Cold

Luca

I hear a knock on the door and immediately know who it is. I sigh in annoyance as I get up from the couch and walk across the living room to get it. As I swing it open there stands my father. His arms are crossed.

“Are you here to apologize to mom?” I ask. He frowns at my words as though he is caught off guard. He probably didn’t think that I knew about what he said to her.

“What are you talking about?” He asks, and I can’t help but scoff.

“I’m not stupid, she came back crying and wouldn’t come out of her room last night,” I tell him. His jaw tightens at my words.

“I came to talk to you,” He says, his voice slightly coarse, and now I’m the one frowning.

I step outside onto the porch, closing the door behind me. The sky is a rich blue and the clouds are crisp white. The greenery that was sprinkled throughout the neighborhood was vibrant. Then there was my father dressed in black with a straight face.

My dad walks across the porch and leans on a nearby pillar.

“What do you want to talk to me about?” I ask.

“Your sister,” He says, he then clears his throat and shifts a little, he was uncomfortable.

Of course, he would come here to ask about Bell. He never seemed to be too concerned about me. If Bell said half the things I’ve said to my father he would die right here. He thought of her as this precious diamond that couldn’t get a scratch on it.

I tried my hardest to not let it bother me.

“What about her?” I ask, I wasn’t going to volunteer any information.

“Is she ok?” He asks, I could see the concern in his eyes. He recently found out that she was communicating with our grandfather in secret and I would say that he overacted. Bell hasn’t talked to him since.

“Don’t worry Dad, I’m here to clean up your mess,” I say in a tone filled with fake comfort. He looks down and doesn’t say anything.

I couldn’t help but feel anger towards him. He left mom too many times to count because he always seemed to be a pro at messing things up.

“Is that all?” I ask, getting a little restless in the silence.

“Yeah,” He says, letting out a slight sigh, leaning off of the pillar and walking towards his car.

“Thanks for dropping by,” I say as he ducks to get into his car. I glance back over at the front window and see Bell peeking behind the curtain. The sound of his car starting brings me back and I watch as he drives off.

I open the door and walk back inside. Bell is seated on the couch as though she wasn’t curious at all.

“He came to check up on you,” I say, walking past her and behind the couch to lean on the back of it.

She takes my laptop off the coffee table and lifts it up behind her to hand it to me.

“I kind of feel bad, I should’ve come out and talked to him,” She says regretfully and I give her a slightly confused face.

“Why? He didn’t even ask to talk to you,” I say taking my laptop from her and putting it under my arm.

“I guess he didn’t,” She says with a hint of sadness in her voice, turning her attention away from me.

I decided to not try and comfort her. She needed to make her own decision on when she wanted to talk to him again. Despite what I said I hoped that it was soon because I didn’t want to be the mediator between them anymore.

My mom comes out of her bedroom and walks down the hall. She was usually dressed in scrubs but instead, she wore a tight skirt and a loose blouse. As she walked she struggled to put on an earring.

My mother’s a doctor but when it came to talking about her job she would get all quiet and just end up saying that she worked for Jefferson’s Interest which was our grandfather’s company.

I just came to the conclusion that the entire thing was shady, while Bell spent a lot of her time trying to find out more about it which is what got her in trouble in the first place.

“I’m heading out,” She says breathlessly, giving me a kiss on the cheek as she passes me and walks into the kitchen.

“Where are you going dressed like that?” Bell asks, I glance at her and then back at my mother.

“They are having a meeting with all the heads of your grandfather’s business,” She says as she grabs a banana from the kitchen and then makes her way to the front door.

“Ok, I’m going to Ester’s then,” I say, and she gives a small nod as she struggles to keep her balance while putting on her heels.

“Are you staying the night?” She asks, trying to keep eye contact with me. I walk over to her and hold her up with my free hand.

“I’ll text you if I do, but that means Bell makes sure that you get home at a reasonable time,” I tell her while looking at Bell who glances up at me.

“Got it,” She says plainly looking back at her phone.

