Whisperer – By Fang (Chapter 2)
2
“For your homework tonight, I want you to finish reading chapters five through ten, and after that, answer the review questions…one through twenty.”
Lillian slumped in her seat. She already had a cow pile of Trigonometry homework…
She loved reading, but this was ridiculous.
“Hey.” This was Lillian’s lazy greeting as she let her bag fall to the floor and she threw herself onto her bed.
“I know that; you have an unbearable amount of homework.”
“Boring homework, which is worse. Especially since we’re studying the Great Depression in History.”
“We’ve already been here for two weeks; if they’re buckling down on us now, imagine what it’ll be like another couple of weeks down the road,” Stephanie claimed. Lillian groaned.
“Oh, yeah, your dad called.”
“He did?”
“Yeah. He just wanted to do his usual weekly check.”
Hoisting herself upright and reaching for their landline phone, Lillian dialed her home phone.
“Hello?”
“Terri,” Lillian choked, not too quick to hide the resentment in her voice. “Is my dad there?”
“No, he went to get some dinner. How’s school?”
“Good. Getting lots of homework.”
“Keeps you busy. But Lillian, I was wondering…”
“Yes?” Lillian’s throat was tight.
“Why didn’t you share a dorm room with Amber?”
Oh God, no. “Because a friend of mine asked me first, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”
“Amber says it’s because you didn’t want to be within ten feet of her during this trip.”
“That bitch!”
Stephanie watched the expressions of frustration and anger flush Lillian’s face.
“She told you that?”
“Yes. And it hurt her feelings, you know.”
Lillian couldn’t help a sniffling chortle. “I find that hard to believe.”
“Lillian!” Terri shrieked. “Amber is your sister! Of course it hurt her feelings when her own little sister went behind her back and ditched her for some casual classmate!”
“Not that I’m admitting to her feelings being hurt, but it would barely pay back for all the times she’s hurt my feelings with her tactless jokes.”
Terri hissed at the back of her throat. “You are such an ungrateful brat! Wait till Arthur hears about this!”
“Oh, and what’s he gonna do? Drive down here and spank me? Ground me?”
“Ugh! If anything, Amber is a better daughter to him than you are!”
Through Lillian’s strong dignity, Terri’s declaration slit a gash in her chest, allowing fury to bleed.
“You and Amber are both heartless bitches who don’t deserve my father!” she screamed, hanging up the line.
She completely forgot Stephanie was in the room. She only stared at her, blank with a timid anxiousness.
“I’m sorry you had to hear all that,” Lillian apologized. Stephanie shrugged. “From seeing how much Amber is a bitch, I can only imagine what her mom must be like… It’s not like I don’t blame you for blowing up like that.”
Lillian smiled. It was about damn time someone on two legs would listen to her and understand her frustrations. “Thanks, Steph. You’re a good friend.”
“No problem.”
Later that evening, Lillian said to Stephanie that she was going to go check out a book, but on her way to the library, she got distracted.
Amber was attempting to ignore her sister’s presence. Lillian would have done the same any other time.
Just as their paths intercepted, Lillian’s hand clasped Amber’s arm and she hauled her with all her strength into the girls’ bathroom.
“What the hell?!” Amber lashed.
“Your feelings were hurt because I didn’t pick you for a roommate?! You just had to go and paint me as the ungrateful sibling, didn’t you?!” Lillian hissed.
Amber seemed rather proud of her work. “Oh, did Mom finally get a hold of you and demand to know why you didn’t pick me as your roomie?”
“Yes, and I wanted to puke with each word she said! That’s probably one of the sickest lies I’ve ever heard!”
“Wah, wah, wah, poor Lillian, she’s getting picked on by the stepmother she hates more than her stepsister!”
“You are such a heartless asshole—you and your mother both!”
“Obviously not, since a sentimental guy like your dad accepted us.”
Lillian’s voice was stuck. That was uncharted territory, a question she couldn’t very well answer for herself.
“You know, one of these days, when we’re back home, we should have one of those family-sit-downs and ask just why Mommy and Daddy got married. Maybe that’ll give you some closure. You might learn something about your dad that’ll really make you wish you weren’t born.”
What was Lillian trying to prove? What was there to prove? Her pride? No, it couldn’t be just for pride.
