Inside | Shane Harte

18 | Like a sister to me

I wake up and open my eyes with an eager smile. The sun shines bright through the huge window, leaving clear, orange/yellow sun rays to color the floor and walls.

My plans for today is to travel into town to find a job. I've been thinking and the best way to not be in the way for the Harte family, is to get a job on the weekends as soon as possible. Okay, that just sounded weird. Sorry about that.

I make myself up from bed, no matter how much I want to stay, to get dressed. The clothes I prepared yesterday are laying on a chair beside the bed. It's a simple but still classy outfit, to impress the store owners when I ask them for a job.

When I'm dressed and ready to go downstairs, loud noises of chairs getting thrown everywhere downstairs stop me in my tracks. I stay above the stairs to listen to what's happening.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP" Shane yells, and it almost feels like my chest vibrates by the loud shouting.

"Shane, take it easy. Don't-" Stefan starts, but Shane interrupts him in the middle of a sentence.

"YOU'RE THE MOST SELFISH SON OF A BITCH THAT I'VE EVER MET IN MY ENTIRE LIFE" he rowls and suddenly I hear hard steps walking up the stairs. Shane appears, taking two steps at a time, and when he notices me his eyes follow me. He doesn't say a word, he just follows me with his gaze all the way up until he simply walks past me.

I look behind me and he rushes all the way to the end of the hallway. He then makes a left turn and walks into the room next to mine, smashing the door after himself. Great, so our rooms are as close as they could possible be to each other. I WONDER if this was Cora's intention...?

After the door to his room is harshly closed, it leaves a complete silence. I slowly make my way down the stairs to meet the face of Stefan, standing right in front of me. Isabel and Cora is sitting by the table eating breakfast with numb facial expressions.

"I'm truly sorry you got to hear that" Stefan apologies, sighs and puts a hand on his forehead. He looks quite exhausted, probably from fighting with Shane all day long.

"It's okay" I try to smile a little, making sure that he doesn't feel bad or anything.

"Isabel made some breakfast" he says and gestures to Cora and Isabel sitting by the table, and I nod. He then walks to the hall, grabs his coat and bag before walking out the front door.

When I approach the table they just look tired but calm as always, but I can still sense a slight tension in the air. I sit down on one of the chairs.

"Do they fight often?" I ask, looking at both of them.

"Yeah, almost every day" Cora sighs.

"I feel really bad for you, it must be hard living in such an atmosphere"

"You get used to it. It's hard sometimes but you've just got to learn how to move past it" Isabel smiles her usual polite smile. I clear my throat, not wanting them to say more than they want to. It's obvious that this is something they're not proud of.

"So I was thinking to travel into town today to look for a job"

"Oh, really? I don't want you to feel forced or anything-" Isabel starts but I interrupt her.

"No... It's not that. I just want to have an income to eventually buy my own apartment. I don't want to feel like I just get everything served on a silver plate, that's all. Besides, I only want to work on the weekends" I smile.

"Okay, if that's what you want" Isabel smiles back and I turn to Cora.

"Do you wanna come with me?"

"Yeah, sure" she answers and I smile while standing up.

"Aren't you gonna eat some breakfast first?" Isabel asks.

"Oh, right" I grin and grab a box of cereals and some milk.

"So, how do we get there?" Cora asks, and I don't really know what to say. I haven't figured that part out yet.

"You can take my car"

All of us turn to the stairs where Shane is standing with his hands in his pockets. He doesn't look mad at all, compared to how he looked like a few minutes ago, but he doesn't look happy either.

"Oh, are you sure? I wouldn't want to-"

"Yes, I'm sure" he fake smiles and walks out to the living room. I'm just about to ask him about the keys but they suddenly fly out from the living room, slide across the floor and stop right at the front door.

The ride to the city is really fun, me and Cora is just having the time of our lives listening to classical mixed with rock music. Really weird combination, but I like it.

"So, what's going on between you and Shane?" Cora suddenly asks, and my eyes widen while I turn down the music.

"What do you mean? Nothing's going on"

"Pfft, oh please" she snorts and I start laughing.

"What? NOTHING is going on, I swear"

"Yeah? I'm sure he would say otherwise" she smirks. "I've never seen him be so... Kind and generous against other people"

"Okay, but he's probably just feeling himself or something. I don't know" I shrug and she laughs.

"Are you kidding? Everytime he and dad fight you're lucky if he even shows himself outside of his room in the next 24 hours"

Wow. I mean, not because I think that I have anything to do with his sudden change but that sounds pretty weird if you ask me. Nope, it's probably just a strange coincidence.

"Still don't believe you. Just a coincidence" I smile and she sighs.

"Whatever"

I think it's really nice though, how we've become so close during those 3 weeks that we've known each other. She's practically like the sister I never had.