ACT ONE ━━ CHAPTER TWO
Assumptions are Deadly

     WHEN DESMOND HAD COME HOME AFTER HIS LONG DAY OF WORK (that he still hadn't gotten used to but did anyway for the sake of his family), Betty had prepared dinner but instead of eating with her husband and daughter, went into her bedroom to get gussied up for some unknown occasion.

     "Where's your mother?" Desmond asked Adaline after he hung up his hat and suit jacket, taking the seat across from her at the small dining table for four.

     She shrugged as she stabbed a piece of the pot roast, her neck red and raw from scrubbing the green stain off it, "In her room."

     Desmond tucked the napkin in his shirt collar as he asked, "Doin' what?"

     Adaline shrugged again, "Couldn't tell ya."

    "You already say your Grace?" Adaline nodded at her father's question and he nodded back in response as he began praying to himself, giving thanks for the food on his table and roof over his head, even if it was under undesirable circumstances.

     As he mumbled about said current living situation, Betty Berkeley emerged from the master bedroom wearing a peculiarly-nice outfit for a Thursday night, comprised of a dress, heels, trench coat, her (expensive, freshwater) pearls, and her (expensive, authentic leather) handbag, acting as if this was a normal occurrence—which, in her defense, it had gradually become.

     Her heels clicked against the linoleum floor as she shuffled around in her purse and pulled out a tube of red lipstick, going over to the mirror by the door and applying it to her lips.

     "Visitin' Sally again?" Desmond asked in a monotone, being more sarcastic than anything.

     "What? Can't see my own dear sister?" Betty asked in an accusatory tone as she wiped the corners of her lips where excess red had rubbed on.

     Her husband shrugged, "There's nothin' wrong with that...but when you're drivin' a whole lotta hours late at night, all the way to Knockemstiff..." Desmond shrugged again, "I don't know, just doesn't sit right with me. You could at least wait until the weekend, dear. Maybe Sally could meet you halfway or somethin'."

    "I always leave on Thursday nights, Desmond," she countered, putting the tube back into her purse. "So we can spend the whole weekend together. You know we barely see each other."

     He half-heartedly nodded at the same old excuse as he mumbled under his breath, "Yeah, yeah..."

     "Anyway, Adaline, hun, don't forget to take those Orphans' clothes across the way to them, but come right back and take a bath. Can't have all that filth comin' in here." Adaline responded with a "mmhm" as her mother continued talking, "And I should be back by Monday mornin' but if I ain't—"

     "'Monday mornin'?'" Desmond asked in disbelief. "You're stayin' in Ohio until Monday? You're missin' Church?"

     Betty waved him off, "Oh, relax. I'll be goin' with Sally and that family of hers. They have a little chapel up there. Just tell all 'em people here I went to go visit my sister." She sighed, "Anyway, Adaline, hun, you're gonna have to go fetch those Orphans' clothes before the rooster crows—before! You mustn't let no one see you, understand? And Desmond, sweetheart, I'm takin' the car so you'll have to drive Adaline to school and pick her up."

     Desmond heavily sighed and set down his fork as he said, "Betty...I work. I can't just leave at three to go pick up my daughter." He shook his head, "We only have two cars-'ll have to go down to one soon—"

     Betty's face paled, "What?"

     "—you heard me—so Adaline, sweetheart, sorry but you're just gonna have to ride the bus."

     "What?! Desmond, she ain't takin' the bus!" Betty cackled, "The bus? Might as well go paint a sign saying we're poor and stake it out in the front yard, why don't ya?"

     "If it weren't for you we wouldn't be here! We'd still be in Alexandria!"

     Betty scoffed before tying her coat around her waist, "I'm leavin'. Love you, Adaline."

     Desmond stood up, so abruptly the chair legs screeched against the floor, "Like hell you're leaving. We need to conserve that gas in there, I'm runnin' nearly on empty and will have to transfer it over to the Continental. I'll have to get someone down here to buy that Impala—"

     "I'm leavin'!" Betty yelled before going out the front door and slamming it behind her, walking as fast as she could to the car in her heels.

     "Goddamn it—Betty!" Desmond called after her, rushing out the door. The door remained swung open as he ran out to the car, yelling so loud Adaline was certain the neighbors could hear, "Betty! You stop right there—Betty! Bernadette, you better—!" Adaline heard the roar of an engine and the screeching of tires against asphalt speeding away.

