SHAMELESS

SIXTEEN

HOURS LATER.....

Getting back home from the hospital, Lilliana tiredly made her way up the stairs to her room. Slamming the door shut behind her, she slid down the smooth surface in a slow defeated motion. Tears welling up in her doe eyes and hugged her knees closer to her chest, burying her face in them. Her shoulders shook slightly as sobs left her trembling lips. The whirlpool of emotions she had been bottling up all this time inside her small body flowed down her cheeks onto her forearm and finally her knees in a form of silent tears. Normally, she'd wait for her father to come home to share all of her problems with but the feeling of despair was too overwhelming for her to keep inside anymore.

Sensing her owners distress, Snowflake got up from her sleeping bed and slowly padded toward the sound of the girl's sniffles. stopping a few feet infront of her, she barked "woof!!" and nudged her with its wet muzzle to get Lilliana's attention.

The girl looked up from her arms and turned around enough to scoop the fur ball up in her arms. She got up, leaving her backpack slumped on the ground and slowly approached her well done bed. She laid down on the soft mattress and pulled the puppy closer to her chest in a warm hug ...she cried more until her eyelids on their own drooped close, throwing her into a deep sleep.

When she finally woke up, it was already dark outside. She rolled out of the comfortable mattress and walked into her joint bathroom to freshen up. Flipping the light switch on, she stripped out of her clothes and stepped in the shower. A sigh left her slightly parted lips when the hot water touched her face washing away the dried tear stains from her cheeks and the sweat down her body, its warmth relaxing every bit of her tired muscles.

She stayed inside for a few more minutes, enveloped in steam before finally stepping out and wrapped her body in one of her fluffy white towels. She stood infront of the mirror and using her palm, wiped the steam clouding the mirror off and smiled sadly at her tired reflection before grabbing her tooth brush from one of the drawers and proceeded to brush her teeth. Holding her hair back with one hand, she leaned down to spit out the foam in her mouth and rinsed her mouth along with the toothbrush in her hand clean before standing up straight to floss.

When she was done, she wiped her lips with a face cloth and walked back to her room to get dressed at last feeling more relaxed than she did when she first came home from the hospital ...some of the tension on her body was gone. She put on a baggy shirt and a pair of shorts underneath it, then took the towel back to her bathroom. She hung it on the towel rack to dry before leaving the room and went back downstairs with Snowflake in her arms.

Walking in the kitchen, she placed Snowflake on the ground and walked around the kitchen counter to get to the fridge. She pulled the metalic door open and took out the ingredients she needed for dinner. She turned around to get a knife and a chopping board from the cabinets to start preparing dinner, and was busy cutting vegetables when Damon joined her in the kitchen with his phone over his left ear.

" ...well tell me if anything changes" he said to the person on the other side of the call before hanging up. The sound of his voice causing the girl to mistakenly cut her finger. She hissed letting go of the sharp knife in her hand and quickly sucked her now bloody index finger in her mouth to try and stop the bleeding.

Looking up from his phone at her painful hiss, Damon rushed to her side.

"what happened??" He enquired, taking her injured hand in his to scan the damage done by the knife before turning around to get a first aid box from the top kitchen cabinet. He placed it on the kitchen counter next to the girl and opened it before taking her hand back in his.

Frowning, Lilliana watched the man she wasn't exactly expecting to see atleast until her father returned from the office worriedly fuss over her minor wound.