Chapter 8

Summer closed the door behind her and leaned on it looking at us, Skye tried to hide herself with the covers unobtrusively and I just glared at Summer.

“So?” Summer asked expectantly again with a huge grin on her face as she looked at our sister.

“What do you want?” I growled at her.

“I wanna know all about it. I wanna know how she convinced you to do it, I wanna know if she liked it, I wanna know everything.” Summer spoke in a rush as though she’d been holding the words in all night and couldn’t hold them in anymore.

“All about what?” Skye tried to ask innocently but her face was red as a tomato giving away that she knew exactly what Summer was talking about and was more embarrassed than I’d ever known her be. Summer smirked and quirked an eyebrow at us.

“I know you were doing it last night, I heard you.” She crossed her arms and stood waiting for us to respond. Neither of us would meet her eye but I knew she was grinning, she knew she had us right where she wanted.

“Anyone not in the kitchen in twenty minutes gets left behind for the day.” Mum yelled up the stairs making us all jump. Skye yelped a little, looking nervous no doubt worried that she would get caught leaving my room. Summers grin grew even bigger.

“Of course I could make you tell me over breakfast.” She said with a snide note in her voice. Skye took a deep breath, composed herself and slid out of the bed.

“Ok, I’ll tell you while we get dressed.” Skye sighed, walking round the bed and picking up her nightshirt, she appeared to be trying to be nonchalant about it as though it was something she did every day but I could tell she was still a bit nervous. She slipped into her nightshirt and I appreciated the way her naked breasts stuck out as she reached up to pull it over her head, she moved to the door as Summer darted away from it, lunging at me. She kissed me full on the mouth as her she let her hand fondle my nuts and my limp dick.

“Maybe it will be my turn next time?” She whispered quietly as though she didn’t want our sister to hear, then she was gone again, slithering off the bed and opening the door. “If mums in a rush we better let you get in the shower I suppose.” She said loudly as she left the room, pushing Skye infront of her.

I pulled a towel from the drawer and scuttled into the bathroom with it clutched to me and barely covering anything. My heart was still beating fast from being caught with Skye but as the water cascaded over me I tried to calm myself, I was still scared that one of them might say something and we’d all be in trouble but I realised that at least they would be in trouble too. I didn’t have time to think about it too much so I tried not to as I washed, then I had to concentrate as I used dads straight razor to shave as quickly as I dared. I managed to nick myself once or twice and had to go downstairs with tissue still stuck to my face to try and stop the bleeding.

Although mum had said twenty minutes and I’d used up most of it in the bathroom, I was still in the kitchen before the twins. They sauntered in ten minutes later, still in their pyjamas clearly not taking mum seriously. Although she did it playfully, she chased them straight back up the stairs to get dressed.

When they returned it was clear to us that mum disapproved of the short skirts and tight, cropped tops they were wearing, she didn’t say anything to the twins about it, letting her disapproval show only in her face. She made them take a slice of toast each out to the van with them despite their protests that they would get some breakfast in town as she herded us all out into the rain.

Summer and Skye both had umbrellas to keep themselves dry as they waited for mum to get into the van and unlock it, because the twins had nothing but their short tops it was pretty clear they were going to get soaked, I thought they would have brought a jacket or something with them but they hadn’t so the twins huddled under the umbrellas with my sisters while I stood there with my  hands deep in the pockets of my ratty old hoody. Mum unlocked the side door first and the girls all piled in while I waited for her to unlock the passenger door on the front, the rain syncopating my grim thoughts as it beat against my hood.

Although I was feeling a bit grim, I can’t really say I was that conflicted about having taken Skyes virginity, I just knew that the day wasn’t going to be as fun for me as it was for the girls. I don’t usually mind window shopping, but it has to be the right stores, I mean the girls were all chattering about clothes shops and stuff, I would rather have found a music shop or a computer shop or something, I was obvious that anything I suggested would be instantly outvoted.

The drive was boring and I kept to myself as the girls chattered and mum drove, I assumed she was listening to the girls chattering, I just huddled in the corner of the seat, against the door and let my music play in one ear as I thought about the night before. I hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to Skye about what happened or how she felt about it and I couldn’t decide if I should have been more unsettled about or not. Skye was more interested in talking to the twins about things they might do in town than talking to me.

