Tongue Tied
chapter one
For as long as Evangeline could remember, summer had been her home. The spell of bloomed flowers and the hot sticky weather that radiated from the sun. She felt secure when summer rolled around, it felt like she had accomplished something great by surviving the cold nights of winter and the spring mornings when her hayfever would have her secretly blowing her nose in the back of class.
She loved the beach, there was no place she wanted to be more than laying on her towel with the blasting sun glistening upon her, she would leave shaped markings on her skin as she tanned, leaving tan marked lines on her perfect olive skin. Summer was a gift, the memories spent jumping into her pool with her bestfriend was some of her favourite.
Every summer Evangeline went on a roadtrip with her mother and sister while her brother and father stayed home. They called the trip the 'moracle girls trip for making miracles happen'. Wasn't the easiest name to fall off the tongue, but it managed to make Evangelines heart flutter with it being mentioned.
Summer was a time to be alive, it was her escape from what happened within the depths of the perfect white plastered walls of her haunted house. The annual road trip was the key to her happiness, she never had to sit beside her bedroom door all night to make sure her father never entered her siblings room, or ruining her life by staying awake to make sure her mother was okay whenever her father came home.
Nothing in her house felt like a home, winter was deadly, not from the frost that iced her house, or the snow that would overflow her garden. It was because of him. A man with the punch as sharp as fifty knives, he was the reason she hated winter. The winter days were too cold to be out, her father stayed home all day, drinking and wallowing about his miserable life and complaining about how he wanted to stab his two daughters and wife to death and run away with his son, but knew he wouldn't get away with it.
Winter was the cold nights of fear, summer was filled with safety and love. She felt content, even being miles away from the only person who actually understood her. Evangeline knew no one could hurt her or the other two women when they were gone. She didn't have to play the role of the protecter when there was nothing to protect them from.
Passing the sign back to the valley made her heart sink further into her chest and her breaths quicken. Her picture perfect summery life had come to a end, dealing with the monsters that not only lived in her head and her heart, but in the place where one is supposed to be safe.
Her summer dreams and wishes were gone, gulping down the overwhelming remembrance of her unfortunate circumstances she would live soon enough, she clicked the side button of the car door to wind down the windows, letting the fresh autumn air spring onto her face. Her brown hair whispered along with the wind.
She leaned her arm against the door before leaning her face against her arm, her eyes had only been closed for a second before the sound of her mothers voice caught her attention.
"Evan, honey. Close the window, you know your fathers going to be upset if any leaves blow inside."
Evangeline could only stare at the back of the woman's head, before silently winding the window back up. Her freedom trapped outside.
. . .
Coffee is a girls bestfriend, even at four pm.
The ring of the cafes door opening caught Evangelines attention, hers eyes lighting in exictement when her bestfriend stepped through the glass door.
