Set Fire to the Rain

Eliza's POV

My hands are on the steering wheel and actually shaking right now. It’s nervous excitement mixed with fear I am sure, as I glanced to the car parking to my left side. The second thoughts that I had been pushing off for a long time had started to push their way forward. Deep breaths, deep breaths, everything will be so much better now. I can take care of my kids now, and make them happy, and maybe I won’t be so broken one day, I thought to myself.

Now it’s time to explain the living situation to the very confused looking kids sitting in the car next to me, I’m sure it due to the fact that the ‘apartment’ is not exactly your typical apartment. We all exited our cars, and I turned towards the enormous 3 car garage that matched the main house in its Victorian style, and said, “Welcome home!”

“Um, yeah, not to sound like a complete idiot or anything Mommy, but I was under the impression that we were moving into an apartment. Or did I not hear you correctly earlier?” MJ asked me with a slight frown on her lips.

“Marguerite love, you are far from an idiot, and this is our apartment. The owner of the main house has just recently finished completely renovating the entire upper level of the garage and turned half of the lower rear section of it into usable space that we can use as storage, or maybe I was thinking possibly a practice area/studio for your band? You two can decide after you have a look around and talk it over with the rest of the band. However the price was perfect, plus we each have our own bedroom, and it’s fully furnished and that’s a huge help until I get a job and have enough money saved up to buy our own furniture. Come on, let’s go in and look around. Don’t write it off before you give it a chance” I said to both of them with a hopeful smile, as we gathered some things from our cars to take inside.
We walked along the pathway around the left side of the garage to the second door that was the entry to our new beginning. After I used my key to unlock the door I took a step in and took a glance around. Then there was another set of 3 steps and a landing with another door with the main locks to get in. After I unlocked all the locks, I opened the door, and I turned back and looked at my anxiously waiting kids with a huge smile then turned back to face the steps ahead of us that meant so much more than anyone could ever imagine. Just opening those 2 doors had been incredibly scary, but also very liberating for me. I can’t wait for my life to start with my children. Then I took one step, then two, only looking forward…

MJ’s POV

Mom stood at the top of the steps punching a code into an alarm pad that looked really high tech, and knowing her she probably requested that it be installed. Quite honestly I don’t blame her. Once Jake and I had a chance to get off the steps and move into the main living area to take a real look around I was literally in shock. When mom had said not to write it off before we gave it a chance she wasn’t kidding. The place was fucking huge! You would never guess that this was over a motherfucking garage of all things. Seriously, it was beyond beautiful there were hardwood floors everywhere, vaulted ceilings in what appeared to be the kitchen and living room, from where we were standing. Even though the place had been completely re-done, it still stayed true to the Victorian style of the main house and exterior of the garage. Mom is for sure in heaven with this place. She is a sucker for old plantation homes, Victorians, you know, old stinky houses. But this is nice! Jake stood next to me in probably just as much shock as I was. Then I took off running looking for the second largest room. Mom would have the biggest for obvious reasons. I think it finally clicked in the little fuckers head what I was up too, because he was suddenly on my heels. Unfortunately for him, I had already claimed my fairly large bedroom. It wasn’t as large as my old room, but it’s big enough. Jakey walked away mumbling under his breath something about how he always got stuck with the shitty shoebox sized room, blah, blah, blah. I had to laugh because it was absolutely true. Hey, it’s one of the perks of being the oldest! I slowly turned around looking around the room that I would now call mine. It was a nice size, with a large window along the exterior wall and beautiful window seat. I can see myself writing, sketching and painting there while looking out over the back yard listening to my music. It will be perfect once I put my special touches on the place of course. I turned suddenly when I heard a noise come from behind me and I saw mom standing there with a straight face, hands in her pockets.

“So, what’s the verdict Mags? Is it shit or did I do ok?” she asked as she looked around the room. “Granted, you will have to paint and put your own mark on it to make it really nice, but the bones of it I thought were great.”

“Wait, then we are allowed to paint the walls and hang things and do whatever we want to the place?” I asked with a bit of excitement in my voice. I had always heard landlords were assholes and never allowed their tenants to paint and decorate to their tastes. So I had assumed the same with this guy.

“Yes actually. Harold gave the go ahead to do as we want within reason of course. Though he did say that in the case of the bedrooms, you can have as much fun as you like. I believe he said that he remembered being young once or something like that. Write up a small list, and we can start working on it next weekend once the bigger things are out of the way.” Mom started to play with the ends of her long dark brown hair, a nervous habit she had, and I knew exactly what she was nervous about.

“Thank you so much Mommy. I am so fucking proud of you and I love you so very much. I just want you to know that”, I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her neck as she wrapped hers around my waist and we just held each other for a few moments.

“I’m sorry I didn’t do this sooner baby. I love you both more than anything, I hope you know that. I would do absolutely anything for you.”

“I know mommy. You’re not the one who should be apologizing.” It was that simple, and nothing else really needed to be said right then.

Jake came in a moment later and was going on and on about his room and how fucking fantastic it was. I think he was trying to pull a fast one on me to try and get me to switch with him, not gonna happen though. I checked it out to make him happy, and it was perfect for him. This place was going to be great for us I think.

I went back to my room and was going to start working on my list, when mom came in and suggested that we get to the unloading before it got too late. So we all started to bring in what was left in the cars and finally begin the task of unpacking boxes. People talk about unpacking like it’s this awful thing to do, but honestly, we were having a blast. Mom had turned the stereo on that I had set up first of course, and we picked a metal, and rock playlist that had our favorite bands that included Three Days Grace, Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Bullet for My Valentine, and 30 Seconds to Mars and the list goes on and on and on. Many wouldn’t believe it, but my mom loves metal, hard rock, and even some really heavy metal music. She actually knows the lyrics and will scream along to the songs. It’s fucking amazing. We were never allowed to listen to this kind of music at home with the old stooge around, but now, we can do whatever the hell we want and it feels like… Freedom! Then Jakey’s cell phone when off with the ringtone that we all knew and dreaded more than anything, when we were unpacking in the kitchen. The second the song started to play, mom dropped a mug that she had been getting ready to put away in a kitchen cabinet. Fuck…