"We fought an uphill battle. One we had no hope of winning."
~~~
Felicity-Flick as most call her-Carter, has learned a thing or two in her 12 years of life. How to deal with drunk parents without waking the neighbors, how to smoke a cigarette withou...
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"It was like she suddenly remembered she was supposed to hate us," Jules said to Emmett and Emil while he thought I wasn't listening. I leaned back against the door frame to the kitchen, taking in his words in between the noise of dishes clattering as the three of them set the table for dinner.
Christmas dinner, to be specific. The first one I would have in years. It was made exceptionally clear by Emil when we got home from the market that I was expected to come to dinner and 'behave myself' as he put it. I rolled my eyes, flipped him off, and reminded him that he wasn't my parent but he just pursed his lips and repeated his instructions on how I was to act tonight. He seemed to be in a shitty mood. Not that I blamed him for it. I would be in a shitty mood if I was up all night fighting with Mom. I usually was anyway.
"I don't know, man, it was like a switch flipped in her brain and she went right back to the way she's been acting."
"She'll come around, J." Emil's pacifistic voice floated around the corner, filling ears. I wasn't sure why I was hiding from them. I was never one for eavesdropping. I never had much reason to be. Usually, I was the one in control. I was the one with the information and the conversations. And now, I wasn't. Maybe that's why I was listening in. So I could feel like I had some control.
"Yeah, but when? I mean, I agree she needs time, but she's changed so much. She's not the same little girl we left behind." That girl left the day you did too, I was tempted to say in response to Emmett. But I didn't. I just slid further down the wall and stayed silent.
"Yes, she is. She's the same girl, Em. Just hidden behind a wall of anger." I could hear the quiet desperation behind Emil's words. Like he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was them. "We just have to be patient with her. If there's one thing that we can agree on, it's that Flick has always been a difficult kid. She'll come around in her own time." Emil, always the voice of reason. And always so fucking cocky too. I heard Emmett scoff a little.
"I hope you're right, Emil. Because I'm getting sick of this shit with her." I decided then was as good a time as any to make my presence known.
"What, sick of me already?" I asked, pinning my oldest brother with a heated glare. They all jumped a little at my sudden appearance.
"How long have you been listening?" Jules asked, his surprised expression quickly turning into one of anger and embarrassment. "If you're gonna talk about someone, a two-bedroom apartment might not be the best place to do it," I grumbled, my gaze burning into all three of them individually.
"We weren't saying anything we didn't want you to hear, Flick." Emil seemed to be the least deterred by my obvious eavesdropping, but that wasn't surprising. Emil was always the most levelheaded of the boys.
"I was. I didn't know she was there," Jules crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me, but I just rolled my eyes and walked past him and walked over to the fridge, bending down and grabbing another bottle of Gatorade.
