Loved But Broken

Chapter 11

Silence waited around me you could hear a pin drop it was that quiet. It felt like forever before Mum answered me. “You can go camping still this weekend. On one condition. You check in with me and Dad every couple of hours.”

“Ok Mum you know I will. What’s the reason though it’s only a 5min drive away and I’ll be with the girls from school.” I replied, concerned and worried that this had to do with something that happened when they were in town yesterday. She never said what Georgina and Cole said.

“You Dad and I just want to know your safe that is all.” She said, the worry in her voice distant but there nonetheless.

“Mum, you know I’m always safe right. I’m a big girl now I can protect myself.” She looked at me, about to say something but then she turned away and went out the back door with a basket of laundry I didn’t see when I first came in. I picked my bag back up and headed to my room. Ready to start packing a bag of clothes for the weekend and change out of my school uniform. My phone vibrated on the bed. Walking over I looked down at it.

Phoebe: hey girl you packed ready for a fun weekend.

Me: yeh almost Pheebs give me about 20mins and I’ll be ready.

Send. Rushing around I finished packing my clothes. Walking out to the kitchen I grabbed an esky and put some drinks and food in it to last a couple of days. Walking out the back door, Mum was still hanging the clothes out. “Mum?” I yelled out to her as I walked out the back door. “Mum is the tent in the shed?”

“Yes Soph, it should be. You got everything packed.”

"Yeah Mum just the tent and I’ll be off. You going to be ok without me for a whole weekend.”

“Sophie,’ she laughed, “of course I’ll be ok. Remember check in ok.”

“Mum I will. I promise. See you in a few days.” Smiling at Mum I turned headed back inside, picking my bag and the esky up I walked out the front to wait for the girls. I didn’t have to wait long before a white commodore pulled up and Phoebe jumped out to greet me.

“Hey girl, you ready to go?” she asked.

“Yep, ready to go. Got everything.” Patting the belongings beside me. Standing up from the step. Picking up my stuff we walked to her Mums’ care. Packing the bags and esky gently in the boot. We climbed into the car.

“Hi, Mrs O'Malley, its lovely to see you. Thank you for the lift.”

“Hi Sophie, its lovely to see you again. We ready to go girls.” She asked Phoebe and I.

“Yes, Mum ready to go now. The others are meeting us out there.” Phoebe said.

Mrs O'Malley put the car into drive and we were off. I was looking forward to this weekend more than anything. For the first time in weeks, I was going to be able to be a typical teenager hanging with her friends. It didn’t take long to get out to Lake Alberta, Phoebe and I were the first ones there. So, we got to choose the best place to set up our tents. It didn’t take us long helping each other. Mrs O'Malley stayed with us with a little bit then she left so we could start our weekend. I was never one for camping before. William was the one to convince me that it would good for me to hang with my friends for a while. All I could do was think of him. Hours passed by and all the girls had arrived. We managed to build a campfire thanks to survivor in school earlier in the year. Most of us had learned the skills before from girl scouts when we were a lot younger but grew apart as the years went by. We all grew older and formed our own groups within school with newcomers or outsiders as our town called them because they weren’t from around here originally. Katarina was an outsider but she became a part of our small group as soon as she arrived. Amelia, Phoebe and I had been best friends since preschool we all knew everything about each other except for my secret I had about William. Although my mind started drifting off to the whispers, I heard leaving my exams earlier today. How much did they really know and how did they know?

“Soph... Sophie...” pulled from my thoughts, I looked around to see who was calling me. Madeline. Queen mean of our school but for some reason there was concern in her voice, something I hadn’t heard for a very long time, not since we little girls and our preschool teacher had created buckets of paint for us all. "Soph, you ok you look lost.” She asked.

“Yeah, I'm ok. Just lost in my own thoughts, Mads been forever since any of us did anything like this as a group. I’m glad to be here.”

“Yeah, I know. Nothing like end of exams for now to celebrate a little. Let our hairs down and forget the world aye.”

“Sounds about right. I haven’t felt this free in a while. Haven’t been out here for years either not since nan passed away. Having a sense of deja vu. I’m going to go for a bit of walk and check in with Mum before she starts to freak out. Promises can’t be broken aye. I’ll see you later.” Walking away from Madeline was simple. Dodging everyone else for now shouldn’t be too difficult. I walked along the edge of the water for a while alone. I pulled my phone to send a message to Mum and had 1 unread message. Opening my phone, I looked to see who it was from.

William: hey babe have fun camping with the girls. I miss you already xxx

I looked at the message reading it again. Smiling to myself.

Me: I miss you too babe. I love you. Have fun this weekend too. I’ll see you real soon. :) xxx

Closing my messages from William. I pulled Mums number in the contacts to type a message to her.

Me: hey Mum checking in I’m ok. We are all set up out her. Ready for our girls’ weekend. Got a geny to charge our phones up. Love you. Check in again in a few hours.

Sent. Putting my phone back in my pocket. I walked a bit further along the water. Looking out over the water it was so peaceful. I drifted off in my thoughts, William had asked me to come out here once I almost considered it but couldn’t bring myself to say yes. My grandmother used to bring us out here all the time as kids my brothers and I would run around near the water for hours splashing each other and occasionally nan too. She would run with us and laugh along with us. She was our whole entire world. It was hard to believe years had passed now since she was taken to the heavens. God had bigger plans for her. Walking back to camp where everyone was my thoughts wandered back to the days when this would be normal. I looked over to the campfire and watched as Phoebe, Amelia and Kat were sitting there roasting some marshmallows good old aussie style. I laughed to myself, as I got closer a twig broke under my foot and they all looked up. Smiling I couldn’t help myself but laugh a little I would make a terrible burglar I thought to myself. Pulling up an old log too big for the fire I sat down. The girls just looked at me for what felt like forever. Silence was overwhelming.

“So Soph how have been?” Kat asked me quietly. It was no secret that Nan was our lives and neither my brothers nor I had been the same since she passed. Kat was genuinely asking she knew I had been in detention recently perks of being the principal’s daughter and being busted leaving detention. No-one knew why I had been in detention for though Seraphina wasn’t game enough to say what had happened and why we no longer talked. She thankfully wasn’t at this little party though.

“Hey Kat, glad you could make it. I’ve been okay. It feels so surreal out here. A lot of memories you know. Can’t help wonder where I would be today if it wasn’t for the people that have been there for me over the few years. Mum wants me to check in every few hours. She’s worse than usual and I don’t know why.” I blurted out in a rush. I tended to ramble when I didn’t feel like talking. I found a good sturdy stick and stuck a marshmallow on the end raising it over our fire and toasting it. Nothing like a crispy outside and creamy middle when toasting mallows on the flames.

“That’s good. You know we are here for you. It’s good to see you finally letting your hair down. We all needed this trip. Exams have been hard.” She spoke. I couldn’t help feeling that there was something else she wanted to say. Something that never got said. We finished roasting our mallows on the flames and decided to call it a night. The flames were dying down and someone put another log on the fire as I left to go to my tent. Climbing into my tent and zipping it closed felt nice that night. I was alone and I felt free.