For family, Lillian decided. She was doing this for family.
But what was there to fight for? All that she had was now poisoned.
The door creaked open.
A short-haired girl, tall and leggy, briefly glanced at the two silent sisters and merely went into a stall.
“You ought to do better than this, lil’ sister,” Amber sneered in Lillian’s ear. “If this is all you’ve got, you’re gonna lose.”
Lillian restrained with all her might to keep her tight fist at her side as Amber moved around her for the door.
“Damn her.” Even minutes after she was gone, Lillian’s fist was still clutching as if she were grasping an invisible pole for dear life, dangling over darkness. She grimaced, as if it were a shield to keep the tears down.
But she had to remove the frown when the girl came out of the stall and walked for the sinks. In doing so, a tear was allowed to break. Followed by another. She sniffled before she could help herself.
“Are you alright?” the girl asked. Lillian jerked her head up, alarmed. “Y-yeah, I just… It’s something between me and my stepsister, that’s all.”
“Having rough times?” the girl asked compassionately.
“She’s just being her usual cold, bitchy self. She went behind my back and told my stepmother lies about how I’ve treated her and…” Lillian sighed in an attempt to calm herself.
“Did she just come into the family or something?”
“No. My stepmother’s been married to my dad for three years now.”
“Oh. And you’re still not getting along with her?”
“No. I really don’t want to have to explain why.”
The girl nodded in comprehension. “Well, um, I’m Lauren. I’m a sophomore here at the university. And you’re one of the high school kids, right?”
“Yeah. I’m Lillian.”
Lauren smiled. “Pretty name. Your parents must have interesting names, then, too.”
“Well, my dad’s is actually a simple name. Arthur. And my mom’s name was interesting only because of the way it was spelled.”
“Oh. Well, it was just an assumption.”
Lillian liked the warmth of Lauren’s face. She was very mature. Her layered, ear-length black hair with gray eyes made her look interestingly benign.
“I should get to the library,” Lillian mumbled to herself, remembering her previous actions.
“Okay. Nice meeting you, Lillian. Maybe I’ll see you around the campus.”
“I’m sure; it’s a small world, you know.”
Lauren smiled, continuing her routine at the sink as Lillian walked out the door.
“Quite frankly, I’m appalled at you, young lady,” Arthur chastised. “How could you say those things to her?”
“Dad, for God’s sake, you’ve raised me for seventeen years! You should know me by now! You know I would never be mean to anyone who wasn’t extra mean in return! I’m like a dog; I can tell when a person’s rotten to the core, and I act on instinct!”
“Lillian, enough.”
“Dad!” Lillian wailed. “You don’t honestly believe them, do you? Over me?”
Arthur sighed. “I don’t want to have to pick sides, here, Lilly, but you’re leaving me no other choice.”
“It’s Terri and Amber!” Lillian shrieked hurtfully. “Amber freakin’ twists everything I say and do, and makes it ten times worse than it was, and cries to her mom about it! And Terri does the same thing!”
“Lillian Elizabeth Heart!” Arthur thundered. Lillian’s words fell silent. She was a child the last time she heard those three names together in such a tone.
“I think you just need to stay away from Amber. Don’t talk to her, don’t look at her, don’t do anything. Just do what you went there to do and just forget about Amber. Just leave her alone, okay?”
Whether this was for her emotional benefit or Amber’s, Lillian would condone.
“Dad, that’s probably the best advice you’ve given me in three years.” She hung up, vexed once again.
“Dear God, something better happen to keep me busy. Something better take my mind off all this.”
After Biology, Lillian took a trip to the library to return her finished book and seek out a new one.
After looking for nearly an hour of not finding anything interesting, she referred back to the witch book, which was still in its place.
She flipped through the pages, with mounds and mounds of text, paired with few pictures and diagrams.
She shrugged. Maybe it would be nice to look into something different.
Pivoting around to walk for the desk, Lillian finally caught the dark, clear eyes of the strange young boy, who was sitting at his usual table, this time with two other boys. Lillian almost had the breath knocked out of her for the brief seconds she saw his eyes. But he quickly turned forward far before she could appreciate them.
Shaking her head, she continued up to the desk, restraining her head to stay locked facing forward.
