Chapter Two (Part 2): Troubled Teen Years
Regardless of the flying hatred they held for one another, Lilith and Angela managed to come together in response to a sole issue: their disgust for the "help," specifically one Kaylynn Langerak. Kaylynn had a constant obscure expression as if not aware of what she said or the things she did, but they could each see through her. Instead of going through series of interviews to find the perfect maid, Kaylynn contacted Daniel specifically and inquired about work.
Suspicious of her risque clothing, Lilith and Angela found themselves working in tandem at Angela's computer and found that a "Jaylynn Langerak" had broken up a home by posing as a maid and managed to secure millions of dollars by having an illegitimate child with the house owner, and she had a sister, deemed to be just like her, living in Pleasantview named Kaylynn. Lilith hated her parents, but deep in her heart, family was family, and the thought that an outsider sought to break up her "unhappy" home, was harder to take than Angela's previous beatings. They appealed to Mary-Sue to fire Kaylynn as they noticed Daniel becoming slowly enamoured with her, but Mary-Sue's work at the congressman's office kept her away for most of the week and she would pay neither Lilith, nor Angela, any mind when it came to her marital affairs.
With Kaylynn deemed as a formidable enemy, Angela began to burn the household phone lines, calling her friends at all times of the night to tell them all about the new situation at home. At first, Lilith was just irritated by having to carve out time to talk to Dustin at odd times when she could pry the phone away from Lilith or Mary-Sue, but when Angela began talking on the phone into the late night hours, she was simply angry.
One night, Lilith went into Angela's room to snatch the phone away from her and caught a bit of Angela's conversation:
"...really? She never told you she had a sister? That's wild...I mean we're twins...yeah...Where do you go to school? Oh really? Do you know Gordon...?"
"Who are you talking to?" Lilith demanded. "You've been on the phone all night!"
Angela simply turned her back to her. "My friend...Dustin."
A fire ignited within Lilith at the knowledge that Angela had somehow gotten in contact with her Dustin, but she simply stomped away to sulk in her own room. She had developed quite the crush on Dustin, and regardless of the fact that Angela had managed to contact him, she was confident that if she acted quickly, she would have her first boyfriend.
With her mind made up to casually ask Dustin to hang out, Lilith went to the social academy expecting to subtly outpour her heart to him, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Dustin?" she asked one of the administrators.
"Oh, he's graduated from the academy," the administrator said. "He's fine now, but we can only hope for you."
Slightly put out from learning that Dustin had not bothered to call her with the news that he was free from the social academy, Lilith went home, preparing to pry the phone from Angela's fingers. When she walked through the house, she noticed a flash of blond hair in the background and ran to see if Dustin had stopped by for a surprise visit. Lilith burst through the back door and her boots skidded on the grass as she came to halt. Dustin had indeed come to visit, but come to visit Angela.
"Good to see you're home, Sis," Angela said in a high-pitched voice. "Dustin's come by to see me!"
Rage coursed through Lilith at the sight of them together and she tore down the street not knowing or caring where she went. When she had finally run out of breath, she fell on the sidewalk and cried; a mixture of disbelief and fury making all her thoughts unintelligible. Unable to think of what else to do, Lilith allowed the rage to course through her and ripped through the town kicking down fences, smashing windows and slashing tires everywhere she went. By ten o'clock, the police finally caught up with her and Lilith sat next to an officer's desk in the police precinct as the officer, Officer Briggs, called Mary-Sue.
Lilith had expected her to come to the precinct scowling and ready to ring her ears with screams, but Lilith heard Mary-Sue's voice clearly through the officer's phone:
"Leave her there!"
Officer Briggs slowly set down the phone and stared at Lilith who looked so low that he doubted if anything could pull her back up again.
"Come on," he said, rising from his desk. "Let's go."
Begrudgingly, Lilith followed him, wondering what it would be like to spend the night in a jail cell, but instead of heading towards the back of the precinct, he ushered towards his squad car, to take her home. It was not the first time, Lilith had, ironically, experienced kindness from another person's extreme pity.
"You were arrested!" Angela yelled when Officer Briggs brought Lilith home. "God, you're pathetic! No wonder Dustin likes me better than you. At least I'm a good influence on him."
Yet, Lilith did not hear her sister's newest harsh words. Thankfully, the officer had felt sorry for her and just took her home, but she was still a fifteen-year-old girl with a record, and now she had lost the only person who she felt could commiserate to her retched twin sister. Despondent and depressed, Lilith began spending long hours in her room, simply staring at the far and not knowing what else she could do with her life.
To add to the ever-increasing angst in her life, the heated discussions between Mary-Sue and Daniel were becoming full arguments. Though they attempted to keep their voices down when either Lilith or Angela were home, both girls could hear they're parents' arguing resounding through the house.
Coming close to his retirement, Daniel had been spending more and more time at home during the day. Suspicious of their seemingly profligate maid, Mary-Sue began questioning every one of Daniel's actions and wondering all the while if he might be tempted by Kaylynn's short skirts and plunging necklines.
"I'm just making sure the maid is doing her job," he would say to Mary-Sure or "I'm just working out more often to look good for you," when she asked about his sudden increase in time on the treadmill or on their universal system. She did not have proof any possible infidelity, but she distrusted his words all the same.
With her father stretching his philanderous legs, her mother ignoring her even when they were in the same room together, and her sister overtaking anything after which she sought, Lilith entered the tenth grade at a new low. Her grades were worse than ever and without having Dustin by her side, she felt lonelier than she had as a small child.
Rather than go home and face the family that never wanted her, Lilith spent her nights roaming the streets and getting into general mischief that caused several more trips home by Officer Briggs. After a night of slashing tires to vent her frustrations, Lilith found herself sitting, once again in the chair beside Briggs' desk, but this time across from a boy about her age.
"What're you in for?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Tires...sometimes they piss me off."
He gave her a dashing smile. "I have that same problem with plate glass windows."
They ended up talking for another four hours until Briggs and another officer separated them to take them home. Lilith learned the boy's name was Dirk Dreamer and he was also well-acquainted with the Pleasantview Police Department.
Dirk's mother had died in a fire a few years earlier and if the death itself had not been tragic enough, his father, Darren, appeared to be slightly losing his mind. Since the day they buried his mother, Darren spoke rarely and only painted image after image of her, to the point that her haunting visage covered nearly ever wall their house.
"He actually hasn't said anything to me in four days," Dirk said one night while they were both sitting the police precinct, once again. "I work as gofer doing odd jobs in a Downtown law office, but if that doesn't make ends meet, I've got to steal and hock things just to make sure the lights stay on and I've got something to eat."
Lilith listened to Dirk's stories about the differences between life before and after his mother's death and for the first time was able to put things into perspective. As much as she despised them, she did have a family that was more or less whole and kept a roof over her head. Where Dirk snatched purses for money to buy tomatoes, and sometimes the thrill of it, Lilith smashed windows and slit tires just because she was angry with the world, and the more she got to know him, the more she respected Dirk.
After several other nights spent in the police precinct and one unfortunate night across from one another in juvenile detention, Lilith and Dirk began to spend time with one another outside of judiciary circumstances. By the summer before Junior Year, Lilith was spending all her time with Dirk, who, through his attention and care, helped her finally graduate out of the social academy. When she went to Dirk's house straight after school one day instead of going straight to the academy, Lilith realized with a smile that she was in love with Dirk Dreamer.
...on to Chapter 2: Part 3