“Thanks, sweetie,” My mom says, letting out a breath as she stands up and then grabs her jacket, and then checks her phone.

“James is here, I’m going out to dinner too so I’ll be back later than usual,” She says giving me another kiss and blowing one in Bell’s direction, she pretends to catch it and returns the gesture.

“Okay,” She says, letting out a breath of preparation before turning to open the door to leave.

As she steps out she pops her head back in.

“Bye,” She adds, and I give her a small wave, she smiles and leaves.

“When are you leaving, can you drop me off at Juniper’s?” Bell asks, and I sigh.

“Yeah, but I’m driving,” I say walking down the hall where my bedroom is.

“But I need the practice,” She whines.

“Take it or leave it, I’m leaving in 30 minutes,” I say as I walk into my room and close the door.

Bell and I have gotten along all our lives. We were only one year apart. It was the classic older brother protecting little sister dynamic. As we got older we became closer, I stopped looking at her as a baby and more as someone who can make her own decisions.

I don’t think our father ever got to that point though, maybe because he didn’t spend as much time with her as he wanted to while growing up. I would be lying if I blamed it all on him, our mom had a rough time letting him be around her when she was little.

In the family she is what everyone focused on, everyone was always so worried about her and though I did hold some resentment toward my parents because of it I came to the conclusion that I liked that I wasn’t so heavily judged and shielded.

…

I pulled into the driveway of Aunt Pepper’s house, since she was so close with our mom we became friends with her kids Juniper and Jin.

There was a whole situation since they had different fathers but I was never super interested in all the confusion.

Juniper was the youngest and she and Bell spent a lot of time together, she was small and had red hair and green eyes. A perfect mix of her mother and her father Thomas. Jin had Asian features with black hair and dark brown eyes.

Bell opens the car door and gets out with her backpack. School was starting next week and I knew for a fact that she hadn’t done her summer assignment yet.

Jin gets to the door and she looks up at him for a few seconds before putting her head down and walking past him. Jin then looks at me and decides to come out, walking up to my car, opening the door, and duckling to get in the passenger’s seat. I took the key out of the car knowing that we would be talking.

“Hey,” He says lightly, giving a small smile. I don’t return the gesture.

“What’s up?” I ask, and he shifts in his seat to turn more in my direction.

“School starts next week, have you heard from Ethan?” He asks, I groan.

“You have to talk to him man, I don’t think that he’s going to show up at school if you don’t,” Jin prompts.

“Well that’s not my problem,” I say. “I have too many conflicts going on in my own family to worry about his feelings,” I said leaning back in my seat.

“He’s not answering his phone and I’m a little worried. I’m sure that if you just talk to him you can clear things up,” He says. I put the key in the ignition starting the car in hopes that he would take a hint. Jin sighs and opens the door.

“You coming to the party this weekend?” He asks.

“Parties are not my thing,” I say, giving him a look that I knew would make him not push me.

“Esters going and Ethan is going to be there. So I’ll see you there,” He says. I sigh, he was right there was no way that I wouldn’t go if Ester was going.

Jin closes the door and walks back inside. I knew that he meant well but sometimes I would get irritated with how much he pushed my boundaries.

I drive off and head over to Ester’s house.

…

I pull into Ester’s driveway and see that her dad Oliver and her mom Sarah are packing bags into their car.

I park and open the door, getting out and walking over to them.

“Ester’s inside,” Oliver says dismissively, distracted by placing the last suitcase in the trunk.

“Where are you guys going?” I ask as he closes the trunk and then turns his attention towards me.

“Sarah has some business in Rome,” He says dryly.

Oliver wasn’t a huge fan of mine. My mom and he used to be really close but my mom always says things happen and people aren’t going to be close forever. I remember how upset I was as a kid when she told me that because I was worried what happened to her and Oliver would happen to me and Ester.

