FlipFlops & Parker

Chapter 2 He's So Fine

"If it's not all about you, you're not happy are you Jay? And this latest desperate bid for attention is pathetic. What I want to know is did you fail those exams on purpose or do you just not have the ability to do any better?" She arched her thin over plucked eyebrow. I looked down at my feet and she pushed again "perhaps you take after your mother in more than just looks?"

My head shot up. Isabella knew she had hit her target so returned to her usual guilt tactics "Charles is going to miss his father this summer, all so you can have your space to decide your future, well what about ours?"

A thousand angry words rushed up my throat but I didn't release any of them. I swallowed them back down, adding to the hard lump in my stomach.

"I'll be out back," I managed as I made a break for it.

"Of course you will," Isabella responded flatly "I'll text if he needs you."

I suppose I was a modern day Cinderella of sorts. Yep my English Stepmother could be a real bitch and I was often the unpaid help, babysitting at the drop of a text command. I didn't have to clean the house though as they could afford a full time housekeeper and I had no luck with Princes, charming or otherwise.

Also, cinders didn't have her own space, at least here on Greysea Island I did. I let myself out of the back door and ran down the sloping expansive lawn, through the sheltering copse of trees and out to the estuary at the back.

On the bank was an old 1970s Belmont trailer, or caravan as they called them here. It had an orange stripe running through the middle, the roof was mottled with green algae and it was hooked up to a red gas bottle. It was always supposed to be temporary as Patrick had plans to build a boathouse, yet his boating plans had gone the same way as his golf, tennis and helicopter flying, all great in principle, but not so much in practice, especially when you had to be consistently sober and in one country long enough for lessons.

It didn't look much from the outside but I loved it. It was a slum compared to the main house so Nonna, Patrick and Isabella wouldn't be caught dead near enough for a photo, let alone go inside. Isabella had declared it unfit for Charlie, he wasn't allowed down here next to the water due to Isabella's fussing and although it made me feel guilty, it was good to have some step brother free space and I had the place completely to myself.

Crawling under than caravan I fished the key out from behind one of the supporting bricks and unlocked the door. It was like opening an oven as a blast of hot air hit me in the face. I went through my ritual of opening the second front door, any of the windows that could still function, switching on the desktop fan I had managed to salvage, flipping on my ipad to let my 1950's Do Wapp playlist blast out and putting on the kettle.

The trailer wasn't massive but then everything in the UK seemed smaller. It was supposedly a six berth, with a double bedroom at one end, kitchenette, shower and toilet in the middle by one of the front doors and a seating area at the other end with the second front door. Although to sleep six, two would have to take the built in seating and two would have to use the fold down kitchen table. I just couldn't image six people in the space though, that would mean more bumping than the dodgems. Perhaps it was lucky then that I wasn't popular enough for it to ever be a real issue. For just one, it was just fine.

Ever since I can remember I've hated small spaces. The bedroom in the trailer was way too stifling for me. I used it for storage mainly, but I kept a sheet on the bed in pretense in-case her highness ever made an appearance; I didn't want to give her any more ammunition to label me crazy.

She hadn't ventured into the trailer so far and my Dad never stayed long enough to notice. After boarding school for the past two years I'd had to share everything. Even disposable razors weren't sacred, so this space of my own, despite my phobia, was too special to give up.

I slept out on the seating unit which was in the largest open space and although I had renovated the entire interior myself, including recovering the couch cushions. It would have been very comfortable for most girls, but with my gangly 5ft 8 frame, it was just a bit short.

I sat down in the front doorway with my legs stretched outside onto the steps and looked out across the water of the Estuary.

My thoughts stabbed at me; failure. Dad had moved me to one of the England's most exclusive girls boarding schools two years ago, yanking from my Sophomore year. I was sixteen and going onto the advanced placement programme, dreaming of my first car and preparing for my SATs, when I'm suddenly enrolled to study A Levels in Math, Biology and Chemistry, applying to Elite British Universities where only three A grades will be good enough for medicine.

24months later and that ship had sailed. Dad's a doctor and if it's not medicine he doesn't have an opinion apparently.

I'm adrift.

The last time we spoke, well I listened; he gave me until September to decide. Second guessing him is exhausting. It was so much easier when I knew what he wanted me to do. At 18 I'm written off.

The kettle whistles, yep actually whistles. The one thing I love about this country is the tea. The ritual of it, the comfort in it, whatever the crisis, it can all be solved with a cup of tea. I know that's not true, but it's my fantasy and I'm going with it.

As I arranged the cup and saucer, poured the water over the tea bag and added the milk, I daydreamed about tomorrow. Maybe I could go back and meet Loaf?

He seemed harmless, a bit lame, but friendly. Friend. Maybe we could be friends? Yeah, cause that always worked out so well for me.

I've always found making friends hard, even before all the moving around. The conversations in my head rarely made it past my lips. At boarding school I had the extra disadvantage of my inner freak being exposed. In addition, even if queen bee Sarah had eventually laid off, I lost my shot at normalcy when sweet Bethany's rat bastard boyfriend asked me out in front of her, suggesting he knew I wanted it. In fact, he managed to break it off with her and proposition me in the same sentence and yet he wasn't at fault, I was. My usual tongued tied delayed response was all the validation those girls needed, and so the two years of shut out and silence began. No wonder my people skills were rusty. Yet I was one of the lucky ones, you wouldn't believe how much worse it could get.

Inwardly wincing at the memory, I reached right into the tiny ice box and pulled out a frosted icecream snickers bar. Peanuts were protein right? I ate like a teenage boy home alone most of the time, but the UK just didn't have enough peanut butter related products for my liking.

I should not have my waif figure by rights. Maybe all the worry burned it off, but I often ate my own weight in crap to squeeze the loneliness out.

'Then he kissed me' came on the iPod by The Crystals and I instantly felt better. My taste in music had definitely changed somewhat in the last year and this playlist was my little secret. I could rationalize and worry all I wanted to about it, but I couldn't lie to myself. The guy from the funfair had featured in every one of my fantasies over the past year. He was the only constant, the only thing I knew I wanted, even if I was unsure of everything else. The fact that I knew absolutely nothing about him was madness and that absolutely terrified me.

Was I crazy? What was normal? These were the questions that kept me up at night. It was the reason I poured over the books in my self help collection and had me highlighting quotations. My latest mantra was from Jake Gyllenhaal, sure my Dad wouldn't accept his psychological credentials, but whatever works right?

"Crazy people don't sit around wondering if they're nuts." Jake Gyllenhaal

So that's my first full chapter. Hope you like it? Please comment, I'm here to write better and welcome advice. I will love you forever if you like or share as I am greener than grass, new to Wattpad and this is my first novel. Thank you for getting this far to read this Sx