Hey There, Delilah

The Truth Hurts

Song: Cozy Christmas Ambience by Cozy Moments

Lilah slumped against the warm chair, yawning loudly. Her droopy eyes traced the dancing flames as they twirled like poised ballerinas. The quiet chatter filling the Carmichael mansion created a peaceful ambiance. Her eyes fell shut as the nutty aroma of roasting chestnuts wafted over her.

The cushion beside her dipped as someone sat down. She knew who it was by the scent alone and it had her slightly on edge as she wondered what was to come.

"I know you're not sleeping," Lonnie whispered. "Mom might be terrible at knowing when you're faking but that doesn't mean I am."

Lilah snorted. "I wasn't faking. Just resting my eyes."

Lonnie reclined against the firm cushions and brought her good leg up to wrap her arms around it. "We haven't really... talked for a while. You and me."

"I asked you to pass the salt at dinner, didn't I?"

Lonnie's lips twitched. "You're right. I guess I should be happy. Those were the first words you said to me since the wedding."

Lilah opened her eyes, no longer sleepy and no longer at peace. She pushed herself to sit up, bumping shoulders with her sister in the process.

They both wore the same ugly red flannel pajamas that Granny made everyone wear every year. Neither of them looked particularly thrilled at the moment, horrid attire aside. Lilah didn't know exactly how to fix that.

Lonnie wet her bottom lip, considering her next words carefully before speaking. "I need you to know something and I need you to really listen to me, this time, when I speak to you."

Lilah swallowed thickly, hating how alone they were in the living room with no one else around to act like a buffer. "Ok."

"Granny gave me a choice, when she proposed the marriage with Adrian." Lonnie made sure to hold eye contact no matter how much Lilah tried to avoid her firm gaze. "I could either accept it, or not. No one forced me to do this. I had a choice. You need to understand that. So do Kiki and Caius."

"Does it really count as a choice if you knew Granny would have approached the rest of us to seal the deal?" she asked in a hushed whisper. Annoyance flared within her when Lonnie's firm face didn't change one bit. "Having a choice implies that you had the freedom to accept or decline the proposition without backlash. But you knew Granny would've gotten one of us to marry into the Radcliffe family one way or another. It isn't a choice if you're backed into a corner and go along with things to spare the rest of us. I don't accept that."

"You don't accept that." Lonnie ran her fingers carelessly through her long, curly tresses. The black sea of her hair was a comfort in the face of her sister's stubbornness. "But I do. So where does that leave us?"

Lilah sighed, looking away when the question in Lonnie's warm brown eyes became too much to handle. "I don't know."

The silence was unbearable this time.

The fire crackled too loudly. The chestnuts smelled burnt. Every soft song of laughter and delayed whisper of discussions floating on the air irked Lilah to no end.

"I miss you," Lonnie admitted, tilting her head to catch Lilah's eye.

"I'm right here," Lilah mumbled, still refusing to look anywhere but the wall.

"Are you?" Lonnie fiddled with her cast, mulling over her words. She tried and failed to string along the right sentences to portray how she felt. The silence continued to sing. One minute. Five minutes. By the tenth minute Lonnie found her bearings and finally spoke. "Sometimes... you get so in your head and you just... drift off. And you don't always open up when that happens. You don't like it when people see you vulnerable. You don't like to talk about how you feel unless you're pushed into it. I just..."