Carolina Miller is nothing like either her mother or her sister Ginny and Georgia. She's grateful toward her mother knowing very little of what their mother has actually done for them, but she's grieving and trying to move on from a history that lea...
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Having gotten home, Carolina was laying in bed at home, having gotten dressed in pajamas with Georgia's help.
Georgia sat next to her, drinking a glass of wine. "I knew you were going out because you told me, and you needed the sleep. You didn't say you would get this drunk."
"I'm sorry," Carolina told her. "Ginny and I fought again, and I just... went all out. I couldn't think about it anymore. Any of it." Georgia sighed, understanding, though she was frustrated. "I didn't know that the others were gonna sneak out either, but I should've."
"You don't get to take that fault," Georgia told her. "You didn't sneak out, and you weren't ungrateful."
Carolina sighed, eyes heavy, but she didn't yet fall asleep. "Mm."
Ginny, drunk and irritated, and still demanding answers, banged the door open against the wall as she walked in.
Carolina jumped from hearing the bang like that while drunk and almost sleeping.
Georgia put a hand on Carolina's shoulder to relax her, giving Ginny a look. "So that's the thanks you wanna give?"
"Hi, Mom," Ginny told her sarcastically.
"You're drunk," Georgia told her.
Ginny leaned over to look them in the eye drunkenly. "I am sober... like a judge."
Carolina snorted.
Georgia placed her glass down. "Listen here, you little lunatic. I am responsible for your friends when they're under my roof. You can't sneak out and lie to me, and not tell me where you're going."
"Okay, okay, you are like--you are like the grand poohbah of lies, okay?" Ginny asked. "You're like--you're like a lie pro."
Ginny sat down on the bed.
Carolina kicked at Ginny's side to push her off the bed to the bench right off the bed, making Ginny stay off her bed but stay up off the floor too.
"You ever think that maybe my secrets are to protect you?" Georgia asked. "To keep you happy and safe? You wanna know everything, peach? You think you need to know everything? Well, here it is, darling. I was abused by my stepdad my whole childhood. He molested me most nights with my mom asleep in the next room." Carolina looked at her in shock and sympathy. "I've been homeless. I've been in jail. I..." Georgia looked to the ceiling, holding back tears. Carolina sat up, wrapping her arms around Georgia, holding her close. Georgia returned the embrace, stroking her hair, crying. "Happy? That's the big secret."
Ginny finally processed. "You were abused?"
Georgia waved her hands. "Surprise!"
"That's why you knew what to say... after that night," Carolina said.
