by Taryn Eason
"This top would look so cute on you!" Delilah shouted, shoving a gray plaid crop-top at me.
"It would look better if I still had my belly button ring." I joked. I had pierced it myself at fifteen, but Delilah had nagged me to death about it. She warned me about it getting infected so often that as soon as it turned a tiny bit pink, I got rid of it. Of course, I told her it fell off in my sleep. No way I would let her know she was right.
"It's a good thing you don't. Imagine what it would be like now." She replied, making a weird face. The thought of liquid metal melting from my stomach nearly made me gag.
"You're right. That would be awful. Good call on that."
I tried the crop top on, feeling depressed at how much of my sports bra showed in the back. I loved the shirt, but I needed to wear my top at all times, just in case. So I grudgingly decided to ditch it and find something else. Which was difficult because this store, like most of the ones Delilah shopped at, was too modest for me.
I came out of the dressing room to find that Delilah had already picked out several more items for herself. Only a few of them were cute, but she was a few sizes bigger than I was, so none of them would fit me. "Hey, Belle! Have you thought about getting an outfit in case you have a formal interview? Cause, I mean, you don't have a job yet and it's a really good thing to have a suit ready before you get one."
I sighed. I knew she was right, but business wear just looked so forced on me. I ignored all of the printed blouses and slacks that she suggested afterwards and instead found a gorgeous red dress. It came down to my calves and didn't show any skin. It hugged my waist and flared. I paired it with some black booties, which, with the heel, made me six feet tall.
I secretly loved how empowered I felt while wearing heels. I looked down at Delilah mischievously while trying them on. It already took heels for her to be as tall as I was, so it felt great to damage her superiority complex.
We decided to take a break from shopping and go eat. We chose a sushi restaurant. As usual, Delilah ordered twice as much food as I did.
"Belle, I wanted to talk to you about something." She started.
"Yeah, what is it?" I replied. Today had been going great. I really hoped she wouldn’t say anything to ruin it.
"I'm not going to Harvard."
It caught me off guard. Harvard Medical School was her dream. "Really? Why not?"
She poked at some rice with her fork. "Do you think dad will be mad at me?"
"I think you'll be fine." But how was I to know? She had always done everything perfectly, and had only seen our father’s extreme reactions to my screw-ups. And I could tell she was terrified of what he would do.
"I hope so. I just... I don't feel like I need school anymore. I was going because I wanted to help people, but with my powers it just seems, I don't know, sort of redundant. Four years of med school is four years of people I could be healing."
It made sense.
"I'm just worried. I have all of these expectations on my shoulders and I don't want to let anyone down."
It was rare to see Delilah so human. Her big brown eyes looked like a puppy who had just been scolded. I had to do something to help her. "Delly, let me see your inbox right now."
She was confused. "What? Why?"
I rolled my eyes. "Just give me your phone."
She handed it over. I opened her email inbox and saw that it was full of news companies wanting interviews and media companies wanting to make her into a reality show, but most of the emails were people begging to fly her out to heal their relatives. "Just look at this." I said, showing her the messages. "You're famous. You can do anything you want. If you care what our parents think over the millions of people you'll save, you're an idiot. Frankly, I'm surprised you're still in this town with me instead of in Africa or somewhere saving the world."
She smiled. "I don't care what anyone says about you, you're the best sister ever."
She stood up and hugged me in the middle of the restaurant. I blushed and heated up to force her away from me.
"I don't know what I did to make you think that's ever okay." I joked.
"You've been more okay with it than usual, so I thought I'd give hugging my little sister a try." She replied, rubbing her burned hand.
"I thought that was you over here!"
A young guy with light brown hair and black-rimmed glasses walked up to us. I recognized him as Tyler Knott, who graduated as Delilah's Salutatorian.
"Tyler! How have you been? I haven't seen you in ages!" She replied, hugging him.
"I'm doing great! I just graduated with my Bachelor's in accounting and I moved back here to take a job. What about you? I saw you on tv the other day!"
"Yeah, I'm doing well too. I'm in talks with an agent and hopefully you'll be seeing me a lot more on tv soon."
"That's so cool! So is it fake? How come you couldn't do that stuff in high school?" He asked.
"I'm uh... I'm not sure. It's just a gift from God I guess." Delilah smiled awkwardly. I had to hold back a laugh at how awful she was at lying.
Tyler turned to me and smiled. "Maybelle, how are you? You're as gorgeous as ever."
I blushed. "I'm fine. Just graduated high school, but I don't have any plans yet."
"That's fine, it takes some people years to figure out what they want to do."
I smiled. Hearing something genuine felt so comforting. "Thanks. With how much my parents nag me, I hope I figure it out soon."
"Can you do stuff like Delilah too?" He asked.
"Nope, not all of us can be as blessed as she is." I said, giving her a look as I said the word "blessed".
"You got that right." He chuckled. "So I know Delilah's going to be super busy now, but what do you usually do during the day?"
"Nothing at all." I smiled politely at how pathetic I was.
"Well, I just moved back to town and I don't know anybody here anymore. We should hang out sometime."
