Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-4199666-20150728143721

🇫🇮Liv had spent the whole morning pacing around, trying to tame the trembling in her legs. Her flight response was on overdrive and for some reason, she felt like she was sweating through every shirt she changed into. She was here, the same woman who gave her up twenty-six years ago. She was within walking distance of her, and she was about to come face to face with her.

“You’ll be fine,” Holly reassured her as she held her hand. “She might be a horrible mother but she’s not scary.” Liv took in a deep breath while Stella sat in the back seat, not really sure what to say to calm the nerves. Even she didn’t feel comfortable sitting in this driveway anymore. This whole house just brought back bad memories for her.

Holly didn’t seem too fazed by all of this. Sure, she and her mom had disagreements in the past, but things weren’t nearly as bad as the way things were between Stella and her father. Stella still can’t even remember what happened the last time she spoke to her father, except that she had yelled out, exclaiming that she wouldn’t even care if he dropped dead. He seemed to think the same thing.

Liv finally summons up the courage to move her hand to the handle, and Stella smiles a little. “Good luck in there,” she says, prodding her.

“Thanks,” Liv says with a slight exhale. “I’ll need it.”

Holly opens up her car door, hoping it will prompt Liv to open hers, but Liv remains still, with her hand placed firmly on the handle of the car door. “I can’t do it,” she panics. “She doesn’t want to see me. If she wanted to see me, she wouldn’t have given me up for adoption.” Holly is about to interrupt, but hesitates when she realises Liv isn’t done. “I don’t know why I came back here. This was a terrible idea.”

In the rear view mirror, Holly can catch a glimpse of Stella’s face as any excitement in it drops. Holly tries to lighten the mood a tad, bringing up the fact that she can just go get Maria and no one has to go inside. Liv seems to agree for a second, but Stella is looking down at her phone screen, not bothering to move her eyes away from that. “I don’t care, but let’s just do something,” she complains. “I don’t like this place.”

Liv sighs again and pushes the door open, to the surprise of the other two girls. She unbuckles her seatbelt and stands up, with Holly soon following her lead. Stella had already decided to stay in the car, and wasn’t changing her mind now. Liv follows Holly up to the front door, but leaves the knocking to Holly. As soon as Holly knocked, Liv felt every single butterfly she’d ever kept inside her stomach flapping their wings desperately. So much of her was inclined to just run away right then.

Tony answered the door. Tony wasn’t exactly the most intimidating guy. He stood a bit under six feet tall, and the hairs on his beard had started to grey a little, yet Liv couldn’t help but imagine him yelling at Stella over nothing and losing his temper and throwing things. He just seemed frightening. “Holly,” he acknowledges. He looks over to Liv and sort of nods. “Uh… Who’s your friend?”

“Liv,” Liv says before anyone else can say anything. “I’m Liv.” She puts her hand out for a handshake. Tony looks at her oddly, before shaking her hand.

“I’m Tony.”

“Is mom here with Ria?” Holly interrupts. “We’re going out to go watch a movie.”

Tony sighs a little as he answers. There’s a tone in his voice that sounds regretful. “Yeah, unfortunately.” By this point, Ria has already worked out what was happening, and had made her way to the doorway, where she announced her presence and hugged Holly. Tony looked up at Holly as she hugged her sister. “Do you want to take the other one with you as well?”

“Actually,” Holly begins. “I need to speak to her.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” he scoffs. “Maybe you can ask her why she ran off too.” For a second it’s as though he forgets that Liv is even there. “FAITH!” he calls out. “HOLLY’S HERE.”

Almost right away, Liv can hear footsteps that sound like heels clicking on the hardwood floors. She wants to run even more now, but suddenly she feels Maria’s arms wrapped around her waist, and she instinctively wraps her arms around her too. She finally sees what her mother looks like. She’s a lot shorter than her daughters, even in heels. She can also see a lot of similarities to Stella. She starts to notice how Holly looks a lot more like her father, but she’s certain that Maria doesn’t look that much like either of them.

<p class="MsoNormal">Liv can’t help but feel like Faith is unimpressed when she sees her. It could just be the atmosphere, but Liv doesn’t feel welcome at all. “Who’s this?” she asks, not even looking directly at Liv.

<p class="MsoNormal">Liv is about to pipe up, when Tony answers for her. “This is Liv,” he introduces her, as if she can’t do that for herself. “She’s Holly’s friend.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Actually,” Liv interrupts. “You’re Faith, right.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“So you’ve heard about me then?” she scoffs. “I’m absolutely positive Holly’s just done nothing but talk me up.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Really, mom?” Maria retorts. Nonetheless, Faith throws her head up, not one to drop the proud act.

