broken // branded sequel // heathers au

two

Elody's POV

Auden's game was a bore. I never understood football or cheerleading honestly, despite her cheering since we were six years old. The only semi-interesting thing was seeing the conversation spark between my parents. My mother was actually smiling. But not just smiling, she was laughing.

All this did was make me upset, but I kept observing it. I kept watching as he gently touched her arm and how, after a while, they just sat together and simply watched my sister cheer her goddamn heart out. Though my limited knowledge of cheerleading is slim, I know one thing - Auden is a flyer.

We're both stick skinny and tall. Flyers are the lightest girls on the team, usually. She went up into a trick that I didn't know the name of but it looked impressive and just as the other cheerleaders caught her, my dad surprised me.

"Go Auden!" He yelled loudly, clapping as everyone else did and standing up delightedly. I think I was the only one who could make out how red Auden's face was for the rest of the game.

When she came up to us, her NorthFace zipped up all the way to her chin and her hair still high in its perky ponytail, she smiled at us. Once again, my father surprised me and hugged her tightly.

"You were great!" He told her, sounding quite proud. While Auden started to point out where she messed up, she was still smiling. That's when I realized that Auden wants our father's love just as much as I do. We were basically deprived of it, except for the last Saturday of every month, so now we crave it.

But I can't let my guard down. If I do that, I'll be the next Giselle. My mother tells me that I remind her of Giselle. She's always claimed that I look more like her than Auden does. Which is true. She says the thing that makes me and Giselle so similar is how we inherited the writing gene from her. She always goes back on this and says that Auden's perky forwardness reminds her of Giselle. That's what our mother does, she looks for the tiniest remnants of her dead daughter in her living ones.

We got into the car and my father started talking about how he needed to stop at stores and such. He had already taken his coat back and because of this, I was freezing at the game. The funny thing? He took it back to give it to my mother. He only put it back on once we got to the car.

Even in the car, I was cold because all the windows were cracked so that my parents could smoke. Auden handed me her hoodie, which was actually mine.

"I've been looking for this." I told her. It was a plain grey hoodie but I could tell it was mine. The wrists were worn and had holes along the hem. It was one of my favorite hoodies.

"Sorry, you let me borrow it and it's been in my bag." She replied. It's true, I did let her borrow it. But I can't even remember what it was for.

"It's fine. Thanks for giving it back now." I tell her, squeezing her hand slightly. I wasn't even listening to my parents because honestly, I had no desire to.

Eventually a song started to play through the speakers of our car. Auden and I groaned as our father turned it up. "They're playing our song, baby!" He laughed to my mother.

"I can't stand this song." Mom told him. But judging by the look on his face, he already knew this. Auden and I looked at one another, shaking our heads slightly as we popped in our headphones to ignore their stupid argument. I could hear Auden's music playing softly. I didn't start mine, I put them in so my parents would think I wasn't listening.

My father's low voice spoke up. "I was just teasing you, my love." He told my mother, touching her chin gently. I don't know why his low voice made me feel so anxious, making the pain in my chest get worse.