Faking It • Queen FanFiction

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 34

The next afternoon, Sunday, Flo still wasn't home and Bernie was getting progressively worried. Where had her sister gotten to? If she was going to June's, wouldn't she have given Bernie at least a phone call's notice beforehand, like she promised she would? It had gotten to three o'clock in the afternoon by the time Bernie had had enough and rang the care home that Flo worked at.

"Hi, this is Bernadette, Florence Maxwell's younger sister. Just a quick queary, was she at work today?" Bernie twirled the phone cord around her index finger as she spoke, anticipating the answer to be yes.

"Ah, hello Bernadette, let me check the sign out sheet and see when Florence left," there was a period of vocal silence where only the shuffling of papers could be heard. "Her shift ended at eight o'clock yesterday morning." Dread trickled through Bernie's body. What? She didn't have June's number, nor did she know where she lived, so how was she going to find out where Flo was now? Flo knew that Bernie didn't have any way of contacting June.

"Okay. Thank you for your help."

"May I ask why? Has something happened to her?"

Bernie paused for a moment. Should she tell the truth? For her sister's safety, she decided it'd be best to make the care home aware of the situation. "I'm not sure. She hasn't been home in about three days now."

"Oh. I'm sure she'll turn up soon, I'll trace your number and let you know if she comes to work, she has another shift early on Wednesday."

"Thank you so much! I'm sure you'll see her at work then. Have a nice day." The conversation ended and Bernie put the phone down, hoping that what she had told the receptionist would turn out to be true.

The rest of Sunday flew by, as did Monday and Tuesday. By this time, she was an hour away from phoning the police. It had been a solid five days, why wasn't Florence home? Had she forgotten that she had a sister and a place to live? Bernie could hardly concentrate at college and was sent home early by Mr Bletch as her anxiety was through the roof.

On Tuesday evening, whilst Bernie was sat in front of a bowl of pasta with cheese, which was all she had the mental energy to cook, her eyes screwed up and her food went out of focus. Something hot prickled at her eyes and before long a wet trail was gliding down her burning cheeks. This was worse than anything Holden could do to her. Her sister could be anywhere right now, beings as she hadn't communicated at all. And where would Bernie look? She didn't even have a car. With this thought in mind, Bernie shoved her bowl to one side and arose from her seat, making a beeline for the phone to file a missing person report to the police. Soon she'd be one of them and would be solving this kind of thing for herself.

Tears still streaming freely, the lock on the front door clicked and in came Flo, looking chirpy and decidedly more refreshed than she usually did. By this time, Bernie had already dialled 999 and was being put through to the police. "I'll call you back..."she said mindlessly to the officer at the sight of her sister, slamming the phone back onto the receiver so hard it sounded like something broke. But, at that moment, she couldn't give a damn and her tears of despair frazzled instantly on her flaming cheeks. Pure rage fizzled through her and she charged through to the door, where Flo was kicking off her shoes.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN!?" She boomed, a thousand times louder than she intended her words to be. Perhaps some spittle came from her mouth, she didn't know. Boiling blood bubbled through her body and her hands balled into tight fists, puncturing her palms with her nails. Instinctively, Flo took a step back, bumping into the front door with her arms at her sides, as if to surrender to her sister.

"Bernie, calm down, what's going on?"

"You've been gone for five fucking days and not bothered to tell your carefree, innocent baby sister is what the hell is going on, Florence." Still with her hands in tight little fists, Bernie dug her knuckles into her hips, caging Flo into a corner. It was evident that she had picked up being called by her full name, Bernie never did anything of the sort.

"I-" Flo began, but no words left her mouth.

"Well?"

"I...I was safe...I was at June's..." She tried to explain, but she only made things worse.

"Oh, goodie! I'm so glad you were safe having the time of your life at your dear girlfriend's house, whilst I've been stuck here sobbing like a child because you're so careless you can't even remember you have a fucking sister when you're with June. Congrats on finding love and all that shit, but I exist too and if you can't have both of those running at once then fuck off out of here." Giving Flo no more time to speak, Bernie took two steps backwards before turning around and slamming her bedroom door so hard the entire flat wobbled. That was the second time in the same month that she had shut herself in her bedroom after an argument, but this time she felt she had a good reason.

Never, not once, in the entirety of their time here had Bernie and Flo had a proper argument. Of course they'd had sibling-ly bickers over things like milk and hot water usage, but things had never gotten to this point, not even when they were kids. The worst of it was, Bernie knew she wasn't just speaking empty words. Of course a lot of the angst had come from the heat of the moment, but the basis of what she had said was true. If Flo was going to continually blank out Bernie in exchange for June, then Bernie would much rather live without her sister as her roommate. Handling Holden would be harder, but it'd be preferable to the previous five days she'd just had.

For the rest of the evening, Bernie remained undisrupted in her room, dinner entirely abandoned on the table. Maybe Flo had cleaned it up. Or not. Either way, Bernie was past caring. And that night, she collapsed into her sheets and fell straight to sleep. All that worry, tears and rage had really tired her out. She couldn't wait until Brian came home.

7/1/23 - first week of 2023, hope it's been good so far!