Life's Fear

Chapter Two

"Is something bothering you? You didn't even roll your eyes at that couple making out in the middle of the corridor, and normally that is something you always do," Max exclaimed.

We hadn't even made it to form when Max had already noticed my difference in mood today. In actuality, we'd only made it to her locker, and she had said that just after she slammed it shut. She was never one for discretion or sugar-coating things. Every morning she'd slam her locker in the hopes that it would wake her up more without her morning coffee fixture; her mum had recently decided to go decaf and it was having apocalyptic results on Max. They'd thrown almost everything out that had caffeine in it, except for Max's soda. She put up a strong fight for that apparently, but all I would say is that I can imagine her reaction.

This morning she didn't seem too caffeine-withdrawn.

I'd come equipped for Max's inevitable question. I'd already transferred my photo from my camera to my laptop to my phone before all my siblings decided to barge straight into my room. All five of them. Jesse, the oldest who was still living at home because he couldn't afford his own place quite yet, Kendall (who was in the same predicament as Jesse, though her and her boyfriend were saving up for an apartment downtown together), Yvette, Carmen and Warren. In that age order with me slipping between Kendall and Yvette.

"What you doing, Blair?" Kendall asked me, an ordering edge to her voice. "How long have you been in here for? I didn't see you before when Warren was in the bath."

Warren was messing around with Yvette as he was the only one in his pyjamas. I was astonished he wasn't in bed yet.

"Just outside," I replied nonchalantly, having just hid the photographs from tonight from view of all siblings.

They'd all jump to insanely absurd conclusions, though I bet some of them would be accurate. Vandal, delinquent adolescent, troubled boy etcetera. With Mum working in social services, we'd hear a whole court case against the guy vandalising property that our council – which Dad worked for – prided itself in. There wasn't a speck of graffiti on the bridge... except now.

Kendall eyed my camera plugged into my laptop and nodded unconvincingly. "Sure," she said, taking her eyes off the camera and turning back to Jesse. They were the closest siblings out of everyone, closely followed by Yvette and Carmen.

"Mum will be back from spin class soon so you've got to help out with tucking Warren in," Jesse said, eyes casting around my room.

It was a fairly boring room except for a wall that was utterly plastered in my own photography. I'd attempted to apply everything my photography teacher had said at school to improve our work, but sometimes the photographs wouldn't always make the cut and they ended up on my wall instead of being handed in for an assignment.

"All right," I sighed, locking my laptop and getting up to help Warren into bed, only now just remembering it was my night to do it. It was all I could do to not appear distracted in front of any of them, but I doubted they would have discerned the difference like Max did. I was mainly the one who kept to herself and only congregated with my siblings when they had a tendency to all burst into my room, like then.

"I went back to the bridge like you said," I began, "and I guess I just shouldn't have."

As much as I yearned to confess all to Max and have a weight undoubtedly lifted off my chest, this seemed so private and I wanted to decipher who the guy was on my own. It was only when we turned the corridor in our voyage to form as I was saying, "There were a few drunk guys there," though I had only managed to speak the first few syllables of the fabrication that I recognised the boy headed towards us instantaneously.