Story
The streets burned from the summer sun as many were struggling to find a way to rid themselves of the summer heat. Charlotte walked down the streets sweating, just trying to get home, but the sound of a familiar scream got closer and closer before she slowly looked behind her to see Kaylee running towards her at full speed.
“CHARLOTTE!” Kaylee screamed Charlotte’s name while running before immediately stopping when she finally got to Charlotte, heavily breathing and grabbing her knees in exhaustion.
“Hey, so can I ask you for a quick favor?” Kaylee asked in between breaths before standing up straight and smiling nervously.
“Alright then, what is it?”
“Alright, so, I just need you to come with me so I can talk to my dad about something…you know, like backup in case something goes wrong?”
Charlotte became concerned and confused as Kaylee nervously laughed as if what she just asked was a joke.
“Yeah, sometimes me and my dad get into crazy arguments about stuff and it gets out of hand. One time he threw a kettle at me while I was visiting his place because I didn’t answer his calls for 3 months.
Kaylee continued to laugh nervously as Charlotte sighed and became irritated at Kaylee for not taking something like this more seriously.
“Okay I’ll come, but only because the kettle thing is crazy.”
Kaylee smiled brightly before taking Charlotte’s hand to go to her father’s house.
Kaylee’s father, Matthew, used to be a respected scientist, but due to the fact that he never discovered anything scientifically new or interesting, he had been fired and his title as head scientist was stripped away. Now he lives alone in his house, trying to make a new scientific discovery and earn his job and title back.
Finally reaching the house, Kaylee nervously knocked on the door while Charlotte stood right next to her. The door opened and out came Matthew with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face, but he gestured to them both to come inside.
“Why are you here, Katlyn?” Matthew asked as he glared at Kaylee with daggers in his eyes.
Kaylee crossed her arms and rolled her eyes with an angry expression on her face instead of her previous nervous one.
“Dad, I told you it’s Kaylee! The name Katlyn is so boring!”
“Changing the name your mother gave you is disrespectful, especially since she went missing after you were born!”
“Ugh, Dad, you never respect me! You always push me around and cross so many boundaries!”
“When have I ever!?”
“You took five thousand dollars from my bank account to buy surgical supplies!”
“To be fair, you use the same insecure password for everything, plus those will come in good use.”
“This is the exact reason you’re still single after 23 years!”
Matthew and Kaylee glared at each other before beginning to yell at each other, beginning the harsh argument Kaylee had warned Charlotte about. Charlotte just stood there for a moment, watching as they argued horrifically, before stepping in.
“Alright, that’s enough. You guys need to sort this out without the argument.”
Charlotte noticed the two calming down yet avoiding eye contact. Kaylee looked down, a bit ashamed, while Matthew crossed his arms, looking away with an angry expression, not backing down but showing some signs of guilt across his face.
“I suppose I should compensate you for what I stole…”
Kaylee finally looks at Matthew, sighing, “I was saving that money for a small vacation with my friends, Charlotte and Rain.”
Matthews ears perked up. Kaylee realized what she said but before she could say anything more Matthew interrupted: “Then I’ll pay for the entire thing so you don’t have to worry about anything!”
Matthew skipped away happily, which looked very creepy from the perspective of the two girls.
Kaylee smacked her forehead as Charlotte looked at her confusedly, waiting for an explanation.
“My dad gets all weird and giddy when I mention Rain. Even when I first introduced her to him, my dad made her feel uncomfortable, which is why I asked you instead of Rain to come over and help me today.”
“Anyway, let’s go see what my dad is doing before he tries to sign me up for another college without my consent again and I suddenly get tuition bills in my email.”
“Yeah alright…wait, what?”
Kaylee grabbed Charlotte’s hand and started walking down the hallway. Charlotte followed behind and spotted a black and white photo of a woman in a picture frame on the wall inside a dark room…or was it in color? Charlotte couldn’t tell, so she just kept following Kaylee.
After many days of planning and many more arguments, the three girls finally made it to a nice beach house, where Kaylee was originally going to take them, but now it was 4 of them rather than 3 due to Matthew’s persistence to tag along. He promised to stay away after another yelling match with Kaylee. The girls settled in at the beach house, putting their stuff into the rooms they were going to sleep in then resting on the couch while Matthew was in his designated room doing whatever it is that he does. After some time, the three girls ended up sneaking off without Matthew.
“Ugh, we finally got rid of him. I hope my dad wasn’t bothering you too much during the flight, Rain.”
Rain shook her head as she wrote in her notebook. Kaylee sighed in relief as she saw that Rain hadn’t been uncomfortable even though Matthew kept trying to talk to Rain.
“I don’t know why he tries to talk to you. He’s definitely too old, and you’re definitely too young for him…wait, how old are you?”
Rain blushed and crossed her arms, looking away, pouting, but that was only to avoid the question. Rain was, in fact, billions of years old, but neither Kaylee nor Charlotte needed to know that…now or ever. Kaylee saw Rain’s pouting face and laughed nervously.
“You know that question has the same amount of awkwardness as my parents telling me that one of my descendants is a deity.”
Charlotte scoffed as Rain became even more uncomfortable. Her eye started to twitch a bit, knowing she has a lot of secrets to keep. Eventually, after walking a bit along the beach, they spotted a nice place to set up their things. The three girls had a fun time at the beach, splashing in the water and just relaxing until the sun set.
After making their way back to the beach house, the three girls went inside the house and saw Matthew trying to sneak into Rain’s room. Luckily, the door was locked, but it quickly enraged Kaylee and Charlotte as they ran towards Matthew and attacked him. Rain watched nervously, but after a bit, everyone settled down and went to sleep.
As the days passed during their week-long vacation, the three of them, without Matthew of course, were spending the time together at museums, arcades, restaurants, and the beach. Aside from initially trying to get into Rain’s room, Matthew hadn’t done anything else that had bothered them, and he, surprisingly, kept his distance from all of them, which was weird since he had insisted on coming on their trip. The last day of the vacation rolled around too quickly.
“This felt really good. I can’t believe this is what you were planning all this time before your dad spent that money,” Charlotte said while Kaylee laughed, happy that they had enjoyed the trip she had planned for a long time.
“I hate to admit it, but I kinda feel bad about avoiding my dad during this trip. Even though he’s weird and strict, he has only been like this since my mom disappeared. He’s still the only family member I have.”
Charlotte looked at Kaylee with concern as she placed her hand on Kaylee’s shoulder.
“I never really got to know her. I was so young. I don’t even know what she looks like. Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to trauma dump on you.”
Kaylee laughed nervously as Charlotte gave a reassuring smile to Kaylee.
Kaylee and Charlotte looked at the ocean. The waves were calm as the sun began to set very slowly.
“Hey, Charlotte?”
Charlotte turned her head towards Kaylee, wondering what she was going to say.
“If my mom just showed up one day, I would probably give her a hug, plus finally know why she-”
Suddenly, Rain came back holding ice cream cones, looking at Kaylee. Charlotte looked at Rain a bit shocked.
“Rain! I didn’t notice you had disappeared! You’re usually so quiet I guess I assumed you were still here!”
Rain sighed and handed the two their ice cream.
Looking out the window stood Matthew, who watched them from the beach house with a stern look.
“They all seem happy, but I know who you are and what you did to my Lyra.”
Matthew held up a star necklace to the sunlight before nightfall came and he left Rain’s room.
