Water - Complete

Ilyse

The day out of just studying, eating and napping in the warm summer shade was just what I'd been needing. It wasn't something I realized I needed, but was glad that Keelan had thought about it because I returned home later that afternoon feeling like the happiest person in the world. The day had left me forgetting why I'd been in the bad mood that morning, but the bad mood returned as soon as I closed the passenger and watched Keelan drive down the driveway.

"Where have you been? I've been ringing your cell phone all day and haven't gotten a single response, not even your aunt B knew where you'd gotten to so you've gone some explaining to do!" God, if my sperm donor wasn't standing right there I'd have punched this bimbo in the face and gone back to my aunt B's home.

I had barely been here for 48 hours and the woman who my father had run off with was treating me worse than her own children.

"You're not my goddamn mother so I don't have to tell you anything, keep up the attitude lady and I'll move back where I'm welcome faster than either of you two can blink. What I do during the day and in my own time is my business, not yours and as for my phone...don't you remember? You took it off me last night at hid it, so don't try and get me in trouble. Have you read all my messages yet? Figured out what wayward things I do with my life?" Martin's new wife went pale at the accusation I laid against her, right before bed last night she had stormed into my small room and demanded my phone.

When I hadn't been willing to give it to her she'd wrestled it out of my hands and I hadn't seen it since, now it seemed she hadn't told Martin either as he was staring at her with some amounts of annoyance.

"Laura, what are you doing with my daughters phone. I expect it to be returned by dinner this evening, Ilyse from now on I would appreciate being informed of where you're going. It is not in our nature to let our children run wild at all times of the day and I certainly do not want you alone with boys." Oh my god, I snorted loudly at the ridiculous standards that these two people were trying to put on me.

"Newsflash, I didn't want to come here so I'm not playing by your stupid rules. You want to know where I go during the day? Summer school! You want to know what I do with that guy? None of you f..." I shut my mouth as soon as the cuss word started forming on my lips, Martin and Laura looked about as pleased as a cat with wet feet. When had I gotten so angry? Why did I feel hatred towards these two people?

When Laura tried to say something else, Martin stopped her and asked her to go inside. She did, but not before giving me the dirtiest look her plastic face could manage.

"Hon, take a walk with me." Martin took my backpack off my shoulders and left it next to the front door. He gently grabbed my arm and wound it around his, his grasp wasn't hard but it was firm. So I figured I had no choice in the matter and followed him begrudgingly.

"I know this is hard for you to accept, but I do want you in my life. And it might be harder to accept that Laura wants you here too. I'm just being a concerned parent, I don't know what your teenage life has been like. So when a strange boy shows up on my doorstep and doesn't come into the house to introduce himself I do worry. I don't worry about your but I do worry for you." What was Martin saying? How could he suddenly be so concerned with my wellbeing and my past? Obviously his memory was a little bit foggy if he only worried about my teenage years.

When I tried to wretch my hand away, Martin held firm to it and gave my hand a pat when I stopped struggling. "I know it's hard for you to face your emotions head on, you were always like your mom. Stubborn and quiet, you put everyone elses worries ahead of your own." At first I wanted to deny that, but when we lapsed into silence and strolled around the large ground at the back of the house I realized Martin was sort of right.

"I hate it here, I feel like I'm living under a microscope. I can't even breathe without you and Laura saying that it's to loud or too fast. I don't want either of you two demanding answers from me, because you don't deserve them but also because I'm responsible enough to know what I'm doing. I mentor socially inept kids at school, you know? I help bullies see that what they're doing is wrong...they trialled it at school and realized that peer to peer mentoring was more effective than teacher to student. So I signed up, it'll look good on my college application." Martin was quiet when I finished, he was probably judging me harshly for something I'd said wrong or what I really did with my life.

"If that is the way you feel then Laura and I will stop asking so many questions. I want you to feel comfortable here Ilyse, this is your home as much as it is mine. Did you know I grew up here? This was my great grandfathers property and as a young boy I would run endlessly through the garden mazes and climb trees." Martin's stories still weren't warming me up to him or Laura or even any of their kids, they were all bratty snobs that behaved more arrogantly than Keelan had at the fair that night.

"I don't like it here, it's so...sterile. I can't do half the stuff that I would do at aunt B's, I can't blob out on the sofa and watch Netflix, I can't sit in the kitchen and make a mess on the kitchen table...I can't even leave a pile of books on the floor in my room because they get stacked back on the bookshelf." Okay, maybe I was being petty now. Aunt B never had Netflix, but at least at her place I could laze around on the sofa in my pajamas if I wanted to.

"Would you like a sofa in your room? That way you can laze around and watch Netflix on your laptop. I will also tell the cleaners to leave your room alone, but it's your responsibility then to change the sheets on your bed and put your laundry in the shoot to be washed." It still unnerved me that someone else handled my clothing, at aunt B's place I did all my own washing. As far as I knew here, my washing was done by robots or something.

"Deal, I can do that. But, I don't have a laptop so I don't know what you're talking about." Martin didn't say anything else, he just smiled and we walked off towards the back entrance of the house.

My phone was sitting on the side table just inside the back door, it was kind of creepy how things just magically appeared somewhere. "Alright, I'll leave you alone now. Dinner is at seven tonight so why don't you come down, the kids are always excited to see you." I hadn't gone to dinner last night because I was in shock about everything...it had taken until now for me to kind of feel remotely comfortable here.

"Sure, I'll come down." The introduction to my half siblings had been rushed when I had arrived in the morning, they were all being rushed around by Laura. She ran everything to a tight schedule, so no one could be late I guess.

Going up to my room I stopped at the doorway, the door was open but it was what had been put on my desk that had caught my attention. Not only was there a desktop computer sitting all set up but there was a boxed laptop sitting on the chair too, with a big bow decorating it.

Part of me felt excited, happy and feeling thankful that I finally had a laptop...but another part of me, the bigger part of me was saying 'no.' It wasn't right, people shouldn't just be able to go out to a store and purchase such things when there were other people struggling, not to mention I didn't need two computers to function. I really didn't even need one computer to function, but it would make life so much easier.

When I looked down at my phone, I realized that had been swapped too. It was a new Iphone where my other phone had been a Nokia, I had been so distracted by my thoughts that my brain hadn't registered the different weight and size.

Flicking the phone open, my brain stalled a few moments.

How the heck did anyone use an Iphone anyway? It wasn't like I'd ever had something with a touch screen before, I could always demand my old phone back but it felt like if I did demand it back I'd get laughed at or something.

I just hoped that if anything else was upgraded I was at least told first.

Dropping the phone on my bed I decided to shower before dinner, when I opened the doors to my wardrobe I groaned in frustration but soon after found myself laughing hysterically. Someone had swapped all my old clothes for different clothing, a lot of it I would never wear but there were one or two things in the wardrobe that I might consider wearing.

I figured it was Laura that had done all of this and I was willing to give her a piece of my mind for forcefully changing me.