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The rest of the afternoon passed in silence, as Alana and Margot slept.
Eventually, as demanded by Applesauce, they woke up to paws prodding their prone bodies and a tongue in their faces and mouths.
Between spitting out dog saliva and fur as well as trying to wriggle out from under the perpetrator’s insistent road block of a body, Alana and Margot both nearly fell out of bed. The covers on the bed saved Alana from what would have been an unfortunate injury to add to her pre-existing ones, but Margot toppled out at the last minutes, hair askew and clothes all wrinkled.
Alana snorted, as she righted herself and got out of bed unsurely, before marvelling, “Oh, Margot! I feel so much better, I could almost become an athlete!”
Margot returned the snort, “I wouldn’t encourage it. Knowing your luck, you’d probably trip and fall as soon as you started to run! Then how would you take care of yourself with a twisted spine?”
At that remark, a pillow soared through the air hard enough to return Margot’s head to the floor with an audible impact. Alana’s eyes went wide, and Margot thought she would be anxious at the thought of Margot possibly injured, until an impossibly joyful laugh rang through the bedroom, and by extension, the whole Mansion.
Margot scowled. “Are you trying to bring our mansion down?!” Alana’s laugh, reduced to giggles now, made her hiccup, as she replied, “N-n-no, d-dear. Just trying to r-remember your f-face when the pillow h-hit you!” Alana’s laughter returned in full force, as Margot finally got off the floor, almost falling back down as the pain in her abdomen and right thigh, previously forgotten, seared through her.
Luckily, Alana didn’t notice. However, Margot felt something seeping down her leg and cringed. She must have re-opened the cut on her thigh, because Alana was looking at the blood dripping out of her pant leg with concern.
Margot smiled and waved it off, “Nothing to worry about dear, just a particular nasty shaving cut on my leg. I’ll bandage it properly if it worries you.”
Alana looked relieved, “Oh, please do. I don’t want your blood all over my tiles and carpet.”
Margot adopted a scandalised expression, “Your tiles? I’ll have you know that we share this mansion, and by extension, the carpets and tiles. And before that, I shared it with my loathsome brother, whom, suffer in hell, we took care of.” Alana and Margot both made a solemn expression and put their hands over their hearts, as they both imagined Mason suffering in some sort of hell.
When the moment had passed, Margot and Alana linked hands, walking to the dining room together. Alana sat down in a chair as Margot went into the kitchen to clean up the shattered plate that had lain neglected. Margot returned, smiling. She had an idea, while clearing the plate, to help Alana recover fully from the day’s trauma.
Alana looked at Margot’s absurdly wide smile with a hint of apprehension. “What are you planning, Margot?” Alana asked with a slight warning tone.
Margot’s smile widened past the parameters that physics dictated, and had started to become quite frightening. She swooped down, for that is how Alana saw it, and kissed Alana on the mouth, while simultaneously picking her up from the chair and pushing her towards the door.
Alana was past worried at that point. Who the hell was this person and where in the world was Margot?!
Margot’s smile relaxed, as if she had read her thoughts. “Go take Applesauce for a walk. You said you were feeling better, and I’m sure that Applesauce would like to spend time with you,” Margot ordered.
Alana was beyond confused. “Margot, what in the world is going on? First your face stretches into a nightmare and now you’re kicking me out of the house?”
Margot nodded and kept pushing her out the door. Alana knew she was being irrational; there was no way that this wasn’t Margot, but her behaviour was scaring her a little, so Alana wanted to prove that it was her fiancé.
“What was the first thing I said to you, after introducing myself for the first time in the stables nine months ago?”
Margot rolled her eyes. What in the world was wrong with Alana? She answered, despite herself, “You said, and I quote, ‘I’m not sure if this is my entrance.’”
Alana perked up at that, smiling and kissing Margot on the cheek before heading out, calling Applesauce to her. Margot yelled at the retreating forms in front of her, “Don’t come back for a couple of hours, I have something I need to do!”
Margot sighed heavily and closed the front doors behind her and locked them, for good measure. Due to a sharp pain in her leg, she remembered that she had to take care of her bleeding thigh. The blood had started seeping increasingly by that time, so she hurriedly got her first aid supplies, cleaned the cut and re-bandaged it.