     A few minutes later, Desmond returned to the dining table and sat down, resuming eating his dinner in silence. Adaline would glance up at her father periodically, worried at his outburst. Out of her two parents, she didn't necessarily have a "favorite," but she acknowledged that her father seemed to have more of a conscience than her mother. Only a bit more, but still more.

     The sky quickly turned dark and Adaline took this as her chance to let her father let go of all his pent up rage while he was alone in the house and take the clean laundry over to the Russells who were a decent way away.

     When she grabbed the wicker laundry bin covered with an old cloth, Desmond immediately offered, "Here, sweetheart, lemme drive you over. Won't take you long to drop them clothes off anyway."

     Adaline shook her head, "It's alright, you just finish your dinner. I'll be back before soon."

     He gave her an uneasy look before nodding, "Hurry on back then. Don't go lingering around them folks for too long, you hear?"

     She nodded as she opened the front door, "Yeah, I hear you. Bye, love you."

     "Love you too." Adaline gave him a small smile before closing the door and letting him return to his dinner. Almost immediately after she turned she heard a glass break and her father yell, "Motherfucker!" She stopped as she waited to hear her father move again and could be assured that he wasn't hurt, and sighed out of relief when she heard his frustrated mumblings and the faint sound of him using a rag to clean up the glass shards through the cracked open window on the side of the house.

     The Russells didn't live that far away from the Berkeleys, but they also weren't exactly next-door neighbors by any means. They lived on top of a hill at the end of the road which Adaline had to hike in her Mary Janes. She "cursed" every time her small heel would get stuck in the mud of the pathway ("Oh, dammit!") but continued holding the laundry basket against her hip anyway, telling herself it was only a little bit further along.

     Her calves were burning when she got to the top and had to walk past a few other houses that were spaced so far apart she wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know they even had neighbors. At the end of this road were the Russells, their run-down rancher standing on an old and faulty foundation that looked like it'd give way any second, with a gravel walkway connecting its front porch to the outhouse to the makeshift driveway off to the side. The lights were on inside and Adaline could hear excited chatter among the family, whom she's never really seen together other than at Church.

     She hesitantly walked up the steps, honestly afraid they'd cave in, before ringing the doorbell. The door opened shortly after by none other than Emma Russell, a friendly smile on her face at the sight of Adaline Berkeley, the—in her opinion—best one of that Virginian bunch.

     "Oh, thank you, darlin'. Why don't you c'mon in? It's Arvin here's birthday and we were just about to start cake," she said, taking the laundry basket and stepping back so the girl could get by.

     She politely smiled, "Oh, Mrs. Russell, really, that's alright. We just ate dinner at the house and—"

     "C'mon in, I insist." Adaline opened her mouth to decline again, hearing her parents' voices telling her to come straight home in her head, but then she glanced inside and saw how happy the family looked—well, how much of an actual family they looked in general. Then she looked back at Miss Emma's hospitable smile and decided that her mother would want Adaline to keep up the "friendly rich Virginians next door" act and accepted the invite.

     Emma genuinely smiled, "Lemme go set these down and I'll take you in and introduce you to everyone." Adaline nodded and only had to wait a few seconds before Emma returned to the entranceway and led her into the dining room, "We've got us a guest tonight." The three sitting at the table looked up at Adaline, who softly smiled back at the family nicknamed "the Orphans." It was meant to be derogatory but Adaline didn't think they saw themselves as or feel like orphans; they had a family. A real, honest family.

     "Now, you sit right here," the elderly woman told Adaline as she pulled out the chair she had been sitting in across from Arvin, who nodded in greeting and then took a sip from his whiskey, the faces and voices from the jock gang echoing in his head. The two, although in the same grade, hadn't ever spoken save for the one time they were taking a math test and Arvin was looking everywhere high and low for a pencil, and Adaline gave him one of hers. Ever since then he's known she wasn't as stuck up as her mama, and had been confused as to why a nice girl like her would be hanging around a bullying bastard like Eli Taylor and his douchebag friends.

     "Alright, lemme go get you your cake now, Arvin. Lenora, want to help me light the candle?" The girl excitedly went to help her grandmother in the kitchen, leaving Arvin, Uncle Earskell, and Adaline in the dining room.

     "Your Berkeley's kid, ain't you?" Earskell asked her.

     She nodded, although she didn't know whether he was talking about our mother or father, "Yes, sir."

     He nodded, "And where y'all from again?"

     "Alexandria."

