Waves

Chapter Two - Tensions

A key twisted in the front wooden door, it rattled in the lock then creaked open. Knox slid into the dark front entrance of his home and shut the door behind him, inconsiderately as it echoed through down the corridor. He stumbled down the hallway and into the kitchen. He swung the fridge door open and sway to the side with it, his eyes roamed through the different foods available. He chose the plate of leftover chicken legs and popped the plate into the microwave.

The digits beeped loudly as he set the timer and then the microwave whirred to life and began to heat his meal. He then loudly dug through the cutlery draw. Nora came running into the kitchen with a torch raised in one hand and a baseball bat in the other. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw her brother.

“Seriously? I thought we were being robbed.” She then yawned and shook her head disapprovingly at Knox.

“What do you want?” Knox snapped at her. She almost cringed at the stench of alcohol that engulfed him. She frowned,

“It’s two in the bloody morning. I wanted to know what was waking the house up at such a ridiculous time.”

“Shut up bitch.” He spat and turned his gaze back to the microwave that had another twenty seconds left on the time. Nora looked at him a little bewildered, and also with hurt.

“Why do you hate me?” She asked, he remained silent this time. “It’s like, ever since we left Nylok City, I’ve turned into your nemesis or something.” She mumbled in a concerned tone. Knox turned his head over his shoulder to glare directly at her. Shivers ran down Nora’s spine at the intensity of his glare.

“You’re right. You became my nemesis on the 7th of September.” He sneered. Nora’s face grew a little pale, her eyes widened. She scratched at her wrist slightly,

“Wh-what?” She stammered.

“I know what you did.”

“How?” She asked barely audible. She then jumped, startled by the sudden beeping of the microwave to signal that the food was now heated. Knox pressed the square button and the microwave door popped open. He picked the plate up and brought it out of the microwave before shutting the door. Steam hissed out of the chicken legs.

Knox only glared at Nora before he walked out of the kitchen and towards the stares. He disappeared up the stairs and into his bedroom. Nora’s breathing quickened, her back leant against the wall and the baseball bat dropped to the floor as memories flooded into her mind. She quickly collected her thoughts and calmed herself down, then she hurried back to her bedroom.

Nora soon fell back sleep. Two hours in she began to toss and turn, whilst showing a panicked expression on her face. She yelled the word ‘no!’ a couple times before she woke up screaming, then gasping for air. She sat up right and clutched at her stomach as she gasped for air. Seconds later, Thomas hastily entered the room with a startled expression. His phone’s torch flashed in her direction and he sighed slightly with relief. “Another nightmare?” He asked quietly.

Nora nodded, unsure of what to say. Thomas walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down on top of the covers beside her, he flicked off the torch. She leant into his side with her head against the left side of his shoulder. “What about?” He asked.

Nora shrugged, “I was being attacked again.”

Thomas thought silently for a moment. “They’re never going to hurt you ever again you know. Look at how far we’ve come. No one can touch us now.” He assured her whilst staring into the darkness of her room. Nora nodded. The two sat in silence a while longer, before Nora began to doze back off to sleep. Thomas stayed with her a short while longer before he then exited the room and headed towards his office room to start the day.

…

Back over at 72 Maplewood Road, June and Venus slept, sprawled across June’s queen-sized bed, covered by a puffy silk duvet cover. A knock sounded at the closed bedroom door, causing June to stir awake with a loud grown.

“June! June, wake up!” Her mother called from the other side of the door.

“Come in.” June grumbled and took her silk eye mask off. She placed the mask down on the bedside table and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as the bedroom door opened. Her mum came in, with a look mixed of confusion and disgust.

“Who had s*x and decided to dump the sheets in my basket? I hope it wasn’t on my bed!” She half-shrieked. Venus too stirred awake at the ruckus and she slowly sat up in the bed, looking between the mother and daughter. Venus yawned and stretched her arms up above her bird-nest bed hair with her eyes shut. “Anton and Cheryl. And it was in this bed.” She blurted before thinking her thoughts through. Her eyes snapped open and a guilty look crossed her face. “s**t, sorry June. That was so insensitive.” She apologised sheepishly.

