—The Comeback Kid @rory-watson - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
—The Comeback Kid
@rory-watson
Aurora 'Rory' Watson. 26. Born in Queens, raised in Hollywood, living in Brooklyn. Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place. var sc_project=11820325; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="7d1f76a8";
Watching her wipe at her shirt, it became clear to Emilie that more had gotten on the fabric than what she initially thought. “It’s a lot, isn’t it?” Making a face, she whispered an apology, necessary or not. Despite the young woman’s reassurances to her not being at fault, she still felt bad about the incident. However, the guilt was quickly replaced by a slight discomfort as their eyes met. Something about the way she was being looked at, not sitting right with her. It wasn’t exactly threatening, more along the lines of feeling as though this person knew something about her that she shouldn’t. Emilie had previously written her behavior off as being flustered, and she supposed that could still be the case. The woman had gotten coffee spilled on her, after all. But then why look at her like that? “Yeah… It is, but it’s not really– Are you sure you don’t want to do something about your shirt? It’s not exactly cold out, but I doubt leaving it like that is going to be comfortable.” Noticing the hotdog vendor not two feet from them, she walked over to ask for napkins for both of them. Throwing the cup away while she was at it, so she could wipe down her hands. “Here,” Emilie offered. “There’s should also be a bathroom in the shop back there if you wanted to try their hand dryer.”
Rory tried not to read too much into it - this not-so-strange stranger going out of her way to help her, acting the way she’d always imagined an older sister would... It was just her being a nice person, but it was also sort of everything she could have possibly hoped for. She was nice, and beautiful - like Kate Middleton, only better because she was real... “Thank you,” she said, accepting the offered napkins. “I, um, yeah - that might be smart. I can go to the bathroom and we can get you that new coffee.” Emilie hadn’t exactly accepted the offer, but Rory wasn’t sure she could take no for an answer.
Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.
Iain Thomas, I Wrote This For You (via larmoyante)
Maya smiled at the younger woman, grateful for another friendly face who wasn’t hovering over her. It happened, she was fine and she was here now. Alive and well. People didn’t need to keep walking on eggshells around her, and Rory was bringing in the normal, which is great. She moved to give her some space on the bed, slowly sitting up. “Right to the tough questions, I see.” The smile didn’t go anywhere, but Maya’s cheeks flushed, “Embarrassingly…not really? But there’s always time to learn, right?”
"Right,” Rory chuckled, grabbing her phone out of her pocket. “Hey Siri, how do you play chess?” she asked with an exaggerated tone, playing it up for Maya while waiting for the results to come in. “Oh, a site called ‘Chess.com.’ That sounds promising... Okay, first things first - white or black. Apparently white always goes first. Which sounds a little racist to me, but whatever...”
“With my mom?” Nathalie repeated, remaining silent for a moment before deciding to continue. “We didn’t for a while, but I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that I was a teenager and hormonal. Nowadays, we get along a better. She tries to come out and visit me at least once a month to check-in and make sure I’m doing something other than working. Actually, now that I think about it, she’s due for a visit soon.”
“That’s nice. Good, I mean. Good to get along with your mom,” she nodded awkwardly, trying her hardest not to make this weird. Rory and her mother, even during their good days, had never really had a conventional relationship. A part of her had always wanted that - a mom who was just a mom - but Rebecca Watson had always done the best she could with what she had been given. “And your dad?”
“So, apparently Lindsay Lohan got smacked in the face by some woman after trying to steal her kid away from her?” Aurelia couldn’t help but laugh, unable to mask her amusement. “Not to sound too much like a judgemental bitch, but come on. Clearly, it’s time someone should step in and help this chick. I mean, if Britney Spears can make it through 2007, I feel like anything is possible.”
Rory was sure she was probably amongst the ranks of ‘Troubled Child Stars’ on some list somewhere, though she had purposefully avoided googling herself since the event that had put her there. It hardly seemed fair, when her only crime was trusting the person she was in a consensual, adult relationship with - and her mother, as it turned out - but the jury of public opinion had never been very fair. Still, in light of recent revelations, she’d been finding her resolve starting to buckle. After all, Rory had never met a scab she didn’t want to pick at...
She hadn’t slept more than 3 hours a night since she found out, and she was sure it was starting to show. Still, she tried to put on a brave face - conducting business, going out with friends - hoping they didn’t notice the way she sometimes zoned out. But this particular topic kept her interest, though it hit just a little too close to home. “She probably just doesn’t have anyone who really cares about her, anyone she can trust. I mean, her mom is a monster - can you blame her?”
Rory got home by six after the kind of slow and steady day she didn’t even realized had drained her until her shoes were off and she suddenly felt like she could collapse right in the doorway. The good kind of tired, her mother had always called it, because it meant that you worked hard at something.
Until the last several months, Rory used to spend these kinds of nights alone - maybe heating up a LeanCuisine and watching a couple episodes of The Office on Netflix if she could muster the energy; otherwise just going to bed early. But the sight in front of her - the one that both filled and broke her heart - reminded her that those kinds of nights were over, hopefully for a long time to come.
