.Delilah.~

[Guest]

I haven't quite got around to editing this one, but I wanted to post it anyways. I wrote up to chapter nine, I believe, and I'm still trying to post more, but yeah. Hopefully this'll be one that I don't give up on. haha.
BTW, this is chapter one and two, they look kind of lengthy, so sorry.

Chapter one.

The alarm penetrated Delilah's dreams, and she jerked upright in her bed. Oh crud, she thought. I can't be late again! She tossed her sheets off her bed and ran towards the bathroom, not noticing her calendar which pointed out that it was Saturday. She was never good with memory, if her alarm went off, it meant there was school.

Delilah examined herself in the mirror and ran a brush through her matted brunette hair. She shook her head slowly, she could have sworn that yesterday was Friday. They had played dodge ball in gym. It was Friday. She widened her eyes and dropped her brush, stomping over to her calendar, and then proceeding to curse under her breath, upon the recognition that it was in fact Saturday.

"Delilah!" Her head whipped around, causing her half-brushed hair to smack her lightly in the face. She examined her brother, standing in front of her door, with a wide grin spread across his dirt-caked face. "Stop with the racket! I'm trying to get some sleep! It's Saturday, you know? Why are you up so early anyways?" He tried not to, but his grin got wider and he almost started to giggle in front of her face.

Her eyes pierced into his and she stomped her foot again. "How do you even know how to work my alarm? Aren't you like... Five or something?" She shook her head, disregarding the fact that her brother was almost seven, not much of a difference, but he was pretty smart for his age, unlike most of his classmates and friends.

Her glared at her and mimicked her annoyed attitude by stomping his foot and placing a dirty hand on his hip. "Ohmygod!" He slurred, mocking her. "You like, totally interrupted my beauty sleeeeeep! And I like needed it!!! Because, I'm like... UGLY!!!!" He whined, walking down the stairs, mumbling some other words that Delilah couldn't quite catch. She glared again and lay back down in her bed. Though, it wouldn't do her any good. Once she was up, she was up for good.

After about an hour of silence, laying in her bed, she finally stood back up. No point in wasting her entire day in bed. As she slowly emerged out of her door, she could hear her parents screaming at each other. Even though, their rooms were in the basement, and she was on the top floor, she could hear them loud and clearly. They did this every morning, and if her alarm didn't wake her up, they did.

She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, pouring herself a bowl of cereal, and walked closer to the basement door. She noticed her brother hunched over by it, his ear pressed against it, and his still dirty hand clutching the door she he wouldn't fall over on his side. She shook her head, and grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the door. Even though she was about to do the same exact thing, she decided to yell at him for doing it before her.

"Don't be a retard, either one of them will storm up here, any minute now, and you would have gotten slammed by the door and yelled at by them." Delilah sighed and jammed a spoon into her cereal bowl, causing some milk and some froot loops to splatter down to the floor. Her brother simply stared after her, apparently confused by what she had said.

He also seemed to find no reasoning in her words because he walked right back over to the door, crouching down to the same position as before. Delilah rolled her eyes. "Alex, you're going to get hurt!" She yelled, slamming down her cereal and jogging back over to him. She tugged at his arm just as her father stormed out of the door.

His hazy eyes flew over both of them once before he grimaced and ran out the front door. Delilah noticed a suitcase in his hand, and she had no recollection of him going on a business trip. Of course not, she frowned, he's leaving us for good this time.

Her mom emerged from the basement at that moment, her face smeared with make up from all of her crying. The tears kept pouring down her face as she ran outside after him. "Rich, come on. Please! You can't leave us!" She pleaded.

Rich grimaced at her as well, who was she to plead him to stay? She was the one who kept fighting with him! She was the one who was pushing him out of the door further and further. She was the one who was cheating on him. "Josephine, I'm not staying her any longer with you. I need out. It's better this way." He muttered, jaw clenched tight and eyes shut.

Josephine let out a quiet whimper as he climbed into his car and drove away. She stayed out there for a while, bawling her eyes out. And when neighbors or Delilah and/or Alex walked over to her, with comforting words she shooed them away. She wouldn't be able to explain it to them, why exactly their father had just run out the door. She wouldn't be able to fess up about her affair, it was pointless to her. He was already gone, she didn't need to explain things anymore.

Chapter two.

