Am I still Invisible?

Chapter 8- Glasses and a Staircase

It’s Monday afternoon and I arrive home from school with Will and Emma. My parents are at work. Cassie and Dan are at university and Pete is tutoring one of his friends as a favour.

I guess that leaves me in charge. I walk into the house and immediately I notice the stench of alcohol.

Shit, not again. I didn’t even notice her car out front. I walk into the living room to find her passed out across the coffee table. This hasn’t happened since Will was three years old.

She stopped because of him. He saw here when she was like this and was scared out of his mind. He refused to come near her for weeks after that because he kept on thinking that a monster had replaced her.

Something really bad must have happened for her to break her eleven year sober spell. I don’t have time to think about what it is now. All I know is that I cannot let Emma see her like this. I have to get them out of here.

“Emma, go to the car. Will, come here.” I yell.

I hear the front door slam and then Will enters the room.

He scans the scene in front of him and I can see him make sense of everything. He becomes ghostly pale and I see the scared little three-year-old show himself.

“Will,” I say softly, “help me carry upstairs to her room. We can’t let Emma see her like this.”

He nods.

We walk over to her and he places her left arm over his shoulders. I take her right. We then proceed to half carry her/half drag her to her room and place her on the bed. We close the door and walk to the car.

I start the engine and then think about where to take them. They must be hungry. Maybe I’ll treat them to a pizza or something at the mall.

Emma is chatting away merrily in the backseat. To my relief she is blissfully ignorant to what went on. I wish I could say the same for my brother though.

Will looks shaken up. He is still pale and is looking out the window. I can sense that he doesn’t want to talk.

I am an idiot. I should not have asked Will to help me move her. I should have left her on the table. She deserves it. After what she put our family through last time it’s bloody selfish of her to repeat her mistakes eleven years later.

Before I reverse out o f the garage I send a text to Dan, Pete and Cassie.

She’s pissed again. Will is taking it badly. Emma didn’t see. Taking them to the mall for food. Please meet us there a.s.a.p.  I can’t deal with this and them alone.

Ryan’s POV

Another Monday. To me this just means another week of avoiding school has begun. Lately though I haven’t bunked as much.

Something is messing with my head and I think I know what it is.

It’s that Riley girl. Ever since I saw her sitting on the stairs sulking I have not been able to get her out of my mind. I keep on picturing what it would be like to hold her in my arms. To just lay down next to her. I wish I could just have her hug me. Those moments when we were dancing were the most relaxing moments of my life. I felt like I belonged in her arms.

As for being in the hot tub with her; well let’s not even go there. I don’t know why the hell I said what I said but I said it. I don’t know why I did what I did. It felt like she possessed me to do those things.

F***. She is messing with my head so bad.

This needs to stop. I have to get my mind away from her. I mean I am freaking Ryan Pierce. I could have any girl in that damn school. So why am I so hooked up over one?