Chapter 26

Consequences

Charlie and Marissa were making homemade tomato soup for dinner; it was only going to be the two of them at home, so perhaps all of the food they were making was a little excessive, but Charlie figured they could freeze some of it or something. Marissa was having a good time, and that's what mattered to him.

"I think it needs more salt," Marissa affirmed, popping her lips. Charlie took back the spoon so that he could have a quick taste test too.

"Definitely needs more salt," he agreed.

Charlie added more salt to the soup and stirred, then let Marissa have another taste. She puckered her lips thoughtfully, letting her tongue get used to the new taste and deciding if it was just the right amount of salty or not.

"Good, but I think we should add more rice so it's not as watery," she stated.

"It's your call," Charlie chuckled, watching her as she made her way to the pantry and grabbed the transparent tub of rice, which was labeled in Lydia's neat handwriting.

"You know," Marissa said after a little while, looking thoughtful. "We don't spend a lot of time together just you and me... I think we should do it more often, it's more fun when Avery isn't here."

"That's nice, I'm sure your sister would love to hear that," Charlie chuckled.

"It's true! Now that she's in high school and she has a boyfriend she thinks she's so much better than me, but she's not," Marissa said with a frustrated huff, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm sure she doesn't think that," Charlie told her reasonably. "She's got her friends and you've got yours, but that doesn't mean she's not your sister anymore. She'll always be there for you, and you'll always be there for her... and you know somethin', she'll always be your best friend... even when you're both all grown up," he explained.

"I suppose you're right," Marissa shrugged.

"Of course I am," Charlie smirked.

Marissa glanced at the soup again and frowned. "I have a boyfriend too anyway, so it's no big deal," she shrugged.

Charlie choked on nothing.

"You have a boyfriend?" he asked, halfway amused and halfway terrified out of his mind. He was only just beginning to get used to Avery being with Asher; he was hoping he'd get at least a few years before Marissa climbed onto that wagon too.

"Yeah, Oliver Morris, he's a boy from my class... he's really cute," Marissa told him matter-of-factly. "We had lunch yesterday at school and he gave me a bracelet," she added, lifting her wrist and showing him a sleek, silver bracelet with a single, heart-shaped charm hooked to it.

Charlie stared at her, unsure what exactly to say. She was ten years old - eleven in February - she should not have a boyfriend yet... right? He'd have to call Lydia later and check if she knew what the hell was going on.

"Wanna get started on the sandwiches?" he asked, dismissing the subject.

"I'm on it, dad!" Marissa grinned.

Lydia didn't want to be that mom that got overly involved, which was why she tried to keep her distance throughout the trip, keeping with the other chaperons as much as possible. She had no reason not to trust Avery, so after a quick check once everybody was settled in their respective rooms, Lydia went back to hers - she was sharing it with another mom - and changed into her pajamas.

It was a little after ten when Charlie started blowing up her phone. He sent her a text first, and when she didn't promptly reply, he decided to give her a call.

"Is the house on fire?" Lydia laughed when she picked up.

"Do you know anythin' about this Oliver Morris?" Charlie asked her without skipping a beat. He seemed stressed.

"Yeah, he's a boy from Marissa's class; he was over at the house a few weekends ago," Lydia nodded. "He's cute," she added.

"Yeah, that's what Mar said too... she also said he was her boyfriend," he huffed.

"Okay," Lydia giggled, giving her roommate for the evening a small smile before silently excusing herself. She walked down the hall and sat down at a window seat overlooking the street below. "...and now you're freaking out... gotcha... It's not the end of the world babe, kids do that at that age, it doesn't mean what you think it means."

"Am I supposed to talk to her about it? Lyds, I swear, I can't do the sex talk, I'll completely scar her for life," Charlie groaned, which only caused Lydia to laugh harder, clutching at her aching side.

"Charles, I swear, if you tell her anything..." she warned, still laughing. She could only imagine how that conversation would go. "Just enjoy your weekend with her, don't think about it too much... I'll talk to her about it when I get back," she told him, smiling fondly.

"How about you, how are things down there? Avery sent me a text earlier sayin' she'd won? That's pretty awesome," he grinned proudly.

