Love Lies In The Eyes | Paul Lahote

▪THREE▪

  Online classes were rather boresome in Vanessa's taste. She was thrilled at first to participate in school through her computer screen, but as she closes her laptop after finishing her last assignment, her emotions were on the more dull side. Excitement wasn't shooting through her body like blood racing in her veins and arteries. 

    She pushes her laptop aside to lean back on the couch, whining up into the air. Charlie heard the noise and wanders out of the kitchen, sipping on a bottle of water. "Vanessa?"

  "School is boring," she states, plain and simple. "I wonder if Bells is having a grand time?"

  He sips on his drink. "Hope so," he mutters when he swallows the cool liquid. "First days of school are...troubling, I guess."

  "It's just boring for me."

  "Boring?" Echoes her father. "Not, uh, making friends?"

  Back in the blazing state of Arizona, Vanessa didn't have too many friends. Of course, she would chat with a few students in her school, but often she stuck beside Bella. Besides, her neighbors weren't the greatest people to spend time with, not to mention the children of some of them were...strange to say the least.

  In response to his words, her brown locks fly in all sorts of directions as she shakes her head. "I really just stuck to Bella to be completely honest. She and I had each other."

  Charlie nods but an uncertain look falls on his face. "Renee didn't..?"

  "Mom wasn't around a whole lot," his youngest daughter clarifies. Charlie and Renee never communicated often unless they had to for the sake of their children. Once Renee escaped the small town of Forks, leaving behind Charlie all to himself, something switched in her and suddenly Bella was acting more responsible than their own mother. "Bella was practically the one supporting us. I tried to scramble up money by working down at the local shelter, but it wasn't much."

  He blinks, surprised. "Seriously?"

  Vanessa nods her head. "Seriously."

  "Well, I don't want her working her ass off around here," he sighs, eyes wandering around the home as if he was imagining her doing an enormous amount of work in the home. "I just want her, I don't know, to do teenage girl things!"

   His daughters weren't what he considers typical teenage girls. Vanessa nor Bella was the type of person who desires to go shopping whenever they have enough cash in their pocket or were they the type of person to want to get their nails done every other weekend. His youngest was the type of girl to lounge around in her pajamas while watching countless action films.

  And Bella, despite their father not wanting her to be the maid, would do it anyway. She taught herself that she has to make everyone around her happy to function.

  It drove Vanessa nuts in some cases.

"I don't think Bella would do teenage girl things," she explains, smiling a bit as she spoke. It was rather adorable to see her father becoming worked up over his daughter doing so much work. "Anyhow," she sighs before pushing herself off the couch, "I wanna try out my bike."

  "It's icy outside."

  Turning her head towards the window, she squints her eyes at the road. There was some ice painted on the road, but her heart was encouraging her to just pass by it once she settled her bottom on her new ride. 

  "I'll survive," she declares, her face glowing with eagerness. "C'mon, Dad, I just got it and I wanna' test it out."

  He's walking back to the kitchen at this point. "Not in this weather, Vanessa Blake!"