DIFFERENT (Different Series Book 1) (5 page)

              I thought back to what breakfast was like at the Kingstons’. My foster mum, Julie, was usually at work, so she’d leave a box of cereal out on the table. It was unusual to find any milk left in the fridge, and I didn’t like to linger for too long out of my bedroom when Julie and my foster dad Doug were at work in case Max appeared.

              It wasn’t that Julie and Doug were bad people. They worked hard and everything, but it was like they were a puzzle with a missing piece.

***

Monty’s was a quaint Tudor brick building that was situated in a tiny village an hour from Oakwood that overlooked acres of fields. Regardless of where it was located, Monty’s was packed, and there wasn’t so much as one free table.

              We were seated in an alcove around a rectangular mahogany table as we waited for our food to arrive. I didn’t feel hungry; instead, I just felt anxious. I checked my phone to see if Leo had texted me but he hadn’t.

              ‘Celeste, it’s family time.’ Terry directed his gaze to my phone.

              ‘Sorry,’ I muttered before I placed it into my purple over-the-shoulder bag.

              How could it be family time when their son wasn’t even here? How could it be family time when I was an outsider?

***

I’d been four when it’d first happened. My foster brother had pushed me into the pond in the garden. I remember the cold water engulfing me as I desperately tried to grab onto the muddy grass to pull myself up.

              I remembered being dragged out, my white dress weighed down with mud and water as I coughed out the muck that lay within the pond. My foster mum was down on her knees patting my back, a look of frantic worry on her face.

              ‘I told you both never to go near the pond,’ she said before hugging me.

              ‘I told her she was too close to it, but she didn’t listen,’ my foster brother said.

              ‘He pushed me,’ I coughed out.

              ‘No, I never!’

              ‘Celeste, you can’t accuse people of such horrible, untrue things.’ My foster mum held onto my arms and looked me straight in the eye as she spoke.

              ‘But he did it.’

              ‘We won’t tolerate lies like that in this family,’ she scowled.

              I turned to face my foster brother, who smirked back at me. An intense anger swarmed over me as I willed for him to be dragged off his feet into the pond. I longed for him to feel as frightened as I had.

              My foster brother fell onto the ground and was pulled along the muddy grass by an invisible force. He screamed out as he tried grabbing out at the grass. My foster mum looked horrified as she ran over to him and tried pulling at his arms as he fell into the water.

              His whole body went under the water, causing it to splash up and bubbles to form at the surface. She desperately put her hands under the water and tried to pull him up, but he wouldn’t budge. Then the water stopped splashing.

              I remembered looking away from the pond, not wanting to watch what was happening. That was when my foster mum pulled the lifeless boy onto the ground and pressed her hands onto his chest. His skin had gone as white as paper, and his lips were blue.

              Then he opened his eyes and started to cough out. My foster mum wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his drenched clothes.

              ‘You,’ she pointed at me. ‘You did this.’

              I hadn’t even touched him; all I’d done was think something.

              ‘You tried to kill my son.’

              I shook my head, feeling scared and confused. I didn’t understand why she was shouting at me. I didn’t understand what I’d done.

              ‘What’re you thinking about?’ Louisa said to me on the car journey home.

              ‘Just stuff,’ I said, as I tried to shake the memory from my head.

              ‘Did you like Monty’s, then?’ Terry asked from the driver’s seat.

              ‘Yeah, it was great.’

              ‘Good, Jake likes it there too.’ His reply was met with silence.

              Jake was the Prestons’ son. I knew that he’d left home, but I didn’t know much more about him, and I’d never met him. I kinda just presumed this was because they missed him, but it was odd that I hadn’t seen a picture of him or ever seen any of the Prestons Skype him.

              I guess that even perfect families could be complicated at times.

              ‘You wanna come to the park with me when we get back?’ Louisa asked as she leaned her head back against one of the leather headrests that were over the backseats.

              ‘Sure.’

              ‘Cool, we can take Alf.’

              ‘Great.’ I grimaced.

