What Has Fallen

17. Charlette: Two Liars

September 28

5 PM

Our dinner table set. An arrangement of flowers decorated the middle. Plates, silverware, neatly folded napkins, and shining crystal glasses had been placed in front of five seats. Across from me, Little Olive leaned on the table with her elbows and played some game of crushing items on her phone. She wore an off the shoulder skinny dress - a dress unfit for having a business dinner with our Father. At the head of the table my Father sat patiently awaiting the arrival of his middle daughter and our guest. He had his eyes closed doing breathing exercises. I bit my tongue crossing my legs and leaning back in the chair.

Olive's eyes peered up at me. I crossed my arms. Olive giggled, "Char, relax."

My nose wrinkled into a snarled position, "Alice should be here. Let alone that guy." I waved my hand not even wanting to say the dysfunctional boy's name.

"Jax," Olive said rolling her eyes. "He'll be here."

"Yeah, and I am sure their arrival will be together."

"She wouldn't hook up with him." I couldn't believe her language in front of our Father. I looked at him, his motions did not change from a moment ago. "She's not like that."

My leg started to bounce, "She is never this late."

"That's true," she huffed and looked back at her phone, "Unless it's some else's fault."

"Like yours." She shot me a quick look at me. I sighed, "She's hiding something."

"Alice?" Olive laughed.

"Yes Alice!" sometimes I can't seem to contain my anger with my little sister's unbelievable stupidity.

Olive locked her phone making it go dark and looked at me. "Charlette, have you met Alice... she's always hiding something." I glared at my littlest sister, hating that she made a point. "It's none of our business," Olive shrugged.

"Everything is our business Olive!" I leaned forward, "We tell each other what is happening, it is how we fix our problems!"

Olive again rolled her eyes. She sighed, "Not Alice."

"That explosion, at the Ports, had to be Alice."

"We don't know that Char!"

"Who else could it have been?! It is her business place and it went up in flames! If that comes back to us we are done for!"

"Stop blaming Alice," Olive whined.

"Fine, maybe it was Jax."

"Jax is good, he wouldn't..."

I cut her off with my hand up, "You cannot be serious. Jax is a wreck."

"He's kind. Just because..."

I stopped her again, "All I am saying is we should be prepared to hear multitudes of lies from Alice and..."

Olive pitched, "Well, Jax was with her. So we'll find out."

"Knowing Alice, she probably convinced him to cover for her," I said more angry than I should have allowed myself to be. "Alice is going to cover it up. I don't know how, but she will."

"Charlette, Alice knows what she's doing."

"She's more of a child than you!"

Olive gasped, "At least she's not frigit."

"It is FRIGID!" I shouted and took a breath leaning back, "Olive stop using words you do not understand."

"Stop it!" Our Father's hands smacked the table and he stood with his head held low. His eyes opened and he looked at Olive and me. I immediately regretted my words. I behaved so poorly. I upset our Father. The doorbell rang and I began to stand. Our father placed his hand up, "Sit. Mary will answer it." I swallowed hard and sat. "You two listen to me carefully," his calm stern voice played. He looked at Olive, "Olive, Charlette is your sister." He looked at me, "Charlette, Olive is your sister. And Alice is a sister to both of you. Hearing how you speak about one another is awful. It ends now." Olive let her head hang in shame. I held my head high, not letting regret be shown.