The Best Deceptions

“Are you sure we should have left them alone?” Lilah asked as she picked up a magazine, she grimaced and put it back on the shelf. We were waiting in line at the checkout.

“I’m not sure.” I laughed, she smiled.

“Oh dear, I’m gonna have to take Bam to the emergency room in a place where I have no idea what they’re saying.”

“I doubt Ville would let him hurt himself.”

“You’re lucky, you got the responsible one.”

I laughed, “So when are you guys leaving?”

“Next week.” She said, disappointment evident in the way she spoke.

“You don’t want to leave do you?”

She shook her head, “I just worry that when we get back he’ll go back to being the guy everyone sees on tv. He’s not like that with me.”

“I doubt he will, he’s crazy over you. Don’t worry about it.”

She stared at her feet, “I'm crazy over him too, it would break my heart if things changed though.”

“There’s times I wonder whether me and Ville can raise Ada or not. It’s just scary, this isn’t just going to affect me or him it’s gonna affect Ada.”

“We both should stop bitching, we have perfectly good guys.” She smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

“You’re right.” I said as I got the items out of the shopping cart and laid them on the counter.

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I walked into the house, my hands full of bags.

“Helloo?” I asked, I as I sat the bags down and kicked the door closed.

No answer. Lilah looked at me half scared. I looked in the living room, no one, walked upstairs, checked the bedrooms, no one, went into the bathrooms, no one. Last I went into Ada’s room. It was powder pink, Bam lay asleep face first on the bed, pink paint streaked his hair and his butt had two circles of pink paint on each cheek. Lilah smiled and pointed to the chair. Ville was asleep in the chair, his hair had pink through it like Bam’s, his clothes were spotted pink and a little puppy laid in his lap.

It was probably the cutest thing I’d ever seen. Lilah smiled then cleared her throat loudly, Bam jumped awake. He made a loud thump as he collided with the floor.

“I like your hair.” Lilah said, Bam smiled goofily. He stood up and walked out of the room with her.

I walked over to Ville. He was sleeping peacefully. I ran my hand down the side of his face. His eyes opened slowly. He smiled and stretched. The puppy’s eyes became huge as Ville moved.

“You got a dog?” I asked as I petted the top of it’s head.

“Yeah, I found a hypoallergenic one. It’s a Portuguese water dog.” He smiled sleepily before picking the small dog up.

I kissed his forehead, “Ada is going to love it.”

“I like it too but what do you think about the room?” He asked.

I looked around, it was perfect. The furniture was white and the walls were pink in Ada’s perfect girly little way.

“It’s okay, too girly though. She’ll love it.”

He grimaced, “I felt so weird painting this.”

I heard a scream, Bam ran into the room holding his head.

“This paint won’t come out of my hair! I’m going to have to shave my head.” His voice was panicked. Lilah walked into the room, a huge grin on her face.

“You boys are so smart.” She said, earning a dirty look from Bam.

Ville’s eyes got huge, “I can’t cut my hair!”

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6 AM and we’re in an airport. Ville looked around self-consciously. I fought back the urge to laugh. He cut his hair last night and has been wearing a beanie or a hat ever since.

I squeezed his hand as people with camera’s surrounded us. He paid them no attention and kept walking. They shouted demeaning things, trying desperately for a rise out of him but he was better than that. Then it really hit me at how bad what my mother said bothered him. He can ignore people screaming ’Are you on cocaine?, Who’s that girl with you? Why aren’t you with Jonna? Has your band broken up? at him and never once say a word out of line and then my mother puts me and Ada down and he showed his anger.

He squeezed my hand and kept walking past them.