Fighting Fate

64. Prick

She frowns and shakes her head at him. "No, that's too tall. Nobody can be that tall. That's just fake."

He laughs at her again. "That's right, it's fake." He stands back up to his normal height and smiles at me. "It's been a while since I've seen you too. Ive been meaning to visit you since you moved back home. How is everything?"

"You can come in if you want." I place my hand on Tori's shoulder as we step further into the house, allowing Ryan room to step inside.

"Sure, I'll stay for a bit."

I close the door behind him and we walk into the kitchen. "Tea, coffee?"

He pulls out the chair at the dining table and takes a seat. "Come on Hailey, don't tell me you have forgotten. We'd take turns on the coffee runs before school in the mornings."

"Well that depends, are you still training?"

He smiles at me because he knows that I do remember. "Yes, but when has that ever stopped me?"

"Espresso with two sugars." I get out a cup from the cabinet above me and while I reach up, the blanket slips off my shoulder so I quickly fix it. I place the cup under the espresso machine and place the green capsule inside the top compartment of the machine.

When Ryan was training, he was supposed to have black coffees, but he would always have an espresso with two sugars and we kept it a secret from his coach and father.

"So what have you been up to? You seem to have kept to yourself."

I get out the milk from the fridge. Tori, do you want some juice?" I ask her while I have the fridge open. She nods her head while picking up her pencils and paper from the lounge. I get out the Apple juice and place both cartons on the table.

"Yeah, I've just been chilling. And you, how's the soccer going? You've recently started the new season, right?"

He his his head. "Yeah, we're in round six now. You should come to a game soon. And you can come too Tori, do you like soccer?"

Tori takes her drawing supplies over to the table and sits beside Ryan. "No, soccer is for boys. Do you know how to draw a butterfly?" She asks him, holding out the black pencil.

"I'm not very good but I can try." He takes the pencil from her and starts drawing on the paper.

"No, not there. Here." She pushes his hand away and points to the place where she wants him to draw. "On Uncle Harry's chest."

Ryan let's out a quiet laugh and starts drawing where Tori instructed him to.

"How's that?" He asks her, waiting for her critical judgement.

"This wing is too small." She lets out an exaggerated sigh. "I'll fix it." She takes the pencil from his hand.

"What is this picture of?" He asks her.

"This is the sun because it's a nice sunny day. That's the picnic rug and Uncle Harry has his guitar in his hand because he is singing to us. That's his butterfly tattoo because that's my favourite one. And the love heart tattoo. I don't know how to draw the others. Aunty Hailey is sitting next to me. And Mummy is over here on the chair with my daddy and-"

"What's this?" Ryan points to the paper. I walk over and give Tori her juice and Ryan his coffee, almost dropping the cups when I see that Ryan is pointing to something in particular on the paper.

It's a drawing of what looks to be like a girl in a pink dress who has long yellow hair. She is beside what looks to be a boy with black hair and the butterfly tattoo in the centre of his stomach. I'm guessing that's Harry and I. But what has come as a shock to me, is that in my stomach, Tori has drawn a stick figure. To me, it looks like she has drawn the baby.