              ‘We could stop by Megan’s and pick your jacket up as well.’

              ‘I’m sure she’ll bring it in to school tomorrow.’

              ‘That’s a good idea, Louisa, as Megan won’t know whose jacket it is.’

              ‘I’ll message her on Facebook or something.’

              ‘You should go and get it today, Celeste. You need something warmer than that denim jacket you’re in.’

              I couldn’t deny that my denim jacket had next to no warmth on it, probably due to the fact I’d outgrown it by a year or two again. It stopped at my waist, and the sleeves barely reached my wrists. It looked like I’d been to Wonderland and eaten the cake that had made Alice grow.

              ‘And it means we’ll get to see Brandon, and he’s cute,’ she grinned.

              ‘And who exactly is Brandon?’ Gloria asked.

              ‘Megan’s super cute older brother,’ Louisa replied.

              ‘Hmm,’ Gloria said.

              So it looked like not only would I be spending my Saturday afternoon in the park with a dog that hated me, but I’d also have to confront the boy who’d bruised my arms. Brilliant.

***

    It was freezing, and my denim jacket was seriously lame. As we walked up the street I made a mental note never to leave my jacket in crazy boys’ bedrooms ever again.

              Louisa was humming to herself as she held onto Alf’s lead. He didn’t get too close to me, but he seemed to tolerate my presence, seeing as Louisa was there too.

              ‘Can’t we just go to the park? I’m sure I can get my jacket back on Monday.’

              ‘And miss out on the chance to see Brandon? Are you kidding me?’

              ‘Come on, he’s not all that cute. The whole spiked hair thing is overrated.’

              ‘All the girls in my year like him. Amber Hardy said that he actually smiled at her in the school corridor the other day. She’s such a lucky cow.’

              ‘Right,’ I sighed.

              ‘Are you okay? You’ve been acting weird for the last few days.’

              ‘I’m fine, just tired I guess.’

              ‘And cold,’ she giggled.

              ‘Yeah, that too.’

              ‘As long as you’re okay. You know you can talk to me if you want to, like sisters would.’

              ‘I know. You’re the best little sis that I could ask for.’

              ‘Really?’ she smiled.

              ‘Yeah, really.’

              As we arrived onto Megan’s street, I felt a sickening feeling rise in my stomach. I really didn’t want to be here. Alf didn’t seem overly keen either, as Louisa had to really tug on his lead to get him to move.

              That was the thing with time, though. You could stall something for so long, but eventually you’d have to face it. So surely just getting it over with was the best thing to do.

              ‘Wow, their house is so pretty,’ Louisa said as she looked up at the detached building. I was pretty amazed that there wasn’t one piece of rubbish or any cigarette butts in the driveway. ‘I hope that Brandon answers.’

              ‘Yeah,’ I muttered out, as I followed her up the driveway.

              As I knocked on the door, I found myself wondering how I’d managed to get myself into this situation. I didn’t want to be back at this house. I never wanted to come near this house ever again.

              ‘Oh, it’s you. If you want Leo, he has just left,’ Megan said on answering. Her hair was in a loose plait that hung down her blue zip-up hooded top, and she was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms. It was really odd seeing her look anything less than perfect.

              ‘Yeah, hey. Erm, no, I left my jacket here last night,’ I muttered out, whilst wondering why the heck Leo had only just left.

              ‘Come in, look around. Feel free to help me tidy up the house. Leo helped me a bit, but then he had to go to football practise or something, and Brandon is just blaring music out of his room and being a pain.’

              At the mention of Brandon my stomach sank and Louisa’s smile grew larger.

              ‘No dogs, so you’ll have to wait out here,’ she said to Louisa, whose smile instantly faded.

              ‘That sucks,’ she said under her breath.

              ‘I’ll be quick,’ I said, as I followed Megan into her house. There was no way that I was spending longer in this house than I had to.

