6.3 Keep Your Eyes Peeled

“He can’t be that bad, Karma.”

“He’s not. I barely know him so I can’t really say, but I just got bad vibes is all.”
I had just finished relaying every ounce of information about Cameron from the four times he’d been around to Nerissa, finding every opportunity to complain about him. I knew I was being entirely unfair and completely biased, but I just couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling he gave me. I just needed to get all my petty complaints out there and hope that maybe the next time I see him, my mind’s a bit clearer and I’m not so critical.

“Well, he seems to be good for your mum, anyway. I don’t think my mum’s ever going to move on from dad. She still believes that he might come back for us,” Nerissa said with a shrug.
It was nice to see that she seemed to not care about her dad at all anymore. He’d walked out on them over a year ago with no warning when, apparently, he’d seemed completely fine and therefore it’d came as such a shock to them all when he left. I’d only been with Nerissa for a few months at that point and she had been utterly devastated, but the damage had a much more lasting effect on her mother to the point that her brother dropped out of university to stay at home after witnessing how bad their mum had taken it. Seeing the effect it had on them made me feel fortunate that I didn’t have to go through losing my dad like that.

“I don’t think she really needs him to get over my dad. She is… sort of over him, I think. I can’t really tell; she’s never been big on showing her feelings.” I fiddled with a lock of Nerissa’s hair idly, a faint frown on my face.

“Did you know my dad actually called me – not my mum – the other day?” Nerissa sat up and turned to face me, her eyebrows raised. “He claimed that he missed me and wanted me to come over some time. He told me not to tell my mum or Tristan. I don’t even know how he got my number.”

“Really? What’d you say to him?”

“I told him to leave me alone. He was happy enough to leave in the first place, so he can stay gone. I don’t want anything to do with him.”

I was about to reply when Cole, Cry, Razi and Ashlee approached. “What’re you two talking about?” Cole asked, sitting down on the bench and pulling his legs up.

“Distant father figures,” Nerissa replied with a slight laugh, inching a little closer to me. She was by no means shy, but she had confessed that she felt a bit nervous around my friends. She shouldn’t since they all adored her, but they did seem to emit an unfriendly vibe unintentionally.

“Oh, nice. Just as well Sid’s not here – parents are a bad topic for him. My issue was a distant mother figure.” Cole laughed. He’d never really cared that his mother wasn’t part of his life because he’d been too young to remember her leaving and figured that he was better off anyway.

“God, I wish my dad was distant,” Ashlee muttered darkly with a sigh. I didn’t know a lot about Ashlee’s home situation, but I gathered that her dad was incredibly strict while constantly slating her ambitions, being completely unsupportive.

“…Meanwhile, Razi and I will perform the ‘perfect family’ duet,” Cry joked. “Before we got here, we’d been talking about hair colours. I think… Nerissa and Razi are the only ones who still have their natural hair colour here, so I was trying to guess everyone else’s natural hair colour since, you know, I haven’t been around you lot for that long.”

I scoffed. “You see that faded red? Razi’s hair isn’t all natural. Mine’s natural, believe it or not. Razi can confirm that.”

Amongst the protesting, Sid arrived and instantly we could all tell that something was wrong. He looked depressed with his sagging shoulders and downcast eyes and as people began to notice this, the conversation dulled.

“What happened?” Ashlee voiced what we were all wondering. Sid rubbed his face and pressed his fingers to his lips, staring off into the distance. He took a deep breath and removed his hands.

“Jesus, I don’t know where to start. I mean, first I was freaking out before that date. Raz, Karma – you guys know Cheryl Gougher, right?”

I laughed inwardly. Everyone has that one week-long relationship when they’re twelve, and Cheryl had been mine. My tendency to vomit when surprised has been mentioned, right? Then it’s not too difficult to imagine what happened when being dumped was made out to be the worst thing that could ever happen to you. She hadn’t ever talked to me since, so I didn’t feel I could exactly say I knew her.
“Yeah, I know who she is.”

Razi simply nodded. He had devoted himself fully to listening to what Sid had to say and wasn’t going to speak until after he’d finished. He’d always had been good at listening to people’s problems.

“Long story short, it was a complete disaster.”
As tough and intimidating as Sid might appear, he was a total wreck when it came to dating. It was the only thing he really ever got nervous about, though ‘nervous’ would be a massive understatement. Unfortunately for him, he also wasn’t the type of person whose nerves dissipate once he’s actually in the moment.
“I went home so I could, you know, mope about it like the loser I am, but then… my aunt, of course.” He sighed and shook his head. “She started screaming at me – something about pot, I don’t know. I wasn’t really listening to her at the start. Anyway, then she started yelling about how my behaviour ‘will corrupt baby James’ and how I’ll ‘wind up like that junkie mother of yours’ or something like that. Then she kicked me out of the house – again – so now… now I got nowhere to stay.”

Sid shuffled his feet uncomfortably, averting his eyes from all of us after his last statement. He always hated having to ask us this, especially when a very limited number of us were able to give him a place. I knew Sid wouldn’t be able to stay at my house, though I wish I could offer him a couple of nights.