     Earskell snorted, "Now why'd you folks move all the way down here to Coal Creek? Bet y'all were livin' mighty fine up there." Adaline stayed still for a moment, did he not know that her mother did their laundry? Or maybe he did and was curious for the truth, not the vague bullshit Betty told them.

     Cautious of how much information she could give away, Adaline innocently shrugged, "Momma wanted a change in scenery."

     Earskell chuckled again as he brought his glass to his lips, "Yeah, that's what they all say..." Adaline prayed to God that she hadn't said the wrong thing that would make her parents mad at her, and instead averted her gaze onto her lap so she could keep quiet. Arvin took a drag of his cigarette while he thought of what Eli and his goonies said about Adaline, and wondered if he should she tell her. Maybe not exactly what they said, but that they hadn't been saying very nice things about her behind her back.

     Meanwhile, Adaline was debating on whether she should just leave right then. She already had a close slip-up (or didn't she? She couldn't tell) and didn't trust herself to speak no more. Momma had already stormed off to Ohio to visit Aunt Sally and she knew Daddy was under so much pressure from all fronts as things were, Adaline didn't want to be responsible for another thing added onto his load.

     Before either Arvin or Adaline had the opportunity to do what they were thinking about, Earskell saw Emma and Lenora coming back round the corner with a cake in hand, a large singular candle burning in the middle of it. "Oh, here we go."

     Lenora broadly smiled, "Happy birthday, Arvin." Arvin put out his cigarette in the ash tray as Adaline turned to see Emma's smile as big as Lenora's as she carefully brought the cake in.

     "Happy birthday, honey," she told him as she placed the tray in front of him. Lenora went to Arvin's side and hugged him, repeatedly wishing him a happy birthday. Adaline watched as both of them smiled and laughed to themselves, and couldn't help but smile herself. She was an only child but had always wondered what it'd be like to have a sibling, and at this moment she couldn't help but be jealous of the two "Orphans," words her parents would have heart attacks hearing.

     Adaline blinked out of her thoughts when Arvin sighed and pushed his hair back, "Alright." He glanced up at his grandma who was standing beside Adaline, a hand on the back of the wooden chair.

    Emma urged him on, "Make a wish before that candle burns out."

    Earskell nodded, "It looks like a dandy cake." Adaline exhaled a laugh at Arvin's grandma's and uncle's comments, which had made Arvin jut out his lip, amused as well. He leaned forward and everyone watched as he stared into the flame, his three family members waiting for the candle to blow out while Adaline watched Arvin's face. She wondered what he would wish for, then she wondered what she would wish for were it her birthday. She thought about how much their wishes would differ, he, a boy some would say had nothing, and she, a girl some would say had everything; in actuality, they'd be wrong about either one.

     Although it looked like he was staring into the flame, he was staring just over the tongue of fire at Adaline's genuine smile at the Russell family affair. He noticed it looked different than her "public smile," something he'd deducted—from her mother coming over nearly every morning and evening—was just for show. He soon realized it didn't quite meet her eyes, unlike the one across her face right now.

     Lenora insisted, "Arvin!"

     He shuffled in his seat as he averted his eyes, momentarily concerned he had been obvious, "Alright, hang on." Arvin leaned forward again, and blew out the candle a second or so after. Emma quickly got to removing the candle before cutting each person at the table a slice of the cake, while Lenora passed out the plates. Adaline thanked her which made Lenora smile at her for the first time, initially worried about his plaything coming into their home, but was pleasantly surprised to see that Arvin's depiction of her was accurate when he defended her character that week after the pencil encounter, and reassured his sister that Adaline wasn't like them bullies she hung around.

     Earskell then cleared his throat, "Well..." and set a wooden box in front of Arvin, "...this was your daddy's." Arvin's gaze was stuck on his uncle for a moment before he looked down at the box in front of him, hesitantly opening the lid. Adaline, having never heard anything about Arvin's parents except that they were dead, hence the name "Orphans," watched him, intrigued. She eyed the cloth-covered object he pulled out, and then raised her brows in surprise to see a handgun.

     "What's that?" Emma asked.

     Earskell explained, "That's Willard's gun he gave me. I figure it's time to pass it on." Arvin looked at the gun as if he were holding a piece of his father in his hands. "That's a German luger, brought back from the war. I got no use for handguns myself, but I figured he'd want you to have it."

     Arvin carefully set it back in the box as tears pricked his eyes, "It's the best present I ever got. Thank you, Uncle Earskell."

