Lyle Majors (smartassets) wrote in tiberiusswann, @ 2010-12-03 15:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | elle, lyle |
Tuesday September 9th 2008
Who: Elle and Lyle
What: Comfort and brilliant, stupid ideas
Where: The mall!
When: Tuesday evening
Rating: PG
Sometimes, something as simple as shopping could be the most overwhelming of tasks. Elle was tired all the time now, not just because of pregnancy and because of the change in her sleeping pattern. She was overly stressed and worried, and she cried so often she didn't think she would have any tears left at all by the time the babies came. When Rez had left, the apartment had felt vacant and empty, like his presence had filled every room. She found that she missed him laughing, she missed him walking into the living room and smiling at her and her huge belly, she missed him calling her Little Mama. It had been strange at first living with him, being in their strange friendship, but now Elle wondered how she was going to get along without him. She had taken for granted all the small things he had done for her, like make her tea and bring her a blanket when she was napping on the couch. All those little things she had to do alone now, little things that wore her out. Life was going to be impossible on her own.
Even worse than day to day living, her parents were putting pressure on her. She hadn't yet told Rez, because she wasn't sure how he would feel about it, but there had been letter correspondance between herself and her parents for the past few weeks. The wanted to know why she wasn't coming home, why she insisted on staying so far away when they had grandchildren coming and, most importantly, when they were going to meet the father. That had been a letter Elle hadn't answered yet. She didn't know what she should tell them, and while Rez had said he was willing to be the babies' father, she didn't know if he wanted to deal with her parents, if he wanted to tell them the truth or not. And now Rez was out of the picture, and her parents thought she had a father for her kids staying with her to help, and she didn't know how to tell them that he had changed his mind.
On top of all that, her clothing kept getting tighter by the day. The doctor had said that this was normal, especially in a pregnancy with twins, but that didn't make Elle feel any less like a bloated whale walking around. Dressed in her most flattering sweatpants, Elle was at the mall again to find herself something basic and black and, most importantly, something comfortable. It was hard enough finding something for a plus sized woman, let alone a pregnant one. Apparently, all preggos only wore flowered frocks and old lady clothes with runches and lace. After leaving the third store with no success, Elle sat on one of the benches in the middle of the walkway, pulled her sweater tightly around herself and started crying again. Not hysterical sobbing, but enough to be completely and totally miserable.
Thursday was Lyle's birthday, and regardless of how shitty he had been feeling lately, and how pissed he was at Peyton, and how worried he was about Fisher, he was determined to have a good time. It was his twenty-first, possibly the most important birthday he would encounter, and he was going to enjoy it like he should. And proper enjoyment meant going to the mall and getting some new jeans, and various stuff for his zombie birthday party, and checking out FYE to find good ambiance music and maybe get himself a new movie. If Fisher remembered his birthday Lyle would be surprised, and if older brother got him anything he might die of shock. And since he didn't expect anyone to get him anything (because he had specifically said not to), Lyle considered spoiling himself. You only turned 21 once, after all.
Stepping out of Aeropostale, a pair of low-slung jeans in a bag that probably cost more than they paid the person who made the garments, Lyle was feeling pretty good. He was trying as hard as possible not to think about Peyton, and it was only working half the time. Like right now, he felt okay, like he could get through the day without wanting to hurl himself off a building. But he knew that in ten minutes something was going to remind him of her, or make him think of her, and the dark looming cloud of misery would hang itself over his head. Something like seeing a couple holding hands, or walking past Brookstone and seeing the binary calendar, or seeing the math teacher sitting in the middle of the mall crying and looking like the world had come to an end. Stopping in his travels, Lyle sat down beside her, his comfort instincts immediately kicking in. Lyle was a sucker for a lot of things, and a crying woman was definitely one of them. Especially if she was pregnant. "Miss Franco?" he asked softly. "Is everything all right?"
Startled, Elle jumped a bit, hurriedly wiping her eyes. This boy looked familiar, someone from the school. Vampire, that was obvious. Someone who had just come in within the past year... Lyle! That was it. Lyle Majors. He had always been polite, was related to Fisher (a walking wreck), dating Peyton Billings. "I'm fine, Lyle," she assured him. "Baby hormones, you know how it is." It was such a handy excuse. Everything could be blamed on the babies, from hunger to sickness to anger to crying. Most people didn't bother to question, either. Pregnancy was one of those blanket excuses people didn't investigate too deeply.
