Inside The House

XIII

Meteorologists announced that the blizzard that hit the region is just a foretaste of the dramatic weather that is expected to prevail in the area over the next few days. For this reason, school classes have been canceled and authorities in the region have asked residents to stay indoors as much as possible. Electricity is expected to be interrupted, but the Von Rostov estate is equipped with a power generator to provide electricity to the residents of the house. The dance competition is also likely to have been cancelled, but I am not entirely sure of this. I haven't been able to contact the coach since that fateful Monday. I vaguely remember what happened on Tuesday. Luna, Pyra, Myra and Buck went into town to make possible provisions for the few days of possible isolation. The queues at the grocery stores must have been large, because they only returned to the mansion after being away for many hours. As for Aurelia, she, like me, slept almost the entire day. She was forced to eat breakfast, but she was so full of alcohol that she almost immediately threw up everything she had eaten. Kevin, though he tried to be calm and composed, could hardly contain his anger at me and Aurelia. There was no need to surprise him. We were supposed to look out for each other and not get into any trouble and the party at Roxana's ended with my shoulder wound, black eye and Aurelia's murder hangover. I think Kevin was mad at himself, too. He knew I had no desire to go to this party, but he wanted to forcefully bring me closer to a teenage girl. He also didn't want to come off as unkind to Luna, whom he told that he knew I had already dated her daughter. He was the only one so far who listened to me and Aurelia. He was the only one who took an interest in what had happened that unfortunate Monday.

My mom seeing me reacted the way she has been acting for a long time. At first she was shocked, then she cried and instead of coming to me, hitting me, yelling at me or doing anything with me she chose to cry into Gregory's shoulder. Von Rostov looked at my shoulder wound and black eye, but made no comment. He only said that he was glad that nothing more serious had happened to me.

It is a Wednesday evening. We are all sitting at the table waiting for the appetizer. Yesterday, neither I nor Aurelia were there for dinner. They let us have it, considering that Aurelia continued to vomit and wouldn't get out of bed, and I was sore and tired. I assume the family had to confer about what to do with us now. Should they give us some kind of punishment? Or would they finally want to know what had happened. Everything was about to be revealed as Pyra and Myra were serving the first course. This is ridiculous honestly, we could have talked about this all day today. It would have been enough for someone to come to my room and knock. Nothing of the sort happened. The Von Rostov family preferred to wait until their almost ritualistic dinner.

An "egg yolk tartare" landed on the plate in front of me. The adults at the table poured wine into crystal glasses and the atmosphere was as thick as milk soup. Outside there was a blizzard of snow, which could be heard through the gusts of wind rumbling with incredible force. Today there were only candles burning at the table and numerous pieces of wood burning in the large fireplace. I waited for a comment to finally be made in my direction, or that of a teenage girl. I looked over at Kevin, who literally looked like a whipped dog. I don't know why, maybe he was still feeling unjustly remorseful about what had happened. Apolonia looked as she usually did, unmoving, emotionless, just wanting to savor the treats prepared by Ezekiel. Luna was obviously smoking a cigarette, but she looked at me and at her daughter. It was obvious that she was interested and expected explanations, but she was not the one who wanted to start this topic. The most panicked people seemed to be my mother and Gregory. The moment seemed to last an eternity when my mother finally opened her mouth.

- We need to tell you something. - Said the mother in a breaking voice.

Finally. The word "we must" certainly meant that the household would speak with one voice, as if they had already agreed on a common speech yesterday. Now only I and Aurelia have to listen to the sermon, about our reprehensible behavior and explain what happened. It will be fine, it has to be.