     "Shotgun's what'll do you good," the older man weighed in before beginning to eat his slice of cake.

     Arvin set the box on the ground, "Maybe, but I don't have anything else of his, so...thank you." Adaline swallowed the lump in her throat when she heard him sniffle again, not being able to fathom not having either of her parents. Neither of them were the perfect saints they were all cracked up to be, but they were still her parents.

     The room went quiet except for the clink of forks against plates until Emma said, "Time does pass." Adaline looked at her sympathetically, to which the woman nodded towards her, "Eat your cake now, darlin'." Although only having been in this house for maybe fifteen minutes, Adaline already felt as if Emma was her own grandmother and told her to eat, so she ate. Back in Alexandria, Betty was known as the best cook around, but her mother's cooking didn't even come remotely close to the dessert Adaline was currently eating.

     A little while later, Adaline glanced at the chipped grandfather clock in the corner of the room and felt herself pale at the late time, knowing her daddy wouldn't be too happy with her coming home an hour and then some after she left for what was supposed to be a quick trip.

     She wiped her mouth with her napkin before telling Emma, "I'm sorry, but I best be gettin' home now. My daddy's probably already worried sick."

     Adaline went to take her dishes into the kitchen but Emma stood up and took them off her hands, "Oh, don't worry 'bout these, I've got 'em."

     Adaline smiled at the woman, "Thank you for your hospitality." She nodded at the rest of the family, "Thank all y'all."

     Emma smiled, "Oh, of course. Here," she nodded towards the front door at Arvin, "Arvin, honey, come here and walk this nice girl on home."

     He didn't object in the slightest, standing up and wiping his mouth as soon as his grandma told him to, but Adaline tried to decline the offer, not even wanting to imagine her father's face if he saw her walking home with one of them Orphans, "Oh, no, really, Mrs. Russell, it's quite alright—"

     She waved her off, "Nonsense. Arvin don't mind, now don't you, honey?"

     He shook his head, "Not at all." Adaline reluctantly agreed, being ushered out the home by Emma who thanked her again for dropping off the clothes and reminded her that she was welcome by any time (which would never happen again if her parents had anything to do with it). She and Arvin began walking the same way Adaline walked to his house, this time though in the pitch dark with only the infrequent street lamps to guide them.

     Neither of them knew what to say—although both minds were racing about thoughts about the other—so they walked in an almost suffocating silence until they were closer to Adaline's house than Arvin's, when she realized her window of opportunity was about to close.

     She glanced over at him, "That was sure pretty." Arvin looked over at her, slightly confused. Adaline clarified herself, "Your daddy's gun, I mean. 'Twas pretty."

     "Oh," he said in realization, returning his gaze back down at his feet. "Oh, uh, yeah it was."

     "Although I reckon it ain't exactly meant to sit on no mantlepiece," she quickly followed up with, immediately causing her face to flush at the poor attempt of lightening up the conversation. She again thanked God that it was too dark to see the color of her skin as she looked away, then looked back at Arvin in shock when she heard him chuckle under his breath. She hadn't ever heard him laugh before that night, and it was quite the contrast of his usual moody demeanor he had whenever she saw him around school. She liked his laugh. It sounded like it wasn't let out often, croaky and gruff as if it had been preserved for such few instances, but if Adaline had it her way, Arvin would laugh and smile a whole lot more. She thought it suited him better than how she often saw him, as the stone-cold, emotionless, orphaned outsider boy.

     She was about to make another comment but he beat her to it, asking her, "So, you and Eli Taylor, huh?"

     Adaline flushed the same way when her mother made a similar comment earlier that morning, "Oh, no—we're not together or nothin'. Just...well...I dunno."

     "He takin' you for a ride this weekend?" Adaline was caught off guard by the question, stitching her brows together in confusion as to how Arvin would know that detail. Did she mention it somehow? Was Eli running his mouth off about it?

     "Um, yeah...yeah he is. Where'd you hear that?"

     Arvin avoided her stare as he shrugged and looked ahead, hands in the pockets of his jeans, "Y'know...around." Adaline instantly became anxious, did everyone know? Was Eli goin' off and runnin' his mouth to everybody?

     When the Berkeley rancher came into view, Adaline's steps stuttered once she saw the silhouette sitting on the porch. She subtly grabbed onto Arvin's elbow to stop him from walking any further, making him look down, confused.

