Three

Sunlight trickled into the sleeping deep red painted room. The light lit up the cream colored swirls painted on the walls and spread out onto the bed of matching colors and design. A girl with fiery orange hair slept with her mouth wide open, her legs splayed out both over under the covers, and the blankets were all tangled up at her feet. Her baggy shirt was pushed almost all the way up, exposing her side tattoo, and her socks were long lost in the creases and crevices of the blankets and sheets. The t.v. in the corner of the room was still buzzing with life from the night before. The sounds of the people's voices being cut off by the rhythmic snoring of the girl sleeping. The door directly in front of the bed quietly creaked open and a tiny girl with bright orange hair and curious green eyes peeked her head into the room.

“Cas.” The girl spoke softly, stepping in further and lightly walking over to the bed, “Cas, wake up.”

She softly nudged the elder ones arm, causing the sleeping one of to jerk in her sleep and turn her back to the girl directly putting her face in the sunlight.

“Cas. Wake up, I’m hungry.”

“Then go make yourself some food.” Cas angrily mumbled, refusing to wake up yet.

“I can’t.”  She nudged her arm again.

“It’s not that hard, just reheat the pizza from last night.” Cas swatted at the annoying hand on her shoulder.

“Cas.” Lexi whined.

“Whaaat?” Cas whined as well, begrudgingly opening her eyes and craning her head to look at the other with an annoyed expression.

“Can you help me please?” Her arms fell to the front of her.

“Goddammit Lex. You’re not a f*****g baby anymore. You shouldn’t need my help reheating pizza.”

“Yes I do.”

“No you don’t.”

“I’ve never been here before, I don’t know how things work.”

“You’re eighteen, figure it out on your own.” Cas laid her head back on the pillow and closed eyes.

“Caaassss!”

“Fiiiiinnnee!” Cas rolled out of the bed, her baggy shirt falling down and covering her underwear, making it appear as if she had nothing on underneath.

“Help me unpack afterwards.” Lexi turned and promptly walked out of the room.

Cas silently mimicked her sister and scoffed quietly, “Only if you help me unpack too.” Cas followed after her, turning the t.v. off in the process.

They both made an immediate right turn into the kitchen, walking over to the fridge. Cas made a point of showing Lexi how to open the door and pull the pizza box out of the fridge. Lexi just rolled her eyes. Cas then walked over to the other end of the kitchen and opened one of the cabinets, obviously showing her how to properly open the door. She then promptly pulled out two plates, showing them to Lexi before setting them on the counter and closing the door. She picked the two plates up and walked back over to Lexi and held one of the plates out to her.

“You don’t have to be such an a*s about it, rat hair.” Lexi took the plate and put two pieces of pizza on it.

“You sure about that? Cause I’m pretty sure I do.” Cas followed in her suit and ran her fingers through her hair, flattening down any pieces sticking out and unknotting any strands that tied together before taking a bite.

Now with Lexi out of her creepers it was easier to tell how short she actually was. The top of her  head barely even came up to Cas’ eyebrow line, easily making her an inch or so shorter than Cas. She huffed and took a bite of her cold pizza.

“So, are you ever gonna tell Hope why we’re really here?”

Cas sighed and slowed her chewing, “I don’t know. I planned on finding a job while I was here and saving up all the money that I can and then move out as soon as possible, hopefully leaving Hope out of the actual reason why. I don’t want her to know that we’re homeless right now.”

“Cas, she needs to know. If anything she’ll help us.”

“No. She’s gonna go on a long rant about it or whatever and in the end the whole rant is just gonna be a big ‘I told you so’ and I just can’t. She was so proud of me when I told her I was finally doing what I wanted to and that I had planned it all out so that I wouldn’t end up in this exact situation. She would be so disappointed in me.”

“What are you going to tell her when she asks why you want a job? Or why you’re not working currently.”

“I was a photographer, Lex. You honestly think I’m gonna stop taking pictures of things?” She ripped off a piece of pizza with her nubby nails and nibbled on the small piece. “You’re crazy. She won’t question me for wanting a little extra cash. Everything will be fine. She won't find out and I’ll get us a place to live on our own.” The air was stiff between the two of them for a few seconds. “You need to get a job too.”

“What? No!”

“Yes.” Cas spoke between bites, “We need as much money as we can get.” Lexi groaned and ate her pizza in silence, ignoring the girl in front of her, “I didn’t have to take you with me Lex. I could have left you with your boyfriend-”

“He is not my boyfriend. That abusive piece of s**t will never be and never was my boyfriend.”

“Well whatever he is-

“An abusive piece of s**t.”

“Whatever he is, ” Cas continued loudly, “I could have just left you with him. I didn’t have to bring you with me to New Zealand. But I did because you asked me to and I care about you. And now you’re stuck with me and my stupid decisions.” Cas continued, “Besides I would have been fine financially if I hadn’t of had you spending all my money and not contributing to paying bills.” Cas muttered quietly.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Whatever. I asked you to get me out of there, not take me under your wing. You could have just taken me home to mom and dad.” Lexi picked at a mushroom on top of her pizza.

“Is that really what you wanted me to do? Leave you with mom and dad?”

“Any punishment they would have given me wouldn’t have been as bad as being homeless.”

“You made us homeless Lexi! I would have done fine without you spending all my money!”

Lexi let out a big huff. She knew she had been defeated, and the words thrown in her face were nothing but the truth. She knew going into the relationship that it wasn’t going to end well, but she was in her rebellious phase. She did not take lightly when she was told that she was adopted, it killed her in fact. She didn’t know the exact reason that it hurt her so much though and that killed her even more. There were many reasons to be upset about it, honestly. But her parents had only ever cared for her and loved her as if she were their born child. For some reason, she just felt like doing something they wouldn't approve of was the best thing to do after being told she was adopted. But she knew from the very beginning that the guy she had hooked up with and moved in with was bad for her.