<p class="MsoNormal">“In 1989, a woman named Faith Chapman gave birth to a little girl and gave her up for adoption,” Liv begins explaining, but before she can even finish her sentence, she knows that Faith has caught on. “I’m your daughter.”

<p class="MsoNormal">No one really says anything for a moment. Everyone’s still trying to process everything, and calm their nerves. Liv’s nerves finally start to boil up in the form of tears. She’s just waiting for someone to say something to break the tension. Tony exhales deeply, and all eyes turn to him as he speaks. He looks directly at Faith. “You- you” his voice trembles for a moment. “You had a daughter?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Liv turns to see how Faith is reacting, but Faith is looking right at her. “You need to go,” she orders. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Mom!” Holly protests as Liv starts to cry some more.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t owe you an explanation,” she retorts, almost spitting the words at Holly. “I don’t owe any of you an explanation.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Yes you do,” Liv mumbles. She breathes in and tries to sound more convincing, piping her voice up. “You just gave me up. Why?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Just go.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“No, Faith,” Tony inquires. “Why did you give her up? Why did you decide that wasn’t even important to tell your husband of twenty years that you had a child? Why is that?”

<p class="MsoNormal">Faith directs her attention to Holly, who is consoling a distressed Liv. “You set this up, on purpose. Didn’t you? You’re just trying to humiliate me. You’re loving this, aren’t you?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Do you hear yourself?” Holly retorts. “Do you hear what you’re saying right now?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“I just wanted to know why you never wanted me,” Liv explains. “Why you kept Holly and Stella and Maria but you gave me away.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Because I didn’t want kids,” she finally admits. “Are you happy?” She looks over to Ria and Holly, who are looking somewhat shocked. “I was seventeen, and I didn’t want kids. That’s why I got rid of you, and why I pretended you never existed.” She stops and breathes for a second. “Are you happy?” she repeats.

<p class="MsoNormal">Liv’s lower lip shakes as she speaks. “I can’t believe I waited my whole life to meet you and you were just pretending I never existed.” She looks over at Faith who is determined to not let the cracks in her façade show through. “Thanks mom,” she says, the disdain evident in her voice. “I’m so glad I travelled this far to meet you. I’m so glad I left my grieving family to come all this way to find out that the one person I was so excited to meet never even thought about me. So yeah, I’m happy. I’m over the moon. I’m just so happy that you couldn’t not be a bitch for like five minutes to at least pretend that I didn’t waste my whole life being excited to meet you one day.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Maybe we should go,” Holly tries to interrupt as things heat up. Maria nods in agreeance and runs out to the car to sit with Stella, but Liv immediately reaches out for Holly’s hand for support, so Holly decides to stay.

<p class="MsoNormal">“You know what, I should really look on the bright side of this. I’m glad you gave me up. My moms were nothing like you. They actually cared about their children for one. Not to mention that they weren’t so uptight and high and mighty about everything like you are. You don’t just get to stand here and act like you’re the only one who has a say in what gets brought up.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Before anyone can say anything else, Maria runs back to the front door, tugging on Holly’s shirt. Holly pauses her, then as soon as things are quiet after Liv’s rampage, Maria makes a slight announcement. “Stella’s gone.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“What do you mean she’s gone?”

<p class="MsoNormal">“She’s gone. I went to the car and she’s not there.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“Why would she go anywhere? She was so excited to finally see you again.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“That girl…” Tony begins, but he’s soon cut off by glares from Holly and Maria. “I couldn’t care less where she is.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Faith immediately turns to Tony, throwing her hands up defensively. “Oh, look at me. I didn’t get to be the worst parent for five whole minutes. Oh woe is me,” she mocks. “Look how much of an asshole I can be.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Holly quickly detracts from the conversation, bringing Liv and Maria outside with her. She figures they’ll spend enough time arguing that they won’t even know that they’re gone. Liv finally managed to stave off the tears, while Maria grows more and more panicked, looking for Stella. She bumps into Holly and buries her head in Holly’s chest, while Holly consolingly rubs her back. “Why is our family so messed up?” Maria asks in a muffled voice.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t know, Ria.” Holly sighs. “I really don’t know.” <ac_metadata title="this four-leafed clover&#039;s all but useless now" related_topics="Liv Milano-Howard|Holly Escalera|Stella Escalera|Maria Escalera"> </ac_metadata>