     Desmond watched with a cigarette in one hand and a half-empty glass of whiskey in another as his daughter turned and said goodbye to that orphan boy, thanking him for walking her home. She told him he could go home now since her home was a minute or so away, but Arvin took one glance over her shoulder at her brooding father sitting on the porch and immediately felt uneasy.

     Arvin shook his head, "No, I can wait 'til you get inside alright."

     Adaline sighed, knowing she'd be given hell for fraternizing with someone the equivalent of dog shit on the underside of her daddy's boot, "No, really, it's alright. Thank you."

     "You go on up. I'll just wait here."

     She nervously glanced behind her, then back at Arvin, "Arvin-— She sighed, realizing he wasn't going to budge. She presumed she'd be alright, it was so dark Daddy probably couldn't even see his face. "Okay. I'll, uh, see you at school." She gave him a small smile, "Bye."

     He nodded in response as Adaline turned and walked the rest of the way to her house, Desmond's glare never leaving Arvin's dark silhouette and vice versa.

     Adaline tried to play innocent, hoping to soften the blow, "Hey, Daddy. What're you doin' out here?"

     He took a sip from his glass as he kept his sights on Arvin in the distance, "Never mind that. You just get on inside now."

     From his same spot down the road, Arvin watched as Adaline went inside and Desmond stumbled in behind. The boy's stomach was in knots at the thought of Desmond Berkeley in that state alone with Adaline, so he kept his head low as he walked closer to the house. He tried to get a look inside from the windows on the porch, but the curtains were drawn over them.

     He crept around the side of the house and found a window cracked open, and managed to just see inside the common area through the sheer curtains.

     Adaline was washing her hands while Desmond interrogated her, "Where were you with that boy? I told you come straight home, no messin' around."

     "His momma invited me inside, and I thought it'd be impolite to say no," Adaline explained.

     Desmond nearly dropped his glass, "You went inside the Orphans' house?! Girl—!" From the man's tone, Arvin got ready to run inside the front door if things were to get out of hand, but his body relaxed the slightest bit as he watched Desmond quickly put out his cigarette in the nearby ash tray.

     The man sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before telling Adaline, "You best go and wash up then. Get all that dirt off you. Then when you're done, come back and scrub these floors real good. Get off all the dirt you tracked in from them people's house."

     Adaline watched as her father—a completely different man while intoxicated although not a completely foreign personality to her—downed the rest of his liquor and set the glass on the counter, mumbling under his breath as he shook his head, "Goin' inside them fuckers' house...the fuck is wrong with you, girl..."

     Adaline went to walk down the hallway to the bathroom, and Arvin lost sight of her. When Desmond disappeared down the same hallway, Arvin moved his head around to try and get a view inside. He silently opened the window a crack wider and stuck his ear in to hear for any worrying noises, and chest tightened at the sound of a slammed door immediately followed by the loud, deep creak of bed springs from a sudden influx of weight thrown upon it.

     Arvin snapped his head back and frantically moved around the house, trying to get a view or clearer sound from inside. His breathing hastened as his pessimistic mind went to the worst-case scenario happening inside this rancher, and his heart began throbbing against his rib cage at the ill thought.

     On the opposite side of the house where the master bedroom was, Arvin stepped up on the pile of falling bricks half-mortared on the side of foundation, grabbing onto the windowsill for balance. The curtains were drawn on this window as well, so all the information Arvin had to rely on was auditory.

     He heard the same sound of bed springs creaking as if something was moving along the mattress, and panicked. Before he had the chance to either punch in the window or run around to the front and barge in the front door, the curtains were pulled away from the window and Arvin was face-to-face with Desmond Berkeley through the window pane.

     Arvin quickly scoped out the room behind him and saw Adaline was nowhere to be seen, so he had been wrong. He was forced backwards as Desmond opened the window, reaching out to grab his shirt collar.

     "Whatcha doin', boy? Beggin' to be shot?" He spat, the smells of smoke and alcohol fanning onto Arvin's face. Desmond shook Arvin, his thighs brushing against the side of the house as he was forced onto his tip-toes, "Huh? You mute or somethin'? Too poor to go to school or somethin'?"

     Arvin grabbed onto Desmond's hands and tried to pry his fingers off, but he underestimated this man's grip. "You better answer me, boy, or I'm gonna beat an answer outta your sorry orphaned ass." Arvin clenched his teeth as he beat Desmond's hands, doing nothing but make him angrier. He tightened his hold on Arvin's shirt and pulled him up, nearly pulling the shirt off of Arvin's body, "Motherfucker—answer me!"

