Drea is standing in a kitchen with a knife in her hand. The house does not seem familiar and neither does Drea. She looks old. Older than when her father died. She cuts the lettuce for the salad she is making.
“Mom! Where’s Connor?” says an adorable girl who is just entering the kitchen. She does not look like Drea. It seems like she has taken after her father.
“Is he not in his room?” asks Drea while eating some of lettuce.
“He is not.” She comes closer to the opposite corner of the kitchen shelf and sits on it. “Is someone coming over dinner?”
“Yeah, your dad.” Drea says it casually but this doesn’t seem casual to her daughter at all.
“What do you mean? You guys just had a fight last week?”
“Families fight and then come back together.”
“It was not just a fight.”
“It’s between him and me and we sorted.......”
“You can’t sort that out now. Can you?”
“We will have to; for our family.”
“You can not. He is not your husband.”
“But he is your father.”
“And is that enough?”
“What do you mean by that?” Drea turns her face towards her daughter as if she can sense a taunt in her statement.
“Nothing mom. You won’t understand.” She says and leaves the kitchen.
“What are you trying to say?” Drea continues, “Don’t you dare walking away on me like that. Alex! Alexis!” Alex doesn’t seem to be bothered by her mother and walks away to her room.
Drea pace towards the staircase. As soon as she reach it, the door bell rings. She stops then hold her face in her hands for five seconds then walk towards the door.
After grabbing the doorknob to open the door she stops for another five seconds, changes her face expressions to normal and then opens the door.
“Umm hi mom. What’s up?” says a 15 years old boy. He is exact copy of Drea.
“Connor! What the hell? Where were you?” Drea is mad again. Not as much as she was at Alex. She always knew how to deal with two things and the same time without one situation affecting the decision of other.
“Group study mom.” Connor enters the house.
“The frequency of these group study sessions has increased over the past few months. Would you mind shedding some light on that?” It was Drea’s way of scolding her kids. Some taunt, some anger but still a room for friendly assurance of safe space.
“What can I say on this.”
“You know what.”
“Ahh. It won’t happen again.” He says it as if he has said that a lot many times till now.
“It better not. Now go change your clothes, your dad is coming over for dinner.”
“What’s in dinner?” Connor didn’t seem to be bothered by his father coming over as Alex did. Maybe it was his way of dealing things and it has become a normal to him.
“You’ll find out. Go on now.” Say Drea and goes back to the kitchen.
Connor runs upstairs by walking up to stair steps at a time.
.............................
Four of them are sitting on the dinner table and eating like a normal family.
“How was your day at school bud?” the father asks to make the silence less awkward.
“It was fine. Usual.” Connor replies.
“And how’s soccer practice?”
“It’s the same too.” Connor seems to be interested in talking to his dad but he fails to understand what to say other than what he is already saying.
“What about you Alex? How’s your music coming along? Made any new songs?” He tries to make conversation with his daughter who seem less interested than Connor.
“Not getting time to do that. Past week’s been busy.” says Alex.
“What’s keeping you busy?”
“Studies and...” Alex leaves her sentence incomplete.
“And?”
“Nothing.”
“Honey, you know you can talk to me. Are you okay?” he seems worried.
Drea is listening to the whole conversation and very well knows where this is going. She is just looking for the right time to jump in.
“She is fine Andrew. Your food is getting cold.” Drea finally jumps in.
“Yeah I am fine Andrew. You eat your food and pretend everything is fucking normal.” Alex is not having it anymore.
“Watch your tone Alexis!” Drea’s face turns red.
“I WILL NOT! I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE.” She yells at Drea with all her might then pushes her chair back and goes to her room.
“I am sorry. She is just upset.” Drea says to Andrew.
“Don’t be, it’s understandable. I should go.” Andrew replies.
Connor remains seated on his chair. He doesn’t eat but stays on the table until his father leaves. Once Andrew leaves, Drea goes to her room and closes the door. Just then Connor realises that there is no use of sitting there anymore, so he stands up, puts his plate in the sink and goes upstairs.
Alex is lying on her bed, with her face forced inside her pillow and her pillow cover is almost soaked in her tears. Someone knocks at her door. She does not reply.
“Are you okay Alex?” it’s Connor.
“No.” Alexis sits up and raises her both hands for a hug. Connor gets the hint and goes in for a hug.
“How are you okay?” asks Alex while still hugging.
“Why should I not be?” Connor replies.
“Because whatever has happened, none of that is even close to okay.”
“They are my mom and dad and I can’t change them”
“But.”
“Just stop expecting Alex and it’ll hurt less.”
“They are my parents. Out of all the people in this world I should expect from them.” Alex releases the hug and looks at Connor.
“Well suit yourself.”
“How can you not expect?”
“Because that ship has sailed.”
“Why’d you say that?”
“Leave it. Don’t make this about me. That’s the last thing I want right now.”
“Tell me.”
“Because Alex, I don’t play soccer.”
“Oh.”
“And the fact that my father doesn’t know that didn’t hurt me. The part that hurt me was that you didn’t know that either and that is fine by me.” There is no complain in Connor’s voice. He says it straight-forwardly and no disappointment of sorrow can be sensed from the way he is talking.
“I am sorry.” Alex seem worried about her brother. She might not be the best sister of the world but she loves her brother.
“Don’t be.”
“I love you more than anything. And you can expect from me. I won’t hurt you ever again.”
“I know.” Connor replies.
Both of them talks about random things from the childhood the whole night until Alex falls asleep. Connor then goes to his room turns off the lights and goes to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Into The Fire
Teen FictionWe spend our lives complaining about things that we don't have and don't even think about what we have. And as soon as we lose that we realise that we had so much more than we had thought we couldn't get. Andrea like all teenager doesn't like thing...
