I was awakened next morning by an argument between Dad and Kate, as was tradition on the morning of her trip back to college. Something about her laptop. Can't say I cared about what they were fighting about, but I thought I might try and smooth things over anyway. Like an idiot.
'What's up?' I greeted them taking in the scene facing me. Kate was stood in the doorway with her laptop hugged to chest; Dad stood a few meters away, red-faced and angry.
'Your SISTER wants to carry her laptop around in that!' He rounded on me, pointing towards something pink huddled in the doorway. I resisted the urge to inform him that my SISTER was also his daughter. Probably better to keep that little remark to myself, giving the present condition. Kate automatically took a defensive stance in front of the 'pink' item in question. From what I could make out it was some sort of lacy, pink, laptop carrier. It was hideous, not to mention terribly impractical. I stifled a laugh.
'Don't even get involved,' Kate warned, shooting me evil eye before turning back to Dad and yelling some more. I obliged, finally coming to my senses. Seriously, getting involved in an argument? I was clearly sleep deprived. I shuffled past the war zone, head down, and eyes straight ahead. Do not, I repeat do not make eye contact, lest you want to get dragged into the fight.
'Morning,' Mum acknowledged my presence with a distracted wave in the direction of an open cereal box. Well, at least someone was being polite this morning. I poured myself a bowl of fat-free, sugar free, and completely taste free cereal. Damn my mothers weight obsession.
'Can you believe this?' Mum burst out, her eyes wide, a slightly manic look about her.
'Umm...' Was all I managed to answer with my mouth so full of my delectable cereal (note the sarcasm). My reply didn't seem to matter, she wasn't listening anyway.
'I mean Kate is going home today and we're not going to see her for however long. So what do they do? They FIGHT?' She turned to me, her eyes alarmingly wide. I gulped.
'Just leave them to it they'll-' I began, in a soothing tone. My advice had already fallen on deaf ears. I had barely finished my little speech when Mum slammed down her orange juice, and marched out of the kitchen, leaving me alone at the table. I counted to five in my head. Sure enough, on five the shouting had more than tripled in volume. I sighed; at least Kate was leaving today. Oddly enough this thought did nothing to comfort me. Perhaps, and I'm just speculating here, in all those years we'd grown up together, somewhere along the way we'd...bonded? Now when did that go and happen?
Dumping my bowl in the sink, I skulked through the hall, avoiding the worst of the yelling. When I reached the stairs I flat out ran to the bathroom, hoping I wouldn't be stopped and asked for my 'opinion' on something. That never ended well. Apparently, during an argument, asking for someone else's 'opinion' was code for 'agree with what I'm saying'. I'd learned that the hard way.
I showered, washed my hair and found some decent clothing to wear. By decent I mean the only clean clothes I could find. Nobody in our house is that great at working a washing machine, I have limited myself to only a few white pieces of clothing. White clothing is a privilege around here, due to my parent's incredible knack of turning white, pink in a single wash. Magical. After drying my hair, and running over it with my straightners I felt I was ready to face the world. At least I did until I remembered that the argument hadn't been the only reason I had woken up with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Alex. I hadn't forgotten. Not really. I'd just been distracted, and pushing that particular issue as far back in my mind as I could. Unfortunately it had finally chosen to resurface. I was fed up of pushing things to the back of my mind. I wasn't any good at it. Ok, so I could last maybe a few hours without thinking about it. Eventually it always caught up with me. Always. Today was no different. With at least the entire afternoon to go before I had to be at Ambers I realised I would have a lot of free time. Free time = thinking. Thinking = Alex.
