Midsummer Nights

The Arrival

The warm breeze wafted Eveline's face as her family made their trek through the countryside towards Saltburn. She had spent most of her summers at the sprawling estate since she was a girl, befriending the two youngest residents, Felix and Venetia. They were both around her age and she saw them often enough that they had almost felt like siblings to her. Her father, Henry, was a friend of the sibling's father since their university days. Whenever the two missed reminiscing on their long gone uni days, she would be brought along when her father visited, which happened very often. This time the friends had decided that it would be nice to have their two families under the same roof for a few weeks this summer, Eveline had mixed feelings about this trip.
Eveline let the soft summer breeze slip through the rolled down window, curling around her face and mousy blonde hair, caressing her. She sighed to herself and turned her face towards the front of her father's doddering Volvo. Her father is singing along to a tune that reminds him of his youth, while her mother, Cybil, nurses a headache with her hands. Eveline felt like a child again, sitting in the backseat of the car. It seems to her, that at the precipice of her nineteenth birthday, she has to have everything figured out. For now, though, she can just let the breath of wind overtake her, as her worries begin to float away. If only she weren't such a chronic over thinker. That overthinking is part of the reason why she got into Oxford, though, so she might as well be grateful. Her mother turns her head to look at her in the backseat, sensing her unease. "Honey, it's summertime, you need to relax." She begins patting her knee, as if the action will magically bring about some sort of energy into her. "We get to stay at a beautiful, historic estate for a few weeks and you get to actually see Venetia, instead of always staring down at your cell phone, sending her messages with the annoying clicks of your keypad." Eveline rolls her eyes, "I swear mum, you need to get your hearing checked, I think you hear every sound at ten times the decibel of a normal human." Her mother, clearly unimpressed by the joke, turns back around to leave Eveline to her sulking in peace. She was genuinely excited to see Venetia, but that's about it. Eveline would normally group Felix in with Venetia, but this last year at Oxford changed that. She hung out with him at the beginning of the year, but she just couldn't stand his group of friends. Especially Farleigh. "Hey, mum, do you know if Farleigh's gonna be there?" Her mother turned back around to look at Eveline, a mischievous glimmer in her eye, "Why do you ask, do you like him?" Her mother giggles, yes literally giggles, and turns her whole upper body towards the backseat, clearly interested in hearing the details. Eveline let out a partly suppressed laugh and her mum's smile falters. "Mum, no, god no, I do not like him. He definitely is not interested in me either." She raises her eyebrows giving her mother a silent indication that there are zero romantic implications between her and Farleigh. Her mum nods, turns back around, and says, "I think he is going to be there, I mean he's family, even though there's plenty of family drama surrounding him that i'm sure you're not interested in." Eveline nods her head fervently, "Yes, I have no interest in hearing about petty Catton family drama." Her mum turns back towards her, "Why do you care if he's there or not, Eveline?" Eveline lets out a deep sigh, not feeling like explaining to her mother the drama that went down at Oxford this past year, but she indulges her mother's curiosity anyway. "Ok, so, Felix and I would spend lots of time together at the beginning of the school year... that is until he started inviting me to outings with his other friends. His other friends, Farleigh included, were just not the type of people I wanted to be associated with." Her mom gives her a questioning glance, urging her to say more. Eveline hesitates a bit before explaining. "They would just go out partying a lot," she shrugs, "There wasn't a single weekend where you wouldn't find them completely wasted at the King's Arms pub." Eveline explained the extent of it, but she didn't tell her mother the more concerning, incriminating details of their debauchery. She rolls her eyes and says, "They all can afford to throw their education away because they know they'll always have a safety net to fall back on, I don't have that same luxury." Cybil opens her mouth in protest, but her daughter interrupts, "Mum I know you want to just wipe our current financial predicament under the rug, but you can't." Her dad turns down his music and gives his first comment of the drive, "Honey, we're fine, I'll get through this. I just made a few investment