With the morning sun high in the sky, Monica stared out across the cemetery. The cab driver had already left, she would call another taxi whenever she wanted to go home, she was sure she wouldn't get much time to herself before her sister called and screamed at her for whatever the newest reason was going to be. Monica sighed as she stared up at the statue of the Grim Reaper, silent in his vigil over the long departed from this world. The pool behind the statue reflected the mausoleum even further back, and she wished she could just turn around and leave. As much as she didn't want to acknowledge it though, sometimes a teenager just needed to talk to her parents. While she started to walk, she wondered if some of her friends from school were telling the truth, that ghosts sometimes came out at night, wandering around the town while most people slept. She'd never seen anything like that, but she supposed it didn't mean they might not exist. Her parents had never done that though, at least not to her knowledge, and no one else had said they'd seen them either. Maybe they were actually at rest, but with her sister being who she was, she kind of doubted it.
"Hey Mom, hey Dad," Monica said softly, putting her hand on one of the raised graves, "I know it's been awhile since I've been here, but I really didn't want to remember everything that happened, I didn't want to mess it all up." A few tears came to her eyes but she wiped them away as quickly as she could. It wouldn't do her any good to remember the fire that had taken her parents a few years before, the great accident that made her the ward of her older sister, Meredith. Things had just gone downhill since then, and it was for quite a few reasons as well.
The teenager started to cry as she remembered all the things her sister had done since their parents had died, none of it was the younger of the two proud of. Meredith was broke, she'd spent all of her inheritance, and she insisted that Monica's inheritance was under her control since she was still a minor. It was her money that was paying for all of Meredith's mistakes, and she couldn't legally do a thing about it. Then there was Andre, Meredith's boyfriend who was basically living with them. Monica knew her sister was just toying with him, they'd all known each other their whole lives, and Andre's had been a sad life to live so far. It hurt Monica to know what her sister was doing to him. Even though he'd been in a gang in Bridgeport for years until a few months prior, it didn't mean he was a bad person. Not her type, but still.
"I just don't know what to do with her, I wish you two were still here..." the girl said softly, wiping her eyes again and placing a hand on each of the graves. She missed her parents, she loved her parents, and she wished they were still around to help her out. She didn't know how her sister had come from such generous, giving, caring parents such as theirs, maybe she'd actually been adopted after all. Monica smirked to herself a little and sniffled a little, it wouldn't do her any good to just be mean about it though.
A sound cut through the silence of the cemetery and Monica sighed as she looked down at her phone. It was her sister. "WHERE have you been? I told you to be here an hour ago so I can go out again! You know you're supposed to help Andre with his leg!" the shrieking voice from the other end started into her. The girl rolled her eyes and listened to her for a few moments, "I still don't know why you can't help your own freaking boyfriend."
"DON'T YOU BACKTALK ME!"
Monica sighed and hung her phone up, only to dial a taxi a few moments later. It was going to be forever before she could move out of this house.
"It's about time you showed up," Meredith snapped from her spot on the couch in front of the tv as Monica came into the living room, "I've been more than generous letting you live here instead of sending you off to boarding school."
"Yeah, but you're too cheap to do it."
"I am NO such thing, and if you don't shut up and stop your shrieking, you'll wake up Andre."
"Yeah, cause you REALLY care about him," Monica muttered and plopped down on the sofa next to her sister. She would have preferred somewhere else, but with Andre taking up the other couch, she didn't really have a choice.
Meredith narrowed her eyes and turned off the tv, something her younger sister rarely saw her do when she was staring at jewelry on the shopping network, "I made the maid put that stupid chess table you wanted in Andre's room so you can watch him while his leg heals, and I don't want to hear anything else about it, do you understand? I have to go meet some people, don't bother waiting up, and make sure he actually gets that leg fixed up. You're the doctor in training, useless profession, so do you're job!"
Monica sighed and rolled her eyes as she watched her sister flounce down the stairs and out of the house before Andre could even wake up. Meet people, right, more like more public drunkenness, public indecency, and ruining yet another photo booth with more anonymous woohoo. Just more things Monica was going to have to pay for and smooth over with the police the next day.
"Come on, you heard the queen witch," she muttered as she woke Andre up and helped him hobble to his bedroom. It was right next to her sister's, and while Meredith had a nice big bed and plenty of room, she made her own boyfriend stay in a twin bed next to her. "Don't talk about her like that, she loves you in her own way," the man in question told her as he finally reached his bed and carefully sat down, doing his best not to bump his injured leg. Monica snorted and sat down at her chess table, resetting the pieces so she could practice some more, "Yeah, she sure loves my money. Now go to sleep, you need to rest up so your leg will actually heal and not be quite so
broken anymore."
"Ah, it'll be alright, Ika, besides, I get lonely, won't you share with me?" Andre asked her, a twinkle in his eyes.
"In your dreams, lover boy, now get some sleep before I have to tie you down."
"Oooooh....."
"Shut up."
After Andre finally managed to fall asleep, Monica sat there with her head in her hands, doing her best not to cry, she didn't know what this was going to come to, but the sooner she could get out of this dysfunctional house, the better off she would be.