June shrugged and frowned at the thought. A sympathetic look crossed June’s mother’s face. “Aw sweetie. I’m sorry. What a little piece of shit.” She quickly walked over to June’s side of the bed and sat down beside June to hug her. “You’re better off without him.”

“Absolutely.” Venus agreed.

“Why don’t you two come down stairs and join us for breakfast? Tony’s cooking pancakes.” She offered with a gentle smile. June nodded, she and Venus got up and dressed before they wondered down stairs to join June’s mother and sister, Maive at the table. Maive wore a black skirt and a pink t-shirt. She also wore a large smile with her eyes squinted.

“Hey Maive, how was the Pink concert?” Venus asked with a grin, whilst checking out Maive’s stylish black skirt. Maive nodded with an even wider grin.

“So fun! She sang Just give me a reason.”

“Aw cool, that’s your favourite song isn’t it?” Venus asked, Maive nodded excitedly. “That’s great. I’m glad it was fun.”

“Hey Tony, how have you been?” June asked as she walked over to him and the stove top to grab a plate of pancakes.

“Pretty good, yourself?”

“Getting there.” June shrugged with a small smile. “Thanks for the pancakes.”

“Not a problem.” He smiled.

“Sweetheart, would you be able to drop Maive off at her speech therapy today?” June’s mother asked Tony. Tony nodded,

“Of course, I can. You have that interview with…. Wait don’t tell me… Greenstar Law firm right?”

“Well done. “ She chuckled and nodded.

“I’m sure you’ll blow them away. You’ll ace this.”

“Thanks honey.” She said and walked over to peck him on the cheek as June sat down beside Venus at the table.

“How was the party?” Maive asked June and Venus. Both girls nodded and smiled,

“So fun.” June held a thumbs up with a fake, toothy smile plastered on her face.

…

Further up the road, Ashton and his extended family lived. Ashton had long woken, and had been for a jog around the block. Near on 8am he arrived back home. As he walked through the front door, he heard arguing coming from their dining area. He walked into the room to see his uncle and aunt arguing, Flynn was nowhere in sight.

“He came home drenched. Someone is hassling our son.” Ashton’s uncle growled.

“It’s nothing he doesn’t deserve.” She countered, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. Ashton could tell she didn’t feel comfortable going against her son.

“You know those two girls lied. He didn’t do anything to be ashamed of. I still can’t believe we’re being backed into a corner to pay them shush money.” Ashton’s uncle pulled a face and used his fingers as quotations.

“There were witnesses Harold.” The woman whispered and her eyes fell to her half empty bowl of soup. Harold banged his clenched fist on the table’s glass surface and abruptly stood up, sending the chair skirting backwards on the marble floor. He stormed out of the room. Ashton’s Aunt looked up to see Ashton and she gave him a small apologetic smile.

“Good morning Ashton, how was your jog?”

Ashton nodded, “Good morning Aunt Suki. It was fine… How are you?” He asked tentatively. She sighed and leant her elbow on the table whilst bringing her hands up to her head to rub her forehead.

“I don’t know how to get through to him.” She murmured in thought. Ashton nodded with an uncomfortable facial expression. His eyes glanced around the room.

“Suki get dressed! We’re going to see our lawyer!” Harold shouted from the living room. Suki sighed again and looked at Ashton with apologetic filled eyes before she slowly walked out of the room. Seconds later, their housekeeper hastily walked into the room to clear the plates and cutlery.

“Good morning Ashton.” She smiled at him and quickly collected the plates. Ashton nodded and forced a smile,

“Morning Abbey.” He greeted her. Abbey wore a long black skirt and an off-white button-up blouse tucked into her skirt. She had grey hair and a slightly wrinkled face. “Oh hey, isn’t it your eighth-year anniversary for working with us?”

“I’m surprised you remembered, considering you didn’t move in until two years after I started here.” She smiled, surprised. Her smile then quickly fell. “Speaking of anniversaries… with that horribly sad one being around the corner, how are you doing?” She asked with a concerned expression. Ashton shrugged,

“Fine, I guess.” He answered in a simple tone. “I’ve got an assignment I need to finish before Monday. Can we chat later?”

