Chapter Text
Orchid:
Hey do you have time to talk?
Yoongi:
Yeah what’s up?
Orchid:
This is a weird request but it’s really important to me right now…tonight I need you to go outside and look for the moon and tell me if you saw it, okay? And possibly take a picture with a time stamp please.
According my crazy family it’s apparently disappeared for a week everywhere in the world and that means the government is faking it or something insane like that! THE MOON!!
Please I cannot be the only sane member of my family left!
Yoongi:
…the moon?? Seriously?
Okay I will just remind me.
Orchid:
Yes!! My dad has started to cave to my mother’s crazy conspiracies and even diving into some crazy ones himself on his stupid Facebook reels. I just can’t get away from it.
Yoongi:
Genuine question, have they gone outside and looked?
Orchid:
I seriously don’t know, but I am dying in this house with that and the rapture talk
And they (especially my mother) are pressuring me into applying for a job even though they KNOW I’ve been trying my best to start up my own thing, so I don’t have time to go work for someone else right now.
Yoongi:
I’m sorry, I know how hard you’ve been working. It’s not easy getting your own business started up.
Orchid:
Seriously! I’m literally about to scream
Yoongi:
Okay I have a suggestion…you can come stay at my place for awhile to get a brake from all of that. It’d be boring. You’d be sleeping in the guest room and have nothing to do. But you are welcome if that somehow is appealing
Orchid:
Oh that’s definitely appealing! I’d love to just read and relax away from everything
I could bake you some stuff too if you’d like
Yoongi:
You don’t need to do anything to be allowed to be here. I have two cats and a husband. We are pretty boring. Again, there is nothing to do here and you will be bored. But if you need and want a time out, I already asked my husband.
Orchid:
I’d honestly rather be bored than stressed like right now (it’s bad) and I obviously love cats. The baking would also be for me to relax cause it’s comforting for me, so we can all enjoy it! As long as I can bring my iPad, my phone, and my projection lamp then I’ll be perfect…how long would you be comfortable with me staying?
Yonngi:
Of course you can bring all those things. Let me talk to my husband when he’s awake enough to understand what I’m asking him for the timeline. What did you have in mind?
Orchid:
No problem! I understand it’s late…I was thinking maybe staying a week and half? 2 weeks? If that’s okay with you of course.
Yoongi:
We’ll figure it out and make it work.
Orchid:
I really appreciate it Yoongi <3
I just really need a break from it all, it’s so exhausting being around it all the time.
Yoongi:
I get it. I’ve got a complicated family too. Not the one in my house lol
One last question, are you okay with stairs?
Orchid:
Yeah stairs are fine
Yoongi:
Perfect, do I have to pick you up from anywhere?
Orchid:
I don't know yet; I think I'm going to take a train. Goodnight!
Yoongi:
Goodnight Orchid
Orchid put her phone back on her bed after the exchange. She sighed and turned over on her back to stare at her projection lamp changing colors on her ceiling. Her anxiety had been nearly unbearable, constantly nauseous and on high alert. She hadn’t even texted her best friend, Melody, in weeks because she had no energy to talk to anyone. Orchid had to get out of her house for awhile or she was going to lose it. Telling her parents she was about it was going to be the argument of the century.
”A problem for later I guess.” Orchid thought after checking the time and seeing it was past 1 am. She turned over to her right side to try and get some sleep.
She woke up to her parents arguing again. Who knows what it was about this time. It could be anything. She was so tired of it. Today, her dad was helping her mom get ready for work to give Orchid a break from it.
"Go to hell, Alyssum!"
"No, you go to hell, Medlar! I'm not going to be the only one who does anything around here!"
"Oh you're such an asshole, Alyssum! You act just like your bastard of a father! Your whole family is crazy!"
"And you're not?! You're so lazy! You want to sit around till the last second and make everyone else get everything ready to go for you, Medlar!"
"Fuck you!"
"Oh there you go again."
"Shut up, Alyssum! All you do is cause strife and chaos!
Orchid just tried to tune it out. It was the same thing every day. It might actually have gotten worse. She tensed when she heard her mother bounding down the hallway. "This will be great." she thought.
"Orchid!" Her mom screamed and banged on her wall. "You better get your lazy ass up! You have a therapy appointment and you better be ready!"
"I'm coming!" She replied. She reluctantly got up to get ready to go.
"You better be up! I'm not coming in there again! Uh, you make my fucking blood pressure go up every single fucking day!"
"I'm getting dressed!" Orchid screamed.
After digging through her clothes pile, she put on her least wrinkled shirt and her comfy black pants. Orchid washed her hair yesterday, so she just decided to skip the shower and put her blonde hair up in a clip. Then, she put on her favorite flamingo socks. She braced herself for the nightmare that was her parents this morning. She was way too exhausted for this, and her knees were killing her today.
Finally, she left her room and went to the kitchen. She went through the motions of feeding her cat, Momo, and her sister's dog, Lulu, who's technically theirs at this point, while her dad was making her mom's lunch.
"I have two perfectly capable women in this house. I'm not going to be the maid for y'all anymore. I'm supposed to be working." Her dad complained, forgetting that Orchid, herself, has chronic pain and fatigue again. She ignored it as much as she could.
