CHAPTER THREE ;
" demon bunnies
& risky behaviors "
" wish we could turn back time,
to the good old days when our
momma sang us to sleep
but now we're stressed out "
✧ STRESSED OUT
twenty øne piløts!
"Laurie, Laurie, Laurie!"
"Cassie, Cassie, Cassie!" the fifteen year old repeats in the same tone although she keeps her face buried in her pillow.
A small body suddenly plops down on top of Laurie's back, bouncing up and down.
"Ow, I'm sore! I had gymnastics yesterday, Cassie, y'ouch,"
"Sorry, but hey," Cassie slows her bouncing, instead choosing to lightly poke at her sister's smooshed cheek, "it's my birthday!"
"No, it's not." Laurie responds very matter of factly.
Cassie's eyebrows bop up and her tone grows defensive, "Yeah, it is!" She leans down, fully lying on top of her older sister now, "Wait, it is, isn't it? Because we have the party..."
Laurie peeks an eye open, glancing back at her and mumbling incoherently.
"Huh?" Her little sister pushes her face closer, "What did you say?"
"I said," Laurie draws the words out before suddenly flipping over, snatching onto the little girl and tickling her mercilessly, "Happy birthday, Little Mama!"
Cassie shrieks in between her giggles, "No, no! Stop! Stop, stop!"
"Do you surrender?!"
"No, never!"
"Then I'll keep going!" Laurie holds her hand up, still poised to attack as she speaks dramatically, "Say surrender and the fingers of doom shall leave you be!"
"Umm," Cassie giggles a little, breathing heavily from being tickled.
Laurie raises her brown eyebrows, wiggling her fingers in mock threat.
Still giggling, Cassie slowly reaches over for a pillow for what Laurie assumes to be protection. Instead, the now seven year old clunks her sister upside the head with the pillow before laughing and leaping off the bed. Laurie stares off into space for a beat, too shocked to do anything as her hair stays frizzy over her face. Suddenly, she throws herself off the bed as well and sprints after the pajama wearing girl running out of the bedroom and down the hall. Cassie squeals and laughs as Laurie hurries after her. She chases her all around the top floor of the house, making a racket as birthday party banners and streamers hang from all around.
"Watch the balloons!" Maggie worries from the bottom of the staircase.
"We don't have any backups of the pink ones so don't pop them!" Paxton, the soon to be (the highly dreaded word) stepfather, adds in as he comes up beside Maggie.
In unison, the sisters shout back between laughs, "We won't!"
It's at that ironically exact moment that Laurie slams her foot into the bannister and ends up slamming into the wall. Paxton and Maggie both jump and then slowly turn to cringe up at the staircase where the oldest of the girls is yelping.
"Oh, crud-muffins!" Laurie hops around on one foot, wincing as she holds her stinging toe, "Drat, drat, drat,"
Cassie winces and patters back over, grabbing her sister's arm to steady her, "You really are clumsy."
"Am not!" Laurie argues before wincing again and then mumbling to herself, "Am so..."
Cassie laughs, giving her much taller older sister a hug, "You're so weird."
The fifteen year old sighs in concession, hugging her back, "Well, I love you too, Cas."
An hour later, Laurie is still limping, in her typical dramatic fashion, as the seven year old girl's birthday party goes on full throttle. She keeps her headphones plugged frmly into her ears, blasting Twenty One Pilots as she tries to drown out the horrendous sound of children shrieking and and hokey pokey music yelling and, worst of all, laughing. Ugh, the laughter of children makes her ears bleed. She likes one kid and oen kid only, and that's Cassie, but it's impossible to not adore Cassie so that doesn't even count. Laurie keeps a plate full of a ginormous slice of chocolate cake in her one hand and her plastic fork in the other, bobbing to the rap as she shoves the desert in.
Maggie is in the kitchen with a couple of the other moms from Cassie's Brownies' club, drinking lemonade and setting up the last couple of things for the party. They're all chattering happily, although Laurie can feel her mother's eyes straying to her now and and again, which only means one thing: her mom's talking about her again. Why do moms do that? Why do they feel the need to share all of their deep and personal information with the rest do the ladies on the block?
