George and Nicole Harper had never had an easy life. From one set of divorced parents to another, these half siblings have had it tough.
Ever since their mother, Naomi, split from George's father and forced them to move from England back to her hom...
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Nick's hair was plastered against her face in a wet mess after the search party. The sun was just poking up from above the line of trees as she reached home. Her jacket was soaked through and a heavy burden on her shoulders. The wet fabric only made her shiver now in the brisk morning air. Her head was hung as she trudged back home. She had one arm wrapped around the other. Nick flicked her head up as she reached the side of the house, sending limp tendrils of her sopping wet hair flying, spraying water across her face. Nick sighed and rolled her eyes as she reached her bedroom window. It wasn't the only open window. George's window was wide open. He hadn't come back yet.
Nick hopped up to sit on her open window ledge and swung her legs over. She sat on the edge of her window for a while, dripping water onto the carpet of her bedroom. It had been useless. They hadn't found Will, of course they hadn't. The chances of him being found by random strangers in the woods were...well they were low.
She swirled through the window and dropped down onto her bedroom fall. She hesitated, dripping water onto the floor and staring at her pitiful appearance in her small wall mirror. Her hair stuck to her face and what little makeup she wore had all run down her face. She threw her jacket onto the floor and added all her other wet clothes to that pile. Her alarm clock read 2:45, she had time for a nap to rest before a long, gruelling day of school. Hopefully by that time, George would have found his way home.
By the time her alarm sounded at 6:30, Nick didn't feel any more rested than when she'd trudged solemnly home at almost 3 in the morning. Her hair had dried against her pillow and now stuck up in all kinds of crazy directions. She ran her hands through her hair, looking at it spring back up in her mirror. Nick huffed and headed for the shower.
On her way down the corridor, she heard pained groaning from her mum's bedroom. The door was ajar and made Nick linger in the corridor. Through the crack in the door, she could see her mum, laid spread across the bed, flat on her front. She was still wearing yesterday's clothes and an empty bottle of gin lay toppled over on her nightstand. Nick sighed, her eyes widened and glistened with a sad sort of regret, not for her, but for her mother, who had never had the life she wanted. Naomi had Nick too young and she'd lost out on her chance to be a normal kid. But she'd clung onto her dream and reverted back to her teenage years and all it had done was ruin her children's lives. All Nick wanted to do at this point was to break the cycle and give George a proper childhood. Not one where he had to sneak out of the house to search for his missing friend. Nick poked her head around his door but only saw his open window and empty bed.
Out of instinct, Nick made two lots of breakfast after she'd jumped out of the shower. She placed one plate of toast at George's spot on the breakfast table. It was like living with a ghost without George there. Nick almost dropped her plate when she heard the last thing she expected. She heard, and saw, the real ghost in that house.
"Jesus, Nicole." Naomi grumbled, walking groggily out her bedroom and into the kitchen. She was still wearing yesterday's clothes and couldn't walking in a straight line still. "You don't have to be so loud in the morning." She said, almost whispering. Nick rolled her eyes and quickly snatched up the toast of George's plate.
"Where's your brother?" She asked after downing a glass of water with two aspirins. Naomi didn't even look up at her.
"George," Nick stressed, reminding her mum what her son was called incase she'd forgotten, "He's, erm...waiting in the car. He wanted to get to school early." She fumbled, making up some excuse and hoping Naomi didn't look out the window and see her empty car.
Nick snatched a tupperware box off the draining board and crammed the toast inside. She stuffed it in her school bag, all before her mum had summoned the strength to move her head more than an inch.
Next on her list to cover up George's 'disappearance', Nick darted into his room, grabbed is back and promptly chucked it into the boot of her car. She didn't hesitate to call goodbye to her mum before speeding off to school.
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