ᵈⁱˢᵃᵖᵖᵉᵃʳⁱⁿᵍ ᵃᶜᵗ

She felt betrayed, quietly, of course, but the person she felt closest to had kept something of this stature from her. There was a trust between them that had been unspoken since childhood, and now it was coming into question. "It still would've been nice to know," Violet retorted. "Would've been less shocking than hearing it at a party I only went to so you didn't have to go by yourself." His sister was making excuses for why she'd blabbed, trying to hide the fact she was hurt by not being included. It wouldn't be the first or last time they threw each other under the bus, but it never got easier after they did. "If you'd told me ahead of time, maybe we could've like talked about why the fuck you thought that was a good idea." The brunette's arms stayed folded over her chest as a guard between the situation and her heart. "In this fucked up family I'm supposed to have one person who I can actually trust to tell me the truth but it turns out he was married and I didn't even know."

"Like, we have secrets from our parents but we usually can at least trust each other, you know?" She isn't sure why she is opening up to the girl now who was discovered to be Dash's ex-wife but Violet's knee-jerk reaction couldn't be contained. Not only was this information a surprise, it caused her to question why her brother hadn't felt like this was something he could talk to her about. They'd always been each other's confidant and now that tie was severed. "No, I mean, yeah, I gathered," the brunette fumbled through the words still finding the implications of her little brother's sex life to be jarring. While Violet figured he got around after the nights he came home late as a teenager, she didn't need any more details than that. That's why she quickly shifted the conversation back to what she'd settled in for: the marriage she didn't know existed. "Even more reason to have told me and it not been such a big deal. What makes it feel a lot more like a thing is the fact he kept it from all of us," she rambled before going quiet again and turning back to the blonde. "How many other people knew about this?"

She had signed up for more than she expected. The info dump that the blonde gave made Violet's jaw drop with each detail that was revealed. While there had always been secrets between her and her siblings something like this was astronomical. It was something to bother her brother with later, knowing this girl had nothing to do with Dash's choice to keep it a secret. "They for sure don't know but that's not news, they don't know a lot of things," she admitted with a small shrug of her own. While Violet loved her parents some things were better left unsaid though the reason she'd been left in the dark was unknown. "I just figured he'd tell me, not you, no offense." It had nothing to do with Tink but now all the more thankful that she'd been brought up to date. "Little late but fuck you for cheating on him, you know, have to still be a sister," she explained before nodding for the blonde to continue. Violet was invested now, her feet tucked beneath her body on the couch, and chin in her palm as she gazed at the blonde full of her brother's secrets. The mention of Dash's sex life caused her face to scrunch in disgust at the very thought. "You know, maybe that's best for everyone." Violet tried to not show her discomfort with the idea but her face spoke what her lips didn't. "Wait, so who proposed? Why? When? I feel like I'm missing a few pieces of the puzzle here." Tink might've wanted to move on to another conversation but the brunette needed a few clarifications before she did so.

This was not how she had planned for this night to turn out, not even close. After seeing John dancing with fucking Marie Bonfamille of all people at the last party, looking like he was loving every second of his life, she had known that she’d be ending the night in somebody else’s bed. And up until about twenty minutes ago, she’d assumed it would be Dash’s. For all Tink had been fully committed to fucking her ex-husband again tonight the moment that she had found Nibs casually talking with Aaron T of all people, that all went out the window. A simple joke of wanting to sleep with either or both of the boys had led to the agreement of an actual spontaneous threesome and Dash was all but completely forgotten. Or at least, the idea of sleeping with him was forgotten. She wasn’t such a bitch that she was just going to leave without telling him she was ditching him, or well, that had been her plan when she told the other boys she needed like five, ten minutes tops to go do something. But it was if Dash was nowhere to be found within the first half of that time frame.

