Carvings

Chapter 2 ✪

*Eight years later*

"Elise! If you don't wake up right now then God help me!" bellowed Ms Simpson from downstairs. The teen just turned her body, resorting to her default fetal position, savouring the last minutes of seductive sleep she had. Soon icy cold water was poured all over her head and drastically soaked her bed. She pounced out of bed like an alarmed cat, shivering and wiping her drenched face, and saw her brother grinning at her while holding an empty mug. His eyes widened amusingly at the list of very creative swear words that rolled off his sister's tongue.

"Mum's order. I had to follow it," he explained with a careless shrug before quickly dashing down the stairs to escape his sister's wrath. Elise slammed her bedroom door with an ear-splitting thud and stripped off her wet PJ's that clung to her skin annoyingly like glue, and dressed clumsily into her navy school uniform. She stared at the bland clothing she was compelled to wear five days a week. Wrapping her dark blonde hair with a towel Elise trudged down into the kitchen with her school bag thrown over one shoulder.

"About time," her mum muttered while passing her a bowl of cereal. The cornflakes were soggy, their wrinkly bodies drowned in milk. Elise swished the milk left and right, not bothered to eat it at all, ignoring the riot her hungry stomach was creating inside her. She left it at the table and waited outside for the school bus, dropping the towel in the hallway and leaving her hair to dry naturally. A few minutes later her older brother joined her.

"You should stop giving mum a hard time. The divorce already stresses her enough, she doesn't want a teenage rebel adding to her grief," Seth told her matter-of-factly. Elise ignored him like she usually did, despising the moments when he was wise and portrayed her as the teenage home-wrecker. How is it my fault?, she thought to herself.

"If mum didn't divorce dad, everything would have been fine," Elise replied back a minute later tight-lipped. Seth looked at his sister, his eyes narrowing in confusion. He let out a breath. 

"Dad was cheating on her with a woman ten years younger than him..." he said slowly, inspecting his sister's face for a reaction. Elise winced at the fact but the guilt in thinking of her dad as anything less than the happy-go-lucky man she had in her mind pushed her into denial.  

"He's in his thirties, it could've been a mid-life crisis thing. He didn't know what he was doing," Elise defended him. She trusted him. She knew her dad and the other woman's relationship wasn't going to develop into anything. How can anyone leave their family? Elise was acting patient to give her dad time to realise it himself. She wasn't ready to believe that the man who used to give her hugs every morning and make her a cup of hot chocolate on Sundays before bed could suddenly become this traitor. 

Seth glared at Elise, his patience running low.

"You don't know what you're saying".

"Yes I do! The night he was leaving he explained everything to me!" She cried out.

"Then how come he never explained it to me or to mum? You're young that's why he thought he would be able to twist the facts around you and it's certainly working!" he shouted. This was going to be another heated argument and Seth knew it. He clenched and unclenched his fists, digging his nails into his skin, hoping his fury would be released along with the stinging sensation his nails caused. It wasn't the first time they argued about this but it was something that developed into a habit after the divorce.

"Because he knew you won't let him speak or listen to him!" Elise's cheeks were wet with hot tears but she angrily wiped them off with the sleeve of her blazer. Seth pursed his lips and faced the other way. They both waited impatiently for the school bus in complete silence. When the bus finally arrived they both got on, making sure to find a seat as far away from each other as possible in a bus. Elise spotted her friend Claribel who saved a seat for her. She dropped down next to her best friend. From the look on Elise's moody face Claribel instantly knew Elise and her brother had had another fight. She sighed.