              As I walked into the hallway, I again wondered why Megan was stressing out so much about the mess. To me it looked tidy. It was only when she led me into the sitting room that I realised what the problem was. The whole room stank of stale drink and vomit. There were damp patches on one of the walls, and I didn’t even want to think about what had been on it. There was a bin bag in the middle of the room that was full of plastic cups and crisp packets, and the furniture was currently zigzagging the room.

              ‘Wow, it must have got wild after I left.’

              ‘Yeah, totally. Luckily Leo was here to chuck everyone out, else I don’t know what I would have done. I tried to get Brandon to help, but he was acting all weird and wouldn’t leave his room.’

              ‘Yeah, Leo’s good like that,’ I replied.

              ‘I haven’t found a jacket. I did find a shoe, though,’ she chuckled.

              ‘Really? That’s strange.’

              ‘Yeah, it was a nice one as well. A gold heeled shoe with a black buckle, in my size and everything. They could have at least left them both.’

              ‘So inconsiderate of them,’ I smirked.

              ‘Ha, yeah, totally. That’s the last time they get an invite to one of my parties. Not that I’m ever having a party again. My parents will freak if I haven’t got rid of this sick smell by the time they get back.’

              ‘You got any air freshener?’

              ‘Only body spray.’

              ‘That’ll do. Is it okay if I have a look around for my jacket?’

              ‘Yeah, sure. Check my parents’ room. I know that some people used that as a cloak room last night, even though I told people not to go in there,’ she sighed.

              ‘Okay,’ I said as I headed towards the stairs. I knew exactly where my jacket was, and it wasn’t in her parent’s room.

              Just because I could do what I could didn’t mean that I never felt afraid. In fact, the reason why I usually ever did what I did was because I was scared. Some people cowered away when they were scared, others thought through it to conquer many things, whereas I just defended myself in a way that most people couldn’t.

              I paused in front of his room, examining the band poster on it which was the only one of his posters that I hadn’t caused to tear in half. There was music blasting out of his room, and I found that the fear was creeping back over me again. I closed my eyes and counted to ten under my breath before I forced myself to knock loudly. When there was no reply I knocked again.

              ‘Megan, go away. I said that I wanted to be left alone,’ he shouted to me.

              I bit on the corner of my lip as I pushed open the door and stepped into the last room ever that I wanted to be standing in. I closed the door behind me as he stared at me open-mouthed.

              ‘Get out!’ he shouted over the music.

              ‘I just want my jacket,’ I shouted back, my words muffled by the music.

              ‘Get out now.’

              ‘I want my jacket.’ I didn’t know if he could hear me or if he was just being ignorant. I scanned my eyes around his room, but I couldn’t see my jacket. He’d taken all his posters down, and the faded patches of walls looked bare.

              He didn’t get off his bed, but the look he was giving me was one of pure disgust. I didn’t have the time for this. I just wanted my jacket back. I focused hard on the CD player that was on his bedside table.

              The music screeched to a stop, and I was greeted by silence.

              ‘You crazy psycho,’ he said.

              ‘I just want my jacket back.’

              ‘You aren’t normal, what you can do? You’re a freak.’

              ‘You wouldn’t let me go. I have the bruises on my arms to prove it.’

              ‘I was just messing about, that’s all. You didn’t have to nearly break my fingers clean off.’

              ‘I didn’t, you’re fine. I didn’t do that.’ I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, and my lips felt dry. ‘All I want is my jacket back.’

              ‘I’ll give it to you if you stay away from me and my sister.’

              ‘I can’t stay away from Megan. She’s in my year, and she’s friends with my best friend.’

              ‘If you ever hurt her-‘

              ‘I wouldn’t.’

              He stood up and walked over to the black and white wardrobe that was to the far side of his room. He opened it, took out my jacket, and threw it at me. I caught it in one hand, a weird sense of relief washing over me.

              ‘You better not, else I’ll make sure everyone knows what a freak you are.’

              ‘Then I’d tell them what you tried to do to me.’

              ‘I didn’t do anything to you. Why would I want to? Why would I need to?’