The Frankenstein Complex

Baking And Bored Games, How Domestic For A Demon.

"Sorry, I got distracted!" I exclaim, Delia tosses me an apron that I notice isn't her style.
The apron is black with lace frills, clearly new, I look at her till she looks back at me.
"I thought you might like it" she says, grabbing a couple baking sheets.
Beetlejuice appears in the chair on the other side of the counter and I groan, knowing I can't interact with him when Delia is here.
I pull the apron on and tie it as Delia gathers ingredients for chocolate chip cookies, placing them on the counter in front of Beetlejuice.
"Want to measure the ingredients?" Delia says, I nod and begin to measure the ingredients.
I find ways to interact with Beetlejuice, a brush of fingers here, a smile there.
Delia's phone rings and she walks out to take it so she can escape the sound of the electric mixer as I combine the ingredients, Beetlejuice moves behind me, hands on my hips as he brings his lips to my neck.
"If you give me any more hickeys, they'll find us out" I whisper to him as I turn off the mixer.
"I thought we could scare them with our relationship." He says the last word as a question, I nod.
"Is that what you want?" I ask, placing spoonfuls of cookie dough on the pre oiled pan.
A moment of silence passes over us and I pull away to put the cookies in the oven more aggressively than I meant to, I set the timer and go back to the counter, getting the second sheet of cookies ready.
"Babes, I thought you knew what I wanted by now" he says, turning me to face him, his hands on my hips.
I look up at him and shake my head, I don't know what he wants, especially not from me other than to say his name.
"I want you" he responds, a small gasp escapes me, Delia walks into the room ranting about family and whatnot.
"Cookies are in the oven and the timer is on" I say quickly when she stops talking, she smiles and excitedly sits down in front of the oven to watch the cookies bake.
"Come on" she says, gesturing to the spot next to her.
I sit next to her on the floor, my hand casually held out on the floor for Beetlejuice who takes it as he sits down.
The next twenty minutes consists of Delia and I making random conversation till she gets up to pull the cookies out, placing the other tray in and setting the timer.
We sit on the floor in comfortable silence this time around.
"You seem to be adjusting to the house, better than we thought you would." Delia says.
"There are some unexpected positives to living here" I say, turning my head to Beetlejuice.
The timer goes off and we get up, pulling the last of the cookies out of the oven and turning the light and oven off.
"I was thinking about going on a walk, want to join?" I ask Delia as I take off the apron and hang it on the proper hook.
She gives me a look of surprise as she takes the cookies off the sheets and puts them in the cookie jar.
"Yes!" She exclaims excitedly, a small laugh escaping me as I walk toward the door.
"I'm going to put some shoes on" I say, going upstairs with Beetlejuice following behind me.
I grab my boots and sit on the bed while putting them on, Beetlejuice leans against the bed post as he watches me.
Delia's footsteps echo as she walks past my open door, I stand up and begin speaking to Beetlejuice quietly.
"I'll be back in an hour, please don't get into trouble. Go hangout with Barbara and Adam, play cards or something and I'll join when I get back." I say, putting my camera around my neck.
"But babes, the Maitland's are so lame!" He says dramatically, I walk toward the door and pause before stepping out.
"Fine, then be bored in my room" I say over my shoulder as I shut the door behind me, I go downstairs and meet Delia by the door before leaving.
Delia and I walk down to the river, the cool water shimmering in the bright sunlight.
"Delia!" I call after her as she reaches a hand into the water.
I go up to her and pull her hair out of the weird top knot she keeps it in and fix it so it cascades down her back in waves, I walk back a little and snap a picture of her reaching a hand in, hair blowing gently in the breeze.
"This is your best photo, I can't wait to develop it!" I exclaim as we continue walking, an hour later we make it back to the house, she brings up the darkroom again.
"I was thinking the basement, the attic has the previous owners things in it and I don't want to disturb it" I say, grabbing a bottle of juice from the fridge and taking a sip, she hands me a cookie and we sit at the counter talking about how to go about creating a darkroom.
"What do you want for dinner?" She asks as she looks in the fridge, I stand up and shrug.
"I don't really care, pizza sounds kinda good though" She nods and begins talking about how we can have "family night" and make pizza together.
"Sounds great Delia" I say, going upstairs, I open my door and find it empty, I go up to the attic and am surprised to find it also empty.
I go back to my bedroom and open my window, climbing through it and walking to the balcony where I see the Maitland's and Beetlejuice playing cards, they look up at me as I approach them.
"Hey babes!" Beetlejuice exclaims as I sit next to him, the Maitland's giving us a look of confusion.
Barbara shuffles the cards as their game ends, Beetlejuice looking victorious as he runs a hand though his hair.
"Do you wanna play Lyds?" Beetlejuice asks, taking the cards from Barbara and dealing them out.
"Sure, what are we playing?" I ask, shifting to sit criss cross.
They trade ideas of games to play for a few minutes, finally deciding on Go Fish.
I reach over and grab my bottle of juice that I swore was closer to me, Beetlejuice's cards on full display for a couple seconds, his hand consists of: a two, an ace, a seven, a king, and a ten.
"Do you have an eight?" I ask Beetlejuice, knowing he doesn't have one.
"Damn" he says handing me an eight, I smile as I accept the card, placing the second pair of eights down and flipping them over.
"How do you always win?!" Adam exclaims as Barbara shuffles the cards, I shrug.
"I don't know, luck?" I say, glancing over at Beetlejuice briefly as Barbara passes out cards for our seventh game of go fish.
"So, I didn't want to say anything but, I think it needs to be addressed" Barbara says, looking at Beetlejuice and I "Lydia, how old are you?" She asks, Adam shuffles the cards as she talks.
"I turned eighteen a month ago" I answer, pretty sure I know where this is going.
She lets out a sigh and frowns slightly as she thinks through what she wants to say next.
"Im not trying to parent you, I just think maybe the relationship between you two, whatever it might be is inappropriate and to be honest, weird." She says, I look up at her as Adam hands me a new hand of cards.
"No weirder than being friends with you and Adam" I say, taking a drink of juice and organizing my hand, placing a match down.
"Well, yes but we don't stay in your room, he's so much older than you for one and dead for another, not to mention a demon." Her words having little to no impact on me as we continue playing.
"I'm eighteen and can make my own decisions, how I interact with Beetlejuice is not your business let alone a problem. The problem is my father and how he doesn't acknowledge the fact that his daughter still exists." I say, handing Adam the three he asked for.
The expression on her face softens as I bring up my dad and the abandonment I feel from him.
"You're right, I'm just trying to-" I raise a hand and she stops talking.
Adam and Beetlejuice freeze and look concerned as I remain silent.
"I don't need your help, I started this and I'm pretty sure I can handle it as well. Beetlejuice hasn't done anything wrong and if he does I will make sure it's fixed." I say bluntly "Do you have an ace?" I ask turning to Beetlejuice, who smiles as he silently hands me one.
The game continues and after a couple more games it returns to its original competitive and playful energy.