Unpredictable • cth

36

Ella-

"Are we going to Uncle Luke's house?"

My voice was the only sound in the room right now. My father, my aunt, and myself are sitting in the living room with Titanic playing on the TV. It was around 4 pm now, meaning my father had effectively scared the shit out of Ryder and has dragged me down the stairs to have a movie day with the family.

At the sounds of my voice both of their heads snapped towards me though the curtains were drawn and the only illumination was the TV. My fathers eyes narrowed in my direction, his eyes trained on my own.

"You would like that wouldn't you El?" My father was half teasing and half being an ass.

"Calum!" My aunt was quick to protect me, slapping the back of his head so hard it seemed as though his head would disconnect from his body.

His body flew forward, the entire sofa rocking forward as he did so. The way his body snapped back, his attention turned toward my aunt who looked almost scared shitless yet she wanted to hold her own.

"Mali!" He whined back and reached his hands to pinch the skin on her arm, which caused her to whine in pain.

So as you can imagine the cycle of her hitting the back of his head and the pinching of her skin went on for longer than the three of us would like to admit.

I finally had enough, scooting forward to the edge of the couch so I was leaning over the edge to see both of their faces just as Rose was calling for Jack.

"Hello? Earth to Hoods?" I spoke leaning forward so they would both look in my direction, which half worked.

I say half because though my father looked at me with compassion and embarrassment, his sister tried to whack the back of his head one more time which took his attention off me as he fell backward dramatically into my lap.

He stayed like this, looking up at me with a faked pain expression for a while before he finally sat up and flipped his sister the bird with a sarcastic smile.

"Why do you ask Ella?" Mali spoke to me directly going back to the question I had asked more than 10 minutes ago.

My mouth almost went dry because I didn't want my father to make another joke about Ryder but the reasoning for my question was nothing but purely innocence. So I started to lick my lips and allow my eyes to bounce around the dark room so I didn't have to focus on anyone.

My father was quick to catch on to my actions because his eyes narrowed and did everything in his power to focus on my constantly moving eyelids.

"I just remember Aunt S asking if we wanted to come over for dinner." I all but mumbled my statement which I know my father doesn't like when I do.

We all shared a look. My aunt really thinking back to when I was with Aunt Sierra and how I would know she asked or when she asked. Where as my father was trying to peel through what he thought was a lie even though it was far from.

"Oh yea, that's today?" Mali finally spoke, remembering that Aunt S had called us yesterday to ask us to come over this evening.

"What's today?" Now my father is starting to think I bribed his sister to be my partner in crime to go see Ryder tonight.

"Sierra called us yesterday, asked if we wanted to do dinner. She's doing one with all the families." Mali looked over to me trying to get me to continue the statement.

"She wanted to do a personal thing, like one on one before Friday." I shrugged my shoulders, my eyes still avoiding my fathers, who's eyes still haven't left mine since the conversation started.