The Exchange Student, the Pop Prince and the Raffle Tickets

Chapter Forty-Six: The Family Argument to end all arguments

I had managed to entertain Kevin for a few days; we were getting on really well. He was even making Bindi laugh and Jesse liked him. We even had a lunch together and nothing was awkward about it. I couldn’t believe it; I started to think that I could tell him everything. But that changed pretty quickly.

I was with Kevin, being a tourist, when I got a worrying text from Jesse. He had found Bindi crying in the middle of the sitting room with the diary in front of her. I froze staring at the text message. I placed a hand in my handbag for some reason trying to find the diary that wasn’t there. He had taken her to the only place that might make this all go away, her home. I caught a taxi without even consulting Kevin, giving him some money and my keys to the apartment. Kevin shouted he wanted to come with but I was already inside the cab leaving my boyfriend in the middle of the pavement as I waved goodbye from him.

I arrived in no time. When I rushed through the doors, sweating worried and feeling sick, I saw her looked up at me those light brown eyes crumbled and distraught. They were all in the dining room sitting around quiet and sad. She just about spoke a sentence to me crying that she didn’t blame me for keeping the diary from her, she wasn’t crying about that. She was crying because those pages still haunted her, it all felt so real still. Those pages exposed everything she was feeling, what she was going through and sitting there it had all come back as painful as before. So she asked me a simple question.

“Why did you bring me back to America when you knew exactly how I felt? These pages show everything yet you still bring me back to the place that I hate.”

I was still standing in the doorway, frozen into place. This sight of her was heart breaking for me. To witness the sight in front of me was tearing at my very core because I did know what she was feeling, what she had gone through, I had felt it all myself reading the pages. But I found my answer.

“Because it was bad that you just left with a note that revealed nothing… I didn’t think it was right that you just left them.” I always sort of knew the family weren’t very close, there had been warning signs – not that I really paid any attention to it but I knew now that I had a lot of respect for that family despite of everything that had happened.

“I know first-hand that you shouldn’t just flee…” I muttered not wanting to look at the family or Jesse who was guiding me to sit beside him.

“When did I ever fly or flee anywhere?” Bindi shouted at me. “I stayed! I stayed when Pheobe died, endured the concert and the nights out for you and school I hated even more when Grey appeared. You can’t say that I didn’t put on a brave face!” I wanted to protest but I couldn’t. “Eden, you leaving was the last straw. I had tried to be happy for ages and when you left, I saw how it messed up everything, Eli called me names, threatened me and yet my parents didn’t say anything about it. When he rushed out of the house and didn’t return until he came back completely drunk. Or the fact that I wouldn’t leave my own room for hours at a time...”

Sarah or Joseph didn’t have a clue what anyone was talking about but as I looked at the two I got the feeling that they were catching up fast. Sarah was holding a shaky hand over her mouth to stop crying. Joseph’s face had turned pale. Bindi stood up searching for cigarettes but thought better of it.

“Being here is making me smoke fags, making me think and it’s getting me so angry at everyone because I can’t do anything about it… and do you what’s worse? All this thinking has made me think that the only person I never really blamed was you.’ My jaw practically dropped to the floor. ‘It takes two to tango! But I never blamed you… You agreed to keep it; you agreed to sleep with your so called best friend’s brother. You didn't tell me when I was supposed to be your best friend. Why would you even... With Eli!?”