The large front door swings open and out comes Ester. She’s in a summer dress and barefoot. She runs over to me and practically jumps into my arms. She wraps her arms around my neck and I grab her waist to keep her up. I feel uncomfortable knowing that Oliver is still standing right there.

“I thought you were mad at me,” She whispers in my ear.

“Why would I be?” I ask, and she sighs as I put her down. Her dress gets caught on me and she pulls it down as her feet hit the ground.

“Because of what happened at the bonfire,” She says in a shy voice. Oliver clears his throat still standing there.

“Your mother and I are leaving. Be responsible and make good choices,” He announces. Ester nods and that’s when her twin brother Noah runs out of the house.

“You guys leaving?” He asks, dressed in athleisure.

“Yeah, where are you off to?” Oliver asks.

“Hm, let me take a wild guess. Mila’s place,” Ester says before Noah, who is now running in place, can say anything.

“Ok, be safe and all that jazz, look both ways before you cross the street,” Oliver says in a tired tone as though he’s run out of good advice, he kisses Ester on the forehead and waves at Noah.

“Bye babies,” Sarah says sweetly, walking over to Noah first and giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She then walks over to Ester and does the same before walking over to the passenger seat of the car and getting in.

“Bye Mom, peace out Dad,” Esters says casually, throwing up a peace sign before taking my hand and practically dragging me to the front door.

Oliver starts driving off and Noah matches the car’s speed until they go in separate directions.

Ester stops right in front of it and looks at me.

“So you’re not upset about the bonfire thing?” She asks. I frown at her in confusion.

“Why would I be? If I’m upset about anything it’s that you are going to the party this weekend,” I say. She sighs.

“I can’t skip out, it’s Mila’s birthday party,” She says, her voice being sincere.

“And you know for a fact that she’s going to invite Ethan and he’s going to go for the same reason that you are going,” I explained to her. She looks away.

“I’ll just avoid him,” She says plainly.

“You never told me what happened,” I point out as I turn her head to look back at me.

Ester and I had been friends since I started making memories. She was a few months younger than me and when we were young she would follow me around wherever I went. As we got older I started to follow her around since she was the more extroverted out of the two of us.

I became pretty dependent on her when it came to anything involving leaving my house.

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” She says as though she’s begging me to stop pursuing an answer.

“So you want me to go to that party and do what? Avoid Ethan too?” I ask.

“You can do what you want Luca,” She says in a dismissive tone, seeming a little irritated that I was pushing. She turns and opens the front door going inside.

“I just feel like I’m in the dark,” I say, following her inside and closing the door behind me.

“Maybe I should just ask Ethan,” I say in a thoughtful voice, she turns around and looks at me.

“Yeah, ask him and see what he says,” She says aggressively, there was something important that she was keeping from me and I so badly wanted to know what it was.

I walk over to her. She’s standing in front of the steps leading into the sunken living room.

“Hey, you know that I’m only asking because I care about you,” I tell her looking into her hazel eyes, she closes them.

“I know,” She says. “I just don’t know if I can-” She stops herself and then moves away from me.

“Can we just drop it for now?” She asks, and I have no choice but to agree with a slight nod. I didn’t want to upset her.

“Ok, I wanted to attempt to make a cake for Mila’s party,” She says, her voice shifting from emotional to forced cheerfulness. I scratch my neck still feeling a little bothered by the whole thing.

“Yeah that sounds cool,” I say unenthusiastically.

She walks up to me and pulls me into the kitchen.

“Come on Luca, get excited. It will be fun,” she says enthusiastically.

“Yay,” I added in the same tone of voice.

Mila was Noah’s girlfriend; they had just started dating recently. Her parents Tiana and Tony were close to my dad so I saw them a lot when Bell and I were with him.

She always celebrated her birthday the weekend before school started because she didn’t want to do it during the school year.

Ester gets the ingredients out. She struggles to reach the flower on the top shelf so I walk up behind her and do it for her. I’m distracted though.

I hadn’t been thinking about the bonfire until Ester brought it up to me. Something didn’t feel right and it was bothering me.