     From in the bathtub, Adaline heard her father's roar and looked towards the door with wide eyes. "You best answer me, boy!" She pieced together that Arvin hadn't stayed away and got out of the bathtub so quickly she was surprised she hadn't slipped and busted her head open on the tiles. Betty's robe hung up on the back of the door and Adaline slipped it on before running into her parents' bedroom, gasping and covering her mouth at the sight.

     Her father's back was facing her as he held Arvin by his shirt collar with one hand and by his hair with the other, yelling and spitting in his face, "Look at me when I'm talkin' to you, boy!"

     Adaline went over to the window besides the armchair in the room, grabbing onto her father's arm, "Stop! Daddy, you're hurtin' him!" Arvin didn't say anything but his face was reddening as he struggled to get out of Desmond's grip. He wouldn't admit it, but his face told it all; Arvin was slightly worried at the older man's strength and with his current state, his next actions were unpredictable.

     Desmond shoved Adaline away, making her fall back on the bed, "Stay down, girl." At the same sound of the rusty bed springs, Arvin's rage multiplied and he went for the side of Desmond's face instead of his hands that still had an iron grip on his shirt, stretching out the cotton material. The blow knocked Desmond backwards and made him release his grip on Arvin's shirt, letting him return to the ground.

     While Desmond was on the ground, his left nostril becoming bloody, Adaline looked first at him and then back out the window.

     She ran over and shouted towards Arvin, "Go! Go!"

     "What 'bout you? What's he gonna do to you?"

     Adaline shook her head, "Nothin', he's not gonna hurt me. But he'll kill you—leave—!"

     Desmond had recovered and stumbled back over, again pushing Adaline away as he attempted to reach out towards Arvin again but failed since the boy was out of reach, "You don't speak to my daughter, you hear me, boy? You don't think 'bout her, don't look at her—don't even breathe in her direction, you hear me? Huh, you hear me?"

     Adaline got up again and stayed behind her father but called out just the same, "For God's sake, Arvin, leave!" He stayed put and she begged him, for all three of them's sakes, "Leave!" His chest constricted with that same anger he had towards Eli, Tommy, and the other two as he looked at Desmond. But as much as Arvin wanted to force his way into the window and beat the man to a bloody pulp, he too realized this wasn't the right time. So, he listened to Adaline that time and turned and ran.

     Desmond yelled after him, "Yeah, you run away, boy! And you stay away!"

     "Daddy, c'mon, he's gone. Just go to sleep—"

     Adaline's father ignored her and called after Arvin's retreating figure, "Go back to those slums you belong to! Don't even look—!" He sighed, no longer getting the reaction he wanted. "Don't even look..."

     "C'mon, Daddy, let's get you into bed," Adaline told him as she helped him onto the bed as he kept mumbling his same thought, eventually becoming incoherent. His nose only had that initial spurt of blood so Adaline quickly wet a washcloth and wiped it away before taking off his work boots, setting them beside the dresser. With a hand on the lamp's pull chain, she whispered, "Night."

     He was lulling off to sleep and oblivious to his daughter beside him, "Don't even...don't..." Adaline softly sighed before turning off the lamp, exiting the room and silently shutting the door behind her. She returned to the bathroom to unstopper the bathtub drain and then into her own room to get changed. After, she went into the kitchen and pulled out the metal bucket and sponges from underneath the sink and began filling it with water.

     As the bucket filled, she glanced up at the crucifix hanging over the window over the sink. She could've laughed at the irony of how her parents preached the Lord's Word yet directly contradicted it within the walls of their own home. The Lord teaches to treat your neighbors as your own, and in public, sure, Betty and Desmond would be the best Goddamn saints this town's ever seen.

     But behind closed doors, they were as sinful as the Devil.

     Adaline sighed as she turned off the faucet and poured some dish soap into the bucket before going to the entryway and setting it on the floor. She kneeled on the ground beside it and plunged the sponge in, wringing it out before she got to scrubbing with only Jesus Christ watching.

do you see why i split the first two chapters into 2 now lol. aLSO I COULDNT WAIT ANY LONGER. I NEEDED TO UPDATE ASAP so here we are 🤗 & umm i may be bias but i already love arvin & addy & loOK how adorable tom is in that gif omG

& in case you couldn't tell the berkeleys are,,,,, a lot && DESMONDS ON ARVINS HITLIST NOW!!! THE ANGST!!!