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She deserves better.
***
Tuesday is much the same. As is Wednesday. Toss and turn then dream of Jules, wake up and remember betraying Jules, go to work and avoid Jules and things that remind him of her. Wash rinse repeat. Step on another Lego. Feel another organ grind itself to rubble.
Thursday offers a break in routine when someone bangs loudly on his door in the evening. He’s happy for anything that helps drag him from the depth of the trench he’s dug himself into.
He opens the door and freezes.
His sisters are at his doorstep. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’
‘We’re here to talk some sense into you.’ Carrie marches past him.
‘Shouldn’t you be performing?’ he calls after her as she makes herself at home.
‘I’m between programs.’
Chloe gets in a quick hug as she walks past at least, before following Carrie down the hall.
‘This is going to be painful,’ Cameron mutters as he shuts the door and drags himself into his living room where his sisters are already seated at the dining table.
He drops into a chair and crosses his arms. The silent treatment will have no effect on his sisters, but their intervention will go faster if he doesn’t interrupt with his own thoughts. He wanted a break from Jules-shaped thoughts. He suspects from the flat line of Carrie’s lips, and the disappointed twist to Chloe’s mouth, that this conversation won’t be it.
‘You screwed up with Jules.’ Carrie says.
Yep. There it is. His insides shrivel up as Carrie stares him down. ‘How—’
‘Matteo told us.’ Chloe drags his half-eaten dinner toward her and steals a dumpling from his plate.
‘Hey.’ He steals the plate back from her.
‘Sorry,’ Chloe says with her mouth full. ‘It’s a long drive and we didn’t stop. I’m starving.’
Cameron sighs and pushes up from the table, heading to his kitchen. He pulls out crackers from his cupboard and grabs a tub of hummus from his fridge.
‘So what’s the deal?’
‘Fuck!’ Cameron fumbles the crackers. His sisters have followed him into the kitchen. It’s only a small rectangular space to begin with, now it feels claustrophobic. He’s penned in at the far end by the sink with his sisters between him and the door.
Chloe takes the crackers from his hands and rips them open, shoving one into her mouth without bothering to get any hummus on it.
‘Matteo was light on the details,’ Carrie says, popping open the hummus and dipping a cracker into it, before passing it to Chloe. ‘He said you had some sort of falling out.’
‘Is he spilling all my secrets now?’ He presses a fist to his chest over his racing heart. He needs to have a talk with Matteo about his honesty pledge, and how it doesn’t mean he has to spill everything about other people.
Carrie leans a hip against the countertop to his right. ‘He’s concerned about your wellbeing. As are we.’
‘Thanks. But you don’t need to worry. I’m fine.’
Chloe scoffs, digging a cracker into the hummus and coming away with about a quarter of the tub piled onto it. ‘You’re eating takeaway dumplings on a Thursday and there’s two completed paint-by-numbers drying on your coffee table. Plus, your living room is more spotless than normal. Like you’ve been cleaning as an avoidance tactic.’
She’s got him there.
‘I’m fine,’ he repeats as she lifts herself to sit on the counter next to the fridge, opposite Carrie.
‘If you don’t want to talk about Jules, what about Braden then?’ Carrie says.
Cameron crosses his arms over his chest and widens his stance, trying to convey authority. ‘I don’t want to talk about her either.’
