Unsolicited Help || Marcelle, Mackenzie, Charlotte, Sophie

Sophie heard Marcel's words. If she was thinking straight she might have scoffed and repeated once more that she didn't need help. Instead, she looked down at her hands as she fidgeted with her phone. "Yeah, I've heard that one before," she muttered. "Everyone always wants to think they're helping." She had been taught in the worst possible way that people always had alternative motives, even if they didn't know what that motive was.



As the doorbell rang through the house, Charley glanced at Marcel. "I'm going to go get that," she sighed, glad to have an excuse to leave the room. She wasn't sure how she could be related to someone so infuriating.

She took the steps quickly and soon enough she was in front of the door. She hastily wiped a spot of blood off her hand onto the inside of her jacket before opening it to find an unfamiliar brunette. "Hey, what's up?" she smiled politely.

Sophie scoffed at Marcel's insistence that Charlotte was a genuine person. She had no doubt he thought that, but that only served to convince her her cousin was up to no good. Or else why would she bother acting so thoroughly innocent?

She regarded him coolly at his question. "No, I thought I'd made that pretty clear." she said, once again wondering why he was involved in this at all as she studied his face. "Be careful. I don't know what you're doing here or how you're involved with her, but even if she didn't grow up in my household she's still my family by blood and I can guarantee she had ulterior motives."



Charlotte hesitated. She had no idea who this girl was but considering the condition Sophie was in... She didn't exactly trust that whoever her cousin was associating with was treating her well. "What do you want with her?" she asked wearily, "She really doesn't need any trouble right now, no matter how deep a hole she's dug herself into."

Sophie regarded Marcel coolly, still entirely convinced he was wrong. She didn’t know everything about Grace’s situation, but her disinheritment shouldn’t have been passed on to her children. Not when there was still a chance they could bring more prestige to the Foster name. Then again, she hadn’t even known they’d existed before coming her. Maybe they had stayed off the radar entirely. ”Perhaps you may be right.” she muttered noncommittally. She wasn’t going to argue over it, it wasn’t like she cared what came of this man.



Charlotte studied the girl’s face, looking for traces of dishonesty. For all she knew this girl, though small, could have been the reason Sophie showed up all banged up. But it wasn’t that surprising that Sophie would have called someone else for help if only to spite Charlotte and if it turned out the brunette was untrustworthy Charley felt certain that between her and Marcel they’d be able to take care of any thread that came up. ”Alright. Upstairs, first door on the left.” she relented, stepping out of the way.

Sophie wanted to scream at Marcel. He was such an idiot. Either Charley was up to something and would drag everyone down or Sophie giving her a chance would end up with Charley hurt in some corner. Truly innocent people, rarities though they were, didn't last long around her. Instead of saying anything, her gaze fell to the floor and she bit the inside of her cheek.

She looked up as Mackenzie burst in the room and a small smile traced across her lips. Finally, Marcel left the room and it was just them. "Thank god they were driving me crazy," she breathed, leaning back against the wall for support against a sudden wave of dizziness. "Sorry I didn't mean to get you involved in this they just wouldn't leave me alone." She was aware that she couldn't look the best, but her injuries and her external appearance were an after thought. Time would heal them, just as soon as the room stopped spinning...



"So then you know her?" Charley asked, wrapping her arms around her torso. "I know, I really didn't expect either of them. Having you over here was probably a bad idea anyway."

"I'm good," she sighed, running a hand through her hair. She wasn't sure whether it was a lie or not. Her mind kept flashing back to memories of her own past injuries and how precarious some of those situations had been. Nonetheless, she put on an air of confidence. There wasn't time to get wrapped up in her problems, not when they were the past and this was the present. "I've cleaned up this sort of mess before. If you want to head out I can make an excuse for why you were here. It'd probably be the least suspicious way to do things."

Sophie shook her head slowly at Mackenzie's question. She wasn't even sure where exactly she had mis-stepped, but she was sure it had something to do with the brunette girl she'd been spending a bit too much time with. With Mackenzie's face so close there was little more Sophie wanted to do than lean in and kiss the girl but... there was a time and a place and now there were more important things to deal with. "Get the door," she motioned to the still open bathroom door. She'd hidden her main wounds so far, she didn't need Charley or Marcel peeking in and seeing them.

Sophie winced as she leaned forward and began carefully removing her hoodie. "My father wants me to go home." she muttered, inspecting her now bare arms. There were some minor cuts with dried blood and plenty of bruises, but the two wounds she cared about were a particularly nasty cut across her left shoulder and the previously handled injury at her hip. "There are some... issues back there I've neglected for a bit too long, I suppose. I'm not sure I told you but my uh... Blake broke up with me." She didn't look at Mackenzie, but she found herself completely frozen waiting for a response. She had very intentionally avoided the subject so far, not wanting to get into the messy details of it.



"Hmm..." Charley muttered as Marcel explained who Mackenzie was. That meant she probably wasn't a threat. She hated having random strangers in her house. She distracted herself from that line of thought by answering Marcel's next question. "Annoying intruders like these ones interrupting us," she grinned wryly. She may have had no idea who they were, but it was true that in her household there was no way to really tell who would be coming or going when. They may have lived under the same roof but sometimes it felt like they weren't really a family. Everyone did their own things for the most part. She knew it had a particularly bad impact on Carter but there wasn't much she knew to do about it.

"I know you don't buy it," she smiled and planted a small kiss on his lips before adding, "I'm the one I have to convince not you."

”No way in hell, love,” Sophie chuckled, though there was little amusement in the sound. She took a deep breath and tried to straighten her posture to regain the air of confidence she usually clung to but winced as her shoulder shifted back. That would take some getting used to. ”You weren’t raised in that world with all the backstabbing and fake pretences. I wouldn’t even trust the people I call friends around you.” she sighed and pulled Charlotte’s first aid kit closer to find something to treat her shoulder with. She wanted to be out of this stupid house as soon as possible. ”They would try to make your life a living hell to get you to leave. Either that or they’ll try to use you against me. It’s all about getting any bit of control over those who will grow up to have power and I’ve crushed enough people to make it clear that I intend to be one of those people.” Sophie glanced up at Mackenzie then shook her head. ”That doesn’t matter though, I’m putting off going back as long as I possibly can.” And by then hopefully she’d have enough freedom that she didn’t have to go back at all.



Charley glanced down at Marcel’s words. ”I know. And it’s really nothing big it’s just…” she shook her head, and looked down at her jacket where she had wiped the blood off her hand when she went to get the door. ”This sort of thing reminds me of Jasper and that whole mess. I always seem to be the one getting blood on my hands taking care of others. Like I said, nothing big. It’s silly, really.”

Sophie pressed her lips together. She still didn't really want help from others, but this was Mackenzie. "My shoulder," she replied. "I need to clean it then bandage it and then I really want to get out of here." She closed her eyes and an image of the knife flashed through her mind. She was pretty sure it hadn't been clean. "He was so mad about so little. I-I'm scared Bluebell. He's near the end of her rope. Usually I have the boarding school as an excuse to give him a few months to cool off but that's not how this works anymore."



Charley gave a slight smile. "I know, babe. But I'm good, I just don't really want to think about this right now."