Alicia Chapter 18 : Bribery

The strangest fight broke out the other day while Anya was over for a play date. Beth had absolutely flipped out and started yelling at Anya, then at Brooke, accusing her of stealing everything from her.

Brooke yelled back that she didn’t take anything, and I could hear the honest outrage in her voice. Anya had the strangest look of confusion on her face, and began to say it was Beth who was the thief. I quickly told them both off for yelling before dragging Bethany into the bedroom and sitting her down on the bed.

“What was that?” I asked, but Bethany clammed up yet again. I crossed my arms and looked down at her. “What did she take?”

“She didn’t take anything this time.” Beth snapped.

“Okay. None of that attitude,” I said first. “Why did you say she was stealing from you then?”

“Why did you let her call Anya over?” Beth glared at me, and I was taken aback. She got up and stormed around the room, but didn’t leave.

“Did you two have a fight? I’m sorry love, I didn’t know you didn’t want Anya over.” I knelt down to hug her. “Even if you did have an argument though, Brooke is still allowed to play with her.” Beth was silent. I thought back, years ago, when Beth complained that nothing was truly hers. Beth and Brooke shared everything. Even friends. I mean, that was hard to avoid since they went to the same school, and they were so close in age that she shared some split classes.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Beth’s ears perked up, but she carefully held onto her sour scowl. “Go make up with your sister, and play nice with Anya. Tomorrow I’ll bring you something that’s just yours. Okay?”

Beth was hesitant, but dropped her shoulders with a sigh and agreed to go play. Damn, did I just bribe my child to play nice?

Akira took the following day off work for his birthday party. He was a bit embarrassed when Kali started planning it, but when she insisted he agreed, as if he really had a choice. Nothing ever stopped her.

“Now I really look like Bond,” Akira whispered to me after we cut the cake.
I gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Handsome as ever, and still not a womanizer,” I reminded him.

He laughed; I loved the sound. “As if I could be, I’m surrounded by women. You’d all gang up on me.”

As the party settled down and the adults grouped around the living room, Beth tugged on my arm and reminded me that I owed her a present. Cheeky kid.

Brooke was extremely curious as Beth and I unpacked the box on the floor of their play area. “It’s a build-your-own-castle craft kit,” I explained to Bethany, whose eyes lit up. “You can do most of it yourself, just please come get me if you need help gluing it together, okay?” Beth nodded enthusiastically as she examined all the pieces.

“Can I help?” Brooke asked timidly. Beth looked at me expectantly, and I just nodded to her.

“That’s up to Beth, it’s her castle.”

“You can help build.” Beth said firmly, and Brooke nodded. “But I’ll tell you what you can do.” I reminded Beth to be nice, and left them to it.

In the living room, I sat with Annabelle and gave her an update on the girls. It really was turning out nothing like Anna and I grew up together. Annabelle suggested taking Brooke out for big-sister time, which I thought was a fantastic idea. After all, she was her godmother and wanted to spend more time with her.

After the party, I check in on Bethany and Brooke and found them quietly playing together. Bethany was so proud of her castle and took the majority of the credit for building it, but Brooke didn’t look like she minded. She never did.

Brooke loved Annabelle’s idea, and before long it became a regular thing for Anna and Brooke to spend Saturday afternoons together. I didn’t always know where they were going (Anna liked to keep it a surprise) but Brooke always came back raving about the park, or the museum, or some insane food she had tried.

Brooke steadily became more independent, bothered Bethany less, and even started exploring how to use my computer. That turned out to be a blessing, since she could fix it up every time it want on the fritz.

In fact, it was going so well that I asked Kali to reach out to Beth in the same way. Unfortunately, as excited as Kali was Beth always brushed her invitations off. Bethany was frustratingly hard to figure out. They way she looked at Brooke sometimes gave me the impression she was jealous…and yet when the same opportunities presented themselves Beth turned them down. I needed to break her out of her spiny shell.

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