My heart fluttered. A guy was actually asking me out? Oh yeah, my reputation didn't get bad until after he had already graduated. He had no idea about the awful things that people accuse me of. I was ecstatic. "That sounds great." I smiled.
We exchanged numbers and left. During the ride home, it seemed like Delilah was more excited about it than I was.
"Belle, this is so great! Tyler's such a sweet guy! You need a good guy who will treat you right. Maybe he can even get you to come to church sometime!"
I held up my hand. "Woah, now, let's not get crazy or anything."
"This is just so great. He's the perfect hands to leave you in."
"Wait, what makes you think I can't take care of myself?" I replied, only halfway joking.
"Let's be honest right now. You don't exactly make the best decisions on your own." She said.
"Maybe I want to make mistakes while I'm young so I don't end up some 40 year old housewife who hates her life cause she doesn't know how to have fun."
"Maybelle, what makes you think you would even get that far? No one wants to marry someone who parties all the time with no future plans." She shot back.
"Nobody wants to marry an uptight bitch with a superiority complex either. Notice who didn't get anyone's number today." I spat.
"Why are you always like this? I try so hard to be nice to you and you make it so difficult."
"You are the most passive aggressive person I've ever met. You think you're so perfect and that it's my fault that I'm not." I replied.
She sighed. "Belle, I wanted us to have at least one good day. I'm leaving next week and I don't want us to fight."
"What do you mean you're leaving next week?"
"It was going to be a surprise. I'm going on a world tour to heal people. I'll have a camera crew filming it as a documentary and I won't be back for good for at least six months. I just wanted to spend time with you before I left. That is, unless you want to come with me.” She suggested.
I stared back blankly. "You should know by now we can't stand each other
, Delly. I'm sorry. We're even worse than fire and ice. You know you’ll always be my sister, but we're probably better off apart."
She was hurt. "But what if you hurt someone? We share the Reeki, and if something bad happens, we need to be there to help each other. I want to be able to help you."
I thought back to our childhood. I remember all the times I broke something or did something wrong, she would try to take the blame. My parents would always know it wasn't her, but she still tried. Even when I ditched first hour at school, she went to the principal and delivered a heartfelt story about how my nanny had gotten the stomach virus and wouldn't drive me, so she needed to go home and bring me. She found me at the local diner and drove me back to school, scolding me the whole way. But that was years ago.
"I don't need you to help me. Believe it or not, I'm an adult who can take care of herself."
Delilah was way too good to let me hold her down in this town. She deserved to leave and never look back. She would be a famous international icon, like the "pure-hearted" person she was. I was nothing like that and I knew it. I actually belonged here, out of the limelight.
"I just wanted to make sure. I'm still tempted to get you a security force or something to keep you from ever hurting anyone or anything." She joked.
"Good idea" I added, feeling my stomach churn. She had hardly any faith in me and it was still more than I deserved.
"I'll miss you, Belle. I'll stop by to check on you whenever I can, okay?"
"Okay." I repeated. To me, it would be no different than when she was away at college, but I could tell how scared she was about her life changing. But I knew she could handle it. There was never anything I've seen that she couldn't handle.
Chapter 15
It was almost 7pm and I looked awesome. My makeup was perfect and my outfit was flawless.
Plus, Tyler was on his way.
I was excited for my first date. Maybe eighteen is a little late for that, but who cares. Tyler and I had been texting for the past week. He was a total gentleman, plus he drives a nice car and makes a good bit of money.
I heard his voice downstairs, so I decided to save him from an awkward encounter with my parents. I stepped out of my room and saw him shaking my mother's hand and smiling.
"Sweetie, you didn't tell us you had a date tonight! I haven't seen Tyler in ages." My mother cooed.
"Hey, Maybelle, you ready?" Tyler asked. He was wearing a black suit and tie that made his blue eyes stand out from behind his glasses.
I smiled shyly. "Yeah, let's go."
He opened the passenger door of his Range Rover for me. "Why couldn't you have just texted me when you got here like a normal person? Now she's going to be asking me all sorts of questions when I get home."
He laughed. "I haven't seen Annabelle since high school, so I had to catch up."
"So, what's the plan for tonight?" I asked.
"Well, I was going to take you out to dinner, and then see what you wanted to do. We could go mini-golfing, see a movie, or just hang out at the mall. Your choice."
"I don't think I've ever been mini-golfing before," I replied, blushing.
He pulled into the parking lot of an expensive Italian restaurant in town and opened my door for me. "Tyler, this is a really nice place, are you sure you're okay with this?" I asked. I didn't want him to spend so much money on me for a date.
"Are you really asking that?"
I raised my eyebrow. "Yeah? Is it okay?"
He held out his arm for me to take. "Do you realize how gorgeous you are? Every date you've ever been on should have been like this."
I stared at him, in awe of how sweet he was. Tyler was the perfect guy. I had always had crush on him as my older sister's friend, but I never dreamed I would be on a date with him in real life.
