Studio 22 | Mary-Kate Olsen

Chapter Twenty-Seven

BLUE'S POV

July 8th 2022 - Brooklyn - Sage and Blue's Apartment

Being told off by your parents is never a fun thing. Not when you're five and you broke something or sassed a parent. And not when you're in your twenties and have been lying to them for weeks. It never gets better, though I thought I had grown past the tellings off, apparently not. Lying for your brother for weeks is something frowned upon by parents and I was now facing the consequences for my actions. I felt the heavy weight of shame pushing in my shoulders as my parents paced up and down the lounge in my apartment. Mum switched between English and Spanish as she spoke, she only did this when she was seething with anger. I couldn't look at either of them. Dad was quieter but that vein on his forehead stood out telling me all I needed to know.

They were waiting for me when I got back from the airport. I saw their car out front and I wanted to bolt back into the cab and ask them to take me anywhere but here. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that because my dad stood at the door with a stern face. "Inside, Now." He took my case for me carrying up the stairs as if it was empty. I carried my folders close to my chest like a protective shield.

I stepped over the threshold of the apartment and my mother erupted in an endless rant, full volume in Spanish and that's the moment I knew I was in big trouble. I have been sitting on the beanbag that we have instead of a sofa since Sage and his friends busted the other one in one of their Monday night parties. I sat listening with my head hung in ignominy. I didn't know where Sage was, I didn't really know what had happened between him and our parents. I just knew my parents knew what was going on here and they weren't happy with either of us.

Mamì was switching between lecturing me for lying and covering for Sage and the state of our apartment. I left the apartment in slightly better condition than it's in currently but I can only imagine what it had been used for whilst I was away for the week. I felt like a little girl again as my parents stood over me, dad's disappointed silence was deafening and I'd rather him yell at me than stand leaning against the wall looking into the obis. I knew why he wasn't saying anything... It wasn't because mum had a handle on the situation or that she wasn't leaving space for him to cut in. It's because when he's this angry and this disappointed in any of us he gets scary. His voice roars and it's enough to make the bravest of people quiver. But the silence was too much. It was worse because I was waiting for him to explode at me.

"Look at me!" My mum demanded but I couldn't, the dismay in her eyes would be too much for me to bear. "Look. At. Me," she said slowly as she pinched my chin forcing me to look up at her. I inhaled sharply, I haven't seen that look in her eyes directed at me before. It was pure anger. A look she reserved for those people that she disliked the most in the world. "You do not lie to me. You could have gotten hurt. He could have hurt you, Sofìa. He could have gotten hurt." She let my chin go when she was sure I would hold eye contact with her. Standing up straight she brushed her hair back. "He could have died! Do you understand that? He could have died and you could have prevented it but you were too busy lying to us! And if he died... If he died." Her voice was trembling telling me she was close to tears or the anger was getting too much for her to contain. She crouched down to my height, taking my chin in her hand when I looked away. I couldn't keep looking at her when she was in such a state. I didn't like knowing I caused this. "If he died it would have been your fault for not doing something." My fault...

She died because of you.

Suddenly there was no air in the room and my lungs were crying for it. I pulled away from her and stood up moving to the open window to try and get some air. She was still talking to me. But I wasn't listening, it had all gone fuzzy. I couldn't decipher her words. It was all moulding together making static in my head. I just needed some air. I grip the window and lean out as much as I can. I took a deep breath in but it felt suffocating, like the oxygen had been switched with a poisonous gas.