How Do You Do?

15: Aw, Nugging Fluffer Pies

Morning light - Palaye Royale

This is what she's wearing, and what Stevie looks like if you're not new to this book. I've gone back and added pictures to the odd chapters

"What are you doing here, mother?" I ask, my voice sounding like a knife as it rings through the air. Her laugh is sluggish, but I didn't need to hear that to know that she was drunk. The sound of the liquid sloshing in a bottle and her high heels stumbling harshly on the pavement was proof enough.
"It's my god damn house," her raspy voice slurs, and I face her quickly, my own  laugh filling the air.
"It started being my house as soon as I started paying the bills," I snarl, crossing my arms and blocking the doorway with my tiny frame. She snorts, and stumbles to the side of my house, and my eyes furrow in confusion. Where is she going?
But the sound of the party is suddenly loud and clear to me. If there's one thing that she loves more than drugs, sex, and alcohol, it's a party. My eyes widen, and I bolt for the fence entrance to our house to see that she's just manages to slide it open. She stumbles in, but I grab her arm, desperately trying to stop her from entering. Sadly, she's already walked into view.
"The--LIfe--Of----tHe pARty iss- hEeRe," she shouts as
She struggles to walk forward and leave my grip, raising her bottle of alcohol. I get in front of her.
"You need to leave now!" I growl out, glancing over my shoulder while trying to hide her from view. I shove her towards the gate, and she grunts.
"Stop---f*ckiNG SHOVing MEE!" she screeches, swinging her bottle and slapping me across the face with it, making me scream and fall to the floor. This grabs everyone's attention, and I can see Remington's head snap to my direction. I hastily stand up, stumbling from the pain while I dust the leaves off of me.
  "Get out, you don't live here anymore!" I hiss under my breath, and she waves me off.
  "Mom?" A small voice calls out timidly, and I freeze. Aw, nugging fluffer pies.
   I slowly turn to face Alice, who's pale and clutching her small hands to her chest. "Sweets, it's okay, don't worry about this---" I'm cut off as Eve--my mother/- shoves past me once more, making me find her my fiercest glare.
"HhhHiIIi bAby! MamA's HherE!" She giggles, leaning down to give Ali a halfhearted pat on the head, making my temper flare as bad as my swelling cheek. But then Alice surprises both Eve and myself.

She slaps Eve's hand away.

It's silent, and Eve stares, wide eyed. She backs away slightly, enough for my to drag her towards the gate again, though she still wouldn't go through.
"W-why?" Eve asks Alice, still shocked. The little girl takes a hesitantly step forward.
"Because, mommy, you let the scary man take us," she answers. Eve shakes her head disbelievingly.
"B-but he's your d--"
"And because you let him hurt Stevie." At this, her head swerves fiercely towards me.
"You little twat, this is your fault!"
"No mommy! It's yours!" Clara has joined Alice now, to my surprise, and she's sporting a rare glare, aimed at Eve.
Eve blinks in shock. "But-"
"And because you've never really acted like my mommy at all."
At Alice's last statement, it feels like a gut punch, and the comment wasn't even aimed at me. I start to actually pity my mother.
I watch Eve's eyes water. "S-so," Alice starts again, struggling to think of words. "Go away, and leave us alone. Stevie acts like more of a mommy than you." At this, I'm shocked. I've always assumed that they were too young to understand this stuff. I thought nothing of it when they'd cry in Eve's arms and reach for me, when they'd only eat if I fed them, when they wanted to go to the park with me and not her. But the signs were all there, I just ignored them.
Eve turns slowly towards the gate and walks out her own, and I go after her, closing the gate wordlessly. I stand out in the sidewalk as I watch her stumble out of sight, down the street, grief a shadow looming over her as she goes. I watch silently still, my cheek still throbbing painfully.
An ice pack is held to my cheek, and I  turn to see that the hand holding it is Remington's. He stares after Eve as well. I place my hand on the ice pack, holding it in place so Remington doesn't have to. "Thanks," I mumble, emotionally and physically exhausted from trying to get Eve out of here. His hand doesn't move, nor does he respond. We stand in silence for a bit, and I decide to continue with an apology. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have just assumed that I was a pity friend. I know that's not true, it's just you've done so much for me, and I'm just trying to figure out why. I was so adamant at the beginning about us not being friends, because like I told you before: I know what we are. Or I did. You were the rockstar, and I was just the girl who didn't exist. I was trying to keep the image of that statement still being true, because I didn't really want to admit it." I take a deep breath to continue my statement, but the air gets stuck in my throat, the words not getting the chance to even make it that far.
The butterflies scraping against my stomach and my heart beating itself close to cardiac arrest are the only things I feel. Do I want to lose whatever relationship I have with him? After everything that's recently occurred, I don't think I can handle being alone. I don't think I can handle losing my safe haven. It's ironic, really, the man I wanted nothing to do with personally because I didn't want the music to change was the man who ended up being the only person I wanted to be around because he made me feel safe. Can I really risk that?
It occurs to me my reasoning for keeping this statement from him is purely selfish, but then again, everything about this apology is selfish. Why not say it anyway. With this thought, I peel his hand and the ice pack away from my face, and I push it gently down to his side, taking a new deep breath. And then I tell him.
"I didn't want to admit the fact that ever since that stupid day two years ago, I've been falling in love with you, and I felt stupid because all you ever did was give me your jacket and give the world great music. But then you started to give me reasons, and my feelings grew, and now I don't know what you're intentions are, to simply be my friend, or to be more. But when you kissed me my world soared. And if that freaks you out, then I'm sorry, but I just needed you to know." He's been facing me since I let the word 'love' leave my lips, but I leave him in silence, turning and heading for the gate once more, opening it and propping it with a rock for when he wants to come back and join the party.
My arm is grabbed suddenly, and it's used to yank me back out of sight and around the corner of my house, back out into the lonely night. I just barely am able to comprehend that the arms are Remington's when his lips crash onto my own, one of his arms reaching to my back and pulling me closer to his body.
We stay this way for a while, the night air and the faint din of the party our only other company before he pulls back and tells me, "I think I'm falling in love with you too."