Scream Me a Dream

Friday October 1, 2010
7:30 am

Soya opened her eyes slowly when she heard a curse reach her ears, burying herself deeper into the covers as she scanned the room, she saw Ville sitting on the side of the bed rubbing his knee.

“What’d you do?” she asked softly, causing him to turn to look at her, before he leaned down to kiss her.

“Slammed my knee in the dresser, it happens.” He said with a shrug as he kissed her again. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“That’s twice now.” She teased, lifting her hand to cup his cheek, feeling the tips of his wet hair. “Where are you off too?” she asked, skimming her lips against his.

“I have to go to the studio, but you’re making it quite difficult.”

“I’m glad.” Soya said as their lips moved together, Ville moving off the side to the bed to crawl on top of her so she was lying on her back.

“Jesse’s going to kill me if I’m late Soya; I insisted we meet this early.” Ville murmured against her lips, nearly groaning when he felt Soya’s soft hands crawl underneath his shirt, her fingers running up his stomach.

“You’re older, don’t you have superiority?” She teased, pulling away and biting her bottom lip as she grinned.

“I do.” Ville agreed with his own grin. “I used it to get his ass out of bed at seven A.M on a Friday.”

“Yes, you did,” another voice said clearly amused. “So are you ready or what?”

They both turned, Soya burying her face in Ville’s chest as she caught sight of Jesse Valo standing at the doorway of the bedroom.

“Oh, right, did I forget to mention he was here?” Ville asked with a teasing lilt to his voice as he climbed off the bed.

“You might have.” Soya said glaring at him as she sat up, bringing her knees up to her chest as she smiled at Jesse. “Morning Jesse.”

“Morning.” Jesse said with a yawn. “How are you, love?”

“I’m fine darling.” Soya grinned, causing Jesse to smile back. “I’ve been better,” she admitted with a shrug. “You? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Your boyfriend has been keeping me busy in the studio.” Jesse said, gesturing towards his brother. “He’s a slave driver.”

“I can only imagine.” Soya humored, causing Ville to glare at both of them as he searched for his Converse. “They’re under the bed Ville.”

“What?” Ville asked.

“Your Converse, they’re under the bed next to mine.”

“Ah, thank you.” Ville said kneeling down; sure enough finding his shoes sitting next to hers on the ground underneath the bed.

“Mama called me last night.” Jesse said, before turning to look at Soya. “She wants to have dinner with us tonight.”

Soya raised an eyebrow. “Just me and you or is Ville invited?”

“Well since we’re her favorites I’m assuming just us.” Jesse said, “But I guess we can bring Ville along and feed him.”

“You’re both hilarious.” Ville said rolling his eyes.

“I miss Anita, I haven’t seen her in a while. Can we go Ville?” Soya asked

“Of course we can, that and I’m sure you’re sick of cooking for me.” Ville grinned.

“He can’t drive, he can’t cook, he’s a moody son of a bitch; seriously Soya what do you see in my brother?” Jesse asked, raising an eyebrow towards his brother.

“Oh,” Soya waved her hand dismissively towards Ville as she looked at Jesse. “Ville knows I’m only with him for his looks and money, once those go, so do I.”

Jesse laughed. “Keep her Ville, I’ve always liked her.”

Ville grinned. “Yes, I suppose I will, I’ve already trained her.”

“Jerk!” Soya laughed, pushing him away as he leaned down to kiss her.

“I kid love, now kiss me before I leave for the day.”

Soya sighed. “Fine,” she leaned in, pecking his lips lightly and ready to pull back only for Ville to place his hand on the back of her neck, keeping her in place as he deepened the kiss.

“Ugh.” Jesse groaned. “I’ll wait downstairs, but hurry it up, you promised me breakfast.”

“Remind me again that I love my little brother.”

“Oh, so much.” Soya said against his lips. “Go.”

Ville nodded, kissing her once more before starting to leave the room, only to turn back to look at her as he leaned his shoulder against the door jamb. “What are you up to today?”

Soya shrugged. “Probably cleaning up around here, I should probably figure out how to get back to Sipoo to get my car.”

