The following morning.
10:00am.
Every Sunday morning, mum usually wakes me up. But today, I was woken up by the gentle feeling of Louis stroking my hair.
As I rolled over and opened my eyes, a bright ray of sunlight hit me right in the face. I quickly pulled the duvet right over my head.
Louis laughed.
“Good morning.” He said. His morning voice was raspy and deeper than usual.
“Morning.” I mumbled.
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re not a morning person.” “How did you come to that conclusion?” I asked.
“Well, you, hiding under the covers, kinda gave me a hint.”
Louis slowly removed the covers from off my head.
“Hey.” I said softly, sitting up, staring at Louis’ bare chest. I saw the scar that was about 5 centimetres long, running from his belly button up to just under his right rib. It was still a little red and scabby, but you could see that it was healing.
“Hey.” He stared right back at me with his beautiful caramel eyes. They travelled from my face then further down past my shoulders and stopped.
He had a small little grin on his face.
“What?” I asked.
“Well, it’s not like I haven’t seen it before but you’re.... kinda..um.” His cheeks blushed a little.
I looked down. I was also bare from the shoulders down to my waist. My eyes grew wide. I shielded myself with my pillow, feeling self-conscious.
“I must of had a hot flush last night.” My cheeks blushed. Usually, you couldn’t see it, since my skin complexion made it hardly noticeable. But Louis could.
“Don’t be embarrassed. You don’t have to be embarrassed with me.” He smiled, stroking my cheeks. I looked at him and smiled shyly.
“Lou, what time is it?”
He checked his phone. “10:30.”
Suddenly, I remembered. “My parents!” I whispered loudly.
“What if they see you?”
“Don’t worry, Jordan said he’d sort it.” “Oh yeah.” I let myself relax.
“You stay here, I’m going to go downstairs, quickly.”
I felt around for the shirt I wore yesterday, but I couldn’t find it.
“Lou, can I wear your jumper?”
“Sure.” He reached down and grabbed his black Puma hoodie off of the floor.
“Here.”
I put it on. It was a bit big, but it was comfortable and it smelled like him.
“Stand up, let’s see.” Louis said.
I stood up and did a little twirl.
“Looks good on you.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll be back in a sec. Put a shirt on.” I said.
“Probably a good idea.” He agreed.
Before going down, I knocked on Jordan’s bedroom door. His room was adjacent to mine.
“Jordan?”
“Come in!” He called.
As you enter Jordan’s room, the first thing you notice is his walls. They are covered in sea animals posters.
• Turtles
• Whales
• Sharks
• Star fish
But mostly dolphins. Its been like that for as long as I can remember. Each poster is from a different year in his life. It’s like his own personal timeline. Every picture holding a memory.
“Morning, why are you staring out the window?” I asked.
“Come see.”
I sat on his bed beside him -on my knees- and peered down on to the right side of our front lawn, pressing my nose against the window like a little kid. There were police in our front yard again.
“What’s going on?” I asked, in an alarmed state.
“Early this morning, dad got a phone call from the police. I don’t know why, but then half an hour later, they showed up at our door.” “They don’t look like they’re taking him away.” I said.
“Yeah, I guess, but they’ve been talking for like an hour now.” Jordan said.
“I’m gonna go get Keign.”
“Ok.”
Two doors down was Keign’s room. I lifted my hand up, ready to knock but I got a strong feeling that I should just go inside.
And I was right.
His curtains were drawn, making his room look very dark, as if it was night time.
As I walked in, I saw that he was sitting on the carpet with his back leaning against his bed. His hands covering his face.
“Keign?” I kneeled beside him.
“Keign, are you ok?”
He didn’t say anything, he just slowly moved his hands revealing red, puffy eyes.
“Keign are you... are you crying?!”
Stupid! Of course he was crying, but why?
I didn’t need an answer. I just pulled him in for a hug. A proper, sibling, -Our life- is-a-train-wreck-but-we-will-survive- hug.
Soon after, I heard a few foot steps heading our way. Two other people wrapped their arms around us.
We all sat in silence, comforting one another for, what felt like, a very long time.