On the other hand, her left thigh had almost scabbed over completely, which was a good sign. Now Margot didn’t have to worry about that one opening accidentally. She washed her hands and left the bedroom, before going into the kitchen and planning a meal that Alana would never forget.
In the good way. Not the “Hannibal just fed me people” kind of way. Margot felt disgusted at the thought. She was glad that she had never been invited to eat at that monster’s table. If Margot had, she would have taken the people food and made Lecter choke on “them”.
Margot could imagine his victims getting their revenge from beyond the grave as they choked the life out of their killer in the form of a culinary appetiser.
Shaking the somewhat pleasing thought out of her head of Hannibal Lecter choking to death, Margot was determined to surprise Alana and hopefully get her to start healing from “the visit” that had bombed a little over two weeks ago.
Whilst on the topic, Margot started wishing that Alana’s parents would just die in a car crash. With little bits of glass sticking out of them as they were rammed through the windshield, struggling for breath, as they found that their bodies were shattered, like Alana’s world had been. That would serve them right, Margot thought.
She felt nothing but contempt for the people who called themselves “parents” to her gorgeous Alana. But since she didn’t have the same resources as her brother had cultivated, she couldn’t very well make them disappear.
Margot sighed in unhappiness. The two of them had been doing that a lot, lately, Margot noted. She vowed to change that.
An hour and a half later, the table was set with candles and expensive wine, while Margot was busy bustling around in the kitchen, waiting for her trays of salmon to finish cooking. She and Alana both had a fondness for salmon, even more so than they had for each other.
They would probably kill each other if it was between them and the last piece of salmon on earth. Margot hoped it would never come to that, although if it ever did, she could always make herself feel better by eating the salmon that she killed Alana for.
The oven dinged, indicating that the salmon that Margot had been salivating over was ready. At that moment, Alana’s voice rang out asking for Margot and why in all of hell did she have to kick her out for two hours?
Margot smiled. It was totally worth it once Alana saw what she had planned. A romantic dinner just for the two of them, Applesauce definitely excluded!
Alana walked into the kitchen, her nose in the air. She looked Margot straight in the eye and told her, “You better have made some salmon for me, Mar.” Her voice had a hint of steel attached to it.
The use of Margot’s despised pet name did not go unnoticed. Alana was obviously irritated, her back playing up, no doubt, and her smelling the salmon had only made it worse.
Margot chose not to fire off Alana’s hated pet name, and replied sweetly, “Of course, dear. Only the best for my love.” The sarcasm was lost on Alana as she beamed in delight. She loved salmon. Come to think of it, she would totally kill Margot for the last piece of salmon on earth.
Smiling widely in a fair imitation of Margot’s own earlier nightmarish smile, Alana walked into the dining room, gasping in shock. She had no idea that Margot had been planning such an exquisite dinner. And a romantic one at that, Alana thought, giddily.
She turned to Margot, who was busy handling the trays of salmon, and kissed her mouth with full force. Margot’s eyes went wide as she narrowly avoided dropping the trays to the floor and ruining their dinner. Knowing Alana, Margot would have been blamed for ruining her “precious salmon”.
Returning the kiss briefly, Margot disentangled from Alana and set about cutting the salmon into sizeable pieces, placing them on each plate and then pouring the wine.
She then pulled out Alana’s chair for her, who sat down and waited for Margot to do the same. Before Margot tucked herself in, Alana got out of her seat and almost ran to Margot, who was sitting opposite, to hug her tightly and kiss her multiple times. “You have no idea how good this makes me feel, Mar. I love it and I love you so much! You make me the happiest girl in the world!” Alana almost sobbed as she exclaimed.
Margot rolled her eyes at the pet name, but put it down to Alana’s current excited mood. Margot returned the kisses and hugs awkwardly from her seated position, as Alana composed herself and walked demurely to her seat.
Margot raised an eyebrow, “I take it you approve of my surprise?”
Alana raised an eyebrow in return, “You think, dear?”
The sarcasm prompted a shared laugh from the two women. They then dug into the salmon and drank the wine without any further words until they were done, aside from the occasional “more salmon!” and “wine!”
After dinner was consumed and cleared away, Margot and Alana removed themselves to the couch with another bottle of the wine they had shared at dinner.
Alana was obviously drunk, by the amount of kisses she was peppering Margot with, but Margot didn’t mind in the least. Anything was better than the sadness that had been let loose this afternoon in the kitchen.