Almost ready to just give up on looking and shooting him a text, Tink spotted a familiar face that was a close enough relation to her ex that she felt it could count. “Violet,” she called out, floating her way over towards the older girl with a grin. While there was a high chance that she hated the blonde’s guts for everything she’d done to her brother, Tink couldn’t find it in herself to care or even remember that right now. She was about to sleep with her childhood celebrity crush - there were far more important things on her mind than worrying about the eldest Parr child’s opinion of her. “Hey. So this is probably tmi, but I was like 99% certain your brother and I were going to fuck again tonight. But now Aaron T, like the Aaron T, wants to sleep with me and Nibs instead so I’m obviously going with them instead. I was trying to find Dash to tell him myself, but can you do it for me?” It’s a lot to throw out at the girl like this, more than Violet probably wants to actually hear about, but Tink didn’t really care. “And if he gets pissy about not being invited, tell him maybe if he hadn’t divorced me I would have brought him in.” A joke she absolutely would not have made if she weren’t slightly drunk and running on such excitement for her upcoming little after-party. It doesn’t even hit her that the other girl likely still has no clue her brother had married Tink in the first place.

The only reason she even came to this party was to make sure her brother didn't get into more trouble. Last time he came home from one of these things he sulked around the house for a week, that's why Violet decided to come for proactive damage control. She had barely spoken to him since they arrived and clung to the walls like she normally did. Being invisible was her superpower but it just so happened to also be her personality. Her tendency to be a wallflower usually warded off any unwanted conversation, having barely gotten noticed when she stuck to the edges of the party, but that hadn't stopped a blonde from beeline to her. Before Violet was able to attest the words were falling from the girl's lips and she was fighting to keep up. There were clearly details she was missing, her brows furrowing as Tink continued to explain her plan for the evening. "Wait, rewind," she started setting down her drink so she could better focus her attention. "Can we like start from the beginning there?" Too many questions were lining up in her head to bombard the girl to throw out all at once. "Also, divorce? You're telling me my baby brother, the gremlin who used to fart on me as a kid, was married and never told me?" Her eye twitched at the thought, shaking her head to get back to the bigger picture. "Tell me everything."

Margaret Qualley by Jeremy Everett

Before she was to be allowed back to her own apartment, one agreement the Parr parents had come to was that their daughter had some explaining to do. In all fairness, so did Bob, even to his children, but holding himself accountable for that would be a later discussion. For now, while he had her alone, with Helen and Dash still back at the hospital, he wanted to get ahead of the inevitable full-family discussion the Parrs were going to have in exchange for one with just his daughter.

After giving her some time to settle into her childhood bedroom, Bob knocked quietly on Violet's door, peering in before making an entrance. "Hey," he greeted, "you got a minute?" Before hearing her answer, he found himself a spot at the edge of her bed, figuring the worst she could do was kick him out. "I just thought, y'know, we should chat, I guess, after ... all of that. If you're up for it, of course. I can come back later, too."

The Parr family was experiencing the consequences of their actions in full force. Violet had been lying, so had her father, and it seemed Dash wasn't all that innocent either. They were all going behind each other's backs but somehow collided in their values. While she hadn't gotten the worst of the injuries, she knew it was only a matter of time before one of her parents came knocking. Being home made her a sitting duck for their attention but the last thing she wanted to do was sit in her empty apartment where all she could fill the silence with was her own thoughts. When the inevitable came Violet sat up on her bed instead of being slouched into her pillows as she read her book. "Come on in Dad," the girl sighed giving him the nod to enter her safe space. It was a lot less threatening to talk to him now that he wasn't able to ground his daughter for her actions. "Are you mad?" A question that Violet hated to ask but knew she needed to know the answer to. "Or did mom send you in here to make sure I wasn't planning a great escape?"

