for June

15b. Less than Ordinary

In the evening, instead of going home, he knocked on a different door. An orange door he'd helped paint a few years back. It didn't open until the thrice knock.

Jo stood there, pale-faced and red-eyed, sniffling into used tissue and looking like she hadn't showered in days.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" He walked in, barely kissing her cheek. "You sick or something? Don't get any on me."

"Geez, thanks, Chad, I'm fine, Chad. Thanks for asking," she grumbled, not making a move to close the door. "If you're gonna be this sour, leave. I'm not in the mood for your drama."

"Oh, ouch!" Chad took one quick look at her and then the dark house. "Where's Tom?"

"How the hell should I know?" She slammed the door loud as Chad moved into the house, turning lights on as he went. "Do you mind? I like the dark."

Chad ignored his sister and continued on until he reached the kitchen. Jo followed him, turning off the lights as she did. He ignored her, filled the kettle and put it to boil.

"You're not gonna ask what happened?"

"Don't need to," he replied. "You broke up with Tom and from the looks of it, it's been about two, three days."

"Four days."

"Even worse. Go take a long shower, and I'll do something about dinner. You reek."

"He left me, by the way," she grumbled, turning her tail and sulking to her room.

Chad hadn't expected to hear Tom was the one who broke it off. From what he'd seen a few months ago, the two were inseparable and very much in love. In Jo's life, a lot usually happened in a small period as opposed to his. Jo fell in love and out of it easily, while he struggled to keep the one relationship he had ever managed. Three years, all gone.

He raided Jo's fridge for something to cook. Here they were, almost thirty-four, with broken hearts and footprints of several failed relationships trailing behind them like confetti. In Jo's case, this trail was longer than his, a lot longer than his. Chad didn't fall in love easily. He kept all his romanticism for his books and their characters. Love wasn't for him, and if it was, he usually fell hard, as with Setal. Jo, however, regularly and swiftly fell in love, but as the magic weaned, and the magic always weaned, she'd freak and bail, before it became a 'forever' thing. Jo was averse to a 'forever' thing.

"You've got that face again." Jo, freshly showered, and hair hanging like a sheet of silk, slithered onto a stool on the other side of the benchtop.

"What face?" he asked, continuing to chop the bits of random vegetables he'd found at the bottom of her crisper. "I'm making soup. You got any fresh bread?"

"I haven't been to the shops." She pulled the chopping board from him. "Drop in some pasta or something and pour us wine. I need wine."

Chad did as he was told, sliding a glass of Moscato towards her and watched as she methodically chopped veggies as finely as she could. "So, why did you break up?"

The knife stopped chopping and hovered ominously over the carrot. "He did, remember. It wasn't me this time."

"What did you do?"

"Why do you assume it was me, that I must have done something?"

"With our history and track record?" He threw her a look. "You say it yourself that when things really get going, you freak out. Did you freak out this time too? Tom was a wonderful man, Jo."

Jo sniffled. "I don't think so."

"Then why did he do it? Last time I saw you two, you were doing so well."