Sorry | Murphamy AU | vol.1

18. Touches like glass

"Some people really don't know how to take a joke," he mumbles, ignoring my question. I scoff, nudging him.

"You've already made enemies for next year–good job," I muse and he nods.

"Yeah, they were suppose to graduate yeah though, but they didn't and I... Yeah." he says vaguely, but knowing him, he probably mocked them or some immature shit like that. Honestly, he shouldn't be acting all high and mighty, I mean, he almost failed the year, but earned the bare minimum to continue on to grade twelve. 

Shit, I have to start thinking about college. 

***

My eyes droop as I look at my book, forgetting its title. It has words, the story's got an interesting plot, but I think I'm just rereading the same sentence over and over again. A few soft knocks sound on my door before Octavia peeks her head in curiously. I stare at her blankly, wondering what she wants. I let my book fall to the side of the bed. "You guys gotta come, Mom and Dad said they wanna talk." she says uncertainly. I frown.

"What's wrong?"

"I think I'm in trouble." she says nervously. I blink twice, sighing and shaking my head.

"They're probably just gonna talk about grades." I reassure her, sitting up, but Murphy, who had been asleep on my shoulder just seconds ago, falls back down and hits the pillow. I wince for him. He scrunches his face in discomfort before opening his grey eyes. They were blue this afternoon, I swear.

"Sorry," I mumble, swinging my feet onto the floor and standing up. I look to the door, seeing that O's already left. I bite my cheek as Murphy, stares at me intensely for a good two seconds before pulling the covers over his head and turning over, huddling as close to the wall as he can get. 

Not again.

I contemplate wether or not I should force him out of bed, but I decide against it, turning off the light and closing the door instead. My hand burns as I leave it on the doorknob for a few seconds longer. Even though he's sad right now, I hope sleeping makes him at least a little more content. 

The feeling I get downstairs is an uncomfortable one. I give a confused look to my sister, who gives me a 'see, told you it was weird,' look. Mom, looks at her plate as she tries to repress a smile of some sort and Dad looks over all three report cards carefully, as if looking for some kind of error. I take my seat.

"These are impressive." he remarks.

"Where's Murphy?" Mom interrupts, looking at the stairs. 

I place my elbows on the table, letting my hands hold my head. "He's doing that thing again, I dunno." I mumble, upset because I wish there was something I could do. "He's always sad." Well, always might not be the case, but it's often, and he doesn't say anything, sometimes for hours. He once slept three days, not wanting to get out of bed or talk to anyone. The following day, he was a completely different person. Full of life, happiness, joy... but those never last. 

Mom nods, sighing. "He's been through a lot this year."

"But he could talk to me if he's so upset, you know?" I argue and she nods.

"Some people aren't very vocal about the way they feel." she confesses and I raise an eyebrow, scoffing. Her tone made it seem as though it was directed at me. I open my mouth–

"You did really well on your classes this year kids," he says and I lean back in my chair, ignoring my mother. "Tell Murphy the same, I'm proud that he passed." he says and I nod slowly. Octavia looks like she's going to cry from nerves. He clears his through unnecessarily before folding his hands on the table as if he was some big CEO. "Your mother and I have something we want to tell you." he says and I furrow my eyebrows in concern. They better not be getting a divorce. "We thought of something fun that we could all do this summer," he says and Octavia relaxes into her seat once she understands that they're not mad. "What would you two think about maybe taking a trip to Australia?" he asks and my sister and I exchange an odd look, waiting for the punch. I raise an eyebrow. "We'll ask Murphy when he wakes up."