"Yeah, so now they get to play another game tomorrow morning; if they win that, they make it to the state championships," Lydia grinned.

"Damn, she must be thrilled," Charlie grinned.

"She is," Lydia smiled. "She's been having a really good time with the other girls."

"I'm glad," Charlie said.

"Yeah, me too," Lydia nodded.

"Hey dad, popcorn's ready! Do you want any butter on yours?" Lydia heard Marissa call out in the background.

"Yeah sure, not as much as you though!" Charlie replied. "You could drown in all that butter," he added with a chuckle.

The short exchange between the two pulled at Lydia's heartstrings. She smiled towards the inky blue sky outside, missing them like crazy already, even though it'd only been a day.

"Alright, I'll leave you two to do your thing," Lydia smiled, running her fingers through her hair. "Love you," she murmured.

"Love you too beautiful. G'night," he replied.

"Good night," she told him and ended the call.

She started making her way back to her room and at the last minute wondered if she should go check on Avery real quick. She bit down on her lower lip and decided against it. She'd already said goodnight to her about an hour ago, so going back there would probably be overdoing it. She settled on texting her in a little bit.

Avery blinked that following morning and immediately knew something was wrong. Her mouth was dry and her tongue felt twice as thick as usual, but none of that compared to her throbbing head.

She wasn't sure she wanted to risk getting up considering she didn't know in what state her stomach was in. How could she have been so stupid? She was on a school trip! Why did she agree to drink?

Why did she have to care so much what a bunch of older girls thought of her? She didn't drink, at least she didn't before those six shots she had last night.

Oh my God, they were playing later this morning...

Wait, what time was it anyway?

Her head snapped up too fast and the whole room started to spin. She let her head fall back onto her pillow and groaned.

"Damn, you were so gone last night," Tasha said from the other side of the bed, nudging Avery playfully in the side. "You should've said you were such a fucking lightweight, holy shit!" she smirked.

Slowly memories of the previous night started to come back to her. There was a lot of giggling involved, quite a bit of swearing, conversations of a sexual nature with terminology that Avery would have to Google later to understand... There was also some off-key singing and a lot of dancing. At one point she showed them her YouTube channel, which had about twenty videos on it at this point but still only a dozen subscribers.

"Oh God," she muttered, forcing herself into a sitting position and running her fingers through her tangled hair. "I need to shower," she said and lugged herself to the adjoining bathroom, which she and Tasha were sharing with the two girls in the other room.

Her head was still pounding when she reached the bathroom and twisted the tap, stripping down and letting the warm water wash over her. At least she could walk in a straight line, and her stomach wasn't in complete disarray.

God, Coach was going to kill her if she didn't play well because she was hungover of all things... Hell, Lydia might not kill her, but she would definitely be disappointed, and that scared Avery most of all.

She dipped her head back under the spray of water and closed her eyes tight, cursing herself for behaving like such an idiot.

"Are you alright in there? Didn't drown did you? That'd be bad," Tasha said after a solid fifteen minutes, knocking on the bathroom door.

"I'm fine, I'll be out soon," Avery called out, glad that her voice was beginning to sound a little more like her own. Maybe she could pull herself together enough so that she wouldn't give away what they'd been up to last night.

She sighed, turned off the water and reached for a towel, wrapping it around herself. She got out and wiped the condensation off the mirror, looking at her reflection for the first time since last night. Her wet hair stuck to her thin shoulders and her skin was unusually pale. Her hazel eyes were a little red and puffy. She really, really looked like crap.

It was going to be a long day.

When Lydia caught up with Avery on their way down to grab some breakfast, she immediately knew that something wasn't quite right.

"Are you okay?" she asked, causing Avery to bristle slightly.

"Oh, um, just nervous I guess," Avery shrugged, feeling absolutely awful for lying... not that it was a complete lie though, more like a stretch of the truth. After all, she was definitely nervous for the game.

"Don't worry too much, you'll do fine... you rocked it yesterday," Lydia said, although she saw right through her words.

Lydia was a teenager once; while she wasn't necessarily the rebellious kind, she did do enough in her youth - especially with Charlie as a boyfriend - to know the signs of someone trying to hide the fact that she was hungover.

