Lights

Chapter 6.

Waking up the next morning was difficult. Once Jake left last night, Kaia managed to crawl into bed and tried to fall asleep to the sound of Jake's voice saying to never talk to him again. It was a long night. Forcing herself to get up and get ready for school, she turned on the shower waiting for it to heat up. She the striped out of her cloths that she didn't bother to take off from the day before and stepped under the boiling hot water, her muscles relaxed as soon as the two elements came into contact with each other. Closing her eyes, she turned, wetting her hair and applied a generous amount of shampoo to her head and quickly washed it out, doing the same with the conditioner, before shaving her legs and stepped out, wrapping a towel round her small body. Walking back into the room, she picked out an outfit that consisted of a pair of black inky denim jeans and a white flowery crop-top with long sleeves. Running her fingers through her wet hair, she looked into the full-length mirror on the right side of the room, placed next to her vanity. Observing herself, she was happy with her choice that was until the sunlight filtering through the wide-open window cached on the now fully developed bruise. She shuddered at the memory of how it got there. Quickly grabbing her make-up bag, she layered on the foundation to conceal the massive purple bruise on her left cheek.

Finally managing to hide it, she finished off the rest of her make-up and hair, straightening out the frizzy, curly mass that naturally happens whenever she washed her hair. Unplugging the strengtheners and leaving them to cool, she stood up checking in the mirror one last time, flipping her thick dark hair over her shoulder to see that it was now reached down to her waist. Making sure that everything else was still in place, she picked up her school bag from the floor, making sure that all the books she needed was in there and throwing the ones that she didn't need, out. She opened the door and walking down the stairs, the wooden floorboards creaking under her weight as she moved throughout the house. April humming a song softly to her soon filtered through the long halls, bouncing off the tall white walls. "Good morning." She smiled brightly, slaving over the stove. Most likely cooking up a feast that Kaia knew she wouldn’t be eating. "I have something for you." She smiled, handing over a small white envelope with Kaia’s name and address scribbled in messy handwriting on the front.

Opening it carefully, she unfolded the letter knowing whose handwriting it was as soon as she started reading. She smiled at the scribbled writing that said 'hey kiddo, I'm coming home.' That was all that Kaia needed to confirm her thoughts. "Dustin coming home next week!” She screamed jumping up and down on the spot, clutching the letter close to her chest. The news of her brother coming home was enough to make her forget about everything wrong with her life, putting her in a happy mode for once.

"Just in time for your eighteenth birthday." April commented, turning back to the stove, flipping the bacon she was cooking. Bouncing past her, Kaia pick up a banana that April had bought at the famers market this morning, out of the fruit pot placed in the middle of the dark marble island place in the middle of the very large kitchen.

Sitting down at the swivel stall, swinging her feet as they hung in the air. "Is mother at work?" Kaia asked without any interest, peeling off the banana skin and eating it slowly, then poured herself a glass of orange juice that had just been freshly squeezed by April herself.

"No, she is still getting ready." She nodded; her bright blue eyes skimming over Kaia’s face, pained look found its way to her eyes. "Is that what he did last night?" She whispered, her cool eyes never leaving the spot just below the young girls eye.

Fumbling with her words, she did the only thing she could think of. "What? I don't know what you’re talking about." She lied, spinning off the stall and landing on her bare feet with a thump.

"Kaia, I don't want you hiding anything from me. You know you can tell me anything." She paused, taking a moment to look at me. Biting her bottom lip, then shaking her head from side to side, like she was trying to forget about something. "You wanna talk about it?" She offered smiling again, turning back to the stove, flipping over the bacon again.