Homeward Bound

Homeward Bound Chapter 18

I felt resigned to my fate of listening to mum and Helen catching up on the various things that they had been doing as we left the carpark. I dozed off in the backseat to the chatter of their voices only to wake up five minutes due to the fact that we had arrived outside the bungalow. I kept my eyes shut not wanting to face the evening I knew I had in store. It reminded me of the times that I had pretended to be asleep so that dad would lift me out of the car, but I knew that this wouldn't happen this time. Feeling slightly cold as the wind had picked up, I stepped out of the car. Helen locked her car with the fob that every car now used. It made breaking into a car harder.

Feeling like I was being watched I turned my head to look at the bungalow across from mums to see what I thought was a silhouette of a man in the shadows. I was it was a man due to the broad shoulders and height. I took a step back before scurrying up the stairs, closing the door. I made sure to lock it and put the safety chain across feeling very spooked. I took several deep breaths to calm myself down before entering the living room after mum and Helen.

'Would you like a drink?' I questioned them as I had decided that I was going to make myself a hot chocolate with marshmallow's that I had impulsively bought. 'I'm putting the kettle on.'

'Yes, please I'll have a hot chocolate,' Helen replied as mum declined. Something about her not being able to drink at this time of night due to the fact that she would end up taking several loo trips during the night. This didn't bother me as it meant that I wouldn't be woken by mum.

I stepped into the kitchen as they began to talk about the farm and how Gideon had been having too many late nights as Helen put it with the cows calving. I was greeted by the bum of Tibbles as she licked it. Can't you go and do that somewhere else, I thought disgusted. I got two mugs down from the cupboard and placed them on the counter as I waited for the kettle to boil. They were right about the fact that a watched kettle took longer to boil.

As I was waited, I was distracted by the bloody cat who had decided to clamber all over the counters, with a head butting way to my arm. That's it, I thought, channelling my inner Helen, as Tibbles passed me over the counters again after walking over the oven. I shoved the cat off the until with force, as it yowled out like I had struck it with a frying pan, if only.

'Is Tibbles ok?' mum bellowed from the next room as the cat had obviously made enough noise to attract her attention.

'Accidently stepped on her tail!' I lied through my teeth.

This had obviously been enough for mum to think that Tibbles was alright. The cat however looked slightly traumatised as if it was expecting me to actually do her bodily harm. Maybe the only way to get through to the cat was to threaten her. The kettle had finally finished boiling so I finished the hot chocolate's, only adding marshmallows to mine as I knew that Helen detested them since the time, she had been pregnant with Theo. Apparently, she had craved them for breakfast lunch and dinner.

With this in mind I juggled the mugs as I opened the kitchen door. Tibbles made a fast escape as she bolted out there and into my room where I expected she was hiding. I put Helen's mug down on the table that they were sat around before nabbing myself a seat against the heater as I had begun to feel slightly cold. I cupped my mug in my hand as I saw that mum had got out the family photos. I hoped that they weren't going to remind me about several of the embarrassing photos there were.

My luck didn't pay off.

'Cara you must see this photo. You looked positively grumpy.' Mum exclaimed.

I knew this picture all to well as I had been forced to wear an ugly dress to a cousins wedding as I was bridesmaid. It was an awful peach creation with frumpy sleeves. Needless to say, we are no longer on speaking terms due to a for-par on dad's front.