Margot hissed quietly, as Alana touched her abdomen, itching to go lower. Just as Margot couldn’t take the pain any longer, Alana rolled off her, facing away, shoulders shaking slightly.
Margot was confused by this sudden turn of events, although mood swings were common with Alana when she was drunk. She touched Alana’s shoulder, and confirmed, along with the sniffing, that her fiancé was crying.
Margot cupped Alana’s chin in her hand and turned to face her. Tears were cascading down Alana’s beautiful face and she could barely stand it. She had an idea what this was about, however, and knew that she and Alana needed to have a proper talk.
Margot sighed, “Alana. Please tell me what’s wrong.” As Alana shook her head, Margot continued, “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me, sweetheart. Let me help you. Don’t start shutting me out again.” Alana nodded and tried to compose herself.
“I’m feeling horrible. My parents hate me. I”- her shaking started again- “I… Why do they hate m-me, Mar-Margot? I thought f-for s-s-sure they would a-accept us. Now, they won’t even consider me their d-daughter! I feel like I did something wrong. What d-did I d-do wrong?!!”
Margot tried to think of the best way to comfort her love. She spoke slowly, “You did nothing wrong, Alana. You did the best you could. It was up to your parents to accept you. You could never have made them do it, if they chose not to.
I know, it’s hard. I really do, but sometimes, you just need to stand back and look at it from a different perspective. No one is blaming you for anything.”
Margot looked at Alana right in the eyes, before adding, “I don’t blame you. You shouldn’t blame yourself, even though you do! Trust me when I tell you that you need to take it one day at a time. We will work through this together.”
Alana had stopped crying by now. She wiped her eyes, before starting to giggle. Margot’s brow creased in confusion. She didn’t find the situation humorous at all. Alana was definitely drunk.
Alana coughed out, “M-my parents are stupid dirt bags. No! That’s an insult to dirt! And bags!” Margot startled, as Alana yelled, whilst crying again, “I’M SORRY DIRT AND BAGS! I DIDN’T MEAN TO INSULT YOU! PLEASE DON’T BE ANGRY WITH ME!”
Margot chuckled a little, which earned her a glare from Alana. Margot laughed harder at Alana’s face and the fact that her expression made her look like she was about to have a tantrum on the level of a three year old.
Alana yelled at Margot, “This isn’t funny, Mar-Mar… Marmot! Hags and Bert are important to the enviro…environ… the grass, okay? I’m going to bed and tomorrow I’m going to ask the bag dirt to put my parents in time out!”
Alana stood up and then came crashing back onto Margot, as her coordination was thrown into the wind with her drunk antics. Margot was beyond hysterics at that point. She fell off the couch, rolling with laughter. She got up after ten minutes, slowly, so to not exacerbate her thigh and abdomen. She reached out to Alana, only to find her drooling and asleep. Margot smirked lightly, as she picked up Alana and carried her up the stairs to their bedroom before tucking her in and joining her.
She felt that this night had been more or less a success. Alana had thoroughly enjoyed the dinner. She wasn’t sure what to think of her behaviour on the couch, though. She was a little concerned, but she also thought that Alana should get drunk more often. She was a riot!
On the more serious note of the breakdown, Margot frowned. It was good that Alana got a lot of aggression out of her system, even if this was only the start of things. She wished that she didn’t have to be inebriated for that to occur, though. Margot briefly considered going to therapy for both their sakes. That would help Alana heal better than she could on her own. She resolved to deal with it in the morning.
Margot could only do so much to support her, after all, and she had her own issues, too. She hoped that Alana never found out. She couldn’t estimate what her reaction would be, but she could imagine scenarios.
Alana crying as she found Margot bleeding in their room. Alana being furious for endangering herself. Alana ending their engagement and never wanting to see her again. Alana….
Margot tried to stop her tears from falling, with minimal success. She got up quietly, as she made her way to her secret drawer, taking her supplies and leaving, closing the door softly behind her.
She needed control. She wasn’t thinking straight, but she would be when her blood was flowing freely and her tension was dissipating.
She would make things right again. She just had to keep coping. For Alana’s sake. For both of them, lest there be no more Margot Verger or Alana Bloom. The thought was too horrific to bear. This, however, only strengthened her resolve.
Margot’s only aim in life was to do what was best for her beloved. Even if it killed her.