"This is what she had become."
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Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
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The rain has reduced to light showers but its well past ten pm when Ethan pulls up in my driveway and I sigh out in relief. Today has been a really long day.
I notice that both my parents' cars are in the driveway and I find this strange because dad was only due back on Monday.
"Your parents are home," Ethan echoes my thoughts from beside me. I nod my head and everything that transpired between mom and I this morning comes flooding back and I swear I can feel a headache coming on because of that.
She's totally going to annihilate me.
"Can you walk me into the house?" I ask him, pulling my lips into my mouth.
"What? Why?"
"Maybe mom won't be so bloodthirsty when she sees you and you can also tell her we spent the day together," I say. Ethan just looks at me blankly for a while but doesn't question my reasoning. He nods and we hop out the car, the light drizzle cascading onto my bare back and joining the fading droplets I had managed to catch when running across the road to the flower shop earlier on.
We run up to the house until we're sheltered by the arch above the French doors. We enter, discovering that the doors were left unlocked.
There's a cacophony of voices coming from somewhere in the living room and I hear the distinct sound of my mother's sobbing upon entering the house, a weight pulling at my chest. Ethan and I look at each other and I swallow in nervous anticipation as we start making our way to where the sounds are coming from.
Upon entering the living room, Ruby jumps up from the farthest chair in the corner of the room and charges towards me with open arms, and this prompts the three adults in the room to look our way.
Ruby only comes up to my hip and so when she hugs me with her short hands, she wraps them around one of my thighs. I would have found it funny had my parents and Ethan's mom not been looking at us like they'd just seen a ghost.
They stand there and stare at me, mom's sobs becoming uncontrollable. I swallow nervously and tuck a lose tendril behind my ear, patting the top of Ruby's head with my other hand.
"Cleopatra Emilia-Rose Banks! Where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried your mother was?" My dad speaks up, his normally calm voice raised a couple octaves.
I don't reply.
Mrs. Rhodes looks at my parents, then at me and then at Ethan, unsure of what to do with herself.
"Well, she's home now. Safe and sound, listen Jeneviève I'll come again in the morning. Ethan and I will be well on our way," she finally turns to my mother, gently patting her on the back.
"Thank you Susan," my father replies on behalf of my mother who can only look at me with utter disappointment in her eyes.
That feeling of inadequacy begins quelling up within me, telling me I can never do anything right.
