Intrepid » n.h. au

Chapter 51

"You know, mum, there's no need for this, you should be at work and we're kinda tired so-"

"Nonsense, I'm not letting you go without talking to you at least for a little bit. Greg, be a darling and check if Theo is alright, I heard him crying on my way down."

I sigh as my brother nods firmly, leaving the room within three seconds- first a six-seven hour flight and now this. "Congratulations, by the way, you've already managed to make your nephew cry."

"Well it's not like I did it on purpose."

As we sit at the dining table, she seems to forget about everything that we'd said up until then; mum is just sitting there, watching us with a fond look on her face- well, it's fond when she's looking at me. And a little more stiff when her eyes are on Freya.

"Mum I'm serious, you need to go to work-"

"Do you seriously think I didn't take a day off for my son coming home?" She says, quickly, her voice a pitch higher than usual; why didn't I expect something like this? "I'm on call today so I might have to leave for an hour or two, but other than that, I'm here the whole day."

Well isn't that just fantastic. "Now tell me about you guys, how was your flight? Freya, did you manage to get a seat next to Niall?"

"No, I was behind her," I cut in, probably a little too fast, nodding my head casually; on the other side of the table my mother has her brows raised at me, and next to me Freya's hands are making their way up to cover her face. "What? I really was sitting behind her."

"Right," Mum says sharply, even though I can tell she's fighting back a smile. "Well, nice to have someone around here to remind us of Bobby. Speaking of him, when are you going to the cemetery?"

"Uh..." Well, this conversation just took a sharp turn. And I hate how she's mastered the skill of sounding so content when talking about my dad's current residence, while I'm still cringing at the thought of the graveyard being the only place I can visit him at. And the cringing hasn't stopped for four years. "One of these days, dunno. I'm here for over a week, right?"

"You know, if you're not too tired now, we could go in an hour or so-"

"I just got off a plane from the US, what makes you think I'm not tired enough to go to the ceme-"

"Well I was just thinking, since you're quite a few days late, you should get it done as quickly as possib-"

"One of these days, mum," I repeat, almost angry- no, I shouldn't even be almost angry, I should be furious. I'm gone for a year and she just forgets how much I hate going there. "Let me... get used to being here again first."

"Alright," She says meekly, clearly putting effort into not getting angry with me too. I can't blame her either, given that she still lives in the house he used to live in, I know what a burden it is to get used to him not living in it anymore. I personally felt like I was set free when I moved to Chicago. "I can tell you're too tired, anyway, you're usually not this cranky for no reason. Couldn't you sleep on the plane?"

"No, it was too cold," I mumble, scratching the top of my head, "Some genius turned on the air conditioning, I mean can you believe it, air conditioning in April."

"Okay, well- are you feeling sick?"

"Nah, I'm fine. I'll just... have a cup of tea later and I'll be fine."

"Okay." There it is. That fond look on her face. I don't know whether to look forward to it or be scared of it anymore. "How's school going? What's your average going to be?"

"Around nine, dunno."

"That's great, sweetheart! What about you, Freya, are you majoring in anything?"