NOVEL NEXT Chapter 11: Icy Atmosphere
It put a smile on my face. That was my little sister, Beth. Or Butterfly, to me. She was more than ten years younger than me, born shortly before the divorce. Sometimes, me and my brother speculated that our parents only stayed together because she hadn’t been born yet, and they wanted to deal with the custody battle. Stubborn old idiots.
Instead of worrying about all that though, I scooped my little Butterfly up into my arms and squeezed her tight, coaxing a giggle from in between her lips. “You’re finally back, Fio!” she squealed next to my ears.
“Sure am, Butterfly,” I replied with a smile, keeping my eyes closed and hugging her tight, even as I heard footsteps approaching. I only lowered her to the floor again once I heard my mom clear her throat. Though I still added a small twirl to the motion, making her laugh again.
My mom’s eyes were already locked on me, looking me up and down like some kind of advanced scanner, looking for even the slightest imperfection. My hair was in a slight mess, and I could hear her scoff at it, and when she saw my pants, her lips curled into a small frown.
I didn’t care, not too much. What I did care about was when someone else stepped into the doorframe.
An older man I’d seen a few times before. Had they been dating? I’d not suspected anything, but given the way he wrapped his hand around her waist, it sure seemed so. That put a small dampener on my mood. Well, another dampener, really, my mom’s frown was already a great start.
“Oh, so the daft young lady finally decides to grace us with her presence again,” she chided me, brushing at her stark brown but graying hair.
The frown on my face deepened. “Seems like it. Finally got some time off. Wasn’t expecting to be kept this long, but things came up.”
“Mhm, I’m sure they did,” mom said, clicking her tongue disapprovingly. “Well, I’m sure you still remember Jared,” she said, and the man waved at me lightly with his free hand. He was tall, and looked a bit younger than my mom, and like he worked out. “He’s a fitness trainer, and we’ve recently been coming over to talk fairly often.”
“Glad to hear it,” I said, my voice holding none of the promised enthusiasm. My eyes must have looked like those of a dead fish as I turned to the man. “Hey Jared, I’m Fio.” I pointedly extended my right hand to him, forcing him to let go of my mom to shake it. His grip was firm, but mine was firmer. He didn’t go to Eden, that much I could tell.
“Nice to meet you, Fio,” he said, sounding amicable. “Your mom has been treating me much more nicely than I deserve.”
“I’m sure she has been,” I said dryly, then stepped forward. “But please, let’s not keep this conversation at the doorstep. After all, it wouldn’t do to have a proper lady get drenched on the doorstep, would it?”
My eyes held my mom’s for a few quiet seconds, as only the pittering of the rain sounded. I could see Beth looking a little discouraged at our antics, but hey, it wasn’t me who said I should never have been born for being unavailable sometimes.
She clicked her tongue again, very quietly this time, but nodded. “You’re right, of course. Please come in, Fiona.”
The name made me grimace a bit, but I quickly took the offer and headed in. Beth shot me a small smile, since things went over without issue, and Jared avoided meeting my eyes. That was fair, I was being frigid to him. Not that it meant I was gonna stop.
Nothing had changed about the inside of the house. Nothing major, at least. My mom’s paintings lined the walls, all neat and orderly, and I don’t think a microscope could have found a speck of dust. The kitchen was still cramped with many appliances and mementos she never used and hardly looked at.
There was still a picture of all of us at christmas. Big Broski Ivan, dad, mom, Jacob and I. Well, no longer Jacob, not after the car crash. It was before Beth.
The picture brought up bitter memories and I bit my lip hard to suppress them as I sat down on one of the plush chairs. My mom was already heating up water for some tea.
Butterfly sat down across from me. She looked positively adorable, with her black curls and green eyes. Like a miniature doll. I couldn’t help but smile as I winked at her. I mouthed a few promises of making her fly later, and watched her eyes light up and sparkle.
It brought a small smile to my face, which was immediately interrupted by a pointed clearing of her throat by my mother. Jared was sitting across from me, awkwardly drumming his fingers onto his hands. He was being quiet, and looked a little bit out of place in the kitchen. It seemed all a bit too cramped for his bulky stature.
On the other hand, mom’s annoyance was probably at the arm I’d draped over the back of the chair and my crossed legs. I gave a half-hearted sigh and adjusted my position slightly, until I sat looking prim and proper as she wanted me to. At least my shirt had folds this way, which she didn’t complain about for once.