From what she is informed from Gordo who is informed by his mom after being informed by her mom, apparently Laurie is "troubled" and has "unresolved personal trauma". The pair of best friends usually have a laugh about that for a good half hour or so. The reason it's so funny is probably because it's true; not that Laurie will ever admit that or Gordo will ever admit to knowing that. Laurie is acting out, or whatever it is parents say when their kids are "rebellious". She refuses to have friends beyond Gordo, she mouths off (but surprisingly never to her mom or even Paxton), she skips school, she's failing in all of her classes, she sneaks out, they've caught her with cigarettes numerous times (not that she actually ever smokes them, she just likes the look of them), and a whole laundry list of other "risky behaviors" as that website on rebellious children said.
Maggie keeps saying that she wouldn't have a problem with Laurie's whole summer school situation if she knew her daughter couldn't do better. Everybody knows Laurie could get straight A's and even a scholarship for electrical engineering at MIT if she pitched in her full effort. She's way smarter than she makes herself look. But she can't change and she won't.
A hand wiggling a few feet from her catches her attention and she glances over to Paxton as he waves the ice cream scooper at her. She waves back and pulls off one of her headphones, waiting for him to speak.
"Hey, ice cream?" he points down at the tubs of chocolate goodness.
"Um, yeah!" Laurie says in a 'duh'-like tone, sliding over to stick out her plate, "Top it off with a cherry, if you please."
Paxton gives her a thumbs up as he scoops her ice cream, "You got it."
When he plants two cherries on top of the scoops, she squints at him with a nod, "You bribing me into liking you, Paxton?"
He squints back at her, mirroring her expression, "Is it working?"
She shrugs, "A little, admittedly."
He laughs before she slides her headphone back over her ear and moves away. She is wandering around the child-filled living room when a familiar face appears in the glass windows of the front door. Her body becomes as frozen as the ice cream on her plate and her eyes turn as wide as flying saucers. She seems to forgot how to breathe as she watches Scott push through the glassy front door, jumping in surprise as a random wacked out kid screams.
She knew he was out, yeah, but she didn't think that meant he'd come.
Here.
Today.
She thought she'd have more time to... she's not sure, maybe, uh, run away or something. Scott doesn't seem to notice the statue-like fifteen year old as he slowly closes the door, clasping a light blue gift bag in his hand.
"Daddy!" a little girl stretches out the name, bouncing with each step as she jogs down the short hall into his arms.
"Peanut!" Scott cheers, dropping down and encasing the girl in a big hug, "Oh! Happy birthday!"
Yep.
Still totally frozen.
Maybe Laurie's dying. Is she dying? She feels like she's dying. Her feet feel numb, is that normal? Laurie can't feel her face but she knows it falls a little, her heart suddenly beating rapidly and her hands starting to shake and Twenty One Pilots slowly starting to sing quieter.
Scott pulls back from Cassie, holding her small waist in his hands while he looks at her with deeply sympathetic eyes, "I'm so sorry I'm late. I didn't know what time your party started."
"It was on the invitation!" the seven year old cheerily replies through her missing two front teeth, raising her eyebrows at him.
"He didn't get an invitation!" Paxton says in a higher voice, stepping over with a fake smile and his hands spread, "But he came anyway!"
Y'ouch.
Scott stands slowly as he wears a slowly fading smile, holding Cassie's hands in his.
"Well," he starts quietly, glancing back and forth from Paxton to his youngest daughter, "I'm not gonna miss my little girl's birthday party."
"Oh really? Since when has that happened?" Laurie pipes up to make her presence known, sticking out her chin as she steps forward.
Scott immediately looks over at the girl and his eyes brighten, "Hey Monkey!"
"God, whatever you do actually do, Scott, don't call me that," Laurie spits the words out, her grip getting so tight around her plastic fork that the weird uneven edges stab into her palm.
Scott just nods and smiles, but she sees how much it hurts him to get that kind of reaction from her. He was always so close with his daughters before he got himself arrested. They all adored each other; why wouldn't they? But a lot of things have changed and by George does Laurie want him to see that. She just has this deep angry desire to show him that he didn't make any effect on her, that she was fine without him, that she's even better because of him being gone. It still though kind of makes it worse when one of his daughters is literally leaping into his arms and the other is giving him the cold shoulder.
"It's so great to see you two," Scott still just smiles from his oldest to his youngest.
Cassie watches up at him with a smile, having complete and utter faith in the man.
