? DISCONTINUED ? Between the Perennial Blooms || Paul Lahote

Seven | Jasmine

A bewildered stare was all she was met with. "Bailey-bug," Charlie spoke slowly, condescendingly, as if conversing with that of a mere child. "They're wolves, baby -wild wolves." His fingers twitched against the polished wood of the kitchen table. "They're born and bred dangerous."

"But papa, I-"

"I've gotta go to the station," he interrupted, ignoring his youngest child to instead speak to his oldest as he gestured for Harry to precede him out the front door.

"Good!" Bella piped, seemingly a bit too relieved over the prospect of his absence. "That's good."

"You okay here?" He pressed, eyes actively avoiding Bailey's teary blue ones and the sight of her thin arms -one bandaged and one not- wrapped tightly around her midriff. "You want to come with?"

"Actually, I-" Bella looked to Bailey with unveiled pity. "we need to see a friend."

Charlie nodded once, refusing to meet Bailey's desperate gaze. "I'll see you later tonight," he said.

Then he left without a backward glance.

---

"Stay in the car, Bay," Bella ordered softly, noting the light rain beginning to fall from the overcast clouds as she parked her rusted red pickup truck outside the Black household. The bandage wrapped around Bailey's left arm was stained with dark speckles of crimson as the stitches bled healthily and -conscious of her sleepy state courtesy of the painkillers the doctor had prescribed- Bella chose to approach the front door herself as Bailey settled for watching mutely through the passenger seat window.

With baited breath on both Swan girl's accounts, Bella knocked. Then, upon receiving no response, she knocked again. After a few minutes pause, Billy Black finally answered.

"Hi, Billy." Bella greeted somewhat impatiently. "I know Jacob's sick but-"

"He's out with friends."

Taken aback, Bella stuttered out an, "Oh."

"I'll let him know you came by," Billy assuaged, flashing a weak smile at the small wave Bailey gifted him through the truck window. He started to close the door, but Bella stopped him before he had the chance to once again shut her out.

"Wait!" She argued, holding her hand up in a gesture to stop. "He's got mono, right?" She pressed. "That's what you told my dad."

Billy paused. Then, with a voice coated in compassion and slight irritation, he brushed her off. "You should go on home, Bella," he told her. Afterward, he simply closed the door.

Stomping back over to the truck, Bella climbed into the driver's seat and slammed the door behind her. "I can't believe him!" She exclaimed, anger pouring off of her in waves as she started the truck, then, seemingly thinking better of it, turned the vehicle back off. Deciding to wait, she tossed the keys aside and sunk down into her seat. "I don't care what he says," she ranted to Bailey who sat quietly against the door. "We're waiting until he gets back." Her eyes met Bailey's determinedly. "He can't avoid us forever, right?"

However, several hours later, the rain now poured heavily outside as if to prove Bella's earlier words wrong. Bailey had pulled out a mostly blank receipt from the glovebox and an old blue pen and drew four lines, two of which crossed over the other pair in a perpendicular fashion, and then scribbled an oversized 'O' in the top left box of the nine the lines had created. "Your turn," she mumbled, passing the pen and paper over to Bella with a bored sigh. They had been sitting there for what felt like nearly half the day, the clock on the dashboard now reading 3:26 in blinking red numbers. Bailey's stitches had long since started bothering her as the gauze covering them further stained crimson the longer they awaited the arrival of the third member to their trio. Despite the urge, she refrained from itching at the skin and instead busied herself with chewing on the hangnail poking out from the bed of her right thumbnail. C'mon, Jay, she thought to herself as Bella belatedly inked a small 'X' across from Bailey's previously drawn 'O'. I can only lose at tic-tak-toe so many times before Bella suggests we start playing I-Spy. Then she looked down at the growing pile of scribbled and crumpled receipts littered at the bottom of her feet with a newfound impatience to be put out of her misery. However, just as she had resigned herself to losing yet another round of many, a knock on the window startled both her and Bella.