Fair Deception

Chp. 3, Part II

A soft knock on my bedroom door woke me up, followed by another knock, and then my Aunt Jenna slowly popped her head into my room. I stared at her with sleepy eyes as she walked over to my bedside and placed a glass of water and some paracetamol on my dresser.

"I've brought these just in case. How was last night?" she asked gently. I pulled the duvet up over my head and felt her sit on the end of the bed. What could I even tell her? She gently squeezed one of my feet through the duvet so I resurfaced slowly.

"Erm, it was... eventful."

"Eventful?" she probed.

"Yes. The first place we went was pretty fun."

"And the second?" she pushed.

"The second was fun until it was awful," I stopped and took a sip of water.

"Were Kalen's friends nice to you?"

"Oh yeah, it was nothing like that. Broch actually met me here last night to walk with me, and Gabriel ordered me a taxi home." I could see I'd thrown her.

"Did you drink too much?"

"No," I looked at her face, "No, I literally had three drinks, it was just a fight broke out in the club and it was really scary. Some guy grabbed me and Kalen got all defensive, but the guy seemed to own the club, and then the others were trying to defend me and I, well, I just ran out of there and did nothing at all," I spluttered, feeling guilty and ashamed.

Jenna watched my expression for a moment. "Oh Anastasia, I'm glad that you got yourself to safety, that was really sensible," she paused, "I'm really proud of you."

"I got into a bit of an argument with Kalen about it though."

"Is that why your phone is on the other side of the room?"

"Yeah. I just wasn't ready to deal with him last night... to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm ready to deal with him today either."

She brushed my fringe away from my eyes with a soft hand. "If you're not ready to tackle this head on yet, I get it. Just give yourself some time and figure out what you want to say." She looked at me carefully. "It's better to take the time to figure out the right thing to say than rush and say something you might regret. Plus, you and Kalen have been best friends for years, you'll figure it out."

I nodded. "I guess. Thanks for the water by the way, although I really don't think I'll need the paracetamol."

Jenna laughed and stood up, grabbing the paracetamol from the table. She paused at the door and looked at the pill box in her hand. "If you don't need these then you did a much better job than me on my first night out. I remember your mum told our parents I was sick with flu the entire next day - I was so hungover I couldn't get out of bed!" she giggled in a sad way.

"I think she'd be really proud of what you did last night though. You know how she and your dad felt about getting into fights," Jenna said, and her smile made the slight lines around her eyes crinkle just like my mum's used to, then she left, shutting the door behind her.

It always made me both happy and sad when Aunt Jenna talked about my mum. I looked at the picture of my parents hung up on the wall. I missed them. Without my mum's blonde hair or my dad's dark eyes, I didn't look much like either of them, but sometimes I liked to think that we were alike in other ways instead. Jenna always said her big sister had quite a fiery and protective character, and I was definitely fiery – when I wasn't running away like a scared little girl. I sighed, threw back the covers and trudged through into the bathroom.

Once inside, I undressed and slung my dirty pjs into the washing basket, then climbed into the shower when the water was hot. I just stood there for a while, letting the water wash over me, unknotting my muscles and slowly running down my face. After a few moments, I began to wash my hair, massaging my head at the same time, trying to release some of the tension that had gathered up, and it worked, for a while. I coated my long, thick hair in conditioner and watched the tendrils run midnight black through my fingers. Leaving the conditioner in, I lathered up a sponge and quickly washed all the sweat from last night off my skin before rinsing my hair. Finally clean, I stepped out of the shower and towelled myself dry before pulling on a vest top and jogging bottoms.