“You can crash at mine for a few nights, if you want,” Cole offered. Sid’s face lit up and he delivered one of his very distinctive, wolfish grins.

“Thanks, man. She’ll probably call in a day or so… it’s just while she’s still pissed at me.”

Nerissa, who had been quiet throughout the whole ordeal, nudged me and tapped the invisible watch on her wrist. I nodded and stood up. “See you guys later.” There was a general grumble of distracted goodbyes in response as we left.

“Am I seeing you before school tomorrow?” Nerissa asked once we’d reached her house, stopping at her door. It was kind of mandatory for me to walk her home on Thursdays since that’s what we’d been doing before we were actually together officially.

“I guess. You’ll probably have to drag me out of bed, though.”

“I might just hold you to that. Somebody has to make sure you actually go to school.” She smiled, standing on her toes to kiss me. “See you tomorrow, then.”

* * *

I was abruptly awoken by the shuddering slam of the front door. I groaned and bitterly considered my hatred for how loud it was, rolling over to check the time. I’d returned home to an empty house and had seized the opportunity to take a nap while nobody was yelling at me for something or other, but of course it had to be cut short. Squinting at the clock, I realised I’d only been asleep for an hour, but I felt so disoriented. That probably meant that neither Haizea nor Merula were home yet.

Grumbling, I was about to head downstairs, but stopped in the hallway at the sound of heated voices. I couldn’t clearly discern what was being said – only that it was definitely mum and Cameron – and so I edged closer to the staircase to eavesdrop.

“-don’t see why you hate him so much. He was nothing but lovely the entire time.” Mum’s voice rose over Cameron’s incoherent complaints, but he quickly became more adamant.

“You didn’t grow up with him. Christ, I can’t believe you didn’t see that he was taunting me the entire time,” he spat with a short laugh of disbelief.

“I think this little jealousy of yours has gone too far. He was utterly respectful towards you and you’re too blinded by your bitterness to see that. Honestly, you’d think you’re the younger brother with the way you got on.”

I heard the irritated sigh of my mother and some further protesting from Cameron before the front door was opened and someone left.
I hovered at the top of the stairs for a couple of minutes before curiosity got the better of me. Since she got the last word in the argument, mum would probably be happy to divulge what happened to me.
However, once I got downstairs I saw that it hadn’t been Cameron who left, but he’d already seen me before I could retreat upstairs.

Before I could ask where mum had gone, he said, “She had some things at work to take care of. Said she’d be back in an hour or so.”

“Uh… okay.” We were plunged into a brief uncomfortable silence while I contemplated bringing up the topic, but Cameron brought it up before I could.

“You’re lucky you have sisters and not an annoying younger brother.”

“I am the annoying younger brother,” I replied instinctively, instantly thinking that I shouldn’t have said that. To my surprise, Cameron laughed.

“Ha, doubt you’re anything like mine.” He stopped for a moment, looking down at his hands thoughtfully; likely considering whether or not he should be telling me any of this. His eyes snapped back to me and he continued. “Y’see, my family runs this business. A business that was so creatively named ‘Loave Industries’, wouldn’t you know.” He laughed and I forced a slight chuckle in return. “I’m the oldest, so I assumed that I’d be the one to inherit it once my parents wanted to retire. That’s the way it normally goes…”

“But your brother got it instead,” I predicted. Cameron nodded, then birthed a bitter laugh.

“Yes. My parents said that he was better suited to it; that I was too ‘reckless and aggressive’ to run a business. I have a respectable position, but it’s still a slap in the face when your crazy brother gets it instead. He is completely insane. I mean ‘aliens are going to take over and enslave us next week’ insane, but somehow they think he’s smarter than me. There’s no way he can run a business decently, but he is and it’s damn insulting.”

“They say crazy people are smart, right? I don’t know, maybe he is better suited to the job.”

I should have paid more attention to the slow anger he’d been working up as he spoke and chosen my words more carefully, for as soon as the words had left my mouth a hand slammed against my cheek. I held my cheek and my mouth involuntarily fell open, unable to register the stinging pain due to my complete shock. My only thought was that I could definitely see the ‘reckless and aggressive’ in his eyes for a split-second afterwards.

Cameron’s venomous, blindly furious expression softened as the realisation of what he’d done set in. “Shit. Fuck, please don’t tell Linnaea. Oh shit, I’m so sorry, Karma.”

I stared at him dumbly, idly rubbing the stinging area on my cheek. I wasn’t hearing his continued swearing and apologising, but watched his hands moving awkwardly in the air in front of me until he eventually opted to put it on my shoulder. “Do you want some ice for that?” Getting hit wasn’t a new experience for me. On the contrary, I tended to get into a lot of fights and doubted my nose would ever be the same after the amount of beatings it took, but I normally saw it coming. I didn’t expect adults to lash out on me like that, but then again what I’d said had been pretty rude, so maybe I had it coming.

“God, Karma, I didn’t mean it. I was way out of line, I’m so sorry. Just- promise me you won’t tell your mother, please? It was an accident and – and I’m sure we don’t want her to be worrying over nothing, yeah?” He looked earnestly into my eyes, pleading. I couldn’t muster a reply, so I just nodded and backed away.