Abbey still looked concerned and disbelieving, but she nodded nonetheless and she exited the room with the dirty dishes stacked in her hands. Ashton headed for the stairs that led down into the basement.

While his room seemed a little isolated from the rest of the family, and nowhere near as lavish as the other rooms, it was a large size and held a queen-size bed with cotton sheets, along with a PC atop his wooden desk, The back left side of the desk had a thick folded piece of paper stuffed between the foot and the ground in order to keep the desk levelled. He sat down on the blue cushion atop the wooden chair and he switched his computer on. He brought up his essay and began to type the third body paragraph.

…

Nora sat on a marble stood at the matching marble island bench, with her laptop out beside her notebook and pen. She wrote a couple things down then looked back at the laptop screen whilst subconsciously bringing the pen to her mouth; she slightly chewed on the end.

Her twin brothers walked into the room and over to the coffee machine. Elijah started to turn on the coffee machine, whilst Nora arched a questioning eye brow at them. “Isn’t it a bit late for you two to be having your morning coffees?” She queried whilst glancing at the clock on the wall to see it was now eleven thirty am.

Elijah waved a dismissive hand, “Call it our lunch coffee then.”

“You working on that essay?” Thomas nodded at her laptop. Nora shrugged,

“Sure.”

Thomas frowned, “You’re not are you. Nora, this place is a new start for you, and this is a private school, they require you to put in much more effort than your used to putting in with those crappy public schools. You’ve really got to-”

“Put my best foot forward, blah blah.” She cut him off in a mutter. “Thomas, you don’t need to hassle me, I’ve got this. I’ll have it done by tonight, tomorrow at the latest, it’s not due until Monday. Just let me pay our staff members first, that’s a bit more important.” She waved a dismissive hand at him and started to type on her laptop. Thomas grimaced,

“Elijah can pay them if you don’t have time.”

Nora sighed and stopped typing on the screen. She turned her full attention to Thomas with a firm gaze. “I do have time, stop babying me. You gave me this responsibility but you aren’t giving me the chance to show you I can handle it. Would you please stop babying me?” She asked and dropped her hands on top of her grey spotted leggings.

Thomas glanced to the wall beside him and looked back at Nora with an understanding expression. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll give you a month before I check back in then.” He cracked a small smile. Nora nodded in agreeance. Thomas turned back to Elijah, “So, while I’m meeting with Azei today, you’ll be organising the collection of the shipping right?”

Elijah nodded. “I’ve got the passports all ready to go.”

“Do you guys mind?” Nora cut in with an unimpressed look. Elijah smiled sheepishly,

“Sorry.” He said as he finished making the coffee.

“Don’t be such a prude, it’s not like you haven’t done anything illegal before.” An annoyed tone echoed into the kitchen as Knox appeared in the room. He walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of orange juice.

“She’s not lied to the justice system about her brothers running an illegal business, she just hasn’t mentioned it. She doesn’t know anything about it really.” Elijah shrugged and winked at Nora. Nora quickly forced a smile to cover her nerves, she scratched at her wrist under the bench. Knox scowled at Nora and walked back out the room as quickly as he had entered it.

Elijah glanced at the clock, “But don’t you usually leave about this time for your weekly run?”

“You and your schedule.” Thomas rolled his eyes to the side whilst Nora gave him a look.

“There’s nothing wrong with being organised.”

“There’s organised and then there’s OTT.” Thomas said the letters in a teasing voice.

Nora furrowed her brows, “You know Knox is the one who talks like that right? Not me.”

Elijah laughed and Thomas rolled his eyes, “Whatever, let’s go.” He said and took his coffee. He sipped it as he walked out of the room beside Elijah. Nora quickly finished paying the last staff member before she closed her laptop, adjusted her tank top and headed to the cupboard to grab out a silver coloured, metal water bottle. She filled it up from the filtered tap at the sink, grabbed her phone and plugged her earphones in. She turned on her playlist and the song “Thief” by Ansel Elgort sounded through the buds and into her ears. She stretched then bounded out the front door.