We sat down and ordered. I chose something relatively cheap, still feeling bad about him paying for such a fancy meal.
"So, how is it being an accountant?" I asked.
"I love it. I'm honestly just glad that I found such a nice job right out of school, though."
"Yeah, you have better luck than I do. I can't find a job anywhere." I was hoping he wouldn't lose interest after hearing about how aimless I was.
"That's okay. I like that better."
I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"If you don't work, it just gives me more time to spoil you."
His views were a bit outdated, but he meant well. Tyler's father was a senator and his family's wealth made mine look poor. His mother was a good twenty years younger than his father, and I imagine he's always seen his father spend money to make his mother happy, so that's the only way he knew how to impress me. It was adorable realizing he was actually clueless about how most relationships work.
The rest of our date went well. It ended with him dropping me off at my house afterwards and kissing me on the cheek (and then apologizing for breaking his "no kissing on the first date" rule). He commented on how warm my face was, but I brushed it off.
I went up to my room and lay on my bed, the butterflies in my stomach keeping me awake. My life seemed like it was finally getting better. The only thing missing was Lye. I had gotten so close to him in such a short period of time. I wanted to call him and let him know how my date went, but I quickly realized that was never how our relationship was. It was roughly the same as mine and Delilah's had been. He saved me when I screwed up and did damage control when he couldn't stop me. I only liked him better because he had compassion and at least attempted to understand my feelings. But he didn't last very long as my keeper. At least he assured me of my safety before he left, not that I cared much about it.
Tyler was such a breath of fresh air in my life. He didn't have many friends here either, so he became the person I spent most of my time with. We saw each other pretty much every day. It had only been a little over a month, but it was already my longest relationship.
I still hadn't told him about my powers or anything of the sort. But one good thing was that I had no need to party while I was with him, so it had been a while since I'd had anything to drink. I was pretty proud to prove to myself that I wasn't an alcoholic.
My life was finally starting to look up.
It was around 6 on a Wednesday when everything went sideways again. My father came home, his breath smelling like liquor. I had no idea where he had been. My mother had conveniently just left for the store so we were alone. "Maybelle, can I talk to you?"
"I guess." I said emotionlessly.
"You need to break up with that Knotts boy before you get too serious."
I was confused. Tyler was perfect. There was nothing he's ever done that would make my father dislike him. "Why? What's wrong with him?"
"Nothing is wrong with him. His father is in town and I've been lobbying a pretty nice grant for the hospital and I don't want you to mess that up." He spoke while mixing his favorite drink.
"How could I possibly mess that up?" I asked, fogging the marble on the countertop with the heat from my hands.
"Senator Knotts and his son are very close. Personally, I think Tyler is a loser who's never even been with a girl before, but if you did something stupid and hurt him it could damage the Senator's relationship with me and the hospital."
I raised my eyebrows. "That is the lamest excuse I've ever heard. Just admit you hate me to have anything good in my life."
"Stop playing the 'poor me' victim card, Maybelle. I'm doing this for business reasons, not because I care about whether you have anything good in your life." He took a drink after stirring it with his finger.
"Spoken like the Father of the Year, Dad. I should get you a plaque." He began to walk away. "I think I'll have 'Most likely to drive his daughter to be a mass shooter' engraved on it. That sounds nice, right?"
He turned around and laughed. "You know, maybe I would actually enjoy being around you if you were a little more pleasant to be around. You see this? How you're acting right now? This is why we don't have a g
ood relationship." He threw the glass back and drank the rest of his liquor.
I rolled my eyes, seething. I returned to my room and opened the bottle of tequila I had stored under my bed for a time I needed to be out of my own head. I drank it straight and stared at my phone, browsing social networks for a few hours until its effects kicked in.
Delilah had made a post about our father, sharing a current selfie with him. She must have just gotten back home. I had forgotten that Dad’s birthday was tomorrow. He was probably out celebrating with someone who wasn't my mother. Delilah described him in her post as a "wonderful father who has always made sure I had all the tools I needed to succeed".
It was so strange that mine and her relationships with him were so different. He was a great father to Delilah, but he hated me. I knew deep down that it was probably because we were so much alike, but I would never see myself treating my own children like he treats me. Could I even have children? I couldn't imagine spending nine whole months without heating up to a lethal temperature. The idea that my powers had most likely made me infertile depressed me further.
Tyler wasn't answering his phone. I wanted him here, halfway to piss my father off, and halfway because the alcohol was putting me in a reckless mood and I was afraid of myself.
My thoughts were fractured in ten different tangents, each growing further by the minute. I lit my hand and touched the top of the liquid, igniting the alcohol and drinking the fire.
What would Tyler think? He's never even drank alcohol. As far as he knew, I had only been drunk once, by accident, since I slipped up and referred to it at one point. Oh well. I'm sure it wouldn't be as shocking as seeing me on fire. For a stable relationship, it's best to keep some things secret.
My door opened, my mother surprising me. "Maybelle, I got you some of that hummus you like and-" She stopped, noticing me sitting beside my bed with a near-empty bottle of tequila. "Are you okay?"