<br/><div class="floatleft">(http://24.media.tumblr.com/893cc23d042decbc359376ff4664f6d5/tumblr_mjn64pE7V41rpkk66o1_500.jpg)</div><br/>“I told you, I didn’t<em>want</em>anchovies. I don’t<em>like</em>anchovies.”<br/><br/>Dark eyes watched the older woman in front of her with a touch of sadness, eyes the mirror of each other except the younger woman’s hadn’t yet been tempered by age. Stress perhaps, but youth so far had saved her from the creases that framed the others. Nobody else in the room even looked at the raised voice, but instinctively Ardelia slid towards the edge of the plastic chair she was sitting on. As if by decreasing the distance between them she could serve to deflect some of the attention.<br/><br/>The raven-haired teenager pinched her bottom lip between her teeth for a long moment and just sat still. Not speaking, instead just watching, there were ways to handle situations like this. She knew them all, she’d been taught so many times. The same lesson in so many<em>different </em>ways, the first she had learnt as a child. The most fundamental,<em>don’t</em>raise your voice, don’t create a fuss, volume doesn't increase the chance somebody will pay attention to your words it just increases the chances it will escalate. The second as a student, keep your head down and don’t make waves. The third as an employee, defuse the situation and keep your anger tempered.<br/><br/>None of the lessons had ever really stuck, she wasn’t a girl for rules and her indignity wasn’t easily shut down.<br/><br/><em>Except </em>in certain situations. One thing she had learnt though was to keep her emotions tuned out, so taking a breath so that she could speak without her tone wavering from the feeling of icy fingers curling around her heart she forced a gentle smile to her lips.<br/><br/>“They’re chocolates Ma, Turkish delights. Your favourite. Remember?”<br/><br/>There was a brief moment when her mother turned her gaze fully on her that she thought there might be a hint of recognition there. But it was gone almost as quickly and when she spoke again Ardelia figured she must have imagined it.<br/><br/>“I don’t know<em>you </em>and I don’t want<em>your </em>anchovies. I don’t<em>like </em>them.”<br/><br/>Worse than the words though, or the fact that her only family in the world currently didn’t even recognise her own daughter, was the notion that she wasn’t going to change it today. Perhaps if she came back tomorrow it would be a lucid day, unfortunately the lucid days were becoming more and more infrequent. Lee knew she was losing her mother, slowly, but at nineteen she wasn’t even close to being prepared to admit that. So instead she stood up off the chair, ignoring the feeling of her bare skin peeling away from the plastic, and kissed her mother on the head as she passed.<br/><br/>“I’ll be back soon Momma. Love you.” The words were spoken softly barely above a whisper, no need to antagonise the old woman further, but she somewhere deep down she liked to imagine that her mother was in there, listening behind the layers of crazy. Walking across the room, the sound of her flip-flops squeaking on the tiles lost in the general din of the room, Lee smiled sadly at the guy behind the reception who happily buzzed her out. Not that she made it very far down the corridor.<br/><br/>“Miss Bennett!”<br/><br/>Ardelia froze, her stomach clenching before she forced her heart-rate down and turned around to face the nurse who was walking briskly down the corridor to catch her.<br/><br/>“I’m sorry to stop you on your way out?”<br/><br/>“Is she okay? Taking her meds? What's wrong?”<br/><br/>“What? Oh<em>yes</em>, yes, your mother is doing very well” Adry scoffed at this in her head, she certainly didn’t<em>seem </em>like she was doing any better. Though her definition of ‘better’ would be having her mother back fully, something that she knew deep down wouldn’t happen, but still. Her expression must have showed something of her inner thought process as the nurse cleared her throat and got to the point. “It’s just, well this is difficult and it<em>might </em>well be a fault on our end, but the last payment….well….it didn’t go through.”<br/><br/><em>Fuck</em>.<br/><br/>Of course it didn’t clear, she had about six cents to her name at the moment and having lost her job two weeks ago that didn’t look set to change. She’d already sold her TV set to buy groceries, was deftly avoiding the pounding of her Landlord on her door at increasingly frequent periods and walking miles across the city because she could afford to do anything else. Medical bills were beyond her capacity at the moment. So she did what she always did when she was stuck.<br/><br/>She stalled.<br/><br/>“Oh what?<em>Really</em>?” Genuine shock, if nothing else she was a damn good actress. “I don’t know what that's about. How about I write you a cheque or something?”<br/><br/>“That’ll be fine” the older woman smiled, “just drop it at reception on your way out. And I wouldn’t worry, these things happen to the best of us.”<em>Patronising bitch.</em><br/><br/>Ardelia held her smile whilst the nurse tottered off in the other direction before letting it fall away, some daughter she was, couldn’t even afford to look after her own mother. The brunette didn’t stop at reception; instead she headed out of the door. She would think of something by the next time she was here, she always did.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>As if the three mile walk back to her apartment wasn’t enough, she just wanted to collapse into bed and let the oblivion of sleep claim her thoughts for a while. Instead of running over everything in her head, her problems just wouldn’t quit. Her stomach was growling and she had at least another couple of hours until she had to be at Beth’s, she wasn’t even sure why she had agreed to go over to the other woman’s house for dinner. It didn’t exactly sound like a party, her playing third wheel to the other woman’s perfect life.<br/><br/>‘<em>You agreed because you ran out of food yesterday and otherwise you’d be sitting down to a nice plate of nothing, daft cow, now quit complaining.’</em>Biting her fingernails was a terrible habit that she only surrendered too when she was stressed; as such they were a mess and she had very little left to chew on. Still she endeavoured.<br/><br/>“I’ve been waiting for you.” Said the skinny waif of a guy leaning against her door, Ardelia rolled her eyes.<br/><br/>“I’ve already told you Day, I have nothing. I haven’t seen Scottie in weeks. This hasn’t changed.” And by God if she had anything to sell she’d do it in a heartbeat. “Honestly, not playing hard to get, I’m just out.”<br/><br/>“You can’t be out Leelee, you’re the ice-queen.”<br/><br/>She was fast writing off this conversation in her head. The last thing she was in the mood for now was a confrontation with a desperate junkie and so with a shake of her head she turned around, walking away she tossed over her shoulder casually,<br/><br/>“What can I say; this ice-queen is fresh out of Snow.”<br/><br/>That left her with two hours to kill; she’d planned on going home and at least changing into something a little more, well,<em>nice</em>. Instead she was wearing frayed daisy-dukes and a large sweatshirt that’s hem almost met the bottoms of her shorts. The top was hanging off her, probably thanks in part to the food situation, but it had been her ex-boyfriends anyway and had always buried her. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail that had been done with her fingers and not a brush, strands fell everywhere and the only make-up she had on was dark eye make-up from the night before. Smudged but not unattractive, merely perhaps a little too heavy for the time of day coupled with the loungewear; for the people she ran with it would be everyday wear. For Beth however, she had a feeling it was going to be all levels of under-dressed. Then again, who dressed up for a home-cooked-dinner?<br/><br/>It had already been a long day, so heading to the park she figured she could spend at least the last few dredges of spring sunlight relaxing, even if it wasn’t in the blissful softness of a bed that she would probably very shortly be locked away from. Landlords appeared to be sticklers for silly things like rent. It lasted an hour before her legs were damn near chilled and even with the long walk to her friend’s house she still knocked on the door half an hour early.