Her mother was set up on a full-size cot in the living room, an end table pulled up beside it and burdened with a wide array of medicine bottles. A thick flannel nightgown hung from her slight frame, and the deep red headscarf that covered her head only served to accentuate her pallor. By the state of things, it was clear that Rebecca Watson hadn’t left the bed much that day, though Rory was sure she would deny it if pressed.
“Hi, mom,” Rory greeted, trying to keep her tone upbeat.
“Hello, my darling.” If her mother was trying to match her tone, she was doing a poor job of it. She spoke as though even her vocal cords were tired, and Rory felt her smile falter. She made her way over towards the bed, sitting down on the edge to inspect her mother.
“How are you feeling today?”
“As well as can be expected. You look tired.”
“Long day,” Rory explained simply.
“Come here.” She gestured for Rory to rest her head on her chest, and after only a moment’s hesitation, Rory complied.
It felt nice, in moments like this, to be the child again, eyes drifting shut as her mother’s fingers ran through her hair. The world seemed dusted with gold, the dying sun streaming in though half-drawn blinds, throwing streaks across her eyelids. The corners of her mouth drew up in sleepy contentment, and she could almost imagine, as she did so often when she was younger, that this bed was a raft drifting down a lazy river, taking them both to somewhere better.
“So beautiful,” her mother mused, moving her hand to follow the curve of Rory’s brow, the hollow of her cheek, the jut of her chin. But her voice didn’t just sound tired; it sounded... melancholy. “You really could have been something...”
It was then that Rory felt the breeze coming through the window, just a bit too cold to be comfortable and bringing with it the din of the traffic outside. Her mother’s chest, once soft and plump, was now sunken and bony; her nails rasped against Rory’s skull as though they were claws.
“Mom, I saw Zeke,” she said, extricating herself from her mother’s embrace, putting some distance between the two of them as she faced her with crossed legs. “At the hospital. A few weeks ago.”
If Rebecca Watson were surprised by that fact, she did little to show it. Maybe Rory was just out of practice when it came to reading her mother, but the most she saw was a slight twitch of her right brow. Otherwise, she remained stoic.
“I didn’t mean to,” Rory explained. “You were in chemo, and he was just... there. — And I got so angry I couldn’t help myself. I shouldn’t have bothered. I don’t know what I expected to get from him. Maybe an apology? And explanation?” So stupid. She was so stupid.
Her mother interrupted her as though she could sense her thoughts and the way she was prone to spiral, reaching out to place a comforting hand on hers. “Darling. My sweetheart... No explanation is ever going to excuse what he did to you. He isn’t even worth the time it would take to get it from him.”
There was something so earnest about the look in her mother’s eyes, her conviction so strong Rory could almost mistake it for desperation. There was a spark there that Rory hadn’t seen for a long time - a fight she’d thought the cancer had stamped out; one she’d last seen when her mother had pleaded ‘we can spin this! we can get through this!’ several years earlier.
They hadn’t. And her mother didn’t speak to her for nearly six years...
“He said you paid him to leak the pictures.” It wasn’t an accusation. More than anything, Rory wanted to see her mother’s eyes transform into disgust at the mere thought of something so vile. She wanted her mother to get as angry as she had. She wanted her to hug her so tight it almost hurt and tell her there was no way in hell she’d ever do such a despicable thing. She wanted them to cry together - mourn together - that Ezekiel Wade had ever been allowed into their orbit, where he’d ruined everything they’d ever built, and them along with it.
She wanted to lay it all to rest. All the sleepless nights. All the nagging thoughts. She wanted to write it all off completely. Ezekiel Wade hardly seemed worth it.
It was clear the news was a lot for her mother to process; Rory watched all the emotions filter across her face. Shock, anger, something else unidentifiable, before it finally settled on something Rory could only think of as... resignation. All that fire Rory had seen just seconds before seeped out of her, as if she’d only ever had the energy to hold it for a few moments, and once it was gone, it left her more fragile than before.
“My mother always said secrets eat away at you,” she started, her words slow and measured. Rory felt the dread building up in her stomach, rising higher and higher like so many bricks locking into place, until it was in her throat and she couldn’t possibly swallow around it. “And I’ve kept a lot. I thought... if I told you about your sister, it might buy me some more time. How silly of me...”
“Mom... Mommy?” Rory plead timidly, tears welling up in her eyes as she willed her mother to take this tangent anywhere but where she knew it was going.
“You were too big for that place - too good for that kid crap.” A single tear rolled down the woman’s papery cheek, but her conviction held strong even when her body could not. “I did what I thought was best for you. For us. It didn’t turn out the way I planned, and I am sorry for that. But I cannot apologize for doing what I thought was best.”