“Ok, I’m starting to suffocate.” Keign announced.
One by one, we all let go.
“Louis, what are you doing here?” Keign asked.
“Well...”
Louis, and I began to explain at the same time. Talking over each other and making it almost impossible for anyone to understand what we were saying.
But then Keign noticed the jumper I was wearing and smirked.
“Actually, I think I know and I would rather not.” Keign said.
Jordan caught on next.
“Oh they did, didn’t they?” he asked.
“They definitely did.” Keign said to Jordan.
Louis and I looked back and forth between the two of them, trying to figure out what on earth they were talking about.
“I am SO confused right now.” I said.
“Don’t act dumb, we know what you both did.” Keign had this sly grin on his face.
“Seriously man, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Louis said.
“Well, let me give you a hint. You slept over last night, right?”
“Yeah.”
“In Rye’s bed.” Keign continued.
“My twin is wearing your jumper, and my parents don’t know you’re here.” “OH!” Louis exclaimed.
“What!” I asked, frustratedly.
Louis scooted closer to me and whispered it in my ear.
I glared at Keign.
“Did you?” Keign asked.
Louis said ‘We did’ and I said ‘We didn’t’, at the exact same time.
“LOUIS!” I whacked him hard on his thigh.
“Ow!” Louis yelled.
“Don’t listen to him, he’s lying.” I said.
“I don’t believe her?, do you J?”
“Nope, I’m not convinced.” Jordan replied.
“Jordan! How can you be teaming up on me with Keign? You were in on this. You said he could stay.”
“I said he could stay, but he didn’t say why he was staying.” “Ah ha! So you did!” Keign grinned.
“No Keign, we didn’t.”
“Just tell him we did.” Louis sighed.
“No, because we DIDN’T.”
“Whatever, you did.”
“Think what you want, but the truth is that we didn’t.” I said.
“So, if I tell mum and dad, you wouldn’t care.”
“Keign, don’t.”
“That’s all the information that I needed to know.”
“RYE,KEIGN,JORDAN!” mum called from downstairs.
“Coming!” We called back.
“Louis, you stay here.”
“Yeah that’s probably a good idea. Stay quiet, you can lock my door from the inside.” Keign said on the way out.
Louis nodded.
We went down in the order we were called in. I led, then Keign and Jordan followed.
Mum and dad were seated on the sofa with their hands intertwined. Judging by the looks on their faces, the reason they called us down, wasn’t a good one.
The atmosphere was weird. We have family meetings all the time and I was meant to be used to it. Since the start of September, there’s just been one bad thing after another. It can’t get any worse. Right?
“Mum, dad, what’s going on?”
“Why are there police here again?” Keign sat down next to dad.
Jordan and I remained standing.
“Yeah, what’s this about mum?” In my head, I imagined myself saying that with a bit more confidence. However, my voice came out soft and shaky.
“Sit down honey, your dad and I need to tell you something.” Mum spoke calmly.
The calm before the storm. I thought to myself.
Our sofa was long enough that I could sit at the far end of it, giving dad and I enough distance where I couldn’t see him. At least, not directly.
Jordan sat in the middle, our shoulders lightly touching.
“First of all, good morning children.”
“Morning.”
“Morning, Mum-Rose.”
Jordan calls our mum, Mum-Rose because she’s his step mum. He’s always called mum that.
“Yeah, morning.” I said.
“I won’t dilly-dally on the subject because I know you’ve all seen the police outside this morning.”
All three of us nodded.
“They have made a decision on what’s going to happen with your dad regarding the case.”
Dad didn’t say a word. He sat in silence like the rest of us, gripping mum’s hand.
“He’s going to jail, isn’t he?”
“Son, your father, he’s.....”
“Stop talking to us like that.” Keign said, standing up in front of us.
“Like what son?”
“Like we’re kids, cos we’re not. Rye’s pregnant, Jordan's 22 and I’m going to be 18 next year, I think this month has proven that we’ve passed being kids a long time ago, so just tell us. The truth.”
“We can handle it.” He said as he sat back down.
Keign didn’t shout. He was just honest, and said what we were all thinking.
“Listen son, you’re right, you deserve the truth. All of you.”
“So there’s something that I need to tell you.” Dad got up and walked to the front of the coffee table. It was chipped at the corner from ‘The incident’. “Tom, are you sure this is a good idea?” Mum asked.
“Yes Mary, I’ve been hiding this for too long.”
I hadn’t been able to look at dad since he came back, but this time, I watched attentively. Dad’s never spoken like this before, so I knew whatever he was going to say was important.
“This case isn’t the first thing on my record. In fact, I’ve been known to the police for a while now.”
“What?” Jordan asked.
“25 years ago, I got in a fight similar to....” He paused and looked in my eyes.
“I was in a bad fight with some people and got in a lot of trouble.”
“Before I met your mother, I was involved in a gang.” All three of us gasped.
“I was around Jordan’s age, me and a few others we’re in charge of supplying the money. We stole things, broke into houses and hurt the ones that got in our way.”
“What I did was wrong, I admit it, but not compared to the crimes the rest of them committed.”
“It got really quite awful, so I decided to get myself out of that situation, but when I wanted to leave they wouldn’t let me.”
“Dad....” Keign said.
“The leader threatened to do some horrible things to my family, and it ended in a fight. It was brutal.”
“A few punches were thrown from either side, we both got hurt. I was just stronger, so by the end of it, the guy was unconscious.”
“Everyone else left. I called the ambulance and turned myself in the police.”
“He ended up in a coma, I could have went to prison. But I made a deal with the officer to turn the gang in for my freedom.”
“It was under one condition, that I fixed myself up and didn’t get into trouble again or I could be jailed for a year.”
“Well I got better and I became a doctor, everything was fine until this month.” He sat back down.
“Dad, so you are......?” Keign looked like he was holding back tears.
Mum had already shed a few.
“Yes, the police are outside waiting for me now.”
“Dad, what...I.... don’t leave dad!” Keign flung his arms around dad’s neck with a hug and burst into tears. Mum did. Jordan did. And even I did.
In that moment, I forgot all about my resentment towards dad and joined Keign and mum in the hug. Jordan joined too.
The floorboards creaked upstairs, gradually growing louder and louder, closer and closer. I lifted my head and saw Louis standing at the bottom of the staircase, staring at us. I beckoned for him to come over.
“Dad, mum.” I sniffled, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“Louis stayed over last night, DON’T BE MAD, Jordan said that he could and....” Dad rose from his seat. The house faded into silence.
He walked slowly towards Louis. I felt Deja-vu which made me sweat with fear.
But dad did the last thing I would have expected him to do.
He opened his arms for a hug and Louis embraced him.
“I’m sorry, for everything Louis.” Dad apologised.
“I’m sorry too, Mr Parker.” Louis said.
Dad pulled Louis out of the hug by his shoulders.
“You don’t need to be sorry. Yes, maybe you two are a bit young, but you’ve done nothing but make my Rye smile ever since you came into her life.”
“The love you have for each other is as clear as day, I just need you to promise me one thing.”
“Anything.” Louis said.
“Take care of her while I’m gone.”
From the sofa, I hurried over to Louis and wrapped my arms around him.
“I will, I promise.” Louis leaned down and kissed my forehead.
Police sirens sounded outside our door, followed by a hard knock.
“I guess its time.” Dad took a long deep breathe and strolled towards the door. Mum walked with him and opened the it.
“Wait dad.” I let go of Louis and ran up to him, giving him a hug.
“I’m gonna miss you.” I said, laying my head in his chest.
“Minx, I’m going to miss you too, can you ever forgive me?” A tear trickled down his cheek.
“Yeah, I think I can forgive you. Not now, but one day.” He smiled, a smile I hadn’t seen him do in way too long.
“Mr Parker, we need to go.” A police man said.
“You and Louis are going to be great parents, I can’t wait to meet my grand children.”
“Thank you dad.”
After one last hug from everyone, we all stood side by side in the front yard and watched dad leave in the car, until it disappeared from sight.