Jetson Hills (second chance, small town romance)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two
Erica had strange taste in home decor. If one had not properly met the Sloane sisters they'd assume that Erica was the recluse one based primarily on her penchant for oddities. Every square inch of her house was covered in animal skulls, taxidermied animals. There was even a shelf in the kitchen that housed several jars of animal foetuses preserved in a sickly green-yellow liquid. Though for every dead thing that hung on the wall or sat on a shelf there was a plant to balance it out. The whole house looked like a jungle oasis for dead things and it made Nora uneasy right down to her core. Even as she stood outside the simple one-story building Nora could feel the sweat leaking down her palms in uneasy preparation for what lay behind the painted red door.

The second the door opened she was greeted by the giant bulging eyes of a deer. It was a botched taxidermy project Erica had undertaken when she was fifteen and befriended George Gaine - the owner of a rinky-dink taxidermy shop right on the edge of Jetson Hills. Nora remembered how pissed her parents had been when Erica returned at five in the morning with her pride and glory. Nora hid in her room for days after that, the air in the house was too thick with disapproval for her to walk around comfortable. Especially when Erica hung the deer on the wall by the family photos.

Erica's eyes shone bright as she pulled Nora into a hug. Loosely Nora clasped at her sister's back, in an attempt to come across as friendly even though all she wanted to do was bolt. As Erica stepped back, her hands still loosely clasping Nora at her forearms, she glanced down at the large plastic bag that sat limply by Nora's feet.

'That's everything?' Her sister asked, one of her perfectly filled in black brows raising.

Nora nodded and lent down to grab ahold of the bag's knotted handle.

'Eric stole my suitcase.' Nora explained, as though that was why she didn't own more than twenty pieces of clothing, two pairs of shoes and her flimsy sketchbook. Erica shook her head and grabbed Nora by the hand that wasn't holding all her worldly belongings.

'Come with me, I'll take you to your room.' Erica dragged her sister along as her sister dragged the bag along. To an outsider it probably looked like a sad conga line of disappointment.

Much to Nora's pleasure the guest room was completely void of anything dead. Not a single skeletal thing laid beyond the doors of Nora's new hideout and she felt that thought take some pressure off of her shoulders. The room was stark white, the walls, the sheets, the curtains, even the wooden floor had been painted white. Felt like a hospital room and Nora winced at the thought. Hospitals were not her forte.

'I know it's bare, but think of it as a blank canvas that you get to paint and make it your own.' Her sister said as she walked over to pull the curtains open that hung above the bed.

'I probably won't be staying that long.' The second Nora said it she immediately regretted it. Her sister's face dropped as she turned to look at her. Never had Nora thought that Erica looked like their mother until that very moment. All stern lines and eyes that screamed what is wrong with you!? Nora knew that look better than she knew her own face.

'You will. You can't keep running away.' There was a shake to Erica's words that told Nora she was trying not to yell. She was holding herself back and Erica found herself nodding again. At what she didn't know but she just nodded as she stared at her sister.

'Make yourself at home. I'm ordering take-out for lunch.' Her sister walked her and Nora could feel the unbridled tension of anger wafting off of her as she left Nora standing this blank slate of a room. Nora dragged her bag to the edge of the bed before she laid down on top of the thick white quilt. Her body shook but somehow she managed to fall asleep.

—

Nora awoke when her sister threw a pillow at her head. It felt like a brick had slammed into the side of her head. She winced and threw out an arm in a meek attempt at retaliating at her sister. Sadly her arm merely sliced through air.

Erica whacked her hand on Nora's thigh, 'lunch is here!'

Nora cracked one eye open and her sister jerked her head to her bedroom door. Nora was well aware if she stayed here she'd have to undergo more abuse. Eating was probably the smarter option here. Begrudgingly she crawled off of the bed, her head aching.

'What's for lunch?' Nora asked as she trained behind her sister and into the kitchen. She immediately did a one-eight and stared at the front door, placing the jarred foetuses to her back. She didn't need to be reminded of death while eating.

'I got Henry to drop off some food from Uncle Jack's. You still vegan?' Nora could here Erica shuffling about behind her, the sound of container lids popping open and aroma of too strong spice filling the room.

'Yup.' Nora answered, popping the 'p' as she maintained fierce eye contact with the front door's doorknob.

'Then here ya go. All the bad stuff, none of the good stuff.' Nora stared down at the plate her sister thrusted out to her on one hand. It was all potato and limp lettuce. Uncle Jack's was known for it's grilled me and diabetic inducing milkshakes. Not exactly vegan options so Nora was pleasantly surprised that the lettuce was at least green.

'Thanks.' She grabbed the plate and began to pick at it with her fingers. There was a fork sitting on the edge of the plate but it was one of those weird weighted forks and Nora hated that. She'd rather use her fingers and have to wash her hands afterwards than deal with the idiocy of a weighted fork.

Erica came to lean against the doorway in front of Erica, shovelling a minced meat into her mouth. 'Y'know -' another mouthful of food, 'there's are perfectly functioning table right over there.' She used her fork to point to dark oak dining table.

'There's dancing taxidermied rats on it.' Nora shoved a potato in her mouth, trying her best to forget it probably wasn't fried in a vegan friendly way. She needed to eat. She hadn't since yesterday morning and that had just been a cup of coffee.

'They don't bite.' Erica offered, still shovelling food in her mouth.

'I don't like them.' Nora shifted her gaze from her sister and back to the doorknob.

'Mum and dad want you to go over for dinner. It's Friday, family dinner night and all that.' Nora could sense the hesitation in Erica's shoulders. Nora wasn't exactly on speaking terms with her parents, it's not that they didn't talk at all but it took a lot of arm-twisting and pressure to get either side to dial the other's number. Phone calls were nervewracking enough, let alone an in person visit.

'No.' It was such a simple answer and Nora was sure that if Erica had said it it would sound forceful, it would have left room for no arguments. Coming from Nora, who hunched further into her limp meal, it sounded like a two-year old who knew that defeat was the only answer.

'They already started cooking some Nora-friendly food.' Erica supplied and Nora wanted to cry. She could already feel the  tension in the air from here, the unwanted looks, the uncerimous questions that were there to do nothing more than make Nora feel 'otherly'. She loathed it.

'I have a headache.' Nora told her sister, though they both knew that was a lie before Nora even finished the sentence completely.

'They said it;s non-negotiable. Either we go over there or... they come over here.' Deep down Nora already knew that. Jetson Hill was a place where she had no choices, no options. Here she was a push-over. There was no point in arguing when everyone had already unanimously agreed your decisions were wrong and impulsive, bred out of misguided thoughts. Who knew one decision a year ago could have changed her life so much? She wished desperately to go back and redo what had happened, but deep down she was aware that if she was placed back there she'd make the events unfold just as they had previously. Her brain would still have been frozen in a place between 'lovestruck' and 'heartbroken' that her choices wouldn't have deferred much - if at all.

'Who's gonna be there?' Nora asked, chewing on the last one of her chips. Family dinner nights never consisted of just family. They were always filled with their parent's latest town fixation. They befriended and socialised with families like pokemon, collecting them and sitting them at their freshly waxxed dining table to show off their own perfect house, perfect decor and perfect family.

'I don't know. Gonna be as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.' That was a grim thought to Nora. Being blindsided sucked at the worst times, and this was the worst of worse times. Her gut hollowed out with a horrid feeling of dread, living hours in the future with the knowledge of what was to come.