The Child Bride

Ch-4: The Queen

Ch-3- The Queen

The massive fish tank embedded in the wall had been built personally for his Ma.

There was one in their old house, back when his father was alive, if he remembers rightly his father had been the one to buy it for her, one of the rare kind actions he did and in most of his childhood memories, or at least the rare good ones he always recalled hi Ma spending her time by it, feeding the fishes and cleaning the tanks in her daily routine, of course that was one was much- much smaller, a mere fish bowl compared to the thirteen thousand gallon aquarium that took up most of an entire hallway.

His mother had always been hesitant to move so far away from the home they used to know, but Don had been determined to start fresh, without the constant illegalities that lied back home and for that he need a new place, where the name Carllone instantly didn’t have people running the other directions. The house was vastly remolded and rebuilt after he brought the entire property and his Ma had took over most of the remodeling and designs when it came to it, but yet her heart was still set on going back home where his father had died, Don didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone with Uncle Victor and the rest of the Avierras, not when they still had enemies sniffing around both in and out of the family.

The large aquarium was his last method of bribing her to stay, something that wasn’t in her plans at all. She had laughed for minutes after she saw the size of it, then chided him about how unnecessary and uselessly extravagant it was. It never really took her interest, she barely ever spared it a glance and it had been clear that it didn’t revoke the same memories it did for him to his mother, but the act itself of building a massive aquarium had won her over even though she had only stayed with him for around a year, in the end she had settled to live in a pretty nice nursing home just an hour away, especially after her health got worse, but it was better than leaving her all alone with the Avierras.

As a result Don had never really cared about the aquarium either, it was nice, it painted a pretty vista and gave the feeling of being underwater, but it wasn’t the quickest or the only way into the main parts of the house, so usually it was avoided mostly by everyone residing in the house, the whole thing was automated from feeding to air pressure, a guy comes into check the tank every few months and fix whatever wasn’t automated. In the past he might have brought a few girls there, just mindless one night stands but Marin hated it, always said that she would have the whole thing removed once she moved in and Don had agreed eagerly, not really having anyone else to please anymore.

So he clearly did not expect his child bide to take a liking into the fishes to the point he found that she spent almost every night in there, staring at the tanks or more commonly talking to the fishes like they are all her old best friends. He knew she had a liking into animals in general, she said something about wanting to be a Vet, and Matt constantly talks about the street cats she’s adopted but she had never really dared to let anything in the house, probably afraid of how he would react.

To be honest he thought she would be frightened of after the first night he saw her talking to the fishes, she still looked scared enough at the idea of him that he assumed she wouldn’t want to be alone with a drunk version of him in the middle of the night. But every night he stumbled home, drunken and wearied down at two in the morning she was always there if he took the effort to look.

Most days she would be talking, sometimes she is loud and sometimes barely above a whisper, other times she would be fast asleep in the couch that he wouldn’t even know was in there if it weren’t for the mess of blankets on the couch, but she is always turned towards the tank, as if she fell asleep looking at it, and some nights she wouldn’t even be there, he assumed those nights are spent at her own bed.

It becomes a thing; he would come home every night and walk towards the aquarium. The doors would always be kept wide open from both ends of the passageway that held the aquarium, it could be locked from the inside but for some reason it was always open so he didn’t feel very guilty about peeking in. He would sit by the doorway listing to her blabber on and on, sometimes it’s honestly ridiculous that he finds himself drunkenly laughing along that he knows she must be notified of his presence by then, but yet she makes up one story after another based on the daily life of the fishes in his aquarium, each more and more bizarre and for once it’s just easy, to sneak in and listen rather than bear the pain and weight of his thoughts. He falls asleep like that more than once, he wakes up with crick in his neck and his back aching for sleeping in a sitting position but Casey would either be gone, or curled into the couch by then that he would leave without making a sound.