"I'm gonna go tell Mommy you're here!" She hurriedly informs them before whirling around and running down the hallway.
"Oh, you don't..." Scott trails off as he cringes and watches his youngest daughter sprint away.
"Ba-pa-da, you're screwed." Laurie sings, poking into her chocolate cake as she enjoys this like the dinner and show it is.
Scott rolls his eyes in agreement, releasing a heavy breath out of his mouth.
"What are you doing here, Lang?" Paxton turns on the man, speaking lowly, "You haven't paid a dime of child support."
Laurie suddenly grows a little uncomfortable, her face losing her mocking smile and her heel kicking back at the wall quietly.
Paxton goes on quickly, lifting his brows as he keeps his head tilted, "You know, right now, if I wanted to, I could arrest you."
Oh Odin's beard, not again.
Scott stares at the man with a blank expression but Laurie can see the slight narrowness of his eyes as her father nods at the man, "It's good to see you too, Paxton."
Somehow Laurie doubts he really finds it "good" to see her mom's future husband.
Cassie suddenly bounces back over, giggling as she tells the group, "Mommy's so happy you're here, she choked on her drink!"
Laurie snorts and Cassie gasps in from laughing so hard, still grinning up at their father. Scott opens his mouth and then closes it and nods, definitely getting the feeling of how "happy" Mommy is.
"Hey!" He quickly moves on, wanting to be able to give her a present before he's ushered out the door (which is inevitable, Laurie's sure to think), "Look what I have for you."
Paxton puts his hands on his sides, concernedly glancing over to where Maggie is still in the kitchen. Cassie slowly takes the bag's white handles from Scott, nearly shaking from the excitement she feels at getting a gift from her very own dad. Laurie's eyes flicker down as an emotionless expression breaks onto her face. He got her something? She tries to not think that that's sweet. No, no, she wants to think that's stupid. He thinks a little gift can just make the girls warm up to him? Ha! He's sadly mistaken. And yet, despite her inner protestations, Laurie steps forward a little to see what Scott could've possibly gotten her little sister.
"Can I open it now?" Cassie asks innocently, staring up at her dad with big brown eyes.
"Of course, Sweetheart," Paxton answers before Scott can, giving a small and genuine smile, "It's your birthday."
Laurie's not sure why that whole interaction kinda rubs her wrong, but she just shakes it off. Cassie reaches her hand in the light blue bag and then pulls out the weirdest thing Laurie has ever stinking seen. It's like this little demonic rabbit or something as it's all covered in fuzzy creamy fury and has the fun bunny ears, but its nose is red and his eyes are the eyes of El Diablo and the fangs... jumping Jehosaphat. It's hilarious. The... thing twitches as Cassie tosses the bag to the side, holding it with both hands.
The demon bunny chuckles goofily before cheering, "You're my bestest friend."
Laurie laughs but quickly tries to stifle it and ends up only coughing.
"What is that thing?" Paxton asks in disgust, squinting back over at Scott in blame.
Scott just smiles and shakes his head, not answering.
"He's so ugly!" Cassie funnily scrunches up her nose with a wide grin before exclaiming in happiness, "I love him!
Scott breaks into the widest grin Laurie has seen in a long time. She's kinda forgotten how much she loves her dad's smiles. They're always so full of heart, like he never gives it his half effort. They're wide and big and it creates funny wrinkles on his face that she and Cassie would always poke at when they were smaller.
But, back in the present, Laurie snickers at her sister's reaction, not minding showing her laughter when it comes to Cassie.
"Did you see it?!" Cassie turns to her big sister, thrusting the bunny out to her.
"Oh yeah, definitely saw it," she laughs, nodding with wide eyes.
Cassie giggles, "Can I go show my friends?"
"Yeah, of course, Sweetheart. Go ahead."
They all watch the princessy-dressed girl dash away with a spring in her step as always.
"You're my bestest friend," the demon bunny says in a dopey voice.
Paxton suddenly turns to Laurie with a wincing expression, "Laurie, maybe you should..."
"Should what?" Laurie straightens, her face's expression hardening and her grip tightening on her cake plate.
He gives a sigh, really not wanting the teenager to here for the impending argument that is destined to occur.
And then it occurs.