For starters he was in his early twenties and she had just turned sixteen. Almost immediately in the relationship he was showing signs of abuse and possessiveness. She wasn’t allowed to talk to any other guy besides him and his friends; and when he found out that she was into girls as well, she was forced to lose all contact with people apart from family. Because of him, she was forced to ruin all her friendships. At this point in her life Lexi couldn't tell you why she dated that guy, especially for so long, but back then she could have given you a million reasons. Or as she later found out, excuses.

By the third month into them dating he had convinced her to move in with him. He said that she would be safer and he had less of a reason to worry about her cheating on him if they lived together. At the time, she had no reason not to move in with him. In fact, she even convinced herself that it was best for her to do it. That’s when things started getting really bad.

He would beat her for the smallest things that upset him or were ‘against the rules’. He took control over her entire being. She was no longer a person. Just some thing he could control and force enjoyment out of when it was convenient for him.

One night when he was out Lexi had contacted her sister and begged her to get her out of the house. Right away Cas dropped everything she was doing and ran to her rescue. Lexi can still remember making Cassidy pull into a nearby McDonald's restaurant and just crying into her shoulder and holding onto her. Even though the words were never said, Cas knew that Lexi didn’t want to go home to her parents and Lexi knew that Cas knew so she didn’t let it happen. Cas went and took Lexi to get a whole new look, become completely unrecognizable. That’s where the whole pastel goth look came from. It was the easiest way to change her hair and eyes without any permanent or drastic changes. On top of that it was always a style that intrigued Lexi, her boyfriend and parents would just never let her try it.

So Cas helped her change her appearance and then flew her off to New Zealand, where Cas had planned on living for her photography career. In the beginning, everything was fine. Cas was making plenty of money to keep them going and even had a little extra from her savings, despite most of it being spent on Lexi’s new persona. But things soon started to go downhill. Cas was having a hard time finding jobs to do and the small shops that she worked in barely left her any time to take photographs and pay for the small studio apartment they were staying in. To make matters worse, Cas had to get Lexi into a school to finish out her high school career. This lead to even less money available for them and an agitated Lexi who refused to contribute to any financial aid.

Two years had passed and eventually Cas and Lexi couldn’t do it anymore. They lost the studio and lived on the streets while they saved up a plane ticket back to the states. Luckily Cas was an expert liar, and Hope was the most gullible girl she knew, so she had managed to make up a believable lie to give Hope while she mooched off of her home and looked for a new place to live and a job to pay for it. And this time Cas was determined to make sure Lexi helped or left.

“Besides,” Cas continued, “If you want to live with mom and dad so bad why don't you just go do that?”

“Cause I’m an adult now.” Lexi scoffed.

“Then f*****g act like it.” Cas finished her piece of pizza and put the box back in the fridge. “I’m gonna go put pants on and then we can set your room up. You’re welcome to hang anything up, I told Hope we were gonna be here for a while.”

And with that Cas left the kitchen, taking the cold air with her and letting it flow away from the situation. That’s one of the things about Cas. She’s a bit of a hot-head and it’s easy to rile her up and create a loud situation, but when she’s done with being angry then there is no more uncomfortable air around her. She can create a bad situation quickly and just as easily as she made it, she can get rid of it. It always bothered Hope due to the quickness of a potential fight happening, but she dealt with it because she knew it would be over soon.

Lexi had been lucky, as Hope had put it at least, to have the upstairs room. Apart from Hope being across the hall for most of the time, Lexi had the whole upstairs to herself. Cas and Lexi were grateful that Hope was always prepared for having two or more people sleeping over at her house which allowed for Lexi to have a bed. It was a nice sized bed too. The only downside was that Hope had leant the sheets, blankets, and pillows, to the twins and they have yet to give it back, leading Lexi to use a lap blanket she had packed and a pillow from Hope’s room. Cas made a mental note to add bedding to the shopping list, along with some cool things for Lexi to hang up in her room to make it feel more homier.

Lexi opened up all her suitcases and placed her folded clothes into the chipping white victorian styled dresser complete with fancy metal handles. There wasn’t much else to do to the room. Lexi didn’t have much stuff to bring apart from some jewelry that she had laid out on the top of the dresser and her singular wig, for now, laid out beside the jewelry. Lexi and cas made their way out to the top of the staircase and pulled down the string to the pull-down door. Cas climbed up the ladder and had Lexi hand her the suitcases while she placed them in the attic, attempting not to shriek whenever she saw a spider skitter towards her. She quickly climbed down the steps when she no longer had to be there and closed the door.

“Do you think Hope would be mad if I rearranged my room?” Lexi asked, the knuckle of her right index finger pressing against her chin.

“What do you want to do?” Cas asked, fiddling with the string tied together to keep her pajama pants from falling off stick straight figure.

“I want to push the bed to the back corner by the window. Move the dresser to the left corner closest to the door-so that way when you walk in and look to your left there's a dresser there, no what I mean?” Lexi turned to Cas.

“Yes. Continue.”

“And then I want to move desk from the right wall to the left wall.”

“Why?”

“I think it’ll look better there.”

“Alright.” Cas finally got her knot to successfully stay and she looked up to the other girl, “Let’s go do that then.”

Author's Note

Here is chapter three! Sorry it took me so long to post I just was not feeling this chapter and I've had a lot of stuff going on lately. Sorry that it's so short and kinda lame. It was really just a filler/backstory chapter.

Anyways, enjoy!