Small Towns Don't Forgive - Violentine Slasher high school AU

Chapter Ten: House Call

Clementine pushed the doorbell and an electronic ringing blared through a cheap speaker somewhere inside the house.

"Jodie's room is upstairs on the left." She said, "we'll talk to her mom, then you ask where the bathroom is. I'll keep her busy while you look around."

"Got it, I'm terrible at small talk anyway. Snooping around is more my thing."

The door opened and a dishevelled looking woman opened the door. Underneath the heavy eye bags and deep set lines, she was a mirror image of Jodie. Except for her hair - a tangled bird's nest of black curls. Jodie must have taken after her father in that regard, hers was long, straight and blonde.

"Can I help you?" Jodie's mom croaked.

"I'm Clementine and this is Violet, we're friends of Jodie's." Clem said as politely as she could.

"Oh. What do you need?"

"We actually came to check in with you. We brought some stuff." She held up the foil covered dish she had been holding.

"What's that?"

"Cherry pie from the diner."

Mrs Wallace thought for a moment, then she sighed.

"Alright, come in."

Mrs Wallace stood aside to let them through and shut the door. She said nothing as she guided them into the lounge.
As soon as she set foot in the room, Violet inhaled the waft of second hand smoke that hung in the air. A lit cigarette lay in a glass ashtray on the coffee table, slowly burning down to join the dozens of others in the bottom.
Next to the ashtray was the handset and cradle to a home phone, the cable trailing from the wall across the room all the way to where it now lay.
Mrs Wallace sat on the couch and gestured for the girls to take a seat opposite her.
Vi plopped down onto the ugly floral patterned couch. It looked like something her grandma would have owned when she was still around.
Clem placed the pie on the table and joined Vi on the couch, sinking down into a divot and ending up sitting at a forty-five degree angle.

"You two are Jodie's friends?" Mrs Wallace asked, picking her cigarette back up and sticking it into the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah, we're on the baseball team together." Clem said.

"And you?"

"Jodie and I had some classes together, we talked a lot." Vi said.

Mrs Wallace nodded slowly. She blew out a cloud of smog that joined the rest of the lingering haze.

"Were you two at that party?"

Vi and Clem both nodded slowly.

"Did you see her? Did she say anything to you?"

"I was with her at the start, but she went off on her own after a while." Clem said, "I didn't see her for the rest of the night."

Mrs Wallace sank back into her chair, tapping her cigarette against the ashtray on her way down.
Violet's eyes began to wander around the room. It was cozy and felt lived in, with lots of family photos and odd trinkets on display.
A framed photo of Jodie was pride of place above the mantle. She was younger, maybe still in middle school and wore a gap-toothed grin.
Several crucifixes adorned the walls, strategically placed all around the room.
Violet shifted uncomfortably. It reminded her too much of her grandma.
When she was younger, back when both her parents had jobs, Violet spent a lot of time at her grandma's house. Her grandparents had always been devout Christians. They prayed regularly, went to church every Sunday and read the bible back to front - all things they attempted to drum into Violet.
None of it stuck, of course.
One too many times she had been told that being gay was a sin. That there was something wrong with 'those people' , and they simply wouldn't get into heaven. Hearing things like that crushed her, it made her feel like even her own family secretly hated her.
Vi always felt that if she had to find the root cause of her anxiety and self image issues, bible study with grandma would have been a good guess.
She looked away from the religious paraphernalia and focused her attention back on Mrs Wallace.
Clem had been making small talk while Vi was zoned out.
Mrs Wallace seemed to be engaging with the conversation more than before.
Violet saw an opportunity and took it. She could slip away now while Clementine had her distracted.