“It’s out front,” Ville assured. “I think Nathan dropped it off a couple of hours ago. Soya I think…”

“I’m going to call him.” Soya nodded. “I just want to process it first, but I’ll probably see if he’s free for lunch.”

Ville nodded. “All right.”

“Um…” Soya bit down on her lip, looking at the bedspread before looking back up at him. “Do you want me to drop lunch off for you and Jesse later?”

“If you’d like to.” Ville said slowly. “But if you just want to stop by the studio to talk, that’s fine too.”

Soya groaned, resting her forehead on her knees. “You know me too well.”

“I know you don’t want to interrupt us without a legitimate reason.” Ville admitted. “But with everything going on with you and your father, if you want to come by and just sit and think, that’s fine; we have a pretty damn comfortable couch in the studio. And when we’re done we can head to my parents’ house.”

“Ville! Are you ready yet?!” Jesse yelled from downstairs.

“I’ll be down in a minute!” Ville yelled back, rolling his eyes at his brother’s impatience, before turning back to Soya. “But if you insist on having a reason, call me and I’ll give you lunch orders.”

Soya laughed. “Thank you.”

“Now go back to sleep, I’ll talk to you later, all right?”

Soya nodded. “All right.”

“Soya.” Ville sighed, watching her.

“I’m going to call Ville,” Soya laughed. “I promise, I’m not going to spend my day torturing myself with doubts. You were right last night, I need to talk to him and I need to know the facts, I can’t just assume.”

“I enjoy being right.”

“Don’t get used to it.” Soya said with a roll of her eyes, as she lay back down on the bed, covering back up. “Go; let me sleep for a couple more hours.”

Ville nodded. “Fine, I’ll see you later.” He said, blowing her a kiss causing her to laugh before he went down the stairs.

“Finally.” Jesse said, handing Ville his backpack.

“Yes, yes, let’s go.”

“You owe me…”

“I know breakfast,” Ville said with a roll of his eyes as he followed Jesse out of the tower, making sure his door was locked before getting into Jesse’s car. “You’re very annoying.”

Jesse grinned at his brother. “It’s in the little brother handbook.”

“Ah, so that’s what you read religiously when we were younger.” Ville teased as Jesse started down the street.

“So, how’s Soya doing?”

Ville raised an eyebrow. “She’s fine, why?”

Jesse shrugged. “She said she’d been better, I figured something happened.”

Ville hesitated, not wanting to share what Soya had found out that night, it really wasn’t his information to share, and he knew it had been a large step for Soya herself to share it with him, when she usually kept her problems to herself. “She had a rough night.” Ville finally said with a shrug. “She’s having some family issues.”

“When isn’t that girl having family issues?” Jesse asked, looking at Ville before focusing back on the road.

Ville stared at his brother for a minute before blinking and giving a sigh. Soya and Jesse had quite the love hate relationship ever since they’d first met. More love than anything else, Ville thought in amusement.

When Soya had been hanging around Ville, sometimes she’d stay at the Valo home to spend time with him when he watched over Jesse if their parents were out of the house. But because Ville was at times a pushover when it came to his little brother, his mother would put Soya in charge of making sure Jesse went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Of course Jesse hated the fact that he was being told what to do, let alone by someone who was only three years older. Thus became their love hate relationship, Jesse respected Soya, but loved getting under her skin. While Soya loved the little monster, as she had dubbed Jesse, but hated when he tested her patience. Jesse was one of the few people who could turn Soya red with anger at a snap of his fingers or a few careless words.

“Jesse.” Ville sighed.

“Sorry, sorry.” Jesse grinned, before frowning. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine.” Ville assured. “She will be anyway; I think dinner with mama and daddy will be good for her tonight, she likes talking to mama.”

“They’ve always been close.” Jesse agreed, before grinning at his older brother. “You have no idea how ecstatic mama would be to have Soya as a daughter in law.”

Ville snorted. “Mama would be ecstatic if either one of us settled down at this point; you know she was hinting at grandchildren the other day.”

“Was she?” Jesse laughed.

“She assured me she wouldn’t even be upset if Soya and I weren’t married and had a child. I heard dad laughing in the background.”

