It Wasn't Meant to Be Like This

The next day, I awoke to find April not there and I panicked immediately, running downstairs and almost falling off the last step, I quickly went into the kitchen.

Beth was cooking breakfast, Jack was eating and April was timidly drinking some juice.

“Morning” Beth chirps. I nodded slowly, trying to take in the odd scene which somehow reminded me of happy families.

“Finn, I-” April was about to begin, but just as she was about to. I hear my mother call from the front door, she had been on night shift last night and just got back.

“April! Is Finn here?” Mom shouts.

“In here Mom!” April shouts back and soon my wonderful mother appears, tired and pale.

“Finn, what a nice surprise.” Mom says warmly, kissing my cheek. She sees Beth and immediately smiles warmly.

“You must be Beth, Jack’s new girlfriend?” she asks and Beth smiles politely and nods, and takes my mother’s offering hand.

“Morning Cathy” Jack says, Mom wasn’t surprised to find him, back in high school Jack use to almost live here.

“Morning Jack, have you used all the eggs?” she asks him and Jack grin cheekily, finishing his breakfast.

“We’ll buy some more for you if you want Ms. Donnell” Beth says smoothly and Mom smiles at her.

“Call me Cathy, sweetheart” Mom says and I can’t help rolling my eyes, as she was already using pet names. April was looking at me frantically, hoping I wouldn’t tell Mom what she did last night.

“So, did you all sleep over or?” Mom asks curiously, making herself some herbal tea, I never understood why she liked it.

April looked at me desperately, apart from Mom, we all felt the tension building, the decision was up to me.

“Yeah, she called last night so she wouldn’t be alone.” I say and Mom smiles sweetly, and I felt bad for lying.

“April, honey…you should have said I would have asked Finn to come over for you” Mom says and April smiles weakly. I glare at her slightly, feeling ashamed that I lied to my mother for her. When she should be punished.

“Hey Mom?” I say and Mom turns around and I see the tiredness around her eyes, I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t disappoint her, April was her perfect child always has and always will be. I couldn’t ruin it, I simply couldn’t.

“I need to talk to you about school, later” I say and Mom nods, confused but agrees. April announces she’s going to shower and leaves quietly. Beth begins washing up, much to my mother’s dismay.

“Don’t worry honey, Finn will do that for you” Mom tells her and I hear Jack sniggering while I ranted profanities in my head.

“Sure” I say through gritted teeth, Beth tried not to laugh as Mom nodded at me to start, so with great haste, I did the dishes while Mom went upstairs to bed. Beth tried to help but Jack threatened to wake my Mum and say I made her help.

“The bastard.

“Jack, don’t be so mean!” Beth chides, giving me a comforting smile. I felt like dancing around shouting “Na-na-na-na!”

But I didn’t.

“Aw c’mon Beth. Do you actually want to clean the dishes?” he asks her teasing and Beth looked at him, a funny look in her eye.

“It would be nice if you helped him you know. Seeing as you threatened if I did it” Beth says and I could almost kissed her, well I would of. If I could.

“Thank you Beth” I say smugly and I see Jack looking at me, glaring slightly but I’m sure he didn’t mean it.

“Finn” April voices and I turn around, unfortunately I had on my mother’s rubber gloves for washing up because apparently it’s bad for your skin, don’t judge me.

However, the water on the gloves decided to fly….all over Beth.

She gasped and stared at me, giggling “Finn!” she giggles. I smirk and decide to really play it, I flick more water, Jack jumps to her rescue and flicks some at me, Beth does it back at Jack, then April joined in and soon, we were soaked.

Unfortunately, our water fight awoke my mother. Who came downstairs to see the dishes unclean and most of the water on the floor.

She gave me one look. “I’ll pretend this never happened if you tidy it up by the time I’m up again” Mom orders, quickly terrified as what she might do if it wasn’t, we all tidied up.

In the end, I decided it was time for a shower, I got dressed in some old clothes I kept here and towelled dried my hair. I hear a knock at my door.

“C’mon!” I holler, and the door opens, revealing my timid looking sister.

“Hey” she says quietly, looking at the floor.

“Hi” I say, it was awkward between us, that was more than obvious.

“Look, I wanted to say I’m sorry how I acted last night. It was stupid and I promise Finn, I won’t do it again. I’ll never, ever do it again” April says, genuinely.

I couldn’t be mad at her, I loved her too much for that and even know she pisses me off occasionally, I couldn’t hold this grudge against her. We all make mistakes, god knows I’ve done many. Falling for Beth may be one of them.

“You’re forgiven April. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again because I won’t always be there to help you out in time. You could have hurt yourself.” I warn, April nods eagerly, a huge smile on her face.

We waited…until April ran and hugged me.

“Thank you” she whispers.

“You’re welcome” I say, kissing her head.

“Where was Ryan last night?” I ask suddenly, as we pulled away and I folded the towel I just used. April grimaced.

“We, um. Had another fight” she says meekly.

I glanced up, trying not to smile.

“What about?” I attempt to ask seriously.

“He didn’t want me to go to the party” April says and I could have laughed but it would have hurt her feelings.

“Hmm, I actually approve of him now” I say sarcastically. April smiles slightly but agrees with me, that Ryan was in fact right.

“What’s wrong with your school thing?” April says and I look at her, completely lost.

“You told Mom you wanted to talk about it….was it a bluff or?” April says and I shake my head, combing my hair through with my hand.

“Nah, I’m thinking of dropping mechanics” I say and April looks at me, I expect disappointment or something, instead she just smiled, a small but meaningful smile as if it was okay for my to quit.

“Do you think she’ll be mad?” I ask, suddenly concerned that this would upset my Mom.

“Nah, she wants you to be happy” April says and I find myself wondering how she got so mature. She’s 14 for god sake.

“APRIL! I’M LEAVING!” Jack shouts up, April smiles quickly at me before running out to say goodbye, I slowly follow.

I trudge downstairs, to find Beth and Jack ready to go.

“You leaving?” I ask, slightly confused.

“Yeah, I’m taking Beth home then I’ve got work. So I’ll meet you at the apartment later…I don’t know if I’m in tonight” he says and I noticed Beth give me an apologetic look.

Fucking Twat. I instantly think, glaring at Jack in my head.

“Cool” I say simply. April glances at me and I hope she doesn’t realize I’m pissed as hell.

“You know what, I might just stay here tonight.” I suddenly announce and April looks at me surprised.

“Um, okay. I’ll text you tomorrow or something” Jack tells me, but I didn’t care.

“I might call Maggie” I say, and I found myself possessed. Beth was watching me weirdly and April too. Jack nods simply.

“Cool, catch you later” he says. He opened the door, and waved goodbye, Beth did too and that was the only wave I paid attention too. When they left, April closing the door behind them. She turned to me confused.

“Why you stopping here, loser?” she asks me.

“I don’t feel like going home” I say truthfully. Silence between us.

“Want to play monopoly?” April offers, I find myself smiling.
“Can I be the car?” I ask and April pouts, she loves being the car.
“Fine” she sighs, and we both race upstairs childishly to get the board game. We played for hours on end, I took some pictures actually, they could be pretty good when I edited them.

“I won!” April announces, with about thousand fake money notes. Ah, if only it was real. I could be a freaking billionaire, then Beth might fall for me.