Missing Pieces (Sebastian Vettel)

4. Cast Out

September 2007

Ella took a bite from her slice of toast, chewed it and swallowed. She picked up her glass of orange juice and took a sip, then looked around as she heard someone enter the kitchen.

"Christ, you look rough as fuck. Hangover?" she asked Grace as her sister filled a glass up with water and downed half of it in one.

"I fucking wish. If it was I'd just pop a few pills and I'd be alright again. I've been puking the last few days, which you'd know if you were ever here."

Ella rolled her eyes. It was true that she'd been absent from the house a lot lately, intentionally. Things between her and Grace had been strained to say the least since Fuerteventura, so when she'd not been at college she'd spent most of her free time either at the stables or at Nicole's house.

As usual her parents hadn't cared, or even seemed to notice her absence. They were too wrapped up in their own careers. That was nothing new, it had been the same all of her life. Her mother was a criminal lawyer, her father a heart surgeon, so were rarely home. They'd had a live in nanny until Ella had turned twelve, but after that they'd been expected to fend for themselves.

Grace sat down on the opposite side of the table to Ella.

"Have you still not forgiven me?" she asked. Ella shrugged and took another bite of toast. "Ella, come on. I promise you, he's not worth us falling out over. You didn't miss out on much."

"There you go again, rubbing it in that you slept with him."

"Oh for fucks sake. Give it a rest will you?" Grace snapped. 

"You just couldn't help yourself could you? When I got Mulan you had a tantrum so Mum and Dad bought you Beau, and then you never bothered with him, and then sold him. You had to have a better phone, a bigger bed. You always have to have what I have, or better."

"Ella stop being such a whinger. Just suck it up. Why shouldn't I have the things you have.  They're willing to buy us things to make up for the fact that they're never here, who am I to refuse?And it's not as if you're short of male attention is it? You had a boyfriend at the time anyway."

"A cheating one! I'd already decided to dump him."

"Yeah well, what's done is done. I've said I'm sorry, I can't do anything else."

Ella popped her last piece of toast into her mouth. She knew she'd end up forgiving Grace. After all she was the only person in the house that she even halfway liked. Besides their paternal grandparents and their parents she was the only family she had.

"Are you doing anything today?" she asked, making an effort.

"Not if I feel like this all day. I've been puking on and off since five this morning."

Ella sighed. A suspicion had entered her mind.

"Grace," she began. "When was your last period?" She watched as what colour Grace had drained from her face.

"About a week before we went on holiday. Shit. Fuck. Bollucks. You reckon I could be pregnant?"

Ella thought it was a possibility. They'd been back from holiday for three weeks now, which meant Grace's period was two weeks late.

"Grace, go back to bed. I only have morning lessons. Once I'm done I'll pop and get you a test on the way home," she said.

"Thanks." They sat in silence for a minute before Ella stood up. She carried her plate and glass over to the dishwasher and put them into it.