WHO: Evelina DiGirolamo & Adelaide Morello WHAT: Drabble backstory challenge in which Eva talks some much needed sense into her overly emotional cousin. [Prompt: Rain] WHERE: DiGirolamo Residence WHEN: March, 1949 STATUS: Complete WARNINGS: None
Lightning flashed across the dark sky, stabbing erratically at the horizon like a murderous lover, and storm clouds swelled above Personville, bloated with the threat of rain. The wind cut through alleyways and buildings, unforgivingly cold and relentless, rattling the windows of Riverside apartments with the ominous promise of a storm.
A mere storm in a teacup compared to the veritable emotional hurricane one Miss Adelaide Morello was whipping up indoors. The seventeen year old thundered into her cousin’s room, slamming the door so hard the walls shook, and letting out a low, violent hiss of displeasure in Eva’s direction.
“I hate my father.” Her usually put-together appearance was dishevelled; blond curls standing on end as though she’d stuck her finger in an electrical socket, eyes red and puffy and all afire, and she clutched a wad of crumpled papers in one hand, brandishing them angrily before Eva, whom she did not even bother to exchange pleasantries, “I hate him, Eva.”
“Hello to you too, Addie,” she muttered as she watched the blonde wave the crumpled paper in her face from her bed. Eva stood up as her hand slowly reached out to take a grasp of the paper, flattening the wrinkles in her hand. Her eyebrows raised realizing what she was holding. Before a congratulations escaped her lips, she glanced back up putting two and two together. “You don’t hate him,” her voice was soft as she tilted her head in an almost motherly fashion.
“Say, where else did you get accepted?”
“It doesn’t even matter.” Addie replied sullenly, dramatically falling to rest beside Eva, staring down at her dead hopes and dreams printed black on the crumpled pages between them. “I wanted these ones.” She sniffled, “I wouldn’t have even applied to the other ones if I knew I was going to get into these but he --” Addie spat the pronoun out as hatefully as she could manage -- “won’t spend the money.”
“So yes, Evelina, I do happen to hate him. He’s ruined my entire life and I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him.” Her eyes flashed dark and angry, challenging her cousin to disagree.
She had only received a deadpan stare from her cousin. “Have you even tried applying to scholarships, Addie? Tell me, what have you done other than apply to these schools?”
Allowing for a small pause to open up, Adelaide glanced out of the window, momentarily biting her lip. “I--”
“You didn’t, did you?”
“Well...” Blue eyes flicked back towards Eva, sheepishly, before settling back toward the window, “No. I didn’t think I had to. I thought Daddy would--I mean---”
Evelina sighed, looking back down at the acceptance letter unsure what the tuition for this school could even amount to.
Truth was, Adelaide hadn’t even given a second thought to the cost of college tuition. As was typical for the precocious teenager, she’d simply applied for the ones she had decided she deserved to attend, and that, quite frankly, was that. She had assumed her father, an imposing figure in the community (certainly behind closed doors, anyway), would simply be able to have a quiet word with someone, somewhere, and everything would be taken care of.
“I just thought he’d want me to go to the best school I could get into.” She finished lamely, peeking up through tear stained lashes and letting her bottom lip poke out.
“Don’t give me that look.” Despite her cousin’s selfishness, she had always tried to do everything in her power to help her, to show her that hard work and determination was always the solution to one’s problems. Her hand reached over to her head to ruffle her curls. “Why don’t we fill out some scholarship applications? Maybe once we figure out how much money you can earn, Uncle Jackie will be more willing to pay your tuition.”
Adelaide didn’t answer straight away, instead fiddling with the corner of one of her acceptance letters, turning her cousin’s suggestion about in her mind as though inspecting an item for purchase. “Like...a business plan?” She tilted her head toward Eva skeptically.
“Yes! Like a business plan,” she smiled back. “For some reason, this family seems to respond better when you present things to them like that. Now why don’t we pick out the most reasonable schools, apply to tuition and see what we get?”
The rage that had been boiling just behind Addie’s eyes cooled, and she let herself smile, the air of relief all but palpable about her. Despite all appearances to the contrary, Addie did hate fighting with her father, and she knew she could always count on Eva to diffuse any father-daughter disagreement they found themselves in. Impulsively, she wrapped her arms about her cousin’s shoulders, burying her face into the side of Eva’s neck and let out a self deprecating sigh. “I’ll bet you think I’m such a brat. I don’t know how you stand me.”
Eva patted her back. “I don’t know either,” she teased, pulling away momentarily as Addie pinched her, before making a face at her and laughing. A hand reached up to grip her shoulder, “You know Uncle Jackie only wants the best for you. Don’t be mad at him.”
“I’ll try not to be.” Addie closed her eyes and laid her head back down against Eva’s shoulder. “Thanks Evie.” She finally conceded after letting a stillness settle between them.
The rain outside had begun to fall, though rather than the howling thunderstorm it had promised earlier, the raindrops hit the glass in big, fat, musical taps, and it was not an altogether unpleasant rhythm.