Nothing about this past week has been as good as burying my head in my own Queensland pillow. I smell a familiar scent of my shampoo and conditioner and relax. But, my pillow doesn’t just smell like me. Rhys had been in here while I was away. My head becomes cloudy and I fury my eyebrows in frustration.
“Is nothing mine these days?” I yell, followed by a scream and my pillow flying at the door.
Suddenly, my door clicks and it startles me. The door opens quickly and the voice to follow is frantic with concern.
“Mia, are you alright, what is it?”
I push every other thought out of my head and the largest smile spreads on my lips. I jump out of bed and sprint across my room. I jump on my brother, clinging to him for dear life. The smell of his cologne and aftershave is lingering on him from whenever he last freshened up.
“Axel! I can’t believe it’s you! What are you doing here?”
He smiles back. “I came home early. I thought I heard someone come in. Thought it was Rhys, but then I realised the sound was in your room. Why’d you come home early?”
“I missed it, and things got so complicated, I needed home.”
“Well it looks like it was a good thing for me to come back then!”
“I know. Oh my god, I still can’t believe you’re here!” I give him another hug.
“So where is Rhys? I gave him a call saying that I was home and he said he’ll be home in the morning. But, I don’t know where he’s coming home from. Oh well, knowing him, probably a heckers party!”
I let my hair fall over my face and keep my head down.
“Mia, what are you doing?”
I pick up my brush and start combing my hair. “Brushing my hair, what else?”
“No, you’re doing that thing you do when you’ve either done something wrong or you feel guilty about something I don’t know about.”
“Pfft. Nope, just brushing my hair! Ha.” I laugh, but even I’m not convinced by my words.
He leans against the door frame, arms crossed, waiting.
“Fine. Rhys came to Melbourne.”
“What? I thought it was just you and Renee?”
“Well, it was.”
“What?” He’s so confused.
“Alright, how about we have this discussion over dinner, I haven’t eaten yet.”
“Mia, it’s 11, everywhere is closed.”
“Not Maccas.”
“Alright, I’ll drive.”
We get to McDonald’s in five minutes. Axel orders us dinner and I begin pondering ideas of what exactly to tell him. He returns with two chicken burgers, regular and large chips, a Fanta slushie and a large coke.
“Alright, go for your life.” He says, interested in what’s been happening.
“Ok, well as you know, Renee and I went to Melbourne and when we got there, the girls had organised to go to the movies. Noah was also invited and he kind of confronted me and said if I didn’t stay at his house, he’d be at my apartment until I spoke to him.” Only now did I realise how bad this sounded. “I agreed to stay with him and the next day his girlfriend showed up.” Axel raised his eyebrows. “He and I kissed that night and he broke up with her cause he didn’t want to lose me again.” Axel goes to express the disapproval written all over his face. “Yeah, I know I wasn’t really thinking and it was stupid. Anyway, then Renee said that Rhys had texted her some stuff saying he was coming down, and he was finally going to tell me how he really felt. So, I went back to my apartment and he showed up. I was actually really happy to see him, but then we started fighting because of Noah and then he left. That was yesterday. I haven’t seen or spoken to him once.”