After they got everything ready, everyone left the house at the same time miraculously. Orchid got buckled into the front passenger seat of her mom's car. Of course her mom had to play her stupid radio shows broadcasting ridiculously biased political takes and conspiracies. She tried to put her headphones in to listen to music, but her mom couldn't go through a silent car ride ever.
"Did you hear that? Can you believe all the evil things they're doing?" Her mom asked.
"No, I couldn't care less actually." she thought, however, what she said was "No, sorry. What was it?"
Her mom started to explain some absurd thing that couldn't possibly be true, and of course led into the inevitable rapture talk. How Orchid needed to get her "heart right" because we were in the last days. She just tried to tune it out because it stressed her out so much. Finally, Orchid arrived at her therapy appointment with more determination than ever to get away for awhile. She sat down in the waiting room, thinking about everything she wanted to tell her therapist. After waiting for about fifteen minutes and many many yawns, she’s so tired, her therapist opened the door to her office and walked Orchid back to the room where she holds her appointments.
“Good morning, Orchid. How have you been?” Dr. King asked.
”Um, okay I guess.” She answered while she tried to get comfortable on the couch.
She had been going to Dr. King for a couple months now. She was nice, and Orchid liked her so far. Her office was in an older flipped house. The room where she had her appointments was simple but still welcoming. There was a grey couch with several pillows as well as two lounge chairs, so there were different options of where to sit. The walls had a few coastal themed art pieces, and there were a few plants scattered throughout the room. There was also a revolving fan to keep away the stuffiness, and Orchid appreciated it. Dr. King was sitting across from her in one of the lounge chairs in her signature pantsuit with a kind smile on her face.
“What’s been going on? Anything new? Are your parents still arguing a lot?” Dr. King knew about the conspiracies and the other major stressors in Orchid’s life at this point.
“Not really anything new…it might have possibly gotten worse?”
“How so?”
“My mom just won’t shut up about the rapture and it’s driving me crazy. And like I feel so bitter about it cause you’re telling me my life has SUCKED up until this point and now that I’m finally getting myself together like graduating college, figuring out what I want to do and stuff, I might not even make it to 30? I won’t be able to get my carrier even off the ground? I won’t be able to get lots of cats? Possibly get married? Not be able to develop all of my art ideas? Like I am only 20 years old and suddenly my life is over soon?” She spewed like a word vomit that wouldn’t stop.
“But it’s not over. You can still do all of that. Just because she thinks the world is ending doesn’t mean it will. Don’t let that hold you back. The Bible, itself, says that no one knows when it’s going to happen.” Dr. King said calmly and with reassurance.
“Oh…” she paused to think. “It’s just so exhausting being around it all the time every day, not to mention their conspiracies. She’s even sucked my dad into them too. It feels like I’m the only sane person left in the house. It doesn't help that their fighting has possibly gotten even worse now. I think I just need a break from it all. My friend has offered to let me stay with him for awhile.”
“I'm sorry to hear that, and I can understand why you feel that way. What are they talking about now?”
”Well the latest thing they're obsessing over is the hurricane. They think the government is making hurricanes now and controlling them to deliberately destroy places to mine lithium.” She explained.
Dr. King was in total disbelief. "No, NO, they do not believe that!”
“I know! As if they can control the whole ocean?”
“No! They cannot believe that.” She repeated shaking her head.
“I definitely agree you need a break. Who’s your friend?”
Orchid then went into how she met Yoongi on a cat game and how they've known each other for a couple years at least now. She explained the whole idea and how she planned to take a train to meet him because she doesn't drive and flights were too expensive. She also explained how Yoongi offered to let her stay with him and his family for a week or two. Dr. King was understandably concerned about Orchid going to live with someone she met on the internet.
"Are you sure he's even a real person? I know you've known him for awhile but I've heard many horror stories and even seen some myself that started out exactly the same way."
"Yeah I trust him. Here these are our messages and this is a picture of him and his husband. He owns his own record company, and he also produces music there. He even lives near a yacht club and a country club, so I'm not going to a dangerous area or anything. I can't go stay with my grandparents because it would just stress them out, my aunt's husband is very unpleasant, and my sister is just as bad if not worse than they are. The rest of my family lives even farther away. This is the best option I have to get a break."
"If you're sure this is your best choice, make sure someone knows your location at all times, okay? They definitely look nice, but be careful." Dr. King gave her advice about Orchid's plan. After they finished their discussion, Orchid's appointment was over, and they agreed to wait to schedule another appointment until she got back home. She was a little disappointed that she wasn't able to really get into her parents fighting getting worse or pressuring her into getting a job, but her appointment was sadly only an hour.
Thankfully the ride back home was silent, besides the initial question about how the appointment went. Orchid used it to think of how she's going to tell her parents. She can't wait to go relax and just get away from it all. Her mom had to go to work, so she just dropped Orchid off before leaving again. After she went inside and changed into something more comfortable, she texted Melody about her appointment and the plan while cuddling with Momo. Blessedly, she was home alone and enjoyed the rest of the quiet afternoon reading and researching train tickets. She also updated Yoongi on the plan and how she was going to try and tell her parents in the next week. They planned out the timeline together too. She was going to go see him in the next two weeks, and she's not taking no for an answer.