Look Me in the Eyes (and tell me that it's me) [Zhongchili]

Chapter 3 - One Day

Ajax enters the street where his family's apartment is located, the familiar lines of beaten up cars parked along each side welcoming him. Today, one has died in the middle of the road, its corpse abandoned by its owner and watched over from each side of the street by rows of trees which refuse to bloom even this late into the season. It leans flat-tyred into one of the potholes that the city council claims it has no money to fix, despite the extravagant party its members held the week prior to celebrate some high-up's twentieth anniversary in office.

Framed by two walls of dull brick apartment blocks, Ajax's street is much like any other residential street in Snezhnaya.

The affordable parts of Snezhnaya, anyway.

He enters his building and climbs the ten sets of concrete steps to his floor, the stench of ammonia stinging his nostrils. The smell originates from a nearby discarded bottle of fire-water shattered against the wall, confirming that the resident from floor six very thoughtfully pissed in the stairwell again.

However, once he reaches the door to his family's apartment, all that is forgotten. As he turns the key in the door, the far more welcome scent of Mother's cooking greets him—meaty and slightly herbal—and his stomach growls for the zharkoye bubbling softly in the kitchen.

"I'm home!" he calls as he steps into the hallway and pulls off his trainers, lining them up beside Teucer's school shoes, and Mother sticks her head out of the kitchen, a wooden spoon in hand.

"Ajax!" A warm smile fills her face, her cheeks bright red from the heat of the kitchen, like two shiny apples. "Just in time, too. I'll be done in twenty minutes or so. Good day?"

"Yeah. The kids were pretty high energy after the holidays, but nothing Yoimiya and I couldn't handle," replies Ajax, opting not to fill her in on his encounter at the secondary school.

"That's good to hear. Oh, and before I forget to tell you, Anthon is at a friend's tonight, so he won't be back until later, but your father's late shift was cancelled, so he should be back by dinner. If he has one of his headaches when he gets home—" There's a clang from within the kitchen and she glances back inside. "Oh dear, let me just grab this..."

Ajax nods, suppressing a frown as his mother darts back into the kitchen brandishing her spoon, and starts down the hallway toward the bedroom he shares with Anthon and Teucer.

Father's shift got cancelled again? That makes it the fourth one in the past fortnight. This is getting ridiculous. At this rate it's barely worth the fuel for him to drive there and back each day. How are they going to afford clothes the next time Teucer, Anthon, or Tonia get one of their growth spurts? Teucer and Anthon can make do with the hand-me-downs, but Tonia can hardly wear his old things.

When he started university, he'd wanted to get a job to help, but his parents insisted that they could cope, that he should focus on his studies, and that as long as he graduated with a bright future set for himself, they could make do with darning a few extra socks for a couple more years.

Maybe he should be more grateful for this office job Father keeps pressing him about. It's stable, and he'll have enough money to ensure that his siblings will want for nothing. It's only a shame that he'll have to sacrifice his soul to the monotony of corporate drudgery in the process.

"Ajax!"

Ajax stops and turns to see Tonia's head poking out of her room opposite the kitchen.

"How was your first day back?" she asks, wiping at the mascara-smudged corner of her eye. She's at the age where she's starting to take an interest in make-up and boys, experimenting with Mother's eyeliner and mascara and hiking her skirts a few inches shorter than the school dress code allows but not short enough for the teachers to make a fuss.