She didn't say anything about it just then however; she'd have to of course, but she figured she could wait a little, let Avery simmer in her own guilt for a while.

They lost the game that morning, which meant they had most of the day to spare before the prizes were awarded at the end of the afternoon. Lydia and two other chaperons went out to grab a round of coffee for everyone before heading back to the hotel to hang out for a little while.

Avery came to see her in her room not long after.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey, how's it going?" Lydia replied, a knowing smile playing on her lips.

"Not that great actually... um... listen... I have to tell you something... uh... So something happened last night..." Avery began, hesitating for a moment as she gauged Lydia's expression.

"I know," Lydia nodded.

"I guessed as much," Avery sighed, making her way over to sit on the bed next to Lydia. "I swear, I didn't mean for things to get out of hand... they were all drinking and-"

"That's not an excuse for you to be drinking," Lydia cut in, keeping her voice calm, like they were only talking about the outcome of the game or what Charlie and Marissa were likely to be up to right now. "I get that you want to have a good time with your friends, trust me I was your age once... but is it really worth it? Your coach isn't stupid, she noticed too..."

"She did? Oh God, I'm such an idiot..." Avery grumbled, running her fingers through her hair. "I didn't even want to! They were all talking about all of this stuff... about, y'know, sex and... stuff... so I figured maybe I'd be more interesting... I'm not exactly the biggest social butterfly over here so maybe if..." she went on, but the more she spoke the more she felt stupid. She wasn't usually so self-conscious.

"Honey, you don't need alcohol to be interesting," Lydia smiled, touching Avery's cheek. "You're plenty interesting all on your own... You're doing great in school... You've learned how to surf better than most kids your age in a matter of months; you play volleyball on the varsity team... and I know for a fact you can beat Charlie at any video game... which I guess is an achievement?" she shrugged.

Avery laughed.

"You have good friends that care about you and a boyfriend that's treating you right," Lydia went on, causing Avery to smile a little.

"I know," she shrugged. Despite the communication problems she was having with Asher lately, he was never bad to her.

"You've also got two parents that would do absolutely anything to make your life a good one," Lydia spoke softly.

"I know that too," Avery grinned, ducking her head in embarrassment.

They sat there in silence for a while, Avery trying to find the right words to say. She knew they weren't done talking about this; she was probably going to be in a whole lot of trouble... but she supposed she deserved it. I mean, for hell's sake, she drank alcohol at a school event in a hotel room with a bunch of girls that were just as underage as she was!

"Can I ask you something... kind of personal?" Avery asked suddenly.

"Yeah, of course, anything," Lydia nodded.

"Why didn't you and Charlie ever have kids of your own?" she asked bluntly. "Biological I mean," she added.

There was a shift in Lydia's expression that Avery didn't miss. Immediately she regretted asking; obviously it was a touchy subject.

"I'm sorry, if you don't wanna answer that's cool," Avery said quickly.

"No, no, it's okay," Lydia smiled sadly. "The year after Charlie and I were married I was diagnosed with ALL-" At Avery's confused look, she clarified: "-leukemia. I'm fine now... it was a very treatable cancer... but the treatments left me unable to conceive a baby of my own."

Avery didn't know what to say; every time she'd wondered about Charlie and Lydia and their reasons not to have biological children, it never occurred to her that maybe they couldn't. It should have... A lot of couples had to deal with infertility...

"That's so unfair," she whispered, feeling tears forming.

"Hon, don't start on me, I'll start crying too," Lydia half-laughed, wrapping Avery in a quick hug. "We're okay... We had many years to come to terms with it, and in a way if things hadn't happened the way they did..." she drifted off, unlocking herself from the embrace and looking into Avery's pretty face. "...maybe we would've never met you and your sister, and that would've been heartbreaking," she admitted.

"Well you're a pretty great mom so I'm glad it all worked out the way it did too," Avery smiled despite the tears.

"You're a pretty great daughter," Lydia smiled back, hugging her again.

"Does that mean you're not gonna ground me?" Avery asked, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"Ha, you wish... You've been spending way too much time with Charlie," Lydia laughed, wrapping an arm around Avery's shoulders and pulling her into a quick hug. "You're beginning to sound like him."