Blossom 🌸

SEVEN 🌸

"Okay." I chewed on my lower lip awkwardly as the silence stretched thinner between us. "Dinner is ready." I finally added to fill in the gap.

"I'll be right down." He disappeared into his bathroom and closed the door. I headed downstairs where the whole family was sitting around the dining table. They all charged at the platters in the middle, loading their plates and eating immediately.

"Um... should we say the grace?" They stopped mid chew to look at me.

"You're religious?" Olivia asked.

"You read all about my religion in my file?" I questioned. Jamie continued eating and Chloe gave him a filthy look.

"We haven't read your file, we'd rather get to know you not the paper. But if you want to pray, we can pray." Liam put down his knife and fork and looked at each person around the table to silently force them into prayer. Cameron slipped in quietly, shooting me a secretive look as he sat down.

I said a short thank you to the lord for the meal I was about to receive and then looked at the food options before me. Steak. A big juicy hunk of brown and pink meat. I felt myself gag a little.

You're not eating the meat?" He commented, I know it ought to be a question but it sounded like an order.

"I told you father, I'm a vegetarian." I replied boldly, he sighed at me and paused his own eating.

"Not this again Fearne. Eat your meat, it's full of nutrition." He ordered.

I glanced down at the steak. I had spent three hours cooking it. My mind instantly transported back to the fox and the helpless look he had in his eye.

"I don't want to, thank you." I declined respectfully. My father dropped his knife and fork down on his plate and clasped together his hands, leaning forward in his seat ever so slightly.

"It wasn't a question Fearne. Eat the damn meat."

Gingerly I cut into the edge of the steak, getting a small piece of it onto my fork and moved it towards my mouth. I hesitated before putting it in and chewing, feeling a tidal wave of nausea hit me.

"See, that wasn't so bad now, was it?"

I watched everyone load their plates up with the dead animal and eat it like it was nothing. Olivia looked at me with concern, noticing I wasn't eating anything.

"Is everything okay?" I nodded reluctantly and cut into the steak that sat on my plate, loading my fork with the smallest chunk.

I didn't want to seem ungrateful for the meal. I didn't want them to turn me away for not eating it. I didn't want them to force me to eat it.

Holding back the vomit I managed to take a bite and swallow it down like a pill, without chewing or tasting but then my stomach wrenched and I slapped my hand across my mouth. All curious eyes fell on me.

"I'm so sorry." I exclaimed. "I can't eat it again." Their expressions turned from curious to confused. "I'm a vegetarian." Their glances fell to my plate and a look of clarity washed over them. It was ridiculous to think I could eat meat again. Letting pride dictate my actions was stupid.

"If you're a vegetarian then why are you eating the meat, dumbass?" Jamie raised a valid point, even if he asked it with a trace of humour in his voice. Olivia and Liam shot knowing glances at one another.

"Fearne, you don't need to eat the meat if you don't want it. You don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with here. This is a safe space." She reached over to take my plate away and I flinched, flinging myself backwards in the chair thinking she was about to grab me to send me to the chamber or bathtub. She pulled her hand away quickly and gave another secretive glance to Liam, communicating something to him silently.

"Sorry." I lifted my plate and handed it to her, feeling like an absolute fool.

"I'll have her leftovers." Jamie grabbed the plate, scraping everything onto his own.

"I gotta... I'll be right back." Liam stood up, hooking his hand to the back of his neck and walked out of the room. There was something ghoulishly grey about his complexion, like his head was clamouring with bad memories.

"I'm gonna go talk to him real quick." Olivia left the table.

"Mealtimes in this house are so dramatic." Chloe explained to me.

I looked at Cameron, he hadn't spoke to me since before dinner and avoided all forms of eye contact. He was blending into the background of the drama.

Henry was also very quiet, as usual. He sat and ate from a children's plastic plate, every now again he would put his fork down and twirl a fidget spinner around his fingers, mesmerised by how the colours blended. I smiled at him sweetly, although he paid no attention.

"I like your spinner, it makes a beautiful rainbow when it goes around." He flicked it once more making the colours turn and then he set it down on the table, picked up his utensils and struggled to cut into his steak. "Would you like some help?"

"Woah, Fearne." Jamie interrupted as I took hold of Henry's knife and fork.

Henry let out a high pitched wail and started pushing the dinner plates to the floor. Liam and Liv came running into the room. Pottery plates and glasses smashed beneath the table, food seeping into the crevices of the hardwood and the kid wouldn't stop screaming.

Like a well rehearsed scene everyone backed away, creating a space around him. Liam and Liv moved away the table and everything on it. Avoiding further disaster with the floral China plates.

My stomach knotted up in a sickening way, I crossed the boundaries and sent Henry on an uncontrollable spiral. He waved his arms and legs around violently in distress.

"Jamie go get Arlo." Liam ordered as he tried to calm Henry with clearly spoken words of affirmation.

"Did you miss the part where I had a fight with Arlo?" Jamie asked.

"Now Jamie!" Liam left no room for negotiations.

"I didn't mean to cause this, I was trying to help him cut up his dinner." They we're going to send me away because of this, for sure.

Jamie returned with Arlo, he looked at me for a fleeting moment before flipping off the lights leaving the lamps to cast a warm glow on the room. He kneeled down in front of Henry, crunching the pottery beneath his knees.

"Hey, I understand why you're screaming, believe me - I would too if she touched me but you know we have a special place for that. So I'm gonna take hold of your hand right now and we're going to move into the sensory room together. Okay?"

Arlo spoke with a silvery voice, clear, light and pleasant. Henry didn't consent or decline consent, he just kept his high pitched squeal up. However when Arlo held his hand out Henry grabbed it and together they walked away. 

Silence now shrouded us.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know." I picked up some of the shattered plates and helped them clean up the mess I caused. I traced my thumb over the raised scar on my wrist, debating sneaking a shard of pottery up my sleeve to use later.

"It's not your fault Fearne, Henry's triggers take some getting used to. He doesn't like to be touched, at all. The only person he feels comfortable around is Arlo." Olivia explained.

"Why Arlo?" I asked.

Olivia and Liam glanced at one another again. "We have no idea." Liam laughed.