After having her book checked, she swiftly breezed out of the library, as if being in the same room with that boy was robbing her of her air supply. And emerging into the hall brought a gust of oxygen back into her lungs, allowing her to slow her pace as she headed back for her dorm.
“Hey, Lillian!”
She jerked her head at the unfamiliar voice, and lost her heart to find the unnamable beautiful boy jogging up to her. His face forced another weight of power to her chest.
“You dropped this.” He smiled pleasantly, and Lillian had to tear her eyes to his extended hand, that held her student I.D.
“Thanks,” she responded without any voice. She impulsively cleared her throat. “Um, how did you know my name…?” she asked. The young man kept his expression casual.
“I.D card,” he reminded.
“Oh! Right.” Lillian knew her palely tanned skin was flushing scarlet.
“I’m Caleb. Caleb Stevens.” Caleb extended his arm, and Lillian, still flustered, took the gesture.
“Hi.” She cursed herself for losing her breath when he smiled. His face was purely adolescent, but strong, with healthy, light russet-hued skin. The power of his eyes seemed more severe now that she was so close. He was taller than he looked when sitting down.
“So, uh, I take it you go to the university…?” Lillian assumed.
“Mhm. I’m a junior.”
“Really? So you’re, what…”
“Twenty-one,” Caleb answered, rather proudly. “Just turned last month.”
“It’s the birthday every kid dreams of, huh?” Lillian laughed lightly. Caleb laughed with her. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Well, um, it was nice meeting you.”
“Yeah, you, too. I should be getting over to my class,” Caleb regarded, and walking around the corner, he flashed Lillian another kind, casual smile.
“What?! The cute guy talked to you?!” Stephanie gasped, her expression elated.
“Yeah; I guess I dropped my I.D card in the library walking out, and when I was on my way back here, he brought it back to me. He introduced himself…”
“What’s his name? I’ll bet it’s a hot name!”
Lillian shrugged. “Caleb. It’s a pretty cool name.”
“Ooh. It definitely fits him well, from what I saw of him last time.”
“Hmm.”
“Oh, what was that? You seem deep in thought about something? Thinking about Caleb?”
Lillian grimaced and threw the moon pillow at Stephanie, turning off her lamp and laying in her bed.
“Sheesh, defensive, are we?” Stephanie snickered, and her light clicked off.
Lillian didn’t know why she was so goo-goo-ga-ga over this boy. She hasn’t been interested in guys—at least, not this interested.
She grumbled meaningless gibberish, pulling the sheets over her head.
“Just ignore her. Don’t look at her,” Lillian sternly ordered, walking with Stephanie through the cafeteria to look for a seat, while Amber was only meters away, yammering on with her friends.
“Hey, Lillian!” Caleb called, and Lillian recognized his voice immediately. She found him sitting at a table with a group of three girls and two boys. He smiled, and Lillian froze like a confused child.
But she pushed herself forward, Stephanie following her. Getting closer, Lillian found one of the faces of the girls familiar. It was the black-haired girl she met in the bathroom. What was her name? Oh, Lauren.
“Hi,” Lillian greeted Caleb timidly. His smile was still warm.
“Well, uh, I know you already met Lauren; she told me about you,” he said, pointing an extended thumb to Lauren, who sat next to him.
“Oh, she’s his girlfriend,” Lillian lulled in her mind, astonished of herself that she was disappointed.
“She’s my sister. Well, adopted sister, but that doesn’t change the fact.”
“Oh, really?”
Lauren smiled in second greetings.
“And these are our cousins, Levi, Fritz, Taylor, and Marina.”
Lillian looked amongst the table of faces, and even though they were different in gender, composition and body type, there was something similar about all of them.
Even sitting down, the girls looked the same as Lauren, tall and leggy, one another dark-haired brunette, far wavier than Lillian’s hair, and the other a tawny, straight-haired tomboy, with large, looped golden earrings. A small silver ring and bead popped out on her lower lip.
They were all masculine; that was what they had in common. They had strong, beautiful complexions, making Lillian feel degraded.
“Um, this is my friend Stephanie,” she introduced, remembering that Stephanie was next to her.
“How are you liking your stay here at Saltzman?” Lauren asked pleasantly.
“It’s nice. I just wish I can stay here through my senior year all the way into college.”
There was a low hum of chuckles.