As Nora stepped off her driveway and onto the quiet street of modern houses, she noticed a black sedan parked across the road, opposite her home. She eyed it questioningly as she had never seen it parked on the verge of the opposite house, but she shrugged it off assuming they were just visiting that household. She then began to jog towards the town.

…

“How’s Maive going with middle school? No one’s been messing with her since Shelby right?” Venus asked and kicked a stone across the dirt path as the two walked down the path, surrounded by trees and grass.

“I think I made a pretty good example out of that bully.” June said with a proud smile. “Maive hasn’t come home sad from school since.”

“I can’t believe how nasty people can be. I can’t believe people still use someone’s disability to pick on them.” Venus scrunched up her face and gave a look of annoyance. “I hate people.”

June chuckled, “Me too.” The greenery started to disappear and be replaced by sand and water of the lake on June’s property. The two placed their backpacks on the edge of the grass and sand. They brought their towels out and then shook them out before they stripped into their bikinis. Both slapped on sunscreen and their sunglasses then began to sunbathe.

“We should invite Ashton over.” Venus said as she scrolled through her ** newsfeed. She stopped to stare at a new post from his account, a photo from the party they had last night.

“Why? So that you can pine after him like a puppy like last night? Will there be drool again?”

“I was not drooling over him last night thank you very much.” Venus laughed. “I just thought, he’s the one with the fake ID, he could bring us drinks? And I heard he bought cush the other day too.”

“You had me at alcohol. Need me some hair of the dog.” June nodded in agreeance. “I suppose to make it more interesting we should invite the rest of the group out then?”

“I’ll text Knox and Mars, you text Ashton?” Venus queried. June nodded and typed a text to Ashton.

Venus, Knox, Mars and I are going for a swim in the lake. Come join us? – J

Seconds later Ashton’s phone buzzed on the side of the desk. Ashton’s gaze averted from his computer screen to the vibrating phone. He picked it up and checked the screen to see June’s name in the notification section. He unlocked his phone and read her text. His eyes darted to the word count on his word document, it displayed the number 352. He needed another 148 words to pass the minimum word count for the essay. He scratched the back of his neck before texting his response.

Alright, be there in 10 – A

Could you please bring the goods? – J

Ashton smirked. Both? – A

June responded with a devil emoji and a four-leaf clover emoji. Ashton pulled open the top draw in his desk and pulled out a little black bag with a green m*******a leaf image. He then walked over to his wardrobe to pull out an old shoebox. He opened the lid to reveal his Cheech & Chong bong and he placed the black bag inside the box with it. He closed the lid and proceeded to get his boardy shorts out and change into them. Once ready, he headed up the stairs and into the kitchen. A scowl crossed his face when he spotted Flynn sitting at the island bench.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Swimming? June’s lake again?”

Ashton ignored him and continued to head for the front door.

“I’ll meet you there soon!” Flynn called after him.

“You’re not invited.” Ashton called back and opened the door.

“That’s never stopped me before!” As Flynn shouted this, the front door slammed shut. Flynn snickered and took another bite out of the peanut butter jelly sandwich Abbey had made for him.

…

In the town’s centre there were shopping buildings for groceries, liquor and some clothes shops, along with a health and medical block right next door where inside were the doctors, a dentist and a therapists office. Inside the therapist’s office, Nora sat on a brown, leather and cushiony couch and faced a middle-aged woman who sat in an identical couch with one leg crossed over the other and her notepad rested atop of her thigh. She pressed her glasses up further along the bridge of her nose and then glanced from the clock to Nora. Nora still wore her running gear and she fidgeted with the lid on her water bottle.

Nora sat rigidly; she bit her bottom lip in thought. “While it’s been lovely getting to know you for the past forty-five minutes Nora, I’m yet to discover the reason why you decided to book this appointment.” The therapist smiled. Nora took another sip from her water and then placed the bottle down on the small table beside her.

“I don’t really know where to start.”

“Well, you’ve told me that you moved here with your brothers, but you haven’t mentioned your parents, or what prompted the move. Why don’t we start there?” She suggested. Nora scratched at her scar lightly. Her therapist’s eyes darted to Nora’s hand then back at Nora’s blue eyes.

