Autumn's Concerto

Autumn's Concerto 4

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I stood in my room, glaring at the clothes I had strewn across my room, willing them to make a suitable combination. Then I shook my head and picked up the green shirt by my foot. There was a knock on my door. "Come in, Sue." I said, holding the shirt up in front of the mirror. She came in smiling, her arms crossed, and a slightly smug look around her mouth. "Do you need help picking something out?"

"Hm? Oh, no, I've got it." I set the shirt on my bed. "Do you need help with dinner?"

"Not tonight. We're going to watch a movie tonight with dinner, do you have a preference?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm happy with anything." I stared at the green shirt and wondered what I was going to wear with it. I saw Sue smile in the mirror. "I'll call you when dinner's ready. You just make sure you have everything to make you beautiful, not that it won't take much." She rubbed my back before she left, leaving the door open a crack. I waited a second and then closed it all the way and locking it before I held up the shirt to me again. Whatever Sue saw in me was different than what I saw. The only thing I could take a compliment for was my how thick my hair was but that came from my dad. His brown eyes, which were so lively in his face were so bland in mine, and my mom's white skin with her long fingers that looked almost too long attached to my palms. I looked like a mouse. Sighing, I tossed the shirt over my shoulder and dug through my closet again, coming away with a white shirt and jeans and finally tired of searching, decided they would do.

I set them gently over the chair under my desk and then flopped on my bed. Why was I so worried about this? Or was nervous a better word? When I closed my eyes against my thoughts, I saw his green eyes and they sent a flutter through my stomach. I groaned and pressed my pillow over my head and pulling the covers over all of me, willing the butterflies to go away.

"Isabella! Dinner's ready!"

I struggled out of the burrow I'd created. "Coming!" I ended up tripping over my caught foot and landing hard on the floor with a loud thud. I tried to scramble out as fast as I could, but I couldn't beat the heavy footsteps and the violent turning of my door knob.

"Calm down, Peter," I called quietly. "I'm fine."

The knob rattled again.

Closing my eyes, I kicked myself free and opened my door slowly. Peter was standing there, blocking my way with a scowl on his face.

"What were you doing?"

"Nothing. I just tripped and fell."

He leered at me and then glanced at my hands. The simple glances made me want to shrink into myself. "Well, your mother has dinner ready. Come on." He stepped aside and I quickly went past him. Just before I made the turn into Sue's sight, I felt his hand touch the small of my back making me flinch.

Sue had made a dinner of roast beef sandwiches, making a meal out of leftovers. We all sat down on the couch, balancing our plates and drinks in out laps. The simple VCR was whirring to life as Peter pressed play. It was hard to find any contemporary movies on VCR seeing as how hardly anyone used them now. So we watched the old movies we got from thrift stores. It looked like Sue had chosen a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers black and white movie, one of my favorites. There wasn't any sound from Peter, he wasn't a fan of these types of movies, but every once in a while I could hear Sue whispering the words along with Ginger while I whispered Fred's back.

I was appreciative of this because Sue got into these with me as bonding time after Dad had died because it was one of the few channels the old televisions in the cheap motels would get. We watched these every once in a while, but mostly after Peter had gone to bed because we both knew that he didn't like them like we did. But tonight we were watching this as her silent motivation speech and 'have fun' for tomorrow and for this I felt my chest constrict a little.