Youth

#64 - Two Days Left

    It wasn't unusual for Sally to hear her parents arguing.  They argued all the time — two very strong, domineering personalities in one household.  Or, as of right now, one hotel suite.  Sally had somehow convinced them to allow she, Tara and Damien a suite (though she couldn't believe the two had set off to Sofia without any plans for accommodation), though her parents had set the rule that she had to stay with them for a little while for whatever reason.  They were like that.  They'd set a rule that didn't even suit them just to inconvenience Sally and reinforce the idea that they were still in control of her life.  She sighed.

Right now they were arguing about her.  She'd gone to wash herself in the bathroom and she assumed they'd believed she couldn't hear them through the thick, oak door — her hearing was something special, though.  In fact, her hearing was how she'd found out that she was adopted, and how she knew about Damien's "secret" long before actually being told.  She didn't want to tell anyone about her strange gift, however. 

On the subject of her adoption, her father was currently yelling at her mother about how "stupid" she'd been convincing him to adopt an "incompetent, brain-impaired" girl instead of a boy who could've taken on the business after his time.  She let out a light sigh, continuing washing her face to remove the makeup she'd put on.  Her father continued to diminish her behind her back.  When she couldn't take any more of it, she plugged her ears and shut her eyes, but she could still hear every word.  She cursed her weird "talents." 

After a while, she decided to push open the bathroom door.  Her father fell silent and sent her a vicious glare.  Sally dipped her head to both her parents and looked down.

"Why did you take your makeup off?" Sally's mother questioned.  "I can see a spot on your chin."  Sally placed her finger to the tiny blemish, feeling the imperfection and walking over to her makeup bag (which she'd left on the side). 

"I won't be seeing anyone other than my friends tonight, mother—"

"Nonsense.  Whether you're seeing your friends, a maid or the Queen of England, you must always look presentable.  Not... like that."  Her mother gave her a slightly repulsed expression.  "And fix up your blouse!  Why is the back untucked?"

"I-it's a trend right now, mother—"

"A trend?  Slovenliness is a trend?  It's fashionable to look like a homeless person?" Sally had to hold herself back from barking out an insult to her pompous mother.  "I understand you want to fit in with those lower-class friends of yours, but at least retain some prestige.  And hide that damned spot!"

'Out, damned spot!  Out, I say!' Sally thought to herself, 'my mother really has become Lady Macbeth.  Soon enough father will get too much for her and she'll meet the same fate, I'm sure,' she thought to herself morbidly.  She pulled some Chanel concealer from her expensive Louis Vuitton makeup bag and, in the most half-assed manner possible, merely to irritate her mother - covered her spot. 

"May I spend the rest of the day with my friends?" she asked calmly.  Her parents looked at one another before her mother, hesitantly, nodded her head.  No further words were spoken.  Sally grabbed her makeup bag and placed it in her day bag, before grabbing her suitcase as well and leaving the suite.  The others were in the suite at the other side of the hotel wing, so Sally walked down the lavish corridor before knocking on their room number — 302.  The door instantly swung open and Sally got engulfed in one of Tara's bear hugs.  The girl laughed at her friend's antics and awkwardly hugged the girl back whilst balancing her things on top of one another.  Tara pulled her friend inside and sat her on one of the two double beds in the suite.