Heath, Casey and Kyle sat at the kitchen table scoffing bowls of cereal.
Brax entered from the corridor and pulled a t-shirt over his head. "Oi, any of you lot see Ad this morning?"
Casey looked up. "Yeah, she went surfing."
"Did she seem alright?"
"Yeah. She seemed fine."
Heath lifted his bowl, tipping the leftover milk into his mouth. He wiped his face. "Why are you worrying so much? Last night put an end on things, eh?"
"It's not just gonna be like that, Heath. But she text me saying she'll do the counselling." He looked to Kyle. "She needs tomorrow arvo of work for it though. Can you sort it?"
He nodded. "Yeah, it's my trial tomorrow but I'll make it work."
The boys shared awkward glances.
Brax took a breath. "Yeah. Righto."
Heath scoffed.
Brax's eyes darted towards him. "What's your problem?"
Heath shrugged. "Nothing, just Marky's been back in town for five minutes and she's done a U-turn. What did I tell you, eh?"
Heath got up from the table, he brushed past Brax and sauntered out the door.
Ada sat watching the waves spill onto the beach. She scrunched her toes into the sand and wrapped her arms around herself.
"You're up early." A voice said behind her.
She turned and looked up, shielding her eyes from the sun to see Jaxson. She nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't get much sleep."
Jaxson sat down beside her.
She turned to him. "I took off pretty abruptly last night. I'm sorry."
"Did you go and see him?" Jaxson asked plainly.
Ada hesitated. "Yeah."
He broke eye contact and stared out to the ocean. "What's going on?"
"Honestly, I have no idea." She swallowed. "But last night I spoke to my family about what happened, properly, for the first time."
Jaxson looked back towards her. His eyes softened.
She rocked gently back and forth. "After Casey's trial, I was so scared about how what I said would affect my brothers, I didn't think about how it would affect me. Now, I feel like I can finally start processing it. Like I'm ready to start dealing with it, moving on."
"That's great, Ad." Jaxson said softly.
She smiled at him.
He scratched his face. "What about Marco?"
Ada deflated. "Listen, okay, there's a lot about Marco you don't understand. But I told you before how he used to take off when we would argue back in Mangrove River?"
Jaxson nodded.
Ada continued, "A few days, here or there, he'd be gone but he always came back and we would move on. I don't know why he left this time and I don't know why he's back."
"Are you gonna try and find out?"
She looked to him. "Are you gonna try and stop me?"
"Do you want me to?"
Ada's gaze lingered on him.
His face was genuine and sincere.
Ada caught her breath. She stood to her feet and wiped the sand off her legs. "I'm sorry, I can't do this right now."