He tries to not stick around in the nights she isn’t as loud or active, it feels very creepy watching a kid sleep, but yet he enjoys the warm glow of the water and is strangely assured by another presence in the house that’s enough incentive not to open another bottle. The nights she is not present though, those nights he enjoys drowning himself in drinks until every other emotion and though process stills, he is not sure if those kind of nights are the best or the worst.

So it’s a little strange that the one day he comes home with only a mild buzz because Matt had not so accidently trashed his stash, the kid is doing neither of her usual activities. She is awake, and sitting by the floor like she did the first time he saw her like that but she is completely quiet other than her haggard breathing, and there are at least two different sweaters and a blankets wrapped around her that the only thing visible is the very tip of his fingers, which are shaking, so is her whole body as she sits crouched down, leaning her head against the cold glass as she hugged herself pathetically.

She looks tortured, exhausted, as if in the verge screaming out or crying but she doesn’t know how to do that. He knows that look well enough, he used to suffer from panic attacks as a kid until uncle Vic took it has his cue to expose him more and more to the gorier parts of the business until he eventually stopped caring, until he manned up as he used to say. It’s the first time he is seeing somebody else in that state though, and he is pleased to find despite his indifference he doesn’t quite agree with Uncle Vic.

“You know the doors can be closed, it’s a much better view” he decides to announce his presence for once.

“NO!” she says all of a sudden, he hadn’t expected her to say anything at all but her eyes are blown wide and she looks even more exhausted as if that’s even possible. Don adds, Claustrophobia to the long line of issues he had already noted with the kid.

She turns her eyes back when he nods along though, keeping his arms up so that she knows he isn’t about to do anything, for once it’s isn’t him she is scared of. He takes that as his incentive to move forward, cautiously and loudly so that his movements are projected evidently enough. She doesn’t move or flinch away for once, so he falls down on the worn down couch, it’s warm that he knows she’s been laying there and he leans back easily to the dip of it.

“Why don’t you tell me about your new best friends?” he turns to her, she looks surprised but he notes that her hands have stopped shaking.

“What?” she is confused.

“The last I heard Isaac Newton was fighting with Bruce Wayne for his spaceship” it sounds even more ridiculous saying it out loud, but he gets a very slow, shy smile for his efforts.

“I thought you were all ‘too old for this s**t’” she quotes, using a lower voice which sounds nothing like him by the way.

“Oh, trust me I am-It’s either listening to your insanity or another bottle of Vodka, lesser of two evils and all that” he shrugs simply, it’s true but it will also help distract the kid from whatever has her so shaken.

For a minute she doesn’t say another, she looks at him for a few seconds, then turns back to the fishes and rest her head on the glass again. He thinks she isn’t going to say anything but then one of her clothed fingers taps at the glass again, some of the guppies in there seemingly rushing at the sound as if they noticed her.

“It’s technically not Bruce Wayne’s spaceship- See that Cichlid over there, he is the one who initially owned it but then a group of Swordtails came in- they are called the Guardians of the Fish tank by the way, they are pretty knightly when they are not fighting with each other, idiots-” she starts and Don sinks further into the couch, Casey’s tone a warming lullaby in the strangest of sense.

“- And you won’t believe what Zorro over there did yesterday-“ she goes on, he is not able to completely follow to be honest, doesn’t even know if he wants to but she seems to finally shake off whatever was holding her back, one of the blankets easily falling of her shoulders as she gets more and more involved in the story, her tone raising once again as she points out every one of her characters. He notes that there are holes in the sweater underneath, but ignores it for the sake of listening to her.

It’s hands down the strangest night he has spent with a woman, or ever in his life for that matter, but when he wakes up in the morning for once he doesn’t have a hangover and that realization is welcomed rather than rectified by another bottle. Casey is fast asleep on the floor, he feels a little guilty because he had passed out on her couch for the previous night. The feeling in his chest at the sight of the young curled in little ball comes back full force, he almost decides to take her to her bed, but then recalls the way she had pointedly refused to come near him no matter how loud and enthusiastic her explanations got.

