Rescue me

Chapter 8 - Old mill and chill

Lizzie's room was cold, the blonde was shivering under the covers. Or so she felt. Because in fact, the temperature was high, it was almost summer and everyone was outside, enjoying the sun on a Saturday morning. Everyone but her. She was still in bed, feeling sick, keep thinking about the previous night. Was she too hard on Hope? No, she got what she deserved. Yet, Lizzie couldn't get over that look on the tribrid's face before she left the room. She was devastated. And although that shouldn't be the siphon's concern, there she was, caring. Whatever. She pulled the sheets off of her body and got up, determined not to let Hope make her day less productive. She put some clothes on and walked in the library, where she found Mg and Alaric doing some research.

"Morning." Lizzie greeted the two devoted to their books men.

"Good morning, Lizzie!" returned MG.

"Morning, honey. Are you taking a break?" Alaric asked casually.

"Um, yeah, if you meant break from sleeping." spat out the blonde before she remembered what she was supposed to be doing today and continued, slower and louder "Kidding, of course I was at the old mill all morning, taking the punishment you so righteously inflicted on me, because I listen to everything you say and learn from it, now excuse me while I get back there, where I was aaall morning!" and with that she quickly left, ignoring her father's and friend's confused looks.

Fuck, that was close! she thought and rushed to the mill.

When she got there, she found it in much better condition than she thought it would be. It was still a little dusty, but there wasn't any garbage on the floor or the furniture. With a quick calculation, Lizzie would be done by lunch time.

"Well, it's not that bad." she shrugged.

"You're welcome." said a voice from the first floor. 

Lizzie looked up to see Hope staring back at her, holding a broom and a plastic bag filled with crispy leaves.

"You gotta be kidding me." she sighed and rolled her eyes at once.

"I'm not enjoying this either but it has to be done, cause in case you've forgotten, I'm being punished, too." Hope returned feisty.

"Great." Lizzie spat out and reached for a mop.

"We need to hose it down first." suggested the tribrid.

"Just be concerned about the first floor and I'll be about the ground."

"Easy for you to say, now I've almost finished the ground floor."

"So, what, feel the need to throw that bag all over so I can clean it up from scratch?" the blonde said wryly.

"Just get started." Hope sighed and got back to it.

"Just get started." Lizzie repeated mockingly and started mopping.

The first half an hour passed in complete silence, the only voice echoing was Halsey's and it was coming from Hope's phone. She was used to always put some music on, it made cleaning seem less of a chore and this time was no different. Lizzie was at the bottom floor, minding her own business and determined to under no circumstances show even the slightest bit of excitement over the shorter girl's music taste. The song ended and it's place took a remix of "Girls just wanna have fun". Lizzie's job was extra hard now that her jam was on but she managed not to sing along. She continued mopping secretly enjoying the beat, until she heard Hope singing low. She looked up to see the tribrid on the edge of the balcony, using the broom as a microphone and acting like she's giving a live performance with the crowd below her all hyped up , dancing and screaming the lyrics. Hope hadn't noticed the siphon who had stopped everything she was doing to attend the concert, hiding behind a tree. She kept singing, pointing at the invisible crowd to finish the lyric every so often, which Lizzie found so entertaining to watch. Once the song was over, Hope bowed thanking her fans and got back to cleaning like nothing happened. But the blonde didn't move, she kept looking at her friend, speechless from what she had just witnessed. The tribrid reached for the spigot and turned it on but she didn't consider the pressure and the hose started bouncing, causing her to fall and splattering her. Lizzie couldn't hold it anymore. She bursted into laughter, so hard that her ribs were hurting.