Fortify

Chapter Two

  [Small edit: the banner is Millie, played by Gemma Arterton; still writing her story, so stay tuned for that!]

 "Hel-loooooo?"

At the sound of my aunt's voice, my head snapped up. We were watching TV in the living room and I was more or less falling asleep to it.

"Ox has made a Bundt cake!" Millie announced.

Uncle Leo's name was actually Henry Leonardo Oxley, which was why my aunt always referred to him as Ox. But here, he was Leo Andrews, since he couldn't take his name to the future with him—it was a precaution.

"Amelia, you don't have to yell," her husband scolded, but his tone was affectionate.

"Where the hell is everyone?" she wondered aloud. "Hello? We were invited this time, come on!"

With a laugh, I said, "We're all snoozing in the living room, Aunt Mills!"

They came around the corner, my aunt's hands on her hips indignantly. "This is some greeting!" She flipped her brown braid over her shoulder and huffed.

Beside her, Leo was hiding a laugh. He was insanely tall and towered over my aunt, who shared the Andrews women's short height.

"Lord, Amelia, you get bigger every time I see you," my mother said, coming in from the kitchen and wiping her hands on a dish rag. "Sorry, I was washing dishes, I didn't even hear you. Although with your loud mouth, I don't know how I missed it."

Millie poked her sister's cheek. "Gee I wonder. And you should know better than to remark on a pregnant woman's size. It's unbecoming of you."

My aunt was thirty-five and seven months pregnant with hers and Leo's second child. Their first was nearly seven now, and nowhere to be seen I noticed.

"Where's Huck?" I asked.

Aunt Millie rolled her eyes. "He wanted to go stay the night with his friend Thomas, so he left right after church. I told him you were home and probably wanted to see him, but he wouldn't listen! Speaking of young ones, where is Zachy?"

"He's at a movie with friends," my mom answered. "I guess they're both getting too old to just be content staying at home." She pointedly fixed her gaze on me.

I resisted the urge to groan. If she ever wondered why my visits home were getting shorter and shorter, well...this was definitely why.

"Oof," Aunt Millie muttered. "It just got super cold in here!"

Uncle Leo looked at her with a bit of concern. "You're cold? That's unusual. You're normally burning up."

She smiled warmly up at him. "Darling, I'm being sarcastic."

Despite being here for over a decade, Leo still had trouble picking up cues like sarcasm.

"Amelia, can you give me a hand?" my mom asked. To us, she said, "Food's nearly ready."

As she disappeared back into the kitchen, my aunt shot me a sympathetic look. "Hang in there," she whispered.

I waved her off, but I appreciated the sentiment. If Mom kept on being so aggressive, I was going to be gone by morning. This was getting exhausting. Because she couldn't take her anger out on Josie, she took everything out on me. It didn't matter how understanding I was of her anger.

Before dinner, I decided to write a letter to Josie. I didn't do it a lot because I just talked to her in person. But sometimes I had to get my frustrations down in the moment so she'd know, and I wouldn't chicken out when I actually was face to face with her.