Jesse snorted. “Admit it, you and Soya would have such pretty looking babies.”

Ville shrugged, before chewing on the inside of his cheek, as he imagined Soya round with their child, oddly enjoying the image, agreeing silently that Soya and he would make some pretty fine looking children.

“You totally agree.” Jesse laughed, parking in front of a small café where Ville would buy him breakfast.

“I’m keeping silent.” Ville muttered, getting out of the car and following his brother into the café.

XxxxxxX

Soya hadn’t been able to go back to sleep once Ville had left, she’d found it near impossible once her mind started racing with a million little things, most of those things involving her father and his words echoing in her mind. So as she had promised Ville, she had called her father.

The conversation had been short, neither of them wanting to talk about something so serious over the phone, they agreed on a restaurant to meet in for lunch, before she’d hung up and started cleaning the bedroom.

She sorted through the clothing and items that littered the floor, making sure she put all the dirty clothes in a pile and hanging or folding all the clean clothes. Four days of having stayed with Ville, both of their clothes started to accumulate. Somehow half of her belongings ended up at Ville’s, from shoes to her pajamas, to some of her jewelry and makeup. She laughed as she thought about the cabinet under the sink in the bathroom Ville had dubbed hers, saying that she could put all her womanly products in there and he wouldn’t open it.

Of course it had gone both ways, as Ville stayed at her flat just as much as Soya stayed at his tower. She cringed as she thought about the disaster that was her room that awaited her when she went back to her flat. Once she had the clothes sorted and put away, she grabbed Ville’s duffle that he generally used as his overnight bag and stuffed their dirty laundry in it, wondering if Anita would mind if she did a bit of laundry when they went over in the evening.

Deciding that Anita wouldn’t mind, but insist, she set the duffle outside the bedroom door before turning back to the room to make the bed. Soya couldn’t help the smile that formed on her lips as she smoothed down the Knight Rider comforter and arranged the pillows at the headboard.

Once she was pleased and thought that the room was clean, she grabbed the duffle and went down the stairs, finding her coat and purse still sitting in front of the door where Ville had told her he’d thrown them. Putting her coat over her pajamas, she made sure she had everything before stepping out of the house and locking the door behind her.

The trip back to her flat was uneventful; she parked in front of her apartment building, grabbing the duffle so she could fill it up with the dirty clothes she had in her flat before making her way inside. Once inside her flat, she went straight to her room, and turned on her iPod, wanting to drown out her thoughts and focus on lyrics rather than her lunch with her father, as she started sorting through the clothing she and Ville had accumulated on the ground.

An hour and a half later she was sitting on the bed, staring at her newly cleared floor; wondering if she should stop procrastinating and start getting ready for lunch. She’d cleared the floor, sorted the clothing having filled the duffle, she’d made her bed which hadn’t been made in nearly a week and had even washed the dishes that had been sitting in the sink.

Sighing, she got up and grabbed her towel heading towards the bathroom. After a quick shower, she brushed out her hair, wincing at the knots she pulled, deciding to leave her hair down and allowing it to air dry. She walked into her room, checking the time and seeing that she had about half an hour before she had to leave to meet her father.

She changed into a pair of black skinny jeans and a burgundy off the shoulder tunic that fell mid-thigh. She sat on her bed, pulling on a pair of tan suede ankle boots before going to her desk and pulling out her small jewelry box, searching for a ring.

Smiling lightly, she pulled out a gold banded ring with a green sapphire that sat in the middle surrounded by smaller diamonds: A gift from her father when she had turned twenty one. For some reason her father had always sent her rings on her birthdays, no note ever came with them, just a small black box with a ring nestled inside.

Putting it on her ring finger, she grabbed her burgundy messenger bag, going into the living room and placing her laptop and charger that sat on the coffee table into the bag, along with her wallet and cell phone. Making sure she had everything, she grabbed the duffle from her room, before taking a light brown beanie off the bed and placing it on her head, checking the mirror to make sure it was straight.

She found herself staring into the mirror arranging the beanie a million times, not being able to decide if she wanted the flower detail that was on the brim to the left or to the right, before inwardly cursing herself as she realized what she was doing.