Scott sighs and rolls his head towards Paxton, looking away from where Cassie jogged off to, "Look, the child support is coming, all right?" He shakes his head, "It's just hard finding a job when you have a record."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Paxton responds in a voice that somehow doesn't sound too concerned as his eyes dart towards the nearby froot door, "But for now, I want you out of my house."
Laurie puckers her lips as she blows out a puff of air, widening her eyes while she awkwardly looks around.
"No way!" Scott says in a high voice, "It's my daughter's birthday."
"It's my house!"
"So what?" Scott argues back, growing even more irritated, "It's my kid!"
"Ugh," Laurie groans as the two men continue to hash it out.
Maybe she should've skedaddled like Paxton suggested.
"Scott!" Maggie gives the man a look, walking over and shaking her head.
She stops in front of them, wrapping an arm around Laurie's back who seems to shrink a little more under her mom's contact. It feels weird to be talking like this about her dad so out in the open and so in front of... well, her dad. It makes Laurie feel small and an uncomfortable anxiety builds up in her chest.
"You can't just show up here. You know that," Scott shrugs sheepishly as Maggie continues shaking her head, "Come on."
"It's," he struggles, "a birthday party."
"Yeah, I know, but you can't just show up."
"They're my daughters, all right?" Scott says quietly, trying to get them to understand without making a scene.
Paxton crosses his arms over his chest, tilting his head and shaking it, "You don't know the first thing about being a father."
The fifteen year old's icy blue eyes dart sharply to look at her future stepfather, the plastic fork in her hand snapping and dropping to the floor. As she stares down at it blankly, she realizes what her whole deal is. She's feeling protective. She's not sure why she's suddenly feeling like that of Scott, a freaky defensiveness building up so quickly that makes her nearly want to squirm. Scott's been AWOL for the past three years of her life so she's got no loyalty towards the man. She doesn't care if Paxton schools Scott. Well, apparently she does, but the point is that she shouldn't!
Scott struggles against his anger, trying not to say anything that he'll regret, "Maggie, I tell you this as a friend, and as the first love of my life: your fiance is an," he cuts off.
Scott suddenly glances at Laurie who just raises an eyebrow and smirks, waving a hand. He then leans in and mumbles something to the two adults. Maggie says something back, rolling her eyes and sighing.
"Hey!" Laurie throws out her hands, "What'd he say?"
"Nothing, Baby," Maggie takes her arm from around Laurie so she can place them on Scott's chest, shaking her head, "He didn't say anything."
"Hey, watch your language," Paxtons interrupts to scold Laurie's father, glancing around at all of the kids prancing around, "Okay?"
"Oh, what language?" Scott says tiredly as Maggie tries to get the man to turn around and leave, "I said 'hat'."
"Hat," Laurie repeats quietly in a thoughtful voice, trying to figure out what the heck Scott could've said.
Maggie sighs as she pushes him out the front door and follows behind, "Stop it."
Paxton and Laurie stand there for a beat longer, staring at the now closed front door.
"Hey, you okay?" the cop turns to the teenager.
"Yeah, it's whatevs," Laurie tries to play it off cool but completely fails when her voice stupidly shakes and she deflates a little more, "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
Paxton gives her a nod before walking off to join the other dads outside barbecuing. Laurie gives him a wave and nods her head, acting all casual until she's sure he's out of sight. She then hurriedly whirls around and slides over to the window, discreetly pulling apart the blinds so she can look to figure out what the two are saying out on the front porch.
"Really, Maggie?! That guy?!" Scott points at the front door with a deep frown, turning around to face her.
Maggie rolls her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Come on!" His voice gets less forceful as he continues, "You could marry anyone you want, and you have to get engaged to a cop?"
"At least he's not a crook."
Y'ouch, she's got 'im there.
Scott doesn't say anything for a moment, shifting his weight from one leg to another as he stares at her with a slightly agape mouth.
"I'm trying, okay? I've changed. And I'm straight," he still tries to convince his ex-wife, just wanting for one more chance, "I had a job and..."
Maggie just stares at him, having heard this entire speech all too many times before.
"I wanna provide," Scott desperately shrugs, shaking his head as he looks off to the side, "I had a lot of time to think about it and I love them."
Laurie feels her face flush as if she's nearly embarrassed at his admission.
"So much. I've missed so much time and I wanna be a part of their lives!"
