The Girl With The Tattoo

21. away from home

Sophie

"Make sure that you have everything you need." Mum reminds me.

It's almost time for me to leave for our residential and I'm just packing away my things so that I can meet up with Lexi. The both of us decided to walk together with our suitcases so that we'd be seated together on the bus.

"Do you have your toothbrush?" Mum asks me, clearly worried that I'm going to forget something.

I pull out my toothbrush that was hidden in my suitcase "Here it is!"

She continues checking things off of her list "Do you have your dance bag?"

I shuffle a little so that I can hold up the bag that's directly behind me "It's here!"

And then I watch as mum walks towards a set of drawers in our living room, opening them and then pulling out two identical boxes. And as she holds them out in front of me, I notice that they're tampons.

"And take these." She tells me, handing over the boxes so that I can hide them in my suitcase "Just in case you need them. Give one to your friend too." She tells me, talking about Lexi.

Mum doesn't know much about Lexi yet as she's only met her on a few odd occasions now. But because mum is so sweet, she's making sure to look after her too because she knows how much she means to me.

"Thanks, mum." I thank her, smiling to show that I appreciate her being so kind.

But before mum can continue packing away my things, I realise how much work she's putting in to make sure that I'm prepared for this trip.

So I decide to ask her this "Mum, why isn't mom out here helping?"

"What do you mean, Soph?" She asks me.

"You're eight months pregnant yet you're the only one doing all the work." I tell her "She could be out here helping but she's hiding away in her office instead. Doesn't it bother you?"

Mum kneels back on the floor opposite me and I can tell that what I said is making her think "Well, she's just really busy with work at the moment."

I shake my head "It doesn't mean she should let you do all of this! You need to rest!"

"I know, Soph. It's just that mom is really stressed and I'd rather just not bother her right now." She admits to me "Like I said, she's just got so much work to do."

"Okay." I let it go.

Mum stands up and I watch as she grabs my suitcase, struggling to pull it up off of the floor because of how heavy it is.

"Here, I got it." I tell her, grabbing the handle off of her "Go and sit down, please. I don't want you hurting yourself."

"Okay, I will." She smiles at me, appreciatively "Just let me know if it's too heavy for you and I'll take some things out and put it in a bag or something."

"It should be fine." I tell her, grabbing the handle and pulling the suitcase without any struggle.

"See! I'm a strong girl now!" I tell her, proudly.

"Yeah, you are." She giggles at me.

Lexi

I pull out my suitcase from my room as I'm almost ready to leave. There's just one last thing that I need to do before I head out of the door.

So I walk directly through to Carl's room without knocking. I don't really care about his privacy after his little outburst the other day! But because he's my brother and I care about him, I can't leave without saying goodbye.

"Carl, I'm leaving." I announce.

He's laying on his bed, turned away from me. I know that he's not sleeping though as he would've turned off whatever game he was playing.

"I just wanted to say goodbye, that's all." I tell him, hoping and praying that he'll snap out of this and he'll hug me.

He's been ignoring me since our argument...

And because I just want things to go back to the way they were, I decide to apologise "I know that you probably hate me right now for what happened, but I just want to say that I'm so fucking sorry!"

I continue "I just want to turn back time and we can be brother and sister again."

But instead of accepting my apology, he doesn't bother turning back around. He continues to stare at his wall as he completely ignores me. But I don't get why he's acting like this. I mean, he's the one that hurt my feelings whereas I was just trying to help him!

And because I'm frustrated, I raise my voice "Okay, if you want to be like that then fuck you! I tried to apologise! But I don't even know why I'm fucking apologising because all I do is try and help you!"

I decide that I've had enough because I'm so done with arguing. I just want to see Sophie because she's the only person I have that doesn't make me feel like utter shit!

"Okay, I just came here to say goodbye." I tell him "I don't want to fight anymore."

And because he's still refusing to answer me, I say "I'll leave you alone to figure things out then."

I turn around to leave. But before I do, I notice a magazine laying on his set of drawers. And because I'm curious, I decide to have a closer look.

My eyes widen as I see the cover. There's a man with very little clothes on, his abs defined and his body quite muscular. Only Carl would have a "Playgirl" magazine stashed in his room.

I guess we do have one thing in common though. I also have a guilty pleasure for looking at pornography whenever I'm bored. But preferably something that doesn't have a middle-aged man on the cover.

But because I don't want to miss the bus, I decide to put the magazine back down before finally walking out of the door.

But I just hope that Carl is okay while I'm gone.