“You sold me out,” Rory said, for the first time knowing it was true. She felt dizzy and sick. A kind of numbness came over her, and she absently thought ‘this must be what shock feels like.’ “You pimped me out... You violated me, and then you let me think that it was my fault. You said you were disappointed in me. We didn’t talk for years... And all this time, you were the one who did this to me-”
“-No, Zeke did this to you-”
“-And you let him!” Rory exclaimed, feeling rage flood into her system as though someone had flipped a switch. On top of everything else, her mother had willingly orchestrated her own daughter’s heartbreak. She was disgusted. Her stomach turned to sit so close, to think that just moments before they had been cuddled even closer. She got up from the bed, putting several more feet between them. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Telling you wouldn’t change anything.”
Rory scoffed. Her mother and Zeke really were two peas in a pod. Neither taking responsibility. Both telling her what she needed to get through this. “You make me sick,” she spat finally. She couldn’t stand to hear another word. For once, she was going to be the one to walk away. “I’m going to stay at Lorenzo’s. I expect you to be gone by the time I get back.” Rory was done being gracious and accommodating; cancer or not, her mother didn’t deserve her charity.
She made it as far as her own room, grabbing her duffel from the closet and throwing it on the bed with more force than necessarily before she finally let out an ugly hiccuping sob. Her mother.... Her mom... It felt cruel that the universe could still be taking from her. She stuffed a random assortment of clothes in the bag - not even sure if she had what she needed, before zipping it up and leaving the apartment, not sparing her mother a glance and letting the door slam behind her.
Lorenzo frowns faintly taking a drink of his beer. Just like Zeke to pull some shit, without a reason and ghost. He never understood the guy. Never understood what he did, to someone he had said he cared about no less. Even if he was paid to do it, it didn’t make it any better. “Maybe you should talk to her. You are never going to get a straight answer out of him. So go to her. Don’t accuse her of course just let her know that’s what he said and watch her reaction. I’m not saying she did it, I just know you wont be happy or really understand until you get it from her”
She knew Lorenzo was right, and she trusted him to have her best interest at heart. He was perhaps the only person she knew for certain that she could trust... “Ugh, I just hate him, y’know?” she groaned, flopping over dramatically so she could rest her head of Lorenzo’s shoulder. “Hate that he’s making me doubt. Hate that he still knows how to push my buttons... I mean, when I saw him, it felt like he was this entirely different, foreign person but somehow I was still the same stupid girl to him...”
Elliot scoffed amusedly at Rory’s remark about Marianna’s idea of fun. “Now that gives me motivation to check social media just to see while we wait God knows how long.” He shook his head. “I did, but don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything except a hurricane that nearly wiped everything out. But more importantly now, everything alright with your mother?”
“I heard about that. I hope you didn’t get banged up or anything?” The storm had calmed greatly by the time it had reached the city, but it was still enough that Rory could only imagine it had been awful on the coast. “My mom’s okay. I mean, as well as can be expected with Stage 4 cancer...”
Lorenzo froze at her words. He couldn’t hide the shock. “What? he said what? What shit kind of excuse is that..did he say why she supposedly paid him for it? Why in the world would she jeopardize your career for the scandal? Putting it aside that she’s your mother and she loves you, your career supported her as well”
“No. He basically just dropped the bomb and left... Said something about how I wouldn’t get a worthwhile apology from him, so I should try to get one from her while I still could...” She shook her head dejectedly. “I mean, that’s stupid, right? Like, he’s so clearly just playing the same old bullshit. It can’t be true, but now it’s like this weed and I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“I’ve played Finger Twister. But uhh, I think it might mess up my IV lines and that hurts a lot. Chess is nice, I like chess!” Maya craned her neck to try and sneak a peek into the closet that Rory was standing in front of, unable to see anything. In truth, Maya had never played chess; never had the patience for the strategy. But she was in need of entertainment, and maybe she’d even learn something from Rory. “My brain is ready for some exercising. I needed a break from all the day time television I’ve been watching.”
“Great,” Rory smiled, happy to see Maya’s spirits lifting. Rory was sadly more acquainted with hospitals than she cared to be at this current point in time, so she knew just how badly being cooped in one could suck. Sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed, she wheeled the portable table tray in between them, laying out the board before looking at the chess pieces cluelessly. “... You ever played?”
“Well, thank you for that,” Nathalie smiled, reaching once more for her wine glass. “My mom used to always tell me, like when I was a little kid to always say ‘thank you’ after someone gives you a compliment because arguing with someone trying to say something nice about you is rude.” Nathalie couldn’t help but chuckle. “My mom is also a nut, so, maybe that has something to do with it.”
“I think everyone’s mom is slightly crazy,” Rory said with a shrug, thinking of what Zeke told her - the thing she still couldn’t get out of her mind. She hadn’t confronted her mother yet, but she could feel the urge bubbling under the surface. “Do you get along with her?”
“Hmm… that definitely sounds more legit than Craigslist. I just didn’t know that existed, but I’ll take something that’s vetted any day over craigslist. That reputation leaves a lot to be desired.”
“I once fell into one of those internet rabbit holes of awful Craigslist stories. I swear I didn’t want to leave my apartment the next day... Some people are just awful...”
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