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I STOOD AT THE FRONT DOOR OF OUR HOUSE, with Effy standing behind me. Slowly catching up to us was Thomas, our new friend, with Pandora still draped over his shoulder. In truth, between Effy and I, we probably could have carried Pandora home ourselves. But we didn't want to; so we didn't. I unlocked the door, letting Effy lead Thomas to her bedroom upstairs. Thomas carefully protected Pandora's head from the ceiling above the stairs, which was surprisingly sweet. I let them all pass me and instead went to the kitchen to grab Panda a glass of water. I heard some noise upstairs, which I assumed was just Effy and Thomas until I heard a gasp coming from my sister. As I rushed upstairs, water in hand, my eyes fell on the scene in front of us. I stopped in my tracks, in complete shock.
Yes, we had guessed our mother was having an affair, but to see it before us- to see our mum with dad's line manager, was horrifying. Mum stood up, trying not to look guilty, despite only a duvet being wrapped around her naked body. Dad's line manager, who I now remember as Steve, was zipping up his pants, his shirt still unbuttoned to reveal his hairy chest. Jesus Christ. "Girls? What are you doing here?" Mum asked, acting as though everything was normal, which it most definitely was not. "Pandora puked," Effy spoke quietly, clearly upset but keeping her cool. I, however, was not going to let mum off.
"Hello, Steve, lovely to see you again. What have you and my mother been doing today?" He looked to my mum, almost confused before she spoke up instead. "Well... the thing is... we've been working on a project... haven't we, Steve?" Mum nudged him slightly, and he nodded confidently, both of them looking at us like we were stupid. "Oh yeah, brilliant stuff." He smiled, almost smirking at our mother in front of us, which was pretty much the final straw for me. "Are you kidding? You do projects with no clothes now, huh? Come on then, what was the project Mum? How to have an affair, and fuck up your entire family?" My mother gasped in shock, attempting to speak but I continued, "A* for effort Anthea, you've really gone and done it." Mum's face dropped, and even Steve's expression became serious.
"Unbelievable," I muttered, and stormed off, not wanting to hear my mother's sorry excuses and bullshit. I slammed my bedroom door shut, heading straight for my little drug box in my cupboard, putting away almost all of the shit we got today. "Come on, let's have one," Effy spoke from behind me, and I handed her one of my pills, keeping one out for myself too. We both took the pills together, laying down on my bed in unison. I wondered for a moment where Pandora was, and if Thomas was just sitting in our house - a stranger. We were way too trusting at the weirdest of times.
The silence only lasted a moment, before Effy spoke up. "So, what's new?" Effy asked, and I could hear the smile in her voice as I turned to face her. "What do you want Eff?" I knew she was after something, the way she spoke just gave her away. "Why won't you say whose jumper that is? Has my sissy got a boyfriend?" She teased, and I was actually surprised by how interested she was in my serious lack of a love life. It was just a jumper, bloody hell. "Relax, I'm not sleeping with any of your men. It's really not a big deal." She shook her head as I spoke, tutting as she smiled. "You don't have a clue, do you? Even if you didn't fuck anyone, you slept with them. Cuddled, probably. They gave you their jumper. Clearly, they're interested in you and clearly, something is bound to happen, so why not just tell me who the lucky guy is?" She asked again, and I laughed off her comments. She was wrong. "Effy. It's not important. If anything happens, I'll let you know." She sighed, leaning back on my bed, and staring up at the ceiling. I copied her actions, trying to relax, before bringing up a topic I knew would make me laugh.
"What's the deal with you and James?" I asked, and she shoved me slightly, sighing and hiding her face with her hand as if embarrassed. "It's complicated. Well, not really. We fuck. A lot. Everywhere." I cringed as she spoke, completely disgusted as she giggled. My nose crinkled up, almost as if a smelly fart had hit my nose, which would have been better than the thought of Effy and Cook fucking everywhere. Great. "Don't be bitter Rory. Just cause you ain't getting any, doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't. Don't be jealous. I'm sure you could fuck jumper boy." She attempted to change the subject, but I wasn't having it, shoving her playfully as I continued my interrogation. "Do you like him?" I asked, and she shrugged, sitting up and looking down at me. "I don't know. Like? I like the sex. And I guess he's my type. Dangerous. Bad boy-" "Kind of repulsive?" I commented, almost snorting as I giggled at my own joke. She crossed her arms defensively, although a smile was present on her face, and we both began laughing hysterically, almost forgetting for a second about our bullshit family drama. That was, until, Effy brought it up again.
"Are we going to talk to Dad?" Effy asked, and I honestly didn't even know what to say. How could we tell our Dad that his wife, the love of his life, had slept with his manager? That his job, his work, had brought them together. He'd go ballistic. Our Dad, Jim, had the craziest temper, and I don't think he would handle Mum fucking someone else very well. Which was expected. "I have no idea Eff. How can we?" She was silent for a while, clearly at a loss for what to do. "She has to tell him." She spoke up, and I laughed, "As if she would. Come on Eff, Anthea is a coward. She won't own up to that." She smirked down at me, as she stood up. "I know. But she will if we make her." She smiled the typical cunning Stonem smile, before strutting out the door as if her spirits had been lifted by her plan to manipulate our Mum. Jesus my family was messed up.
Effy leaving the room left me in silence, which was often something I would enjoy. On bad days, days like today, the silence would swallow me whole, leaving me with some harsh thoughts. My family was broken, the kind of broken that was beyond repair. And I had no idea what that meant for us. Although it wasn't hard to figure out. Dad would find out, one way or another, and he'd leave. There is no way he'd take us with him. No way. He'd insist he needed time alone, and he'd run off to our grandma's probably, leaving us here with Anthea.
Our mother had been through a lot, it was true, and my Dad wasn't always the most supportive. After Tony's accident a while ago, she was left to take care of him while our Dad was traveling for work. While he was away, seeing the sights of France, Germany, and more, Mum became depressed, abusing pills and laying in bed all day, leaving Effy and me to take care of Tony, as well as the house. It wasn't how I planned on spending my last year of high school, but I wasn't going to let our lives go to shit just because of our parents. No way.
I pushed these thoughts to the back of my mind, not wanting to focus so much on the past, yet it was hard. History seemed to be repeating itself, and once again our parents were fucking us over and fucking us up.
I felt my eyes closing, and after a few attempts at fighting them, I ended up giving in to sleep, letting myself drift off, dreaming of much happier times.
