Before You Go | A Prequel

2.10 | The Visit

"MY TWO OTHER BOYS, Caspar and Augustus, their rooms are up here. They enjoy having the attic as their own little domain, although I would not go in their bathroom. Seems they've made a game out of who can aim furthest from the bowl...,"

Nico rolled his eyes at the caboose of the tour. He followed the rest of them up the narrow corridor leading up to the attic, the final floor. He would be glad when this was all over. As stressful as the day had been, listening to his mother schmooze and crack jokes had proved even more agonizing than when she'd interrogated him at the table earlier.

"And your sons— sorry, your other sons," the social worker corrected herself, "where did you say they were?"

"Ah yes, Caspar, the older one, he's walking a friend home. He's at that age, where y'know, just hitting puberty, start liking girls, so I'm trying to give him a bit more uh, freedom. Let him be more independent, you know. He's a young man?"

Nico's ears were burning. He was the one lecturing Cas and Gus on peeing everywhere but the toilet, and HE was the one giving Cas more freedom and independence and teaching him to be a man. He was also the one buying the tampons and razors for Claudia, comforting Gus when he had a nightmare, and changing the sheets when Ellie wet the bed. It was him. He was doing all of the work and his mother was taking all of the credit.

But it wasn't just that which was getting under his skin. Her answers to all of the social worker's questions— her perfect, casual, well-rounded answers only proved to Nico that the woman could be a good parent if she wanted to— clearly, she knew how. She just didn't care.

"And Augustus, that's the baby, uh he and Audrielle, they're seventeen minutes apart,"

"I got to be first!" bragged Ellie, much to their guests' obvious charm.

"Yes, you did," Viktoria smiled at her as they walked up to Gus' door. The back of her knuckles rapped a soft knock, and she turned to whisper at the social worker, "he's got a little touch of the sniffles, so I'll just check in very quickly."

Hands in his pockets, Nico's eyes rolled before landing on Claudia, who leaned against the wall looking equally disgusted at their mother's display of mothering.

"Gus?" she said sweetly as she opened his door. She walked inside and took a seat at the sleeping boy's bedside. A gentle hand pretended to feel the boy's forehead for a fever, but when he opened his eyes, he screamed.

Nico and Claudia nearly fell out over one another, they laughed so hard. Joseph and Rasheeda glanced back at them confused, and Nico coughed to try and gather himself but to no avail.

"Move," he tried to sputter at Claudia, who was wheezing, her hand clutched heart on, "Shh, go, c'mon!" he choked. There were almost tears in his eyes as he pushed her around the corner.

He glanced in the room for only a millisecond, and the absolutely petrified look on Gus' face as their mother moved closer to him was enough to send Nico into another round of stitches.

-"Aww, noo! Did Mama scare you? I'm sor-rryy!"

Claudia fell into the wall as she gasped, "Did you see his—," her palm circled her face and Nico struggled to nod. His abdomen was in a knot, and he sighed as he leaned against the opposite wall, "Oh my God," he wheezed, panting as they both recovered from their hysterics, but bursting into new fits of laughter each time they managed to calm down. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Leena as she rounded the corner. She examined some tiny item in the light— the glint of its golden wrapper sparked as she passed the sunbeam which glared through the attic window.