Loveless

𝕷oveless.

That was three years ago. She'd been horribly sad.

Rich Sommers is a man who is not satisfied. His hunger is never sated. When he married Carrie Sommers he thought that was it. He'd broken the cycle his father had set. He was married, in love, a child on the way, a new home on the wealthiest block. He had his story. Then there's the woman with a fuller face unlike your wife's, moving in across the street. It had been an accident. That first time. (No it wasn't. Rich had taken off his ring.)

It went on for a while. Rich and Becca. Rich and Carrie.

Carrie knew things she shouldn't have. She stayed, for as long as her sane mind could take her. She took her boy and watched as Rich Sommers acted as if he hadn't had a dent in his life. He moved the woman in from across the street and she birthed a little girl with hair the color of the sun. Carrie no longer had much of a sane mind.

It was around three years in the making. Carrie Sommers slipping her way back in and Rich is just a man who is always hungry. Rich and Carrie. Rich and Becca. Carrie and Stevie. Becca and Tyler and Theodora.

Rich Sommers is staring down his nose at too many children.

The back and forth goes on for another two years and Becca is presenting her last child and she wants Rich to have nothing to do with it. He kicks her out of the house. He moves Carrie back in. (She's won.) Becca is back across the street and her kids skip over to hers and his like it's the yellow brick road.

Then of course, children fucking grow. It was as if Rich and Carrie Sommers had not realized this. Then of course, again, Becca Sommers is dead and her house is sold and all her kids are staying with their father and the woman who also looks like their mother—

Boy one, twenty seven. His mother is Carrie Sommers. He is the first fucking born. (Jesus Christ..) He is never home. His world is in New York. He sleeps with a different girl every weekend to fill a hole in his chest. He almost always misses his classes, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He can't sleep at night. He can't ween off the sleeping pills. He swears he sees his siblings dead mother on the edge of his bed every Monday night around eleven. The pills are his only friend. He fights with a ghost. He is not an asset to the family, any longer. His name is Mace Sommers, he could be an actual mace if someone pleaded him to be.

Girl One, twenty one. Her mother is Becca Sommers. She also is almost never home, yet she completely is. She comes down every summer, winter, and spring. Sometimes for the weekends, it's a lot of money to spend. But she is her father's daughter, he gives it to her to keep things upupup. She always brings back new clothes for her baby sisters. She is usually in New York as well, yet she barely sees her brother. They live ten minutes apart. He claims their lives don't interlink anymore. That hurts her but she won't say it will. She'll just smile at him. She spends a lot of time smoking. Cigarettes. Weed. Her first two fingers on her right hand are more orange than the rest. SmokeSmokeSmoke. Her hands are always shaking. She loves that she isn't home, but hates that she isn't. She knows how hard it is at home. She knows how battering it can be. She is not an asset to the family, like she thinks she is. Stupid Girl, her father whispers. Her name is Isabel Sommers, she is weaker than a fucking newborn. Or so they say...

Girl Two, nineteen. Her mother is Becca Sommers. She's a twin. Older by three minutes. This girl does not belong to anyone in the home. She is his girl. Rafe Cameron's pick from the runt. She is always home. She is the home. She lives there with her ugly ducklings. She lives here with him and his sore gums and white cakey nose and his blaring headaches, sometimes. She is the son her father always wanted. (He already has two sons..) She is an asset to the family. She helps with business. She picks the girls up from school. She does the needed shopping. She does not go to school and stays out of trouble. Yet, what he doesn't know about her—she is trouble. Big trouble. She is a liar. She is a cheater. She is a user. She is mean. But she's Rafe's girl and she's his fucking asset, not just to her family. ("She made things tough for him. His accidents are her fault. But she is his girl.") Her name is Theodora Sommers, she stayed home, she's on the fortune, she is a killer.