Secretive - Bucky Barnes

25 || Spring's Day

[Nova]
It is a warm Spring's day, the sun shining brightly on the blue sky while Jonas and I play hide and seek on the huge estate of our parents. It is placed on a hill, far away from civilization, no road leading to our hidden mansion. We sometimes get here for vacation, and however our parents manage it, we, too, can go on a trip when we are still attending school to get taught privately in the destination.

Often, it is just Jonas and I, no other kids around to annoy the adults with. So, my brother and I became close friends, inseparable. What he knows, I know, and what I know, he knows. I cannot understand why someone would fight so much with their siblings, him sometimes being the only one I dare to let in, let close to my mind.

As now and then lately, I hear my parents shouting from the living room. The doors of the terrace are spread wide open, and they probably think we are far gone. So far we would not hear.

»I cannot believe your suggesting this! She is only twelve!« dad shouts, stopping me mid-run.

I have always been curious, so I decide to spy on them. Hiding behind one of the Weigela-bushes that surround the platform atop our garden entirely, and spot my parents standing opposite to each other behind our white coloured counter. Dad fumbles furiously with his hands, and mum has both her fists in her hips. »You can't treat her like your little princess forever. She's going to grow, and she's going to be a goal. You know it. You started with Jonas when he was only ten, rubbed his childhood like this.« She snaps her fingers in front of his face. »I told you to quit the job when we were about to receive him, and now you got us into that mess, and it gets worse. I want you to teach her, for her sake. Plus, did you ever think about her being the next one? Do you want to leave her clueless and all frightened first she discovers it?«

I hear steps behind me, and turn around. Jonas is running from the field towards me. Reaching the spot next to me, he also catches eye of our parents. He seems to understand more quickly what the fuzz is about than me, and holds his hand outstretched in an inviting manner. »Come on, we can go to and watch the horses and feed them.«

»No«, I protest, crossing my arms in front of my chest. »You know that I don't like horses.«

"You're simply afraid of them, because you fell once. That is all." he says annoyed and rolling his eyes, his voice cracking a little due to his late voice breaking. He is almost sixteen, and it is still changing.

The red of his hair seems flaming in the bright sunlight, his green eyes determinedly searching mine. »We could go to the lake and swim, if you rather like that. It's warm enough.«

Though he already grabs my arm to pull me, I jump back, out of his grab as quickly as he got a hold on me. »Shh, I want to hear it.«

»There are some things that aren't meant for your ears, Nova.«

Nova. My second name. He has been the first to get used to call me that, the name some ancestor of mine wore with pride, and by now, I am not called otherwise by anyone. I like it far more than my first.

»Maybe it is these things I need to hear.«

I have always wanted to figure out what it is my dad is doing. I often heard him curse, heard him with friends from work in our cellar playing card games or poker, and sometimes, there would be a huge peng! and a red wine stain on the carpet in the next morning. At least, that is what my parents would tell me.

I do not trust them in this. Mum would be crazy about it for days, desperately washing and polishing and even replacing whatever the room offered as furniture for a week.