Miss Braxton: Home and Away Fanfic

Chapter 3

I perched on the very edge of my chair at the table, like a bird ready to take flight at the slightest chance. An animal instinct to run and hide stirred inside me. I wasn't used to feeling this way. Back in the city, I was always the strong one of my mother and me. I was the one with the job. I was the one that brought food home and made sure we had a place to live. I was the one who kept her cool and remained completely level-headed and vigilant. All of a sudden, thrust into the mysterious depths of my new family, I was reduced to a worrying wreck of nerves. I was like a surfer who had swum too far out to sea, been swept up by the tide and encircled by sharks.

Once I'd announced who I was, Kyle had pointblank refused to go to work and stayed in the house, watching me like a hawk. He sat opposite me, staring with big brown eyes the colour of melted chocolate. My eyes weren't like his, or Heath's. Mine were a stormy green, the same kind of hue as Brax's and according to my mother, a spitting image of my father's. My hair was unlike all of theirs as well. I had my mum's flaxen hair, blonde and sun-kissed, long and unkempt. All of these similarities and differences I picked up in a matter of seconds, just from watching the three brothers around me and spotting little details, insignificant to any other eye but mind-boggling to me.

Heath leant against the sofa, his eyes flitting to me and then to the floor and then to his brothers and back again, as if he was trying to make sense of it all, find some kind of connection. To say that he and the others were speechless was a massive understatement. Everyone in the room was as quiet as if we were attending a funeral.

Just then, Brax came to sit back at the table and placed a mug of steaming tea down in front of me. It was a weak attempt at relaxing me, but I felt somewhat grateful that he was at least trying to make me feel more comfortable. Something told me that welcoming a new sister into the family wasn't something he did every day.

"Thanks." I smiled, accepting the mug of tea and wrapping my hands about it even though I wasn't cold.

"You, uh... want anything else at all? Because if you're hungry I can shout you a feed at Angelo's."

"No, I'm fine." I insisted. "Thanks, Brax."

"Hey? Don't mention it," He said, scowling as he leant forwards on the table and thoughtfully brushed his lips with the tips of his fingers. "So, Alex, let me get this straight; our old man had a fling with your mum. You were the result. He never knew and-"

"Oh, he knew." I averred interrupting my brother. "He knew I was his. He just didn't care. Every so often, when I was a baby or an infant, he'd turn up to the house and demand money from my mum. Eventually she got sick of the fact he up and left as soon as she gave him cash. She told him to sling his hook - said that we wanted nothing more to do with him. He didn't take it very well."

"I bet." Brax murmured, sharing a look with Heath. They were apparently unfazed by our father's conduct.

"He did the same thing with me." Kyle piped up, glancing at me with something close to recognition and empathy. "Turned up out of the blue every so often and requested money. Then he was off again for months at a time."

"Yeah. That's right." I nodded. "So when my mum told him to leave us alone he just lost it. He picked her up and threw her against the wall. Broke her wrist. That was around my third birthday. We never heard or saw from him again. A few years later, mum found out he was in prison. She was glad. My mum... she's never really been happy. I think it's because of him. He made her jumpy and nervous and she used to cry all the time. I reckoned it was some kind of depression or nervous breakdown." I paused and took a sip of my tea. My hands were shaking. I realized I'd never spoken aloud about these things before - not with anybody, ever. I'd never had reason to; there was no one who asked and there was no one to tell. "So, anyway, I tried to go visit him when I was older. I wanted to tell him what a waste of space he was. I'm still so angry about what he did to mum... but I never ended up going. Didn't get the chance. I'd have to be sixteen to go into the prison visiting on my own, but I'm only fifteen. Then I found out he died over a year ago."