So in the end he just stares at her for a second, contemplating on whether waking her is good idea, but she looks like she hasn’t slept in years and again startling her with his touch is not a smart idea. In the end he settles for throwing one of the blankets around her so at least she would be warmer, he leaves for office only after reminding one of the cleaning ladies to wake her a few hours later, multiple times.

It’s the first night and subsequent morning he hadn’t thought of Marin or Carter.

************

You know despite what appearance- and your boss- might have you believe I am not actually a child, I am 18, has been for almost four months” Casey feels the need to point out when the terrible rock music in the car goes on for way too long. It’s been making her even more jumpy, especially since it’s her first day of college and she is once again being driven into town by one of Donatello’s guys.

Matthew, the guy’s name was Matthew, he had introduced himself months ago when he greeted them at the airport, but Casey hadn’t really made an effort to talk to him or anyone else at that point, even when she realized maybe things aren’t as bad as she expected them to be. But then he had started trailing behind her and forcing her into conversations after that time she accidently set fire to the kitchen- which he still hadn’t gotten over with the way he is always blocking her way to the stove whenever he does see her. Casey would never say she liked him, but he was the closest thing she had to a companion that wasn’t a fish or drunk for most conversation.

“Duly noted” Matt smiles; he looks a little surprised, because while she does talk to the guy sometimes -mostly while indirectly forcing him to watch shitty rom coms- she had never initiated a conversation before.

“That means I can drive, and it’s not that far- I could make it to classes in less than half an hour on feet and there are busses and stuff that I could take” she explains further, trying not to jump out of her seat when she watches their destination approach.

“I don’t doubt that, but you princess, is the wife of the ‘King’ Carllone, a very rich and powerful man, and there are other rich and powerful men who would more than like to get their hands on you, my job for the time being is to make sure that doesn’t happen, and if that means driving you around a little I am more than happy to do it” he says easily, even grins a little but Casey is not sure how genuine that is.

“I am hot commodity” she mumbles under her breathe, causing Matt to laugh a little as he makes an abrupt turn.

“Precisely” he says simply, “Now, you just focus on getting a good education alright?” he goes on, his tone once again teasing.

She had a feeling none of them realized how big of deal letting her go to college was, even ignoring the whole financial aspects of it she had never thought she would get the opportunity. If she was normal, growing up with normal people, having a normal life rather than reared as the livestock to strengthen business deals she thinks it wouldn’t matter much to her either, she would have preferred to do something hands on and start working somewhere rather than spent more hours in classes. She had never been the studious type, things didn’t come easy to her, in fact the only reason she did study and score the way she did was solely due to the satisfaction of beating the Devittos in any ways she could.

Old man Aldrich had sent her to school with his children, in a rich private school as soon as she learned to talk, she had been the dumb kid because she hadn’t been nearly old enough to start school at the time, she was teased and bullied for most parts but that wasn’t anything unusual to her, but then one day she had noticed the grimacing frown on Mrs. Devitto’s face when she won something Cecelia or Alden Devitto hadn’t managed to procure, she had no idea what the hell she won or what exactly was her present but she recalls the look of anger on the woman’s face very vividly, and from that moment forward she had been determined to undermine the rest of the Devitto children’s achievements in any way she can, even if it meant killing herself by studying or doing sports when she wasn’t mentally or physically capable.

As a result by the time she reached middle school they pulled her out and made her go to public school, the bullying and teasing still followed but this time it was for other reasons rather than the fact she was the useless Devitto runt, so she gleamed and took to it all wonderfully that by the time she reached high school she even had a small group of friends and pretty good reputation in the said school. Mrs. Devitto retaliated by making her drop out of high school in her sophomore year and locking her within the premises of the house, saying that she didn’t need much of an education to be married and raising Carllone babies. She had to beg and grovel and threaten, and there were another array of bruises and scars both emotionally and mental to show for it but in the end she at least managed to convince them to allow her to write the final exams and meet her grades. She eventually managed to graduate with enough grades to get into college, but she had lost the head start she had in the middle of it all and never been allowed to go outside of the Devitto mansion since she was 14.

