Family Portrait (Fam Series #1)

171 - Paranoia

Ashleigh -

I wake up with a jump.

Rolling over, I grab my watch off the nightstand as I check the time.

1:27pm.

Nick.

My heart begins pounding as I leap out of the bed and race into the lounge room, looking around for someone. I don't remember how I got to sleep. For sure, something bad is going to be happening. Especially after Nick's funeral.

'Ashleigh?' Charlie asks, from where he sits on the couch with Dylan, who tiredly looks up at me.

'Where's Freyer?' I ask nervously.

'Outside with mum, riding the horses. You okay?' Charlie asks.

'Where's my phone?' I ask, still trying to catch my breath. Charlie points to the TV cabinet.

'Right there on charge where you left it' he says, giving me a look.

I pick up my phone as I quickly scroll through my notifications and texts. The one from Josh Daicos is the most eye catching.

Josh Daics -  hey Ashleigh, don't know if you're up yet but just wondering if Channel 7, Fox Footy and the AFL are also pressuring you into doing paid interviews regarding everything with Devon? They're driving Nicholas insane. We're handling his contact right now, and we are appalled.

I anxiously swallow. People are harassing someone who's died, just for some air time?

I quickly reply.

Ashleigh Sami - what do you mean, they're driving Nick crazy? How?

My hands shake as I bring up google and search his name. No news. No anything. Just speculation that he was one of the missing players and that he's been hospitalised.

I click onto his Wikipedia link as I bring his page up.

Full Name: Nick Daicos
Date of Birth - 3 January 2003 (age 19)
Place of Birth - Victoria

I anxiously scroll as I come to terms that there is no death date or information, because it hasn't happened.

It's just another stupid effect of the constant trauma we've been subjected to. Nick dying and his whole funeral literally going kaboom, while the person I once trusted most holds a gun to my future husband's face.

I nervously swallow as I try to compose myself. I do a bad job of it. My head isn't here. I'm always in a complete panic and walking around on eggshells. We all are. All of us, every day, are just waiting for the next horrific thing to happen. And I know I'm not the only one when I say I feel like I don't deserve the right to be comfortable anymore.

'You okay, Templeton? You're looking rather pale' Charlie says, as Dylan throws one of his building blocks at his father. Charlie looks on proudly. I awkwardly step around them.

'Uh, yeah. I have to, um, make an urgent phone call. I'll, uh...be back' I say, struggling to think of what I'm even saying. I go for the front door.

'Aren't you gonna have breakfast? Mum won't let you leave until you do' he says. I meet his eyes to see a world full of worry and compassion Adeline claimed he once never had.

'Didn't I just say I had to make a call?' I ask, snapping before I even realise what I'm saying and that I'm in a bad mood.

'Well yeah, but I just thought-'

'I'll be back' I say, leaving the house as Charlie gives me an expression that can only be explained as 'good morning to you too, idiot'

I tap his name at the top of our conversation as I press call, putting the phone on loudspeaker as I walk out of the country driveway, still in last night's clothes. I don't know where I'm headed. I look around, extremely worried and, I'd even go as far to say, hypervigilant. I feel like I'm in a constant anxiety attack that never ends. Anything could be a bomb or an explosive. Devon and his team could be hiding anywhere.