It rained that night. Almost all night long, as the Anderson's sat in the living room silently, they heard the pitter patter of rain hitting their rooftop. Delilah couldn't stand the noise. She thought about turning on the tv, or possibly going upstairs, hating how silent the house felt, but she knew that her mom wouldn't be too happy with either of those choices.

Alex sat in the corner of the living room, his knees pulled up to his chest and his face wet from the tears he had let out after the whole incident. No, no one had told him about what had happened, but he wasn't a stupid kid. He knew. He didn't know as to why his father had left, unlike his sister who was the one to tell him, but he knew that he was gone. He was never coming back.

Delilah walked slowly to the bathroom, the guilt was building up inside of her. Did her mother know? If she did know, then why hadn't she said anything yet? Yeah, Alex was in the room, but she could ask him to leave, right? But maybe there was another reason. There just had to be. "Or maybe she doesn't know." She mumbled, shaking her head. Why would her father utter those words? Tell the woman who had never truly loved Delilah, that the reason he had left was because she had spilled the beans. He wouldn't do that, unless by force. "Stop." She muttered to herself, looking into the mirror of the bathroom. She was right. She needed to stop thinking about all of this or she would go crazy with guilt and wonder.

She stayed in there for quite a long time, simply debating and wondering about what exactly had happened down in that basement. She should have paid more attention to it, but no. Thinking it was wrong, she tried the best she could to ignore it, and that got her absolutely nowhere. She yawned and stood up, oblivious to the fact that she had stayed in the bathroom for almost an hour. When she walked out Josephine gave her a glare, one she had never seen before.

Sure, her mom gave her plenty of glares, but none like this. This was a serious, wishing-you-were-dead, glare. Delilah swallowed hard and crouched next to Alex, glancing over at the clock. "Hey," she said, stroking his back comfortingly. "Maybe you should go to sleep." She expected him to put up a fight like he normally did, she also expected Josephine to help out the cause, but neither of that happened. He stood up slowly and walked like a zombie towards the stairs. He groaned when he reached them and looked back at the two girls, hoping one would carry him up, but they both seemed to ignore him. He wasn't the only one with a rough day, he didn't even know the reasoning. Though, Delilah thought that it might make it worse. You would just be wondering what the hell had happened instead of the guilt that was rising up to both of their hearts at the moment. But Delilah couldn't quite bring herself to think about which one would be worse, they were both equally in pain, but she would like to have thought that she was in deeper crud than her brother was.

She gulped and started to walk upstairs but her mom called out her name, her voice cracked as she muttered; "Deh-" She coughed a little, trying to clear her throat, but it still cracked as she spoke. "Delilah. Stay." She froze in her tracks and didn't turn around. She was almost positive at that instant that she had found out. She shook her head, trying to stay optimistic, but she just couldn't. Alex looked behind his back, almost to the top of the stairs at that point, simply waiting for Delilah to come upstairs with him. Josephine shook her head at him. "No, Alex. Go to bed." She smiled a little, trying to act like it would all be okay if they just slept it out. As if, Alex went to sleep and was a good little boy for mommy, daddy would come back. Alex nodded weakly and walked to his room. Crawling into bed, and as he shut his eyes, he almost immediately fell into a world of dreams.

Delilah turned around slowly and looked at her mom, her eyes wide, with the hope that she would look innocent. Josephine shook her head. "Don't tell your brother what happened. Please. Just, let him think that your father will come home, soon. I mean, it might.... It might happen, right?" She began to cry then. Loud sobs erupted from her throat and she began gagging a little from her tears. Delilah nodded and walked upstairs before she herself, began to burst into hysterics over this.

She crawled into her own bed, but unlike her innocent brother he was too young to understand just how cruel life can be, she couldn't fall asleep. Instead she spent the entire night thinking about everything, just as she had done in the bathroom. She was worn-out, but again, the guilt kept preventing her from falling asleep. She sighed and walked downstairs, only to find her mom passed out on the couch, with an open and empty bottle of Jack Daniels clutched in her hands. Of course she was drinking, she thought, shaking her head. What else does she do to numb the pain away? She slowly walked into the kitchen to grab a glass of ice-cold water. As she walked back into the living room she took the bottle out of her drunk mothers hands and set it on the table next to her. She shook her head again and walked upstairs to lay down for another few hours until the sun rose up, then she might just try to fall asleep again.