“You’re distracting yourself.” She said to herself. “You have to talk to him.”

Chewing on her lip, she grabbed the duffle off the floor and made herself leave her flat, despite the butterflies that were starting to appear in her stomach at the prospect of having the dreaded conversation with her father.

She’d made it to the small café her father had suggested in record time; she scanned the tables to see if her father had already arrived. Not finding him, she decided to sit at a small booth at the side of the café, wanting to be away from prying eyes if anyone recognized the ex-politician and his daughter.

Setting her messenger bag next to her, she set her hands on the table, playing with her ring as she looked out the window, chewing her lip as she waited.

“Hi.”

Soya blinked and looked up to see her father smiling lightly at her. “Hi.” She breathed as he took a seat across from her.

“Are you all right?”

Soya nodded slowly, before turning the nod into a shake of her head. “No. No, I’m not.”

“I’m sorry Soya.” Jonah said, placing his hand on top of hers, only to tilt his head as he caught sight of her ring. “I remember that.”

Soya swallowed as she looked down at the ring. “You sent it to me on my birthday.”

Jonah furrowed his brow. “Your twenty first, correct?”

Soya nodded slowly, surprised he’d remembered. “Yes.”

“It was my mother’s.” He said tapping it lightly with a light smile.

“It was?”

“Mmm.” He nodded. “Are you thirsty?”

“Not really.” She said slowly as he gave a small nod.

“She left her jewelry to my father when she passed, as he was the one that gave her most of it; ‘My jewelry is to be returned to its rightful owner’ was what was in her will, my father got a kick out of it. Apparently my mother always felt like the jewelry my father gave her was just a loan, especially the ones he gave her when he screwed up.”

“How did you end up with it?” Soya asked.

Jonah shook his head. “I didn’t.”

Soya blinked, before furrowing her brow in confusion. “What?”

“I didn’t end up with it.” Jonah said a small smile appearing on his features. “I’ve told you before, my father adored you Soya. When he passed, he left you my mother’s jewelry, but he had very specific instructions: I was to give you a piece every year for your birthday, until you received it all, as that’s probably what my mother would have done if she was still alive.” Jonah shrugged. “I assume when I pass and there’s no one to give it to you anymore, you’ll receive all the pieces.”

Soya’s breath caught in her throat and the words ‘when I pass’ floated through her head in big bold letters. “How can you talk about it like that?”

“My parents died a long time ago Soya, I loved them, but it’s a lot easier to talk about them now than it was before.”

Soya shook her head. “I mean about you, how can you say that so blithely about yourself?”

“You mean about my passing?” Jonah asked.

“Yes!”

Jonah chuckled. “Soya, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m dying.”

“But I haven’t!” She cried. “Oh god.” She said placing her head in her hands and blinking down at the table.

“Soya, sweetheart.” Jonah said placing a hand on her arm, “Come on now. Look at me.”

Soya lifted her head, and caught his gaze, feeling her heart rate triple “I just…”

“Hey, now.” Jonah chuckled. “Breathe for a minute.”

Soya did as she was told sucking in air and trying to calm her heart, keeping her eyes on her father’s.

“There you go.” He said kindly as he felt her pulse calm considerably.

“You’re sick.” She stated quietly.

Jonah nodded. “I am. Aida told me that she let it slip on accident.”

“When did you find out?” Soya asked

Jonah blew out a breath, dropping his hand from hers. “About eight years ago, a bit before Aida was born.”

“Eight…what?!” Soya asked staring at her father in disbelief.

“High blood pressure.” Jonah shrugged. “I didn’t think much about it, I had a stressful job, short temper, bad family health history. My doctors warned me that if I didn’t slow down and take care of myself, it would affect me.”

“How?”

Jonah cleared his throat as he looked away from his daughter, as he thought about how to explain it, before looking back at her. “Slowly but surely it started to affect my kidneys. Again I didn’t do much about it; I didn’t know my actions were affecting my body until about three years ago when I went to refill my pain prescription with my doctor.”

“It’s bad.” Soya stated, knowing that if anything affected a person’s kidneys and it wasn’t caught soon enough it was bad.

