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Did I have an easy life? Not entirely. But Gael was there to protect me when things became too difficult.
He’d never asked me to change, to be less myself, or to hide who I was. He’d always loved me for who I was. Until he didn’t. Until he was gone.
I push those thoughts away. The thoughts that I shouldn’t have, because there’s no happiness there . . . and what was there has been nullified by the pain Gael inflicted on me.
Now, I just need to wait for him to do what he did before. Leave me behind.
With a last glance in the mirror, I open the door and I’m out, leaving all those thoughts that are suffocating my mind and paining my heart, inside the house.
I walk to the pub where we’re meeting up, and today I’m glad we all live near each other and we have our own local place, because I couldn’t bear to have someone bully me around. I think I’d snap and get into trouble.
“Hey Ed,” I say to the owner, when I open the door and he’s behind the counter.
“Hey Cam,” he replies, with his special welcoming smile that’s all for me and my family. We’ve been customers here since I was still wearing nappies.
“Are those monsters here?” I ask in a loud voice, when I spot my sisters sitting at our usual table. I wink at Ed, and he shakes his head and chuckles at our way of showing love to each other.
“Shut your mouth, and get your ass over here!” my sister Melanie shouts, making every single person here laugh, and I join in.
“You should pick your crown up off of the floor,” I throw back at her, while I bend down to hug and kiss my sister Rebecca on the cheek.
“Be nice,” she whispers in my ear, and I drop another kiss on her cheek as a sign of peace and understanding.
“Come here, my lovely older sister. Let me hug you tight,” I say to Melanie, in a joking tone I hope she’ll appreciate. Instead, it gains me a slap on the back of my head.
Uh oh. She must be upset about something, because my puppy tone usually works like magic.
“What’s wrong with you?” I ask, while massaging the spot on my head that she’d hit.
“I’m perfectly fine. Nothing’s wrong.”
Rebecca and I both look at her in disbelief, and Melanie’s bad mood deflates like a pierced balloon.
“It’s work. I might need a holiday. There’s always one problem after another, and I’m tired.”
“Take a sabbatical,” Rebecca and I say to her at the same time.
“That’s still the only solution you’ve got?” she says to us. She might be right, It’s what we always tell her. She’s got money, so she could do without working, but she loves her job and she’s too proud to concede defeat.
“Better than staying in a place where you’re no longer happy,” I say.
She looks at me, pondering what I’ve said, and then dismisses it with a raise of her shoulders.
“I’m happy enough there.” And with that, it seems the discussion is done.
I raise my brow at her, and she raises hers back at me. She usually does that when she challenges me to disagree with her. If it was any other situation I’d do that, because I love how snarky she becomes, but as I have secrets of my own I’d prefer to stay silent. This time, anyway.
“Rebecca, how are you?”
My sister’s lips curve into a smile, knowing what I’m doing, but like the good-natured person she is, she answers me.
“I’m good. Thank you for asking. The kids are good as well, and I love having the house to myself now that they’re going to school.”
“Ah, the perfect life. I’m so jealous,” I say, and I’m not even joking. I want kids, and I want a house in the countryside. I want pets and horses.
“You’ll have it one day as well,” Rebecca says to me, while patting my hand.
I’m saved from replying when Ed approaches the table to have a chat while we place our order.
