Speaking In Silence [Book 2]

10

It wasn't my fault this time, was it? I mean, I didn't want this to happen. I didn't expect her to be in town this early in the year. Usually she just visited in late September, so I didn't understand. She walked right in and sat on my couch while I was sleeping, like she owned the place (which she did).

My mother, Darcey Eva Marston. Parent of two children, and proud co-owner of the Marston manor. She was the working parent in the family, being a partner of a law firm. She made enough for my father to be unemployed and leech off her money.
She was a very direct person and never took no for an answer, that's what made her so intimidating. Last time she visited early, it was because she didn't like whoever I was seeing so she forced us to break things off. It was scary.

"Blaine, honey, I missed you" I jumped when I walked into the living room. The last thing I wanted right now was my mother. Things were going good but my gut told me that was about to change.

"Hi mom... what are you doing here?"

"Well don't be so surprised to see me, I am your mother" she took a couple steps closer to me and led me into an awkward hug.

"Yeah I know, it's just last time you surprised me, it wasn't fun"

"Let's settle down dear and make some coffee, then we'll have a little chat"

It was way too early in the morning for my mother's bullshit. Eight a.m. and she was up running around. The commute from the manor was at least an hour if not more, so she left pretty early.
I made us both a coffee and we settled down onto the sofa. The smile on her face did not match the fire in her eyes. She was mad. Her fingers tapped one after the other on her thigh.

"I'd like to discuss your grades"

Shit. I had just started going back to classes again so all of my marks were down.

"Yeah" I let my eyes drop to my feet.

"You're failing, and if you don't start passing, you are going to move back home to live with me and your father" her tone now was significantly less cordial than before.

"I can't move back home, you know that"

"Then you better start studying"

-

Studying was hard. I started with economics, then finance to start. I only had a few weeks left of the semester to get at least a passing grade, but the only way to do that was by getting high grades on my exams.
I kept drawing a blank every time I looked at my textbooks, I never learned any of that stuff. Which meant I had to teach myself. It wouldn't be an easy job, but I refused to move back home. The second I did, everything would get much, much worse for me.

I tried for a little longer, then gave up. I called Chloe and ask her to help me. That way we could spend some time together while I work on school. She wouldn't even have to know anything about the subjects, she just needed to quiz me.

I went ahead and called her over the phone, hoping it was a good time.

"Hello?"

"Hey, are you free?"

"I get off work at four, why?"

"Can you come over and help me with something?"

"Uh, sure, I'll bring takeout"

"You're amazing, thank you!"
I strayed away from telling her it was studying. Hopefully she didn't care. Now I just had quite a few hours to kill by myself before she came over. That time would definitely not be spend studying.

I decided to clean since academics weren't exactly working on my own. However cleaning was another feat. Last time, I just cleared the space a little bit but it still felt cluttered.
I began with the bedroom and worked my way to the kitchen, doing dishes and actually putting them away.
It was pretty boring so I played music to entertain me. I didn't listen very often, but it was helpful. My taste was actually shit compared to most. It was a little back roads so not a lot of people knew about the artists.

As I cleared the kitchen, I found some old photographs in a junk drawer. The one on top was a photo of me and my sister in our old backyard. We were all dressed up for something, I couldn't quite remember what. Mavis's hair was pulled back with two pink bows that sat right behind her ears, while mine seemed to be stuck to my head. The longer I looked, the more I remembered. That was the day I broke her arm. I'd pushed her down a hill when she stole something from my room. My parents were so mad at me that they sent me to my grandparents for an entire week as punishment. It was quite the chilling experience.

The rest of the photographs were similar to that one, except in the last one, we stood next to the Flinn children. At that point I was probably ten. I looked at Killian, and it made my mood drop. He would have only been fourteen, but you could tell, in his eyes, how he felt. Even though he was dressed up with the rest of us, his eyes were green.

The rest of the Flinn children were properly smiling with their eyes. Natasha looked so pretty with that grin plastered across her face. I knew it was fake. Nobody likes posing for those photos but everyone smiles.