Who I am

Chapter 5

Fiona’s POV

I hear him laugh but he doesn’t think I notice as he offers me his clothes. I don’t really know how I got into this situation, it’s pretty odd. I step through a unfamiliar doorway and his Mother is suddenly all over me and now we’re having dinner together, I thought this would be an in, out, one stop kind of thing. I’m not complaining. It’s not like my Dad will be in for another couple of hours because he’s away on a business trip again.

I hear a noise above me and my eyes adjust, seeing him towering over me impatiently. Standing up, I pull at my dress; I knew I should have worn something better to school today. He eyes me up suspiciously and I smile, trying to calm him and myself.

“Are you coming or not?” he asks in an impatient tone.

I roll my eyes at him as I stand up, following him as he leads me through the door and up the stairs. I notice a few things about his house. How small it is and the many family portraits and pictures that hang all the way up the staircase wall, I smile to myself, it’s a rare event that me and my family would even sit down, never mind for long enough to have a picture painted.

“Are you and your family close?” I wonder out loud, signalling towards the pictures on the wall.

He raises an eyebrow, seeming to be caught off guard. “Sorta,” he begins, “Not that close but we get together every so often and talk, guess you can see for yourself.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

A familiar silence is restored between us as I continue to follow him, he stops, a bit too abruptly and I have to force myself to stop before bumping into him. With one swift motion, he pushes the door open and lets it swing, revealing the upheaval which is his bedroom.

“You don’t clean your room often?” I smirk.

“Unlike you I don’t have people to do it for me.”

I smile, brushing off his last comment and leaving him without the satisfaction of lashing out over it. He doesn’t know anything about me so there’s no need to get angry at him right now. I’ll at least try and be civil even if he’s incapable of it. “I see, so where are these clothes?” I ask as my eyes begin to wander around the room, settling on the wardrobe.

“Over there,” He signals. “Help yourself.”

I’m about to say something else but before I can, he turns away and walks out of the room. Great, just great, there is nothing better than being in the home of someone who hates you, looking through their personal belongings. I guess I’ll just have to make the best of the situation.

Opening the wardrobe, I behold another mass of things, spilling out and clattering to the floor around me loudly. To my amazement it stops after a few seconds and I finally manage to look inside, my eyes scanning the contents, looking for anything that might be wearable for a girl my age. Reaching inside, I grab the first thing I see, a red and white checked shirt and bring it, holding it against myself, I nod my head, satisfied that it will be okay to wear. I soon realise that there seems to be nothing that will go on my legs or around that area considering I’m a girl and he’s... a boy. Sighing, I keep looking, flicking through piles of weird and wonderful clothing, finally pulling out a pair of his PE shorts, examining the pinstripe pattern that’s barely visible I decide they’ll have to do. The last thing I need shows itself easily, a plain white vest. Remembering how skinny he is, I know that it’ll probably fit me.

Closing the wardrobe as best I can, I make my way back out of the room, heading through the door; I come to a temporary halt. Where is the bathroom again? Did he tell me in the first place? Hell, I don’t know. I decide quickly to just walk into the first door I see and coincidentally it’s the one straight across the hallway.

It appears that I have located the bathroom, a tiny bathroom at that. Grimacing to myself in the tiny box room, I slide the lock on the door and begin pulling the dress over my head, finding it caught under the wiring of my bra, I feel a bit suffocated. How has this never happened before? Moving an inch, I fall backwards, clattering into a bunch of things that line the edge of the sink. Blindly scrambling around, I move back, the back of my knees hitting against the side of the bath tub. Finally I manage to pull the dress over my head, throwing it down on the floor with frustration I sit against the side of the tub, hot and bothered from all the unusual effort. I already feel like I should go home.

Someone knocks on the door and I freeze. Oh, just great. “Are you okay?” calls a female voice that definitely isn’t his Mother. Not quite knowing what to do, I nod. Only now do I realise that there’s a door between us.

“I’m fine... thanks.” I quickly slide the shorts on over my tights and throw the vest on before putting on the checked shirt and leaving it unbuttoned.

Finally coming downstairs, I walk through into the living area that we were in before. Connor stands there, arms crossed; his eyes look me up and down. An expression halfway between satisfaction and confusion crosses his face before he even considers speaking. I wonder if I should say something first but decide against it, knowing he’s on the verge of saying something.

“You look like a normal person” he laughs sarcastically.

“I am a normal person Connor.”

He shrugs my comment off. “Could’ve fooled me princess.”

I shake my head annoyed and make my way over to the dining room doorway, which he remains standing in, staring at me. Slowly he moves to the side, allowing me to pass and we both make our way over to the dining table, taking a seat beside each other. The sound of his Mother in the kitchen is all I hear before he starts drumming his fingertips on the table in a more than irritating tune.

“Could you stop that?” I say sharply.

He looks up at me, his blue eyes narrowing. “Sure.”

A silence reaffirms itself, only broken by his Mother bursting back through the door, wielding two hot plates of food. “Dinner is served” she announces, placing the plates down in front of me and Connor. Before I can say anything she waltzes away back through the door into the kitchen.

“Enjoy.”