mistakes, that's all." He eyes his daughter in the rear view mirror sternly, not wanting her to continue on about their finances. Eveline sighs, "Ok, then, I just didn't want to spend my first year at uni shit-faced the whole time." Her mother scolds her choice of words by loudly uttering, "Language!", towards the back seat. Eveline rolls her eyes, not enjoying feeling like a scolded child. "Anyway, we just grew apart throughout the year and I met my own group of friends," her mum interrupts her with a laugh, "Honey, two people are not a group." Eveline scoffs, "Ok, but they were more than enough for me," she looks out the window while saying, "Felix just acted like a different person almost, I mean he was still his friendly self but something shifted. I mean it would have to for it to make any sense that he would spend his time with those rude, classist people." Eveline looks down and shakes her head, "You know how Felix used to like to go to different vintage shops and scour them for jumpers, he completely stopped doing that, you know. When one of the new girls he hangs out with ridiculed someone's sweater by saying, it quote, "Looks like he got it from Oxfam." Eveline rolls her eyes. "And then she laughed about it, I literally don't think I ever saw him wear one of his old vintage jumpers after that." Cybil looks at her daughter and asks, "Is Felix dating that girl you mentioned?" Eveline laughs a little, "I don't know about dating, but there was definitely something going on between them." Her mom nods and turns her head back to the front of the car, staring out at the long country road.
The rest of the car ride was silent, except for her fathers music drifting out of the speakers. Eveline mostly read the rest of the way there, having trouble focusing on the words of Stephanie Meyer due to her father's music. One of her friends from uni had recommended her to read the Twilight series and, even though Eveline didn't love it, she couldn't deny it was entertaining. She would tell herself that she was hate-reading the series, but she reluctantly couldn't put it down once she started it. Deep inside, Eveline was eagerly awaiting the release of the third installment. Her deep focus on the book was interrupted when her mom excitedly squealed, "We're here!" Her dad smiled while her mom looked awestruck by the property. The hundreds of years old manor loomed ahead, getting closer as they drove down the dirt driveway. "Mum, we've been here so many times, when are you going to stop acting like you've just entered the gates of heaven?" Her mom laughs, "Can you blame me Eveline?" Eveline couldn't disagree that it was gorgeous. She's always had a love for old properties, and the almost 700 year old country estate was no exception. The English Baroque exterior was elaborate and the property surrounding it housed a maze, and a pond that Eveline was particularly fond of. Eveline had spent so much time at the property it was easy to forget that generations of Cattons have lived within its walls for over 250 years. The sheer size of the house made her uneasy.
The old banger carrying the three passengers made its stop once it reached the courtyard in front of the home. The three of them unbuckled their seatbelts and got out of the car. They instantly stretched out their limbs, which were aching from the prolonged sitting position. Henry opened the trunk of the car for the family to begin unloading their belongings. Eveline laughs once she sees her mother's suitcases, the zipped edges of them on the verge of bursting open. "Jesus, mum, you'd think we'd be staying here for a year with the amount of stuff you brought." Her mum uttered a sarcastic, "Ha ha, very funny," in response. In contrast, her dad only had one suitcase to carry, while Eveline herself had brought plenty of things. Still, not as much as her mother. "Mum, I still don't get why you're looking forward to spending a few weeks here, you know you're going to have to socialize with Elspeth for most of it." Eveline laughed to herself. "Eveline, I don't have to actually like someone to be civil with them. A personality trait I should of instilled into you, unfortunately it seems too late now." Eveline's mother tsk-tsked towards her daughter while shaking her head sarcastically. Eveline laughs and the three of them begin walking leisurely to the front door. Henry takes the large knocker in his hands and raps it on the door two times. Only a second passes before the large door frame creaks on its hinges as it opens to reveal Duncan, the Cattons' butler. "Ah, the Crawleys, just as expected. Welcome back to Saltburn." His pale face wrinkles at the force of his smile as he gestures with his hand for Eveline and her family to enter. Eveline sighs as she saunters through the inordinate door, steeling herself in preparation to face the Cattons.