Just a shameful walk downstairs

It didn't take long for you to get cleaned up and out of your door once you had given yourself a minute to calm your thoughts. Now that you were fully dressed in a shirt and pants that were at least ‘smart’ by your standards, you walked down the hall and quietly down the stairs to avoid disturbing Lucy who was presumably still getting ready in her room.

It looked like you were now the only one downstairs as Mom was no longer in the kitchen where she was before. You were glad for the brief alone time as you attempted to use your newfound intelligence to conjure up a plan to get Lucy to hate you less. Your thoughts went round in circles as all your ideas eventually led you to the conclusion that they wouldn’t work without you being in contact with her and to be in contact with her she had to be not angry with you. The catch 22 filled your mind and you only managed to break out of it when you heard the stairs creaking as someone walked down.

Luckily for you, Sarah seemed to be the next one to get ready as she came racing down the stairs to meet you. She looked at you with an uneasy expression as she had presumably heard some of Lucy’s shouting through the wall that joined their rooms. You were about to attempt to alleviate her concern when another set of footsteps followed by a third. Mom and then Lucy joined you in the living room before Mom grabbed her things and essentially pushed you out the door. The timing of everyone getting ready within seconds of one another was a bit suspicious in your mind. Mom still seemed to be avoiding being alone with you and Lucy hated your guts right now so you guessed that they were waiting for Sarah to come down first.

It would appear you need to do some serious damage control if you wanted to get Lucy back on your side and having Mom purposefully try to avoid you wasn’t a particularly good feeling either so putting in some effort with her sounded like a good idea. With Lucy essentially ignoring you and purposefully rushing to the front passenger seat of the car, there was no way that you could progress with her during this trip and leaving her alone sounded like the best option anyway.

Mom got in the driver's seat and you decided to sit behind her in an attempt to be as far away from Lucy as you could manage, Leaving Sarah in the seat behind Lucy. Sarah would also be out of the question to make progress with, as once you were all buckled up, you spotted that Lucy was giving you glances through the rearview mirror as if daring you to do anything suspicious. Now that she knew some of the truth about Sarah’s panties, she was watching you like a hawk to make sure you kept your hands to yourself.

That left you with Mom being the only family member with potential to make some KDK progress. With her driving, there wasn’t anything you could do now but with nothing better to do, you started planning the best ways to progress with her as you relaxed into your seat and watched the scenery pass by.

Nothing else interesting happened on the ride over and you had arrived at the mall within 15 minutes of setting off. Mom had gone over the general schedule she had in mind and it was decided that it would be: movie first, followed by some shopping in the afternoon and then finally the meal at the restaurant she had wanted to visit. Sarah was less than pleased that she couldn’t go and get herself a phone right now but she would have probably been messing with it while the movie was on so you didn't blame Mom for choosing this order of events for the day.

Lucy still seemed to be watching your every move as you all went through the mall and headed further inside, avoiding all the stores and straight towards the movie theatre right at the end of the complex. Mom went to go and grab the tickets once you entered so you took it upon yourself to go and get the snacks from the concession stand. Sarah was about to join you but Lucy stopped her by starting a conversation, leaving you to grab the stuff on your own.

After paying for 2 bags of popcorn, drinks for all of you and depleting what little of the remaining savings you had, you rejoined everyone just as Mom had returned with the tickets. Everyone grabbed a drink while Lucy snatched one of the popcorn bags from your arms and headed off to find which screen you were in. A frown seemed to pass on Mom’s face at Lucy’s response and Sarah sheepishly chased after her.

Mom looked like she was about to say something but she didn't have the chance to speak before both your sisters had rushed off. That left the two of you alone as you both casually walked towards the direction Sarah and Lucy had gone. Now that you had Mom just to her herself, you decided to lay some groundwork from one of the ideas you had had while in the car.

“About this morning…” you started, getting a wide-eyed reaction from Mom.

“We are not talking about this right now “ Mom quickly replied in hushed tones.

“That's what I wanted to say. I know you've been avoiding me all morning and it's not exactly the best feeling when you won't even look me in the eye.” You confessed, getting a guilty look from Mom before you continued.

“So let's just act like it never happened for now and move on”

“That's easy for you to say when you weren’t the one being embarrassed” Mom replied anxiously.

“Well it's not easy when you make me feel like a stranger that you can't even be alone in the same room with.” you explained with a sigh. “Look like I said, let's forget about it for now. We can enjoy a nice day out and leave everything else until later. I’m not stupid enough to do anything in public either so you don’t have to worry about that” you continued.

“... I know you aren't doing this maliciously but… We can discuss this when we get home” Mom announced, seemingly relaxing after your mini talk.

“Good so… Normal family trip?”

“Normal family trip” Mom repeated, a hint of a smile forming on her face from the bit of normalcy returning to your relationship.

With that, you both properly set off in search of Lucy and Sarah. It didn't take long considering there were only so many screenings being shown at once so you both caught up with them and headed into the theatre to find the best place to sit. It looked like Mom’s worry of getting there early wasn’t needed as the seating was only about a quarter full so there were still plenty of seats for all of you to sit together like you wanted. Sarah headed up and to the back of the room as she picked out the 4 seats right in the top corner. She awkwardly sat down in the closest seat, followed by Lucy, then Mom and finally you were left with the seat right in the corner. It wouldn’t have been where you would have chosen personally, but it did give you some unexpected privacy.

You managed to get yourself comfy, setting down your drink on one side and the popcorn on the other between you and Mom when the lights started to dim and the long list of trailers started to play.

“See we got here with plenty of time” you said leaning over to Mom so she could hear.

“Shhh, you better not get chatty now. I’ve been waiting to see this for a while now” Mom said, jokingly silencing you. The fact that she was willing to tease you like that gave you some hope that she had listened when you said you wanted her to forget your earlier encounter.

You did as she asked and decided to just enjoy the film while you could without worrying about anything else for a while. You knew that it was a romance which wasn’t really your favourite genre but you recognised some of the actors and decided to at least give it a chance before dismissing it.

Authors note:

Hey all,

Just wanted to say thanks for the 200,000 views on the story so far :D. Feel like it was a lot quicker than o to 100k but still an amazing milestone for me nonetheless. If anyone has any feedback or comments then I'm all ears and read through all of them when I get the time(or when I get a notification).

As always if you wish to read a chapter a couple of days ahead of schedule, I have a patreon set up (https://www.patreon.com/KDKFiction) for just that.

I'm also more likely to see comments/feedback there so head on over if you want.

Thanks for the support and happy reading :)