The Significance of Orange Juice

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“- and just plain irresponsible! How could you be so reckless Isabelle? How could you sleep with a boy like that? He sounded so common… I don’t think you understand the severity of your actions, Isabelle. What if someone else discovered the sort of people that you’d been associating with?” My mother ranted at me, her face turning a disconcerting shade of red. "It could ruin your father's career. And you could kiss goodbye to Oxford. Do you really think that they'd let in someone with such a disreputable past? No. You'll end up working for minimum wage in McDonalds." She continued with a disgusted sneer on her face.

I sat silently fuming. My mother had been yelling at me ever since I'd walked through the door nearly half an hour ago. She hadn't even had the decency to let me explain myself. Not that I should need to explain myself. Eighteen years of good behaviour had been shunted to the side and disregarded the second that Jay's words had left his mouth. She hadn't even considered the possibility that he'd been joking.

After Jay answered the call from my parents, Olivia and Alex had finally turned up again. They were just in time to see me trip over the seat in front of me as I lunged for Jay’s throat so that I sprawled on the floor instead. Once they’d finally calmed down, I’d explained, very calmly, why it was that I needed to kill Jay. However, the bloody traitors had just started laughing again. Eventually, Olivia had calmed down enough to drive me home. I had been hoping that she'd stick around to explain what had really happened. If nothing else, she could be moral support for when it all went wrong but, she'd fled after she'd caught sight of the steam billowing from my mother's ears. And even more unfortunately, she hadn’t taken me with her.

"And to think that a daughter of mine would have sex with -”

"I’m still a virgin!" I yelled in frustration. My mother froze mid-rant and even my father looked up from his newspaper in surprise. He'd spent the past half an hour in silence. Whilst I was grateful that he'd not joined in with my mother's tirade, it wouldn't have hurt for him to stand up for me either.

My mother floundered in silence, unable to think of a suitable response.

"Yeah, didn't think of that did you? No, you both just assumed that your daughter was a slut." I spat at them.

"Isabelle..." my father began.

"Don't. Just - just don't." I whispered. All the fury in me snapped with the sound of my father’s voice. A wave of tiredness washed over me and I swayed slightly.

The silence stretched out uncomfortably as I tried to think of valid reasons to leave the room.

"Well, in any case," my mother began, the barest hint of hesitation in her voice, "Your father and I don't want you hanging around with that boy anymore.”

I closed my eyes. "Fine." I muttered eventually. It wasn't like I wanted to see Jay more than I had to anyway. "I'm heading up to my room."

Once I was in the safety of my room, I sat down and leaned my head against the door with my knees pulled up to my chest.

Today already ranked in my top ten “Worst Days Ever”. It far outstripped the day when I’d tripped head first into a chocolate fountain and it was barely even two in the afternoon. I'd woken up with a killer hangover because some idiot had practically poured alcohol down my throat. I'd had to meet said idiot a second time where he then proceeded to hold my phone hostage. And then my parents had accused me of sleeping around with strangers.

If nothing else, it had certainly been eventful.

My phone vibrated and I pulled it out of my pocket to see that I had just received my sixth text from Olivia. The corners of my mouth twitched up into a faint shadow as I read the most recent message.