Neptune and Cassidy

Chapter 4- Cassidy

As soon as Neptune leaves, I collapse on the sofa and switch on Tipping Point. It's halfway through the show already, meaning it's half past four. The random, useless stuff I know surprises me sometimes. 

Aiden had shown Neptune every single skin he'd ever bought on Fortnite, apparently. Neptune had said he'd never heard of the game, and obviously my brother had thought that deserved a capital punishment, so he'd sat Neptune down and talked through all the skins, weapons, controls and game modes. I'd smiled apologetically when he left, and told Aiden not to be so obsessive towards strangers in the future. Still, Neptune didn't seem to mind, and if he did then he didn't show it.

As I'd suspected, Maeve didn't really care about having an unsolicited guest in the house. She's had her boyfriend over so many times that she doesn't care if I or Aiden let friends in, as long as they're out by the time Ma and Dad are at home and they don't make a mess. That's usually why I invite my friends over when it's just Maeve looking after us, because unlike our parents she never questions anything. She's too chilled out for that.

I stare absent-mindedly at the TV. Some woman from Bath, Elisa, just won three hundred quid's worth of something or other as a bonus prize. Good for her, I suppose. A fellow South West girl. I've been to Bath a few times, mainly for the Christmas market, and to be honest I've never seen the appeal. Just a load of Roman baths and an abbey that the dimwits who picked History for their GCSE had to study about in Year 10.

My mind wanders back to Neptune somehow. Quite an unusual name. Roman God of the sea, originally named Poseidon by the Ancient Greeks. Name of the farthest planet in our solar system, too. The name reminds me of a deep, oceanic blue. Sort of like my eyes, I suppose. Blue is just a really nice colour for me; it's calm, but it can also symbolise sadness. A colour for a variety of moods.

I find myself trying to remember what colour Neptune's eyes were. I'm quite surprised I've already forgotten that detail- or maybe I just haven't been observant enough. My brain wants to say hazel, but that doesn't sound quite right. Maybe they're true to his name and they're blue, too? But even then, that would have stood out right off the bat. 

Why am I even thinking about this? Shaking my head to clear it, I grab the remote and flick through channels. Elisa just lost the third round and I can't be bothered to watch Tipping Point anymore- I forgot how repetitive and boring it gets. I land on a rerun of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and leave it there. Gordon- "Our Gorday", as my parents call him- is one of my favourite celebrity chefs, mainly because of how much he swears at people. "Unfiltered", Maeve often points out. "He don't take nonsense from anyone."

As I watch Gordon have a temper tantrum about some Italian restaurant's undercooked burgers, Maeve enters the room and sits on the armchair next to the sofa, looking at something on her phone. "Alright?"

"Yeah," I reply. "Bit tired to be honest."

She nods. "Yep, know the feeling." She types something, then frowns. "Wossa five letter word that has "h" at the start and "te" at the end?"

"Oh my God, not another bloody Wordle," I groan. "You're addicted to that thing, I swear."

"Well, ark at ee," Maeve snaps. "You're always playing that Cross the Road wassit."

"Crossy Road? 'Aven't played that in weeks," I scoff. "Anyway, try 'haste', maybe?"

Maeve types "haste" into her phone and grins. "Wow, well done, me."

I smack her wrist. "Uhh, excuse me?!"

She laughs. "Come on, y'know I'm joking," she smiles. "I'm your big sis, I've got to annoy you sometimes, innit, like?"

"I suppose." I lean back again with a small huff. "Sometimes I wonder who's worse, you or Aiden."

"Nah, Aiden's going to be a hell of a lot worse when he gets older," Maeve says. "As soon as he has his first voice break, it's going to get on my bloody nerves!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot that's going to happen one day," I moan. "Ugh, I hope they invent muting voices by next year."

I realise that, as my mind wanders back to Neptune again, I might need a thought muter, too. Damn brain won't give me a rest. As Maeve giggles and gets up to go to the toilet, I hold my face in my hands and sigh into my palms, feeling my hot breath condense on my chin.