Outside Appearances Are Just for Show

Kalina bit her bottom lip as she heard running about elsewhere in the small house. She gulped and leaned back into the couch; running Landon's words over in her mind. 'Why do they all hate me?' She wondered as she heard the walking feet stop somewhere near her, and soon after felt breath slightly blowing onto the left side of her neck. She slowly turned her head, almost as if it was a slow motion, towards the breath and saw Lyric smiling face next to her own.

He whispered into her ear, “I'll be back tonight. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, okay?” she nodded, sighing some without thinking. “Promise me Kalina.” he whispered in a louder, more serious tone. He was letting her know there weren't any exceptions, it was also a demand more than a question. She would not do anything while he was gone...

“I promise.” she whispered back, looking at him briefly before looking back down at her lap.
“Okay, I'll see you later.” He whispered and kissed her cheek some. He knew what he had done and although he didn't regret it per say, he knew he shouldn't have. He was getting attached by doing that simple, innocent action. Something he did to both of his sisters everyday before he left... He just didn't even think about what he was doing, while doing it.

Kalina sat in shock as she watched him walk out the door. She closed her eyes at the sound of boots against the hardwood flooring and waited impatiently to open them once again as the door finally shut.

“I think my brothers have a thing for you...” Kalina snapped her eyes open and looked over the couch's back at Hannah, questioning what she meant. Thankfully she didn't need to ask because Hannah continued to speak. “Well I know Landon likes you cause of his reaction this morning and well... Lyric hasn't ever acted this way before.” Hannah thought about that phrase over in her head, in a sense of awe really. “Caring that is, Lyric doesn't get close to many people besides us, actually there is no one else he is close to... but I guess that's only because we are his family so...” There was a slight pause in her speaking before a big, louder finish. “yeah, they both like you.” Hannah sighed looking at Kalina, she then stirred the soup she began only a few moments prior, before the whole “Lyric and... (unknown girl's name) moment.” Yeah she witnessed it all. All except for Kalina's name and voice, as far as Hannah was concerned the girl still was “mute.”

The soup they were making for dinner. Pancakes were made in the process as well, for breakfast...actually it was Haylee's breakfast. No one else had eaten anything. Kalina sat at the kitchen table cutting up carrots, completely in a daze as the day continued on.

-*-*-*-

The boys rode the smaller sized snowmobiles into town, going to work. They tried not to use them much because of the cost of fuel but they were already extremely late so they didn't have the time to spare in even running the multiple miles. They both parked them in the virtually nonexistent lot beside the warehouse, in the equally almost nonexistent town and got off. They still managed to arrive about 30 seconds early but yeah... only seconds were spared.

“Lyric...LYRIC!” Landon yelled finally being able to pull at Lyric's arm, turning him around and stopping him.

“What?” he said quietly. Ever since they left the house, Landon had been trying to talk to him. At first he made a huge effort to ignore his constantly nagging brother, however soon he got completely immersed in his thoughts and didn't even need to try ignoring him, it just came naturally at that point.

“You need to let the girl alone, all she's going to do is hurt you and I don't want to see you-”

“Her name isn't girl, its Kalina and she isn't going to hurt me! Why do you even care, I'm old enough to make my own decisions, you aren't my father!” Lyric snapped back loudly, walking towards the warehouse again.

“Just don't get to attached to her Lyr...”

“Why, because she's like a puppy, we are only keeping her for a night and getting rid of her the next day? She is a fucking human being why-” Lyric was enraged, his voice was loud and angry. Landon could tell but all he was trying to do was help, he didn't want his brother to be hurt in any way.

“I don't want you to get hurt when she actually does it...” Landon spoke the harsh words without thinking first.

“Does what?” Lyric said suddenly stopping and turning around. Landon almost ran into him.

“Commits suic-” Now he had gotten himself into a huge hole and couldn't bury himself out.

“She isn't going to!” Lyric screamed, cutting his brother off.

Landon just shook his head and said a barely audible: “She will,” as Lyric stalked away again leaving him stand there alone.

'She wouldn't...' Lyric thought as he walked, fuming.

