Love And Leather

Chapter 17

“Hey. You look pretty,” I tell to Millie as I'm squatting down in front of her after she just came downstairs, Betty following.
She smiles, but I can now see the sad expression in her eyes. She has probably now gotten it that mommy won't come back, because we're going to her funeral. She hugs me and I hug her back, feeling Betty smiling down at me just before I pick Millie up and stand up with her in my arms.
“You too,” I tell Betty and give her a kiss on the forehead. She smiles at me sadly and puts her purse over her shoulder. “What’s that for?” I ask her.
She sighs and looks down at it. “Money. We still haven't paid some of them.”
“And you're gonna pay?” I ask with raised eyebrows.
She shrugs. “We put our money together.”
“And Polly?”
She rolls her eyes. “She doesn't work and she's having twins, Jug.”
“Does it cost a lot?” I ask worriedly.
She basically snorts at me. “I thought living was expensive,” she just answers.
I place Millie down and she goes to the living room to Kelly. I rest my hands on Betty's shoulders. “If it's really much, I can-“
“No Jug, it's okay. We got it. Mom and dad have some, so…” she says, but her eyes keep flickering between be and the ground which means she's lying.
“Where did you get the money?” I ask, making her sigh and lower her head.
“From a fund,” she says quietly.
“What fund?” I ask with a warning voice. She doesn't answer. I sigh and my hands slip up to cup her neck and cheek. “Baby,” I say softly, but she keeps avoiding my eye contact. “You’re going to college,” I state. “I don't care that you have to pay for the funeral. This is mot the way your mom would've wanted.”
“Well that's the way it is, so…” she says, looking up at me now. She nods, basically to try and convince herself she did the right thing.
“Baby I can help you,” I say. She shakes her head and lets go of my shirt before she walks into the kitchen. I sigh and stand on the place for a few more seconds and then walk to the living room. Everyone's wearing black. And I'm wearing a suit. I hate it.
“Did you know she's using her college fund to pay for this?” I ask Kevin and Kelly as I sit down into the armchair.
They both frown. “No… She told us the money was from Polly,” Kevin says, furrowing his eyebrows and looking confused.
“How much was it that you didn't have?” I ask.
They look at each other. “8000?” Kelly makes it a question even though she knows really good.
“For fuck's sake,” I say under my breath and push myself up from my seat. I make my way to the kitchen, but stop on the door. Betty's standing next to the counter, leaning against the wall, but facing it. She isn't letting out any sounds, but she is obviously crying. Her shoulders are shaking and her hand is wiping away the tears from her face every second. My strong girl.
“Betts?” I ask quietly. I see her freeze for a second and then furiously wiping her tears away. I quietly make my way to her and touch her shoulder from the back.
“Jug, please, I-“ a throat breaking sob. “Leave me alone,” she cries.
“Come here,” I say while breathing out quietly and lead her into my arms. She doesn't push me away anymore. She never does when I'm already holding her. Instead, she wraps her arms around my torso and hides her face into my chest, trying to snuggle it even closer than possible. I let her do that and hold her strongly in my arms, holding her head and ear against my chest so that she could hear my heartbeat and hopefully calm down.
“I’m gonna help you get through this, okay?” I ask, crying myself now. She nods into my shirt and keeps crying, trying to pull me more and more closer which kinda hurts, but I don't care. “You’re safe with me.”

“How did you get that money out of the fund? You do know it means paying then 10% of whatever is on there if you use it on something else than college, right?” dad asks Betty who's sitting on my lap behind the big table where all their parents' best friends or relatives are at, eating and talking.
“They tried different ones,” Betty says and sniffles, making a cute-as-hell sound. “Mine is the only one that lets me do that. I have to pay it back before I go to college.”
“And you took how much?” I ask.
“8000,” she says, looking kind of ashamed.
“Don't your aunts and uncles have to pay for it too?” I ask.
“No,” she says.
“Have you asked them?” FP asks.
“…No,” she says quietly, looking down. “Why would my dad's relatives pay for my mom's funeral? They all basically hated her.”
“Well it's also your dad's, no?” I ask. “Where did you even get the other 10000 dollars?” I keep on going.
“Jug, not important right now,” dad says, seemingly in his own thoughts.
“You really don't have to worry about this,” Betty says, making both of us look at her. “It's gonna be fine, I'll sell the car, that gives us more money than we need and we can buy food and stuff for the rest,” she says.
“Why would you do that? Don't you need a car sometimes?” dad asks.
She shrugs. “It's been used for about 5 years, it was 60000 dollars or more when they bought it. If someone buys it for 50000 dollars or even 40000, I can pay this fucking money back and get a smaller car.”
“Why didn't we start from that?” I chuckle at her. She gives me a small smile and shrugs.
“But you can fix cars, right?” dad asks.
“Yeah, but I prefer motorcycles,” Betty says and seems to get a little happier.
“They're harder,” I tell her. She shrugs. I chuckle and shake my head a little.
“Anyways,” dad says, sniggering a little. “You got a job in Pop's, right?” he asks.
She sighs and nods. “Yeah.”
“I think fixing cars and motorcycles will give you more money, because it's not an official place to work, just people needing help and you get all the money they'll give you, no taxes or anything… If you can show me what you can do and you end up being good, you can help us on weekends?” dad asks.
She smiles a little. “How much do they give you for… a tire change?”
Dad chuckles. “One is about 60 dollars I think,” he says. “If they have their own.”
Betty smiles. “And that's all for me?”
“Yeah, imagine fixing an engine,” dad says.
“Crap, dad, can I work?” I ask, making the two of them laugh quietly.
“You've never really showed any interest, but yeah,” he smirks. Dad thought me how to fix cars and stuff when I was little. I've always wanted to write more and read, but I like fixing machines too.
“I can take Millie with me though, right?” Betty asks. “I mean, it's just a garage.”
“Yeah,” dad says.
“Or I can watch her,” I say, making both of them look at me. “What? The kid loves me,” I say.
“You know back in September you told me you don't like kids,” Betty grins.
I purse my lips a little and turn my head away from her, making them laugh again. She kisses my cheek softly and rests her head onto my shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” I ask Betty, cuddling in her bed, Collie sleeping on our legs.
“Overwhelmed,” she says quietly. I nuzzle my nose into her cheek and give her a soft kiss. She smiles at that and turns to look at me. I smile down at her, liking the fact that she looks happy the first time in two weeks. Christmas was horrible for her.
“You wanna sleep?” I ask. She nods and kisses my lips softly before turning back to face our legs, her head on my chest.
I start stroking her hair and humming a tune for her as I've been doing for a while now so that she could sleep and hopefully without nightmares this time. In a few minutes, her breathing is really even and calm, she's still gripping my shirt, but looks peaceful now. I kiss her temple softly and brush the hair off of her forehead before kissing that too.
“Goodnight, love.”