Nora thought carefully for a moment. “We moved here to get away from them.” She answered quietly, her eyes averted from her therapist to the large painting that took up almost the entire left wall. It was of a dark forest with the moonlight shining through the pine trees.

“Your parents?”

“Yes.” Nora nodded whilst the woman wrote down a couple words on the notepad.

“Did they hurt you or your brothers?” The therapist looked at Nora with concern.

Nora’s gaze fixated on the painting as she nodded her head once.

“Do you feel comfortable discussing this Nora?”

Nora glanced back at the woman. Her knee began to bounce subtly. “Not really. But I know I need to.” Her therapist nodded at her response.

“We can stop talking about this at any time, we can only talk about the things you are ready to talk about if you would like. This is a safe space.”

Nora forced a small smile before her face fell again. “My mum was an alcoholic and a meth addict. My dad was a drug dealer among other things. They used to beat us a lot, Thomas copped the most of it.”

“That’s a lot for someone to go through, especially as a child. How have you been handling the trauma?”

“By busying myself. With school and my brother’s new speakeasy. It was working at first, but I’ve started having nightmares again. I read somewhere that seeking professional help can… well, help.” She shrugged and crossed her left leg over her right leg, and rested her entwined fingers atop.

“You’ve made a great few first steps, well done. I would love to explore this further, but we are running out of time with our session. Would you be open to discussing your nightmares with me now, and then returned again in a few days’ time to discuss further?”

Nora nodded, “I would like that. To have another session.” She clarified. She then sucked in a deep breath. “As for the nightmares?” She paused in thought. “In them, my parents, usually my father, are attacking me. Through things at me, or punching me… I try to fight back or run away but every time I’m paralysed. I can’t scream, or cry, or move.”

The therapist nodded. “This is a common way for our mind to process the trauma one has endured… Can you tell me what things you are currently doing to reduce stress? Do you meditate?”

Nora pressed her lips together to form a flat line and she shook her head. “I go for runs.”

“Here,” The therapist stood up and walked over to her desk. She pulled a piece of paper out from a draw and passed it to Nora who stood up to accept it. “You’ll find some activities on there that people do to reduce stress and calm their minds. There are also some meditation apps listed on there. I would like for you to give some of these a go over the next few days.”

Nora nodded, “Thank you Linda.”

The two chatted about availabilities for the next session and booked one in. Nora paid for her session and exited the office and then the building. As she walked outside with the paper and her bottle, she froze when she saw Ashton walking out of the liquor shop two buildings over from her. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned around just as he noticed her. Ashton waved at her,

“Hey Starks!” He called her last name. Nora grimaced and forced a smile before turning around to see him walking at a brisk pace towards her.

“Hey Ashton,” her eyes fell to the carton of beer in one hand and to the cruiser’s in the other. She raised a brow, “I didn’t take you as the cruiser type of guy.”

“Oh,” he laughed, “Those are for June. These are mine,” he lifted the beer slightly. He grinned, “A few of us are meeting at hers to go for a swim in the lake. Would you like to come with me?”

Nora hesitated. “Thank you. But I uh, have that essay from Mrs Freight’s English class due in a couple days.”

“Yeah same. I’m about halfway done, but you know, I was thinking I’d turn the day of rest into a day of study.” He shrugged. “You should too.” He then smiled. Nora pursed her lips slightly. “Aw come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Will your cousin-”

“He’s not invited.” Ashton quickly cut her off. “Although he does have a way of disregarding everyone’s hate for him. It’s almost like he enjoys making everyone uncomfortable and miserable.”

“Is that your way of saying he might make an unwanted appearance?”

“Yeah, but I’ll help you beat him up if he does.”

Nora laughed, “Alright I suppose that could be fun. Alright, let me run home and grab my swimsuit then. I’ll meet you there in an hour or so?”

“Run?” He questioned with somewhat furrowed eyebrows. Nora nodded and waved a hand at her attire.

“I also just don’t drive yet.” She added with a shrug.

“Missing out.” He laughed, “Driving’s so liberating. But hey, let me drive you to yours and then to June’s. It’s the least I can do.” He offered with a smile.

“You don’t have to-”

“I want to.” He insisted. Nora sighed with a giddy smile,

“Alright then. Thank you.”