions weren’t getting answered, “Why were you having her tailed daddy,”
“Carrington, this isn’t any of your concern,” his formal tone was usually something he saved for the office.
“Phillip,” WHY was she talking? “I know that this doesn’t have anything to do with me, but maybe it’s time to start treating the girls like adults. Carrington obviously has questions. If Delilah won’t answer them, maybe you should,”
Carrington stared at her dad’s new girlfriend. She just stuck up for her. Maybe having her around wouldn’t be so bad after all. After thinking about it for a minute, Phillip nodded.
“Susan, if you don’t mind, will you give me some time alone with my daughter?”
Susan stood up in response, “Absolutely. I’ll go make some tea and some snacks. It looks like it’s going to be a long night for the two of you,”
“You know, I like her,” Carrington giggled, sitting in the recliner across from her dad.
“Oh yeah, now that she stuck up for you. Princess, I would never keep the two of you from her,”
The words washed over her like water, “I didn’t think you would. I just don’t understand,”
“What don’t you understand?” The anger in Phillip’s face turned to concern.
“She was in Michigan and didn’t stop by. She used our names as her hidden identity. How’d you know she was in town?”
Phillip sighed, leaning back, “I got a call that she was using you and your sister’s social security numbers as hers. I put a trace on them years ago when she tried it after she first left. Doing that could really screw up your credit as you get older. Not to mention it’s illegal,”
Shock paralyzed her for a second, not sure she knew what to say, “You’ve got pictures did you talk to her?”
“No. I had her followed by a private eye, just so I could keep an eye on her incase she came up this way. And she didn’t try to contact me Carrington. I don’t know why she was here or why she left,”
“But you know she left?”
Phillip nodded, patting the seat next to him. Eagerly she moved next to her dad. She hated it when they fought. “Yes honey. I told the private eye to let me know when she left and told him that after he found out where she was going to just let her leave,”
Tears streamed down her face, “Why didn’t she want us?” After the events of the day, she was wishing that she wouldn’t have found the pictures.
Phillip pulled his seventeen year old daughter to him like she was a five year old that just skinned her kneed, “I don’t know why she chose to leave baby. She couldn’t handle the pressures of motherhood I guess. But don’t you think for a minute she didn’t want you. When she found out she was pregnant with twins, she was the happiest I’d ever seen her. She was never the same after being diagnosed bipolar. I think she thought she was doing us all a favor,”
Carrington nodded. Cassidy had angrily said that once and had said that she did the best thing she could for them.
“But she wasn’t. Even if you two didn’t stay together, she could have at least stayed around,” she sucked up another round of tears as she pulled back from her dad’s embrace.
“I tried to tell her that the last time she was in town but she said that she’d been struggling with things and didn’t want you two to see her struggle. She’s doing what she’s doing out of love Care Bear, even as screwed up as it may seem,”
She knew that. Really she did. It was just hard to believe at times when the facts were laid out on the table. A soft knock on the door caused hem to look up. Susan materialized with mugs on a wicker carrying tray.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, I just thought you could use something to drink,”
Carrington untangled herself from the couch to reach for the hand crafted mug with her name on it, “Nope. Dad was just about to tell me how grounded am I. You picked a perfect time. Come on in, sit a spell, wanna play Scrabble? How ‘bout a rousing game of Monopoly. He won’t kill me if there’s witnesses,”
The adults laughed like she was joking, “Well you’ve got a couple more minutes. Phillip needs to take his night time blood pressure pills,”
“Yeah! Take your blood pressure pills, Phillip,” her eyebrows arched, pointing towards the pills on the tray.
“The way she takes care of me, you’d never know she’s seventeen,” he grumbled playfully as he popped his pills in his mouth.
“And when considering my punishment, let us remember that she IS seventeen and is allowed some room for debauchery and tomfoolery,”
Phillip laughed, again like she was joking, “This is a month of no Andrew, no outside activities. School, the nursing home and home,”
This wasn’t too bad, it’s not like she went a lot of place anyway. “No cell phone and no car,”
Okay. There was the problem. “No car? Are you serious?” she wailed. “How am I supposed to get back and forth. And if you say little yellow banana..”
“When you planned your little prison break, you should have thought of the possibility of getting caught. I’m sure Sheridan won’t mind carting you around,”
Even though she pouted, she knew he was right.
“So I’ll need your keys and your cell phone,”
“Well you can have my keys, but I actually don’t have my cell phone. It got swapped with Eli’s,”
“Go get your keys and just give me your phone tomorrow after work. Remember, I can check your phone to see if you used it,”
Sighing hard she trudged up the stairs. She knew when she was beat. It’d be useless and probably counter productive to argue at this point. Pushing the door open to her prison cell for the next month, she heard Eli’s phone going off. It took him this long to realize they’d swapped phones.
“Guess who has your phone?” she giggled, laying down on her bed.
“Who this?” an annoyed female demanded.
“Um, who’s this?”
“I’m lookin’ for Eli. Put him on the phone,”
Who the hell was this chick to talk to her like that?
“He’s not here. I’ve got his phone. Can I take a message?”
“Yeah, you can. Tell him his girlfriend has been trying to get a hold of him for four months and I don’t appreciate him duckin’ my calls. He knows who this is. He knows where I’m at and his ass needs to call me,” before Carrington had a chance to respond, she was listening to a dial tone.
His girlfriend. That just made things much more interesting.