Unfortunately for Elle, though, Lyle was extremely used to pregnant women, and he knew what hormones did and did not account for. He was also very good at spotting a liar, and he could practically smell the untruths coming from her. Expression soft, he moved slightly closer to her, lowering his voice. "No, really," he insisted. "What's wrong? Sometimes it helps to talk about things. I'm a very good listener."
Sniffling, she shook her head. "Thanks," she said sincerely. "But it's just... I don't think it's appropriate to discuss with a student."
"It's not like I'm one of your students," he told her persistantly. "And with so many people going back to school these days, chances are anyone you talk to is a student somewhere." He smiled at her warmly, which made her return a small one herself. "So it's inevitable. You might as well talk to me. I'm as good as anyone else."
"Well, it's... very personal."
"Even better. I'm really quite good at keeping secrets." Snaking an arm over the back of the bench, Lyle scooted closer to Elle, setting his bag on the floor by his feet and bumping Elle's knee with his own. "Talking helps," he said again.
With a small smile that said she was completely caving to his charming assurances, Elle shook her head slowly. She didn't have anyone she could really talk to about this, mostly because she felt so stupid about the whole mess. Stupid and trashy and slutty. She belonged on Jerry Springer. "I..." She was reluctant, but she wanted to talk about it. "I'm just... I'm so, so stressed about my future. About my babies, and how... just how I'm going to do it." Now that she had started it got easier to talk, and her words began spilling out. "I can't raise twins all alone, I just can't. I'm exhausted all the time right now and they're still so far away, and I just... I mean I have no one here, only a few friends and I couldn't ask them for all the help I'll need. I could go home, back to my parents, but... I don't want to. I don't want to go back home and be twenty-seven and living with mom and dad with my illegitimate babies because no one wants me. I mean... wh-who wants a pregnant woman?" The tears came back again, free falling and hot, splashing down her cheeks. Elle covered her face with her hands. "I didn't think my life would turn out like this," she sobbed, her voice muffled. "Sometimes, I think... maybe I should just go back to Jesse. He was a jerk and he hit me, but... at least he wanted me, you know?"
"Oh," Lyle said softly, "no. No, I'm not even letting you think that. You're a good woman, and you're really sweet. You don't deserve that. Nobody deserves that."
"So what do I deserve?" she asked dully, looking at him through her fingers. "To be alone? I had someone to help me, someone who wanted to raise these babies and... he doesn't anymore."
"Rez?"
"Mmm hmm." Elle hiccuped, scrubbing her face with the heel of her palms. "I don't blame him. It's not his responsibility, you know? And he's got... stupid Fisher, moron doesn't deserve him. Oh!" she gasped, "I'm sorry, I-"
"No," Lyle assured her, "he's a moron. Rez is an idiot for picking him over you."
"Well," she chuckled, "it's not like we were in love, or anything like that. Just good friends."
"I stand by my statement."
With a small giggle, Elle dropped her hands to her lap, fiddling with the edge of her sleeves. "I don't blame him," she said again. "He's young and he has his whole life ahead of him, and... he'd just be tied down. I don't want to do that to him." Sighing, she straightened out the hem of her sweater, smoothed the wrinkles in her pants. "But now I'm sort of stcuk back where I started. But now..." She swallowed, whimpering softly. "Now my parents know, about the babies and all. Before they didn't, and I didn't know if I was going to tell them because... well, if I had to do it alone, I wasn't sure I could, so I thought... maybe I could give them to someone who would love them, you know? And then Rez came along and he was sweet and helpful, and just... he was exactly what I needed. I've never known a man like him before. He wanted these babies, and he said I was..." Trailing off, Elle glanced at Lyle, sheepishly. "Nevermind. He was just good to me. One of the best friends I've ever had. And I didn't get to tell him yet that... well, I told my parents that I was living with the babies' father, and we were working it out, and that he would be there to help. B-but now, he's gone, and... and they want to meet him, and I don't know what I'm gonna do. Do you have any idea how pathetic it is to have your parents think you're some disgusting slut who got dumped by the father of her kids?!?"