“Yes, it is.” Jonah said with a nod. “I have Chronic Kidney Disease.”

“How bad is it?” Soya asked quietly.

Jonah chuckled lightly. “I assume anything with the word ‘chronic’ is pretty damn bad.”

“Papa!” Soya said, glaring at him.

“You know those appointments I have on Wednesday, when you pick up Aida?” Jonah asked, causing Soya to nod. “I have dialysis on Wednesdays.”

“Dialysis.” Soya said slowly, starting at him in disbelief.

Jonah nodded. “I’m on the list for a transplant, but even my name won’t get me to the top.” Jonah shrugged. “Not that I would want my name to get me at the top of that list, there are people that have been living with this much longer than I have. I figure I can wait a bit longer.”

“How…” Soya bit her lip, not wanting to ask the question.

“How long do I have?” Jonah asked with a raised eyebrow, watching as Soya nodded slowly, her eyes misting over. “Oh Soya, sweetheart, don’t cry.” Jonah said, placing a hand on her cheek as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I have years left.”

“Are you sure?” she asked quietly.

Jonah chuckled. “Years, Soya. I assure you, Niina has me on a very balanced diet, I’m doing everything the doctors recommend for me to the letter; even the doctors say I’m doing wonderfully. I just have to keep my blood pressure low, continue the dialysis and I’m fine. Years Soya.”

Soya nodded slowly before biting her lip. “Do you think…I would be a match?”

“Oh Soya, I wouldn’t allow you to do that.” Jonah said with a shake of his head.

“Why not?”

“Because either way both my kidneys are shot; what’s the point of having one healthy kidney if the other is crap? I would still need another transplant and in the mean time, if you were a match, that one would be working double. It just…wouldn’t work sweetheart. That and I couldn’t do that to you Soya, I’ve taken enough from you, taking a kidney would feel like a sin at this point.”

“Oh papa.” Soya said, biting her lip

“I’m going to be fine Soya.” Jonah said.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Soya whispered. “Really why? Was it because Mamma didn’t want me to know?”

“No,” Jonah said quickly. “It was because I didn’t want you to know. When we found out how serious it was, you were on tour with the company and I didn’t want you to worry during the tour. I swore I would tell you afterward, but…” Jonah shrugged. “I really didn’t want to bother.”

“Bother!” Soya said with wide eyes. “How in the world would that be a bother?!”

“Soya just like you thought I wouldn’t care about your accomplishments, I thought you wouldn’t care about my illness.” Jonah admitted. “In a way I was protecting myself from finding out that my daughter didn’t care if I was healthy or ill.”

“Oh isi.” Soya sighed, shaking her head.

“Aida found out because she saw doctors come in and out of the house some days, so I explained to her that I was sick. That was just after your tour ended this year.”

Soya nodded, remembering how tired her father looked throughout his stay in New York. “You should have told me.”

“I know that, I never meant for you to find out the way you did Soya. I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

Jonah chuckled. “Eventually.” He admitted. “I didn’t want you to think that I was only getting close to you because of this entire thing. Yes, my disease helped me realize that I didn’t want to die without knowing my daughters, but it’s not the only reason I reached out; I really do want to know you Soya.”

“I know.” Soya nodded.

“Good.” Jonah said with a small smile, patting her hand, “Now enough of this depressing subject, I’m not dead yet and won’t be for a while. Tell me how your studio is going.”

“Isi.” Soya sighed.

“Tell me Soya, I don’t want to talk about this anymore, I want to talk about something good.”

Soya sighed, before shaking her head. “It’s going well…” she said slowly. “I’m still contemplating buying the lot next to the building.”

“I took a look at it when Nathan drove past; it’s a large space.”

Soya nodded. “It is.” She agreed, watching as her father grabbed a napkin and a pen from his shirt pocket

“You know, financially it would be wonderful investment.” Her father started to explain as he wrote out some numbers on the napkin. Soya watched him for a minute, chewing on the inside of her lip. Years, he’d said. Soya only hoped that he and his doctors were right in that. She really did want those years with him, because just like he wanted to get to know her, she wanted to get to know him.