These Words to Her

It was almost three hours later when Aunt Hannah pulled up outside of my parents' house and sat idling while she waited for me to collect all my things. "You're never organised, are you?" she asked, shaking her head as I bent down and picked up the back cover of my phone. It'd slid off my lap when she had turned the last corner.

"I am when I want to to be," I said, brushing my hair back from my face, "but I don't want to be here so I will be as disorganised as I can. You should know this by now."

"I do, but I just keep hoping you'll mature somewhat between visits."

As I shoved my phone into my pocket, I snorted at her words and flung the door open. Of course no one was at the door waiting for me but I hadn't expected anything different because even though they're the ones who wanted me to come and visit them, they never gave a damn about those simple things. Oh no, they're always concerned with what they want to be concerned about, like Nicole, are you still doing your instrument lessons? and Hannah said you got a D in a class – you obviously aren't applying yourself too much to school which drives me absolutely insane.

My bags were hauled from the back of the car and I set my suitcase on the ground, ducking my head slightly to look into the car. "It's not too late to take me home," I reminded her.

She sighed. "You know I'll be on call for you whenever, but the same as every other year, I'll only come and get you if you really need me to, not because you're just fed up of being there," she said and I knew it was true. There was no way she'd come and get me just because I wasn't getting along with my parents – it had to be something either serious or life-threatening for her to come and break me free from this hell.

Grabbing my suitcase handle and hauling my other bag higher onto my shoulder, I closed the door to the car and turned and headed up the driveway while fishing out my phone that had started vibrating against my thigh. At quick glance at the name, I pulled a face but answered nonetheless. "Hello."

"You could at least sound a tiny bit thrilled to hear from me," he said, not bothering with the formalities that I had gone to an effort to include myself.

"I'll never be thrilled to hear from you, especially not when I'm approaching the house of hell." I reached the front door and let go of the handle of the suitcase to reach the key that was in my pocket that Aunt Hannah had given to me just before I'd gotten out the car. The key actually belonged to me and was given by Michelle two years ago, but I honestly didn't want to own a key to their house so the only other option was to give it to Hannah unless they wanted the key thrown into the bin and never seen again. "Plus I said I would call you. What part of that did you not get?"

There was a pause where I opened the front door, dragged my bags in and closed it behind me. No one seemed to be close enough to hear the door open which I took as a good sign as I knew I'd have to take two trips to take my bags upstairs and I did not want to do that with people around.

"Can I not call you just for a talk instead of about something specific?" he asked, not at all happy with his tone.

I began with my suitcase as it was the heavier, and to try and save making too much noise, I lifted it up and waddled upstairs with it to make sure it didn't scrape any of the stairs on the way. My room had been the same one for the entire time I'd been visiting, but what I did not expect was opening the door and seeing that they had redecorated my room which I had specifically forbid them from touching if they wanted me to stay in the same house as them until I was old enough to be able to tell them that they could go screw themselves.

"Hello?" came from my phone and it took me a short moment to realise I was standing in the doorway of my room with the phone still in my hand. I was not happy.

"Listen, can I phone you back? I'm currently not at all pleased and I feel like punching something," I said, resting my head on the door frame. I could not believe that they had changed my entire room and removed almost everything that had once occupied the room that I had placed in it. It now looked like a guest room or a hotel room, with the bed now having a shiny black frame that was accompanied by white sheets and a bedspread that was turned down at the end. The walls was all plain and none of my pictures were up so it was just an entire room full of cream coloured walls that matched the lino flooring. There was nothing homely about this room, and if they wanted me to feel at home with them, why the hell would they go and change my room?

He could probably hear my breathing from down the phone because he replied with, "Don't get angry, Nicole."

"Don't fucking patronise me," I hissed, stomping out of the room and back downstairs.

"Don't you even think about taking this out on me," he bit back. "You know you have to deal with your anger and that if you're going to let your parents ruin that, then you might as well just forget about everything."

"You know what? I'll call you back when I feel like it." With that, I hung up my phone and shoved it into my pocket before kicking my bag in frustration. Nothing ever seemed to go right when I was at this house.

With a huff, I picked the bag up and started to head upstairs when Michelle came wandering from the kitchen and saw me. "Nicole, I didn't hear you come in!" she exclaimed, a smile on her face. Of course the smile wasn't real but she just always felt the need to include one, almost as if a smile could win me back like I was a prize.

"Whatever," I muttered and continued up the stairs.

She didn't take the hint and came and stood at the bottom, resting her hand on the banister. "Is anything the matter?"

I spun around on the step and nearly lost my footing. "I've been here not even five minutes and I already hate it here. Guess you're doing something right, huh?" I snapped before turning back around and storming the rest of the way up and going into my room, slamming the door shut and locking it. Good thing about the house my parents live in is that each bedroom has a lock on for privacy, and even though they've tried to get mine removed, it still hasn't happened. I guess it's the one good thing about having to be here.