hey soul sister, [ lorelai + alex ]

[lorelai anchors]

Tension in my house was high, as usual. I’d just gotten over being sick and the last thing I wanted was to feel all of those negative emotions. I mean, I loved my family, but I’d done wrong and everyone knew it. I wasn’t as welcome there anymore, and rightfully so. It was for this reason that, whenever I was feeling healthy enough, I spent as much time out of the house as possible. That wasn’t easy to do when my parents always thought I was off going to a party (when, on the contrary, the last party I went to was over a year ago), so I set myself a curfew that was such a time where all parties would be starting just as I was getting home. Things were safer that way and, let’s face it. I didn’t have much of a social life, anyways.

No, ever since the group disbanded, none of us have spoken to each other much. No one wanted to know who was sick and who wasn’t, no one wanted to take responsibility. I was one of the unlucky ones, but I deserved it. I just had to keep telling myself that I got what I deserved and that was that. I’d get through life, the few years I had left, easier that way. But due to the loss of all of my “friends” and the fact that I was out of school for the past six months, my social life was virtually nonexistent. Not that I was complaining. I mean, I liked people, don’t get me wrong, but I was very easily frightened, so I had pretty dreadful social skills. Making friends was not my strong point and I had every intention of spending my Senior year out of the spot light.

Just taking it one day at a time.

Lima had very little to do for entertainment even when you were with friends, but by yourself the lack of enjoyment reached an all new record. I mean, there was always buying ice cream or getting coffee, but honestly I didn’t much like to do that. So I made my way to the mall and decided to check out the one store I had any interest in whatsoever; the music store.

I was pretty big on music, honestly. I mean, I wasn’t necessarily good, but I loved to play; the banjo, primarily, and the piano. I was also learning the ukulele, though I wasn’t too polished with that instrument yet. I entered the store, pushing a brunette curl neatly behind my ear and looking around. There wasn’t a plethora of people but, then again, this was Lima; I couldn’t expect a crowd. I didn’t like crowds, anyways. I bit my lip gently and began to flip through a pile of CDs, browsing through. I’d have to find something of interest, wouldn’t I?

[alexander logan]

I'd pretty much had it with being in the toy shop now. I'd been sat on the floor for over two hours while Charlie walked around the shop, finding things that she wanted or things that she didn't know the name of. I'd then have to wait for her to come back to me before telling her what it was and then breaking the news that the toy was too expensive for me to buy at this moment in time. I knew she wouldn't cry. She always just said 'okay dadda' and then went to put the toy back. I sat up straighter when I saw Charlie come back with a toy phone by her ear, blabbing into it in 'baby language'. She knew what a phone was, she spoke to Seth on my mobile enough times. I'd never phoned him, she'd done it herself. I had a picture of him on the caller ID and she'd know it was Seth. She'd then phone him up and I'd come in to find her blabbing to him. She'd phoned my mother once, though. That wasn't good. I smiled at her when she stopped in front of me. She was looking at me while talking on the phone. Then she did the cutest thing ever; she rolled her eyes and held the phone out to me. "Seth want you." she told me, smiling as she said Seth's name. I took the phone from her and put it to my ear. "Seth? Yes?" I pretended, playing her game. "Oh? You think we should leave the toy shop now and go buy some things that daddy needs? I think that sounds good too, Sethy." I smiled at Charlie and she looked disappointed. I gave the phone back to her. "Seth bad." she said before pressing a button which obviously meant she'd 'hung up' on him. I stood up as she went to take the phone back.

As soon as Charlie returned, she grabbed my hand and I bent down and picked her up. She put her arms around my neck and clung on as we made our way out of the shop. I knew I should have invested in a pushchair but I preferred carrying Charlie around. I felt safer knowing that she was with me and nobody could come and take her from the pushchair. Even if my arms did start to hurt, she could walk for a while. She loved to walk and when she could, she would. I knew that walking around the toy shop had tired her out a little, though. I walked past the café which had a delicious looking chocolate muffin in the window. "How about we go and get a CD that daddy needs and then go have a nice, big chocolate muffin in the special café?" I asked her. She pulled away from hugging my neck to grin widely at me. I chuckled and then sighed, walking towards the music store. I walked straight to the place I was going to get the CD from and then looked at Charlie. "Okay, Charlie, we can't wander around in here. This isn't a toy shop, this is a grown up shop." I told her before setting her down gently on the floor. "Stay there." I told her, smiling.

Charlie had other ideas, though. She ran off and made her way to where Lorelai was. She ran straight into her legs and wrapped her arms around them. "Playing hide and seek. Dadda count." she told Lore quietly before releasing her legs and walking around to her front. She looked up at Lore and held her arms out. "You hold." she said, nodding her head. I got the CD and then smiled, looking down to where Charlie was. "Daddy's going to buy-" Charlie wasn't there. I frowned deeply and then shook my head. "Charlie?" I turned around, biting my lip hard when I didn't see her. "Charlotte Logan stop messing around." I said sternly, walking out of the aisle and then looking around. "Oh sh- fu- crap" I ran my hand through my hair and then walked around the shop, hoping to see her brown curls somewhere. I groaned when I couldn't and then saw what looked like a familiar brown head of hair. I walked towards the person who she was stood with, hoping it was Charlie.


outfits <3

[lorelai anchors]

I wasn’t sure how Lima, Ohio could have nothing cool except for this music shop, but I was glad it did. I mean, it didn’t have banjo strings so I had to drive to Akron whenever I needed new ones, but that was a small price to pay, really. I was going to blow all of my savings in this store, I was sure of it. Not that I really minded. I was getting kicked out of the house at graduation but I didn’t much mind because I’d have everything I really cared about; my dresses, my music, and my banjo. I didn’t really need anything else. I didn’t care about my own life so shelter and food and medication were optional, no matter how terrible that sounded. I continued to flip through the CD piles, smiling to myself and picking out a few that I knew I’d definitely want.

I felt something small collide with my legs and, confused, I looked down to the ground. There was a small child, one I’d never seen before in my life, clinging onto me as she mentioned something about playing hide and seek with her father. I smiled -- she was adorable. I’d always loved kids, ever since I babysat for a neighbor once when I was thirteen. They were so small, so innocent. They hadn’t had enough time in their lives to make mistakes like I had, and they had a chance to live. I always wanted a child of my own, but I would never have one. First off, I’d probably never get married or, hell, even have sex because of my disease and the fact that no man would want to catch it. Second, even if by some miracle it did happen, we’d probably never have children because I’d most likely die before the child’s tenth birthday and neither of us would want to chance passing my disease onto the kid. But I loved them all the same, and I just melted whenever they were around.

I laughed softly when she held her arms up to try and get me to hold her. “Oh, goodness. I guess no one ever told you about stranger danger,” I grinned, bending down to her level and placing my hands on her sides. “So, you say you’re playing hide and seek with your daddy? I don’t think he’d want to play that with you in here.” I knew I was safe, of course, so I hoisted her up into my arms and shifted her so that she was secure. I began to look around, then, for her father.

Sure enough, a rather young looking man seemed to be searching for someone, and I heard him say a female’s name; perhaps he was the father. Slowly, I approached the man and paused in front of him. “Excuse me, but… Is this who you’re looking for?” I laughed quietly, turning to the child in my arms and reached out to tickle her stomach. “This adorable little bundle of joy seems to think she was playing hide and seek, but something tells me that she didn’t have your consent for that.”