“We all came here, straight out of high school,” Caleb said. Lillian noticed a beaming light from the silver stud in his earlobe, and the silver ring on his auricle.
“Had to get out of the house, huh?”
Caleb flashed a bright smile with sharp, white teeth. “You could say that. Just wanted to have my own schedule, do things on my own time.”
Lillian nodded. She could definitely understand that.
“Well, um, I guess we’ll see you around,” she affirmed, giving a smile before departing with Stephanie.
“Bye, Lillian!” Lauren called. Lillian waved.
“That was weird,” Stephanie confessed, as they sat down at their table of choice in the patio area of the cafeteria.
“Why was it weird?”
“Uh, because they–he–talked to you, when they could have just watched us walk through the cafeteria without saying a word.”
“Oh? Are you saying you’re surprised that Caleb is interested in me enough to call me from a crowd of people?”
“No, not at all. I guess I’m just surprised. Caleb and his sister’s niceness, that is. The others, though, were kinda…”
“Quiet?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’ve met Caleb and Lauren before this meeting, so of course their cousins were quiet.”
Stephanie just shrugged. “Anyways, we should do something this weekend. Go shopping, go see a movie, or…”
“Shopping sounds good. I need to do something active.”
“How much money did your dad give you?”
“Him and Terri both pitched in and gave me a thousand bucks.”
“Holy shit. How much does your dad do? How much money does he make?”
“My dad’s an architect; he makes, like, a hundred grand a year. And Terri owns the company he works at; she makes half a mil a year.”
Stephanie’s jaw dropped; luckily, she hadn’t put the forkful of salad in her mouth. “She may be a bitch, but she’s a rich bitch.”
“Yeah,” Lillian sighed.
The shopping trip helped loosen Lillian’s attitude a bit. Without Terri or Amber constantly badgering and criticizing her choices, she was able to spruce up her wardrobe from tomboy pieces to more girly clothing. She also bought some little trinkets to help decorate her computer desk, making her feel a little more satisfied that her belongings weren’t so bland.
Put in a good mood, maybe she should call Arthur, at least, and give thanks for the money.
“Hello?”
Thank God, Lillian expressed silently when Arthur answered.
“Hey, Dad, it’s me.”
“Oh, hey, Lilly.” He didn’t seem to have any hard feelings towards their last phone conversation…
“Well, I just called to thank you for the money that you gave me. I was able to buy some nice stuff for my dorm room.”
“No problem, sweetheart. Just don’t spend it all too quickly. And when you need some more, I’ll send it to you. Do you want to thank Terri?”
“U-uh, you can thank her for me, can’t you?”
“Awh, Lillian, come on…”
“Dad, I’ve been having a good day, okay? Please don’t dangle me above the crocodile pit.”
Lillian knew the sigh Arthur emitted. “Alright. Well, I’m glad to know you’re getting along good. I’ll talk to you later?”
“Mhm.”
“’Kay. Love you.”
“Love you, too, Dad. Bye.”
“Was he nice this time?” Stephanie asked, posing in front of their closet mirror in a pairing of her new clothes.
“Yeah. He respected my boundaries and didn’t make me thank Terri personally over the phone.”
“Ugh, I hate it when parents insist on you doing something, especially because it’s ‘polite’. It’s like, God, let me make my own decisions.”
“I get plenty of those scenarios from Terri. When her and my dad were dating, I was, like, fourteen, and it was take-your-kid-to-work day, and I dressed real casual back then. When I arrived there at the office, Terri was like, ‘Lillian, what are you doing dressed like that? Don’t you know this is a professional, corporate office?’ ”
Stephanie’s shrill laughter shrieked. “Really? She said that?”
“Yeah. It was in front of my dad, but he just said that I was a tomboy and that I didn’t get the memo of dressing ‘nicely’.”
“I think the way you dress is cool,” Stephanie claimed with admiration. “Somehow, you can look tomboy while wearing totally preppy clothes. You have a unique style. You should be a designer.”
Lillian laughed at that. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, then, what do you want to be when you’re out of school?”
“A wildlife expert…? Run or work for a wildlife rehabilitation center, I don’t know.”
“Ah. I kind of figured you’d do something with animals.”
“Yeah, but who knows how many jobs I’ll blow through in the meantime.”
Stephanie snickered.
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