We Who Are Jaded

Chapter Eleven

It was a ferocious pounding on the front door that had graciously awakened me this time - at least I knew it wasn't Beth, she would have just strolled in. The thud that echoed around the seemingly empty flat should have perhaps been cause for alarm, but the logical part of me knew that if it was Devon or any other Red - like Beth - they wouldn't have had the courtesy to knock.

I rolled over and glanced at the clock on my phone.

Half past eleven was a ridiculous, I was practically sleeping my summer away.

Despite the persistent knocking I lay back onto my bed, feeling as though I was forgetting something, something of unshakable importance. Perplexed but still so easily distracted, I glanced at the curtains idly flapping in the morning breeze.

The window was open? The window was never open.

Then it came to me; Tom had been here. But surely it had had to have been a dream. Tom couldn't have been in my room last night; it wasn't possible, though I could still smell the alcohol that had clung to him.

He must have been here.

The savage knocking on the door still filled the flat with increasing booms. I sighed, Ross, Mum and Jackson must have gone out again, leaving me without though it seemed.

Perhaps it was social services and I was being rescued.

The kitchen, as I walked past it, left no clues as to the whereabouts of my family and there was no note tacked to any surface as far as I knew. Mum must've been really peeved if I wasn't even worth a scribble on a sticky note.

The only testament to my family's disappearance was the bare coat hook Ross's coat usually hung on and the empty space where Jackson and my mum's shoes usually sat. All that was left was a pair of my worn trainers looking miserable and lonely.

Not surprised by this I went sleepily across the hall and opened the door and peered through. I should maybe have been cautious, the visitor had sounded angry but common sense was not my forte.

Before I could even see who it was I was knocked back into the wall. Kieran streaked in, rage in his eyes.

What the hell was all this about?

Unamused as Kieran turned to face me I swaggered towards him, hands on hips. He was about to say something when I raised a single finger to his lips, shot him a grumpy look and marched back to my room.

"Hey don't walk away from me Christine!" he shouted. I rolled my eyes and slammed my bedroom door in his face. "Hey-hey!" Kieran pushed the door back, stunned from having it in his face in the first place, and confronted me. Unfortunately for him I'd already buried myself beneath the covers.

"Go away and come back when I'm feeling more sociable and you have unknotted the pants you seem to have gotten in a twist," I instructed. He paced my room, making his frustrations known in his primal grunts.

"Come on Christine get out of there," Kieran ordered.

"Why don't you get out, this is my house!" I wasn't sure whether what I was saying was muffled or not but I was too tired to care. I wasn't ready to get up just yet so unless the sky was falling I was too tired to care.

"Don't make me come and get you."

"Oh I'm so scared. Why don't you bite me Indigo boy?" I now was sure I could hear his foot tapping impatiently on my floor. I bit my lip and my eyes roamed the darkness of the underworld of my duvet.

I blinked and then he was there, beside me. His eyes searched mine, full of thunder storms, full of worry and something else something I couldn't quite put my finger on.