Landon ran to catch up. “She promised, she wouldn't go back on it now...you need to realize that Lyr.” Lyric stopped again and slowly looked up at his brother.

“How do you...but why...she..” Lyric was cracking apart on the inside now. He didn't understand why though, he wasn't attached to this girl...he didn't care...he didn't love her at all, so why?

“She was part of a suicide pact, she promised...its a done thing.” Landon said the next words softly, slowly and extremely painfully “No one is going to stop her...not you or me, not anyone...I just don't want you hurt when she leaves...” Then Landon went pulling out a clear Ziploc plastic bag with pieces of paper inside and put it into Lyric's hand before he walked into the front door, leaving Lyric standing in the snow all alone. With a plastic bag full of paper.

**************

The rest of the day Lyric was in a “funk.” He didn't talk, or eat... or drink... or do anything he wasn't supposed to. He was like that at home too. This went on for a total of 4 days.

The whole time those pieces of paper were in his pocket.

He constantly read them, wanting for them to not be true...for it to all be a lie. He wanted to convince himself they were false, but he couldn't and so he shut himself off from everyone else. That way he could live in his little world thinking the notes, the plans, the letters...were all make-believe, false.

That second day though, Landon had reported the deaths to the closest nearby sheriff's office. Police came to get the bodies with no questions asked and returned them to their families for a proper burial. They new it was suicide, not murder. No further investigating was done, everything was kept hush and wasn't spoken of again. It was as if nothing ever had happened.

Kalina never spoke to anyone else but Lyric, and after he left that day he received the paper he stopped talking to her. That second day he didn't so much as even look at her, either. For the first time since she was 13 she actually felt depressed, not just sad or unhappy like usual... She felt like her heart was burning a hole inside of her, constantly. It never gave up and because of that it felt as though she was slowly dying one long day at a time, from the inside out. She didn't eat or drink hardly anything either, only making things worse since she would surely end up sick. But Hannah never let her alone, she was always there trying to help despite the fact that she never would be able to help the ailing, quiet, depressed girl who happened to sleep in her bed all day long.

On the morning or dawn, on the 6th morning, Hannah left Kalina alone for the first time in 4 days by taking a shower. Kalina seized the opportunity. Since no one else was going to be awake at 4:30am she thought she could sneak out and leave before anyone found out, but she wasn't aware of what was waiting for her.

As Kalina opened and closed the door quietly behind her she heard a voice, a voice she hadn't heard in 4 grueling days...

“What the hell are you doing?” Kalina turned, taking in the sight of Lyric who was setting in a chair, smoking a cigarette and drinking some kind of alcohol on the front porch. There was also a thermos of coffee which sat on the table next to his body but had been noticeably left alone. She was frozen in shock that he was actually talking to her. And that he had caught her.

“I should ask you that.” she mumbled under her breath sarcastically, but he caught her voice.

“I couldn't sleep... and you?” He answered the question, not noticing the sarcasm so it seemed.

“same?” She questioned, hoping he would be drunk and take it as the truth.

There was a pause as he inhaled a drag of cigarette, he looked at her and then breathed out the smoke before saying “...bull shit...” at the end of the process. She leaned on the nearest post to the porch and sighed.

“I needed air.” she sighed, it was in part the truth.

“That my dear, is what you call lying” he smirked exchanging the cigarette for the bottle of Jack, taking a long swig.

“not... really...”

“You were planning on leaving, running away...” He took another drink. “So yes, you were lying thank you very much.” He finished by putting out the half finished cigarette all of a sudden, putting down the bottle on thee table, and standing up. He came over towards her like he was going to walk straight into her, but then he turned and went inside instead. Before Kalina could even take 2 steps away from the porch to leave again, Lyric appeared once again from within the house.

“Come on you're coming with me” He came out with an almost empty looking backpack and a fluffy blanket. She watched him grab the thermos and put it in, zip the zipper and sling it on his back. He then came over to where she stood on the top step. He wrapped the huge blanket around her before grabbing her and picking her up easily into his arms.

“What are you, where are you-” She wondered...pondering his actions over in her mind.

“Ahh ah ah, its a surprise.”