Margaret Qualley for Kinds of Kindness press

Even though she'd grown up, the child in her still came out when she was home. Her father had been the more fun of her parents and she couldn't deny that it was hard to say no to him. She had fond memories of the nights when Mom was away, Dash was a baby, and it was just them. He would order a Hawaiian pizza with extra cheese just how she liked it then they'd spend the night playing board games before falling asleep on the couch watching movies. Violet still remembers him carrying her up the stairs and tucking her into bed, wishing life was still that simple. Once Dash started to get older and Jack was born, things changed, not to mention the fact that they were all supers. As soon as the kids discovered they had powers life around the house became more interesting and Violet began to rebel. She wanted to disappear her entire life then finally, she could. "Yeah right, you always said you were but I think you lost fair and square," she replied following behind him. "I'll take one if you're offering." A beer with her dad was one of the simple pleasures of adulthood. She was already digging through the cabinet to find the game when he asked how things were causing her to respond into the void of forgotten puzzles and game boxes. "Uh, not really. Same old, same old, you know how it is." In all honesty, Violet hadn't experienced anything worth updating him on in weeks, her life being boring if she didn't talk about what she did in the Order. If she opened that can of worms she'd have stories to share but didn't dare put her family in that position. "There was a small fire in the office the other day, actually," she said with a laugh as she turned around, Yahtzee in hand. "Some guy had a hot plate at his desk and the thing totally blew the fuse. It was actually pretty hilarious watching them all run around like the place was going down. All we had to do was pour coffee on the thing and it was out."

She could see through him like cellophane by this point in their lives. There wasn't any point in hiding, at least not with each other. He'd been the first to realize something was wrong after her breakup with Morie when their parents hadn't. As he spoke about it being none of her business she mouthed along with him, waiting for him to stop rambling. It was only a matter of time before she broke through that and got the real story. "You're so dramatic," Violet groaned as she popped up from the couch to scoot closer to where he sat. "If it's hurting my baby brother, it's my business, alright? I might actually be able to help you if you tell me, you know." She was quick to sass him back if he wanted to dish out that kind of attitude, knowing it would be faster if Dash just said was what on his mind. The silence sat for a moment before there was a creak in the door to his feelings that had been kept closed. "You fucked up that bad huh?" This wouldn't be the first time but she saved her judgement for another time. "Just tell me what happened. I'm not mom, I'm not going to lecture you, dingus." Even if he might've deserved it, Violet had her own fair share of bad decisions and if there was one place they should be able to speak freely it was to each other.

Bob was personally walking on eggshells to keep his middle child from blowing up the entire household, knowing how vulnerable Dash currently was given his relationship status. It wasn’t ideal to have to be so cautious in his own home, with a temporary resident setting the mood, but one good thing about his son’s return home was that it also brought his daughter to visit, too. Bob would take any excuse to see his kids who had moved out already, even if it was a result of Dash’s mistake that his two eldest children were home for longer than just their usual dinner visit. It was after they’d eaten that Dash retreated to his room to sulk, and Jack to work on homework, leaving Bob with his daughter. “You don’t have to only stay the night in an emergency, you know,” he teased, giving Violet a poke on the arm as he passed her on the way to the kitchen sink. “Your brothers are probably missing in action the rest of the night—what do you say, me and you? I’m sure your mother could use some alone time. I don’t think I’ve seen her cook this much food since Christmas,” he joked, raising his brow as he waited for her answer.

Coming home had become less and less frequent over the years. It wasn't that Violet had intended to grow apart from her family but she also didn't want them to find out that she'd been working with the Order. If she kept distance between them then it became less likely that they'd see through her facade. This weekend had been a special case after her brother's life royally blew up in his face, something she needed to see firsthand. Violet hadn't told them but she missed being home, nothing was quite the same as a home-cooked meal around the people who loved her most. She was carrying her empty water glass over to the sink which, just as she thought, her dad struck up a conversation. "I know, I know," the girl groaned, looking over her shoulder at him. Once her glass had been rinsed she turned around, her arms folding over her chest as she looked at the face she couldn't say no to. Besides, she had always been a little more partial to her father, having always been a daddy's girl. "Yeah, Dad, sure. I could probably still kick your ass in Yahtzee if you're not scared of getting wrecked."