When mum pulled up in a carpark space in town the twins were already lost in their phones, messaging their friends, giggling to themselves at messages and posts on social media and generally being in a world of their own. Summer was peering over Amelias shoulder, trying to read what she was looking at on the phone and Skye seemed lost in her own thoughts with her headphones in, staring out the window.

I was about to get out the car when mum let out a long breath and realised she looked tired, it occurred to me I didn’t know why she was so eager to get out of the house.

“Um, you ok?” I asked, pretending not to look at her and that it didn’t matter to me what she said.

“Yea, I’m fine,” She beamed at me “glad to be out the house and away from that man, he really gets on my nerves, I don’t understand why Irene stays with him. It will be good to have a day away and calm my nerves. You know, he threatened to kill her again yesterday, infront of your dad and me, I was hoping he would have started to calm down by now, so much bad energy in their relationship.” She shuddered as she wound down. We all knew that mum was a bit over sensitive sometimes. Dad used to call the days she had when she needed to be away from everyone and everything, her “sensitive days”, when Skye was little and couldn’t say it properly that she dubbed them mums “Sensodyne” and the name just kind of stuck.

“Have a good Sensodyne then.” I offered and opened the door wider to slither out of the van. Mum stopped me and rummaged in her handbag for a moment. She counted out a hundred quid and handed it to me.

“Look after everyone and don’t let Amelia and Skye forget they are cooking dinner tonight, they need to buy whatever they want to cook. Don’t spend too much through the day or there won’t be anything left and everyone will go hungry tonight. I dread to think what he would do then.” I couldn’t believe she’d given us so much money but when I thought about it, I realised it really wouldn’t go far by the time I’d counted on food and drinks for a whole day for five of us and dinner that night for nine. The math ticked through my head without me really trying to think about it as I worked out what we would need. Mum yelled to the girls that they should behave and not cause trouble as I slid out of the van, tucking the money into a pocket it wouldn’t fall out of.

Mum left us all standing there waving and huddling in the rain as she drove off, the exhaust rattling loudly as the old van shivered its way over the speed bumps in the carpark.

“What you wanna do first?” I asked the girls when mum was out of sight. They all decided that the mall was the best place to go first so they didn’t have to stay out in the rain. The mall wasn’t very busy only a few early shoppers avoiding the rush that would come later when more people were awake. With Amelia and Jessica having little attention for anything other than their phones still it was Skye that chose the first shop, as I‘d expected, she headed straight for the shoe shop.

I think that between them the girls must have tried on every pair of shoes on display though none of them bought anything. The twins had to divide their attention between the shoes and their phones, in the moments between, they encouraged my sisters to try on ones with higher heels as they all laughed and discussed the shoes as though nothing was more interesting or important. I was bored in the first five minutes but I knew the whole day was going to be much the same, I pretended to look at the mens shoes for a while but the trainers I was wearing were plenty comfortable although a bit beaten up from wearing them every day. It didn’t really help that Skye asked my opinion about almost every pair she tried on.

“Why bother him about them Skye? Its not as though he’s going to be any use choosing a pair anyway.” Jess laughed.

“Well if I want a mans opinion of them I have to ask him though.” Skye shot back.

“You should get the red ones.” Amelia added absently as she tapped away on her phone.

“Don’t you think red would be weird with my hair though? What do you think Ken?” Skye turned to me for answers again.

“Would be fine if you want to look like a clown.” I mumbled, trying not to get involved and believing she wasn’t listening to me anyway. Summer obviously heard me and tried not to laugh before she tried to give an opinion.

“Mum never wears red, she says it clashes with her hair so I guess you’d have the same problem.”

 Skye was already trying the red shoes on again. The heels were so tall and thin, she had trouble standing in them, they made her more or less stand on tip toe all the time, she held her dress up a bit so that she could look at them in the mirror before she tried to walk back to the seat and fell on her face as she caught the tip of one of the heels in the carpet because she didn’t lift it high enough. Summer and I laughed our heads off earning scowls from the twins who rushed to try and help Skye up. Skye didn’t seem too bothered by us laughing, she made a joke of falling over and thought that perhaps she should try a pair that weren’t as tall