The Nobleman's Masterpiece ✔

7 POUND FOR POUND

All structures of the Colony were built into a tunnel wall. Even Lydia's home was carved out of an actual tunnel. The System was also used for the purpose of expanding or shrinking any structure. Rooms could be closed, collapsed, or extended out. It all depended on the amount of money one was willing to spend.

Most walls were soundproof and as Lydia lay in bed that night, she wondered just how much money it would take to make every damn wall in her house sound proof.

She didn't want to hear her mother's shrill cries. It wasn't so bad when her father would argue back. It was when he ignored her that she'd try to strike him and he'd take it out on her.

Everything seemed on full blast and Lydia watched the ceiling as she lay in bed. She was angry with herself for inviting Milton back. She was angry with Milton for bringing Stella back with him. She was angry with Stella for coming back and she was angry with her mother for caring so much.

Everything stopped suddenly and that should have made her suspicious, but she didn't care. She was just glad that it had ended. When her door zipped open, she sat up in bed to see the outline of her father. Her mother wasn't far behind.

Face scratched and bloodied, Milton's lumbered in.

"Get your shit. We're leaving," He growled.

"You're not leaving!" The bony woman flung herself in the path of the door before it had time to close. Standing there would keep it open. Her outline looked ghoulish in the darkness, contrasting against the light, a diskette clenched in her right hand. "Set one foot out of this house with her and you'll find I'm not as weak as I look."

"Fuck you." Milton spun around to face her. "When she turns twenty, bitch, she's out. And so the fuck am I. You can stay here and rot."

Lydia watched them with a numbness that had taken nineteen years to form. Till now the war had ebbed at her door because she'd heard one of them approach more than once and then the other would surrender and they'd walk away. Now it spilled over into her room, into her world, and she was at the center of the shit they were flinging.

"She's not going!" her mother wailed. "And if you know what's good for you, you'd find a lawyer because I'm invoking my rights on you, you classless filth."

Her words caused a stifled snort from Lydia who couldn't believe Dizzy's inability to swear. The best she could come up with was 'filth'? After all Dizzy'd gone through, after all Milton'd done?

"With what credits? All that's left is her tuition, and I'll see you dead first." Milton approached Dizzy, his chest pushed out. "You wanna try me? You wanna try me on for size, you gaw-ro nut-case? Come gaw-ro try me." Face to face with her, he growled, "You listen to me, you piece of imp-shit, you try it, even dare to try it and I'll bury you. I'll come back here, take one of your fancy frocks, tie it around your scrawny little neck and strangle you. So you try it! You just gaw-ro try touching her tuition."

Dizzy raised the diskette. Milton slapped it out of her hand and shoved her to the ground.

He marched past her, his voice carrying from the hall. "She better not get so much as a gaw-ro scratch on her before her birthday or by the Colony, you'll regret the day you ever met me."

Stella watched the floor as she waited, mirroring Lydia's stupid silence like always. She stood by the kitchen around the corner. Lydia could hear Milton and Stella argue. Judging from the sound of the slap that, Stella'd hit her father again and the man didn't even fight back. The son-of-a-bitch imp might have actually apologized. Lydia wondered if Stella did it to show her power over Milton, a direct contrast to Dizzy's lack thereof.