Maggie softens a little, wanting that too. What she doesn't want is for her girls to get hurt all over again. Cassie doesn't remember too much of it, she was still so little when it happened. But Laurie. Man, Laurie remembers all of it. She remembers the news coverage and the court case and when they have the sentence and the last goodbye where the girl wouldn't even speak to her father who asked for one last hug. It would just be too painful, to have him and then lose him again to another prison in what feels like another country.
Wrinkles are on Scott's forehead as he asks her sincerely, "What do I do?"
Maggie talks softly, though speaking as if it's obvious, "Get an apartment, get a job, pay child support. And then we will talk about visitation, I promise."
Scott stares at her, wanting more but knowing he doesn't have the right to ask for that.
"You're Cassie's hero, Scott. Just be the person she already thinks you are."
Laurie watches as Scott still stands on the porch while Maggie steps inside. When she spots her daughter there, Laurie immediately steps away from the window, feeling guilty for eavesdropping. Instead of getting angry, Maggie just gives a sad smile and plants a kiss on her daughter's hairline.
Two feet smack against the ground and then Cassie is there, pulling in her hand, "Come on! Let's wave goodbye to Daddy!"
"Nah, you go ahead, Little Mama, I'm just gonna," Laurie glances back out the window where Scott slowly walks down the steps before she shrugs back down at her sister, "not."
Cassie and Paxton walk out the front door, walking down the driveway after the girls' biological father. Laurie still watches out the window though, peeking out the blinds as Scott climbs his way into this really nasty colored van. Paxton hoists small Cassie up onto the yard's ledge so that she can link her arm with his. As Scott turns back to look at them, Cassie gives a sad wave and smile. Scott eyes suddenly dart up and he finds Laurie in the window who quickly backs up, slamming her back against the wall so not not be seen. She bites her lip and suddenly catches sight of some weird kid sipping a juice box staring up at her as if she's the freak.
She pokes her tongue out at him before she leans over to look out the window again. Scott is smiling back at Cassie and, even from this distance and with Laurie's contacts, the fifteen year old can see he looks just as broken up about leaving again.
Then Scott presses down on the gas and van begins trudging on, but not before he winks at her and then presses down on the horn that plays the funkiest tune. He makes a goofy face before the van continues on.
Laurie gives a quiet laugh and a smile, glancing down at her feet before she shakes her head at herself. She hurriedly, though, looks back out the window, watching as the poop colored van drives down the nice suburban street and then disappears around the corner.
♢ ♢ ♢
It's around eight o'clock that Laurie can be found pacing around her room with her stereo blasting and her teeth chomping down onto her bubble gum. She keeps wiggling her hands around back and forth, trying to process through the information clouding her brain. It was not going all too well so she naturally had to call in reinforcements.
"I mean, like, a part of me wants to but another part of me wants to kill," she moves her hands down into a stabbing motion, "that part of me for wanting to, you know?"
There's a weird silence that makes Laurie frown and crook an eyebrow.
"'Ello? Gordo?"
Ha, a rhyme.
"What?" Her best friend replies thickly before stuttering out quickly, "No, yeah, I mean, I get you."
Laurie straightens, putting her hands on her hips as she squints at her phone sitting on the desk, "Did you fall asleep?"
"I'm tired, Laurie! Last night, I stayed up, like, super late!"
"Well, you're, like, super lame, how about that?"
Gordo takes on a sad tone, "That's rude."
"Whatever, I'm doing it," Laurie sighs and throws up her hands, moving towards the open window and then pausing just as she reaches it, "Never mind, talk me out of it."
The boy gives a sigh and she can just visualize him rubbing his forehead in annoyance with her, "Laurie, I'm not going to do that."
"What do you mean you're not going to do that?!" Laurie exclaims, her voice getting high pitched, "You're my best friend! What kind of best friend are you?! You suck!"
"Hey! Whoa!" He sounds offended before he groans, "Okay, just listen. Your dad is a cool dude."
Laurie gasps like she has just been very personally affronted, "He is not!"
"You know he is, come on."
Laurie sighs and she rests her forehead against the window sill, still debating about whether or not to do this.
"But it's true, he's screwed up. Big time." Gordo goes on as Laurie nods in eager agreement, "Now he's out and he clearly wants to have a relationship with you and Cassio."