Moving closer, Lyle moved his arm around Elle, pulling the weeping woman into a sideways hug. He had no idea what being pregnant and scared was like, but he did know how it felt to have your parents shun you for something that you had no control over. On the one hand, it sucked that Rez had said he would be there and now he was bailing. But on the other, Lyle knew that kids were a lifetime commitment, and Rez didn't have what it took. "It'll be okay," he murmured, smoothing Elle's hair. "Don't stress yourself out. It's not good for you."
"But what am I going to doeverything he could ever want, even though he doesn't want it. So maybe it's my turn now, you know? Maybe if I do something irrational, it'll turn out great."
"Anytime I act irrationally, it goes horribly," Elle mumbled miserably. "I feel like any time I put myself out on a limb it starts to feel good, but then it... it just blows up in my face. I fall into a false sense of security and I feel like maybe I made a good decision, and then I get screwed. Badly."
"So make a bad decision," he said, almost excitedly. "Let's do this. Let's leap in, head first, because honestly... what's the worst that could happen?"
Frowning, Elle gave it some serious thought. What was the worst that could happen? "My parents could find out I'm lying."
"So? They're already disappointed, right?"
"True."
"And they won't find out. I'm a really, really good liar, and parents love me."
"Well..." She paused, biting her lip. "Thinking in terms of absolute worst, you could get your name on the birth certificate, and then later try and take my kids from me."
"We'll draw up a private contract between just you and I saying I will never do that. We'll go to a lawyer, make it official."
"You're really serious about this, aren't you?"
"Yes ma'am, I am."
"Why?"
"Because..." Lyle paused. The truth of this, the whole truth, was that Peyton had broken him. He felt unwanted, unneeded, as though he couldn't help her when she needed it most. She hadn't wanted his help. The truth was that Lyle felt a strange compulsion to shake up his life and maybe even destroy it a little, because if Pey ever did come back, he wanted her to see what she'd done to him. But he wasn't going to tell Elle that. "Because I can help you. And right now, I might be the only person who can help. I'm not attached to anyone, I'm not looking to be, I don't want to ruin your life. Hell, I can even help you support them when they're born."
Elle gave him a skeptical raised eyebrow. "Why?"
"Because I love kids. I want kids. I am never ever ever going to have any of my own. Plus, my grandfather keeps giving me and Fisher all this money and I don't like spending it because I didn't earn it but using it to help raise babies would be great. I'd have no problem spending it on that."
It felt so sudden, and so strange, but it was starting to make sense, which was what was worrying Elle so much. He seemed eager about this, but then again, so had Rez. And now Rez was gone, moved out, and it felt empty in her place. "But, Lyle... you're so young. You have your entire life ahead of you, and this... this is a lifetime commitment. Or at least, until I find someone to marry and all. But are you really sure you want to do this?"
"Yes, I'm sure." He was, absolutely, and it showed in his eyes, in his smile. This might've been the greatest idea he'd ever had. "A lifetime to you is only a blip on the radar for me. I have literally forever to be happy. I wanna help you, and I have no expectation from you. I hope someday you do find someone to love, and make you happy. I hope I do too. There are so many modern families out there, there's no reason we can't do this."
"Well... I suppose, since we're being totally honest with each other, and we're not forcing ourselves into an actual relationship... maybe it's not so crazy..."
Moving down onto his knees, Lyle knelt before Elle, taking one of her hands in his. "Miss Franco," he said seriously, "will you do me the honor of letting me be the fake father for your illegitimate children for as long as you want me to be?"
At first Elle stared at the young man on his knees before her, and then she smiled, and then started laughing. "Okay," she said softly. "Yes, Lyle Majors. I will enter this insane, ridiclous, impossible facade with you."
"Great." Getting to his feet, he tugged her up as well, grabbing his bags. "Now. Let's go get frozen yogurt and go over our romantic history together. Details are important."
"All right." Following a moment, shaking her head at the lunacy she was about to embark on, Elle sighed. ""Lyle?"
"Hm?"
"Thank you."
"No problem, Miss Franco."
Elle laughed. "You know... you should probably start calling me 'Elle'."