Page 4 of Only Ever You

She pouts.

“Come on, Pip. Let’s go and see what Mum wants.” Lucas stands and holds out his fist for me to bump. “Catch you later, Deac.”

The car ride is quiet. I say nothing, and Mr Chapman shoots a glance at me every so often.

Life at home isn’t good right now.

“Will you be okay?” he asks as we pull into the driveway.

The Chapmans aren’t stupid. They know my parents fight.

I nod. “I’ll be fine. Thanks for the ride.”

“Any time, son.”

I scramble out of the car and take a deep breath before I pull open the screen door. Mr Chapman backs down the driveway, but he’s not even at the mailbox before I hear my mother screech.

“Would it kill you to pay attention to me?”

Dad sighs. “I do, Elise. It’s just never enough.”

Bypassing the living room where they’re arguing, I race upstairs to my room.

I close the door, sliding down to the floor behind it, my hands over my ears.

Sometimes I wish I could go and live with Lucas. His parents sometimes argue, but it never gets as bad as my mum and dad.

I’m not even sure why they’re together, but my dad says he loves my mum more than anything and that some people just argue.

Whatever it is, I hate it.

Chapter Three

Pippa

Aged twelve

“I don’t care what plans you had. You have to take care of your sister today. Your mother and I are away for the weekend. You agreed to this at the start of summer, Lucas.”

Curling myself up in a ball as Dad’s voice carries through the house, I wish I was anywhere else but here.

Lucas has a giant chip on his shoulder right now. He never used to. We all used to be a big, happy family, but the past couple of years, there’s been nothing but tension between him and my parents.

Dad’s right. At the start of summer, he and Mum told us they were going away for their wedding anniversary, and Lucas promised he’d be here because I’m not old enough to be left home alone.

The pay-off is that he gets an upgrade to the crappy car he got for his sixteenth birthday—he’ll be going to university after the holidays, and that heap of junk might be fine for around town but not so much long-distance.

“I didn’t know it was this weekend. I have plans.”

“Cancel them.”

I don’t have to see him to know Lucas is rolling his eyes. He’s so ungrateful, and where we used to be close, this growing resentment he has toward me really hurts. I love my big brother, and it’s not my fault there’s a seven-year age gap between us.

Last week, he made me cry by telling me I was an accident. Mum and Dad reassured me that wasn’t true, and I don’t really care if it was, but the way he said it was so nasty and cruel, I wondered if my brother had been possessed.

No doubt his plans for the weekend include going to Deacon’s place. Those two hang out playing console games and drinking beer, which I know Dad doesn’t approve of, but Deacon’s mother is pretty lax when it comes to that, so Lucas makes the most of it.

I’d be happy to stay home alone—all I’m going to do is read, but they’re insistent he babysit me.

---