Laurie suddenly kinda feels like the ultimate jerk for complaining about Scott when he does apparently want to come back for them. Gordo's dad said "see ya" when he was even younger than Laurie was and he's never even wrote him.
"You gotta give him a chance, Laurie." Her best friend scolds, "For once in your life, you have to let people in."
"I don't let people in!" She says in a whiny tone, "That's one of my issues!"
"Well, it's time you suck it up and resolve that."
Laurie's bottom lip puckers and there's a pause before she responds, "Hey, that hurt a little."
"Did it? I'm sorry!"
"Aw, you are? Really?"
"No." He says completely seriously before he laughs and continues, "You know where your dad's staying," Laurie glances at the sticky note her father left in case they needed to contact him, "So go talk to him, Laurie. I mean it."
She scoffs and grits down onto her teeth until she realizes that the stupid nimrod is right, "Drat. I hate you now."
"I know... See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Bye."
"Bye."
Laurie lets out a deep sigh before she shuts off her phone and stuffs it into her blue patchy backpack. She slides the straps over her rather sculpted shoulders (she can thank gymnastics for that), and, with another huff, the girl slides out of the second story window. She moves in one swift and fluid motion as she slides to the edge, snatches onto the metal gutter before slipping over the edge, and then swings back and forth until she can curve her body over the bushes below. She lands with a graceful roll in the grass before leaping back up and running off.
She'll be back before Mom and Paxton know it.
No problem.
San Fran is still buzzing as she enters the downtown area, getting a tighter grip on the straps of her backpack as she sees the kind of people she passes. When she recognizes that nasty looking van parked in front of a convenience store, a grin comes over her face until it fades away into a sick feeling in her stomach. The girl debates on the sidewalk in front of the shady looking building for about five minutes before she grumbles to herself and jogs into the building.
She uncrinkles the sticky note in her clenched up hand, reading to see what apartment number he's staying in. As she reaches the apartment, she gnaws on the inside of her bottom lip and her hand slowly raises to knock.
That is until she hears her father's voice state with some reluctance, "Tell me about that tip."
Laurie gets a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and she scowls so much that she's surprised her eyes don't pop out of her face.
"What?" another man asks in surprise.
"I wanna know about that tip," Scott reiterates in a much firmer tone.
It's then like a cacophony of noise then as three different voices all excitedly cheer and go on.
"Calm down, all right?" Scott tries to refocus the others in the room, "I just need to know where it came from. It's gotta be airtight."
Laurie leans in a little closer, pressing her foot to the door to keep herself from falling forward. Her hand squeezes around the sticky note once more, her knuckles turning even whiter than her already pale skin.
"Okay," a kinda goofy voice sounds nervous before he begins quickly, "I was at a wine tasting with my cousin, Ernesto. Which was mainly reds, and you know I don't like reds, Man," Laurie makes a face at the door, confused by this weirdo, "But there was a rosé that saved the day. It was delightful..."
Laurie scoffs at the door. What even the heck is this man jabbering on about? He's getting totally off topic.
"It's the wrong details. It's wrong," Scott sounds slightly exasperated and she can imagine him shaking his head, "It has nothing to do with the story. Go!"
"So, uh, he tells me that she's working as a housekeeper now, right? And she's dating this dude, Carlos, who's a shot caller from across the bay. And she tells him about the dude that she's cleaning for. Right? That he's like this big-shot CEO that is all retired now, but he's loaded. And so, Carlos and Ernesto are on the same softball team, and they get to talking, right?"
"And here comes the good part. Carlos says, 'Yo, man. This guy's got a big safe just sitting in the basement, just chillin'.' Of course Ernesto comes to me because he knows I got mad thieving skills. Of course, I ask him, 'Did Emily tell Carlos to tell you to get to me what kind of safe it was?' And he says, 'Nah, dawg. All she said is that it's super-legit and whatever's in it, it's gotta be good'."
Laurie squints in confusion.
Her father sounds just as lost as he asks, "What?"
"Old man have safe," a man with a Russian-esque accent translates.
"And he's gone for a week," the original other man adds in.
"All right. There's an old man, he's got a safe, and he's gone for a week," Scott works it out, deciphering the other guy's words, "Let's just work with that."
"You know what I'm saying?"