And hence her apprehension at going to college, a very public, crowded place full of people her age, and considering she has been sheltered for the past four years with her sadistic step siblings for company she honestly didn’t know what to do or how to behave.

Her sudden nervousness and anxiety was irrational, she had applied to college, specifically one nearer to the Carllone house with the help of an old teacher who was brave enough to help her out, but smart enough not to feed her false hope. She had never thought she would get accepted, and even if she did she never thought she would be able to go, but she had made it, she had actually beat the odds for once, she had asked for this but yet she was bouncing in a car seat, her whole body on high alert as she tried her best not to chew her lip out.

Her nerves are further highlighted when Matt finally pulls into the parking lot. Instead of unlocking the doors he pulls up a package from one of the compartments in the car and tosses it to her, opening the package is enough of a distraction that it has her heart calming down for a second. She frowns when she discovers a smartphone.

“Boss wanted you to have one; his and my numbers are already on it if you want to import anything from your old one-“ Matt starts with the technical jargon, she’s also come to realize unlike the men working for the Devittos Matt is actually not retarded and has enough brains to meet his brawns.

“It’s not- I don’t have one” she assures before the guy can go on, she knew about phones in the relative sense, even had one that she used for years until it was trampled on to teach her a lesson, but she’s never really needed one without having much connections to the outside world, the rare friend or two she had had been quickly scared off by the Devittos by the time she’s been on house arrest. And honestly, she would rather suffocate herself in the aquarium rather than call one of the Devittos willingly.

Luckily Matt doesn’t say anything, just nods and unlocks the door.

“Don’t be nervous, princess” he says before she can actually get off, “You are a Carllone now, that’s something you can wear proudly”.

“Uh-huh, just like the fact that I am 18 and married without a teenage pregnancy in the equation” she murmurs back sarcastically, but she knows very well that there are worse things in life that being married to Donatello Carllone.

She might even have some kind of weird understanding with the guy if their late night encounters are anything to go by. She doesn’t really know what to call their interactions other than weird, he comes in mostly drunk and sits on the couch and listens to her blabber on about his collection of fishes, usually she’s the one doing the talking and she doesn’t mind, even enjoys having someone to listen to her even if ‘listen’ is very relative when it comes to her husband.

They don’t talk about anything serious, not about the marriage or the reasons why they are putting up with each other, or why he obviously drinks half the bar and still listens to her talk in order to feel numb and get away from something, she’s figured out his actions are a method of distraction from something that happened long ago, she’s heard him groan out the name Marin pathetically more than once, but considering everything the guy was doing for her providing him some useless distraction by making up ridiculous stories was the least she could do. The rare times Donatello does say something it’s to correct some of the logic in her stories, as if he was yet to catch on to the fact she is making up the stories about freshwater fishes named after fictional characters, what kind of logic the guy is looking for she is yet to know.

Matt just smiles “You’ll be fine, Princess” he assures, and Casey takes the momentary relief to actually unhook the seatbelt.

“I am not a princess” she realizes, Matt simply raises an eyebrow in question “I am not a princess, if your boss is ‘the king’ and I am married to him, so I am no longer a princess. I am the god damn queen- It’s all in the proper designations” she smirks, feeling a bit like her true self after so long.

Matt laughs wildly as she opens the door and gets off.

“Hey, if anything happens, Call me okay?” He shouts out before she can close the door back in.

“Gotcha, and Thanks I guess” she mummers back.

That seemingly does catch him of guard because a strange look takes over his face, as if he isn’t used to getting thanked, “For what? I am doing my job, My Queen” he tries to brush it away, already reigniting the engine.

Casey simply shrugs, “Doesn’t hurt to say it I guess, so thanks” she says and quickly turns around and forces herself to walk towards the main gate.

After everything she’s been through being afraid of the first day of college is more or less an insult, one she definitely would not stand for…