Cult

The Shower

<pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal; color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;">Something pierces through me. Guilt? Pleasure?

Fear?

Three different photos of my face fill the screen. I stare at them in shock. Oh my God. I've made national news.

But what's next is worse. Interviews with my parents. I stare. And stare. And stare. 

No interviews with my brothers.

My brothers!

I ring Daniel back. He answers almost instantly.

"You bastard!" I shriek. Ross flinches besides me, probably surprised by my out burst of anger.

"What?" Daniel gasps.

"Why did you let them do that?" I'm shouting. Tears are threatening to make an appearance.

"Alex, you've been gone a month!" he shouts back.

"So? I trusted you to make sure they didn't do something like this! Why didn't you stop them?"

"It wasn't just me!" 

"You're the one on the phone!" I snarl.

"I'll put Pete on the phone then!" Daniel roars.

"Whatever!"

"Alex?" Peter is now on the phone.

"You should have told them that you were keeping contact!" I don't know who to blame.

"You told us not to tell," he says. He's not as quick tempered as Daniel.

"I didn't expect to end up on the news! Why have they waited this long to put it out there? And why is it national?" A lone tear drips off my face.

"Don't cry," Peter coos. How can he tell I'm crying? "They expected you to come back. All the other times you've gone you've come back. We've warned you that they were worried."

"Any parent would be!" I pace around the room. My anger suddenly evaporates. "You have to tell them, you know,"

"What?" he's surprised.

"Now. Go tell Dan or Nick to tell them right now,"

Daniel's voice rises in the background. "Oh, to get us in trouble, too?"

"Shut up, Dan," Peter says.

"I'll go," I hear Nick say.

"Nick's gone," Peter says.

"Good. People will recognize me here and I'm making a living," I've calmed down.

"How?" Peter asks.

I glance at Ross. He's watching me like a hawk.

"I work at a surf shop," I mutter.

"Have you met someone?"

I glance back at Ross. Have I?

"No, not really," I murmur.

"Alex..." he seems to warn.

There's a crash on the other side of the line. I nearly drop my phone.

"Give me that!" my mother shrieks. Oh God.

"ALEXANDRA ROSEMARY LOWE, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" she screams down the phone. I can hear Ross chuckle by the side of me.

"Hi Mom," I say.

"Oh, hello dear," she says. "WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?"

I try to stifle a smile. My mother cracking a joke is a rare occasion.