Laurie's foot suddenly slips and she smacks her forehead directly into the wooden door, creating this obnoxiously loud thud. A groan follows and she presses both of her hands up to her now throbbing face, rolling her eyes at herself in irritation. The door slowly creaks open before she can actually process skipping out and her dad stands there with his three little cronies peeking out from around his shoulder. Scott's eyes widen in surprise as his three friends all look rather confused at the sight of a tall brunette standing in the apartment's doorway.
"Heh," Laurie puffs out an awkward laugh and smiles, shrinking down a bit, "There's a logical explanation to this, I swear. Just gimme a moment to think of one."
"Who dis?" one of the friends asks, glancing over at Scott who still just watches Laurie in confusion.
"Laurie," Scott quickly shakes his head to jerk him out of his shock, "Wha-what are you doing here?"
"Well." Laurie suddenly straightens, taking on her sassy attitude once again, "Listening to you four plan on robbing some rich old dude's mansion, for one."
"Get the Lang child inside!" the man with the Russian-esque accent exclaims before Scott pulls her inside, glancing around the hallway to make sure no one heard her.
Laurie stumbles a little as she comes into the dim apartment, glancing around as the four panicked men close the door behind her. It's a nice little apartment but it's clear that only men live here. A sleeping bag is stretched out on the couch and there is clothes on the floor near the bedrooms. There's a video game playing on the screen and food is stocked up all over the kitchen.
"Hey, nice place," Laurie grins as she turns around to face the others.
They all stare at her with wide eyes.
"Oh, this is your kid?!" the goofy voice man points at Laurie.
She puts out her hand, "Laurie Lang, Scott's estranged and overly bitter daughter."
Scott's eyes flicker to the side and then back at her as he purses a frown.
The other man gives her a reaction she is not expecting, "Luis, Scotty's celly and thieving extraordinaire."
She bobs her head, "Ooo, wow, nice."
Scott sighs, rubbing a hand over his guilty-looking face, "Laurie, listen, I,"
"You want me to keep this whole plan on the downlow, right? Not tell Mom and certainly not Paxton, right? God knows you would hate to lose even the chance at visitation rights again, right?"
He motions out his hand, "I mean,"
"Sure thing, Scott," Laurie gives him a thumbs up, "But you gotta let me help you."
"Hey, wait, what?" the dark-skinned man looks around.
Scott immediately shakes his head, "No. No way. I am not letting you rob some guy!"
"You wanna lose Cassie again?" Her words are sharp and vicious and Scott pulls back a little, his eyes growing sad and his brows bending a bit.
He lets out a breath, "I don't want to, no, but this is still not happening. You're not even supposed to be here, can you even imagine what your mom would do to you if she found out what we were doing?"
"Oh, that's right, I forgot you're always thinking of everybody else."
Luis pulls his shoulder back, bending his knees as he says, "Dang, this girl has a razor sharp tongue,"
Laurie feels her face blush a little under the attention, which sucks because she's trying really hard to be a jerk.
"Yeah," Luis sticks out his hand, "gimme some."
Not seeing any harm in being friends with the dude, Laurie puckers her bottom lip and shrugs before smacking Luis' hand.
"Luis, you're not helping," Scott scolds, frowning at his friend.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'll be cool. You know I'm on your side, Scotty. You know it."
"You're letting me come!" Laurie says firmly.
"I am not." Scott walks around her, moving back for his beer bottle that is sitting on the counter.
The fifteen year old whirls around and follows a few steps after him, "You said you wanted to spend time with me, right?! You wrote you wanted to make this crap up to me, right?" Scott's mind flashes with realization that she did actually read his letters, but she ignores her own admission, going on, "So actually take the chance to get to know me or you might never gonna see me again."
Scott stares at her for a brief moment before rolling his eyes and shaking his head which to Laurie basically means agreement.
She stifles her natural reaction to beam and instead coolly responds, "Well then... where do we start?"
Tadaa! Your thoughts?! Was it to your liking? Laurie can be such a little turd, I love it. She says the goofiest things too, hehe, do you like her character? And how about that birthday scene? Serious Laurie and Scott tension, hm? And now we see Laurie is definitely going to be involved with the upcoming mansion scene and oh, the things I have planned! Alright, see you next time!
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Funny Thingamabob:
Bonus:
I'm pretty sure everybody has seen this but it's just so funny