“Well, Fio, want to tell us some more about what happened at your work?” she asked, somewhat pointedly.
I’d told her before not to ask about work. Yet, here we were again. I’d spent some time coming up with a believable excuse. Now I just had to hope she didn’t pry further.
“Just a difficult client, mom, nothing fancy. My team got spread thin because we had a lot of requests coming in, and I got stuck with the worst one. So I had to do a bunch of overtime to deal with their stupid special wishes and their lawyers. The amount of bureaucracy in the firm is insane,” I said, ending it off with a sigh to sell the deal.
Seeing my mom’s face tighten at the mention of lawyers and bureaucracy was wonderful. She’d left it all behind many years ago, when she became a freelance painter. It’d made her happier than any amount of time with any amount of her family ever could. We respected that. But it also meant that she hated talking about anything to do with legal stuff.
“I see. Well, I am glad to have a daughter who can reliably deal with those things,” she squeezed forth, getting a nod from me and a much more enthusiastic nod from Beth. “For our own part,” she changed the topic, “I have recently been considering the idea of travelling.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “Travelling?” I asked. “Where to?”
“We’re considering a cruise,” she said, her eyes flitting to Jared. “Something to get out of the house for a week or two. Bethany could stay at your brother’s, he already agreed to it.”
There was some effort in the fact that I kept a vindictive smile off my face. “A cruise?”
“Yes, I’ve been saving up for it for some time now,” she said, as she got up and took the kettle off the heat. “I need some inspiration for new paintings, and seeing more of the world would help greatly. You know how much I love the ocean.”
“Indeed I do,” I nodded. “Why leave Bethany with Ivan, though? Wouldn’t dad be happy to have her for a while?”
Butterfly looked at me, eyes going wide. She gave me a tiny nod. I knew that she really loved dad, and only got to see him so rarely. Mom, on the other hand, was less pleased, her jaw set tightly as a deep frown creased her face. Surprisingly, Jared spoke for her, meeting my face.
“Fio,” he used my nickname, the one my mom despised, “you know your mom doesn’t approve of your dad. He doesn’t make healthy food, and he can be irresponsible. She and I both don’t think leaving Beth with him for that long would be a good idea.”
I had to give him some respect for actually saying it, but he was misrepresenting mom’s views. “Not for the entire cruise,” I exploited his wording, “just a weekend. Maybe a monday, too. You could give him a plan, have him take her to the cinema or something.”
My mom’s frown grew some more, her eyes now locked onto Jared. He’d made a mistake saying the time frame was the issue. That wasn’t it at all. The fact that Beth ever saw dad was a thorn in her eyes.
Now, of course dad wasn’t perfect. The year he’d spent in jail wasn’t without reason. But the fact that she wanted Beth to preferably never see him at all was plain unfair, in my eyes, and in Butterfly’s as well.
Jared was now caught between a rock and a hard place. “Well, I mean, I suppose it doesn’t sound that bad, but please consider everything that could go wrong. Your dad, he-”
My tone turned icy. “Don’t insult my father before me, Jared.”
“Your dad is a good-for-nothing drunk with no measure of self-control, Fiona,” my mom interjected. “He raised you terribly, and gave you far too much freedom. He’s coarse, abrasive, and downright cruel.” And he killed my brother.
She didn’t say the last part, her teeth biting down on her tongue before she had the chance. In a way, it was a cruel joke. Jacob had died because of mirrors. Rear view mirrors, to be exact, broken ones. My dad hadn’t seen a car coming up fast behind him and swerved to change lanes.
The idiot had been overtaking way too fast from the right, slamming into the front passenger seat. Jacob’s seat. Nothing modern medicine could do.
And now, I had nearly died in a mirror world. Cruel irony. My mom didn’t know it, of course, but the room turned icy when she’d finished speaking.
I let the words hang in the air for an uncomfortably long silence. Jared shifted in his seat, and Beth looked like she was about to cry. The only sounds that rang out were mom’s almost robotic motions as she mixed the tea. When she went to fill our cups, Beth stood up and ran to her room, tears in the corners of her eyes.
Mom’s face turned sad at it, and Jared pressed his palms against his nose with a sigh. I simply sat there, prim and proper as she usually wanted me to, downed my cup of tea in one sip, then pushed my chair back noisily and stood up.
“Gonna talk to Beth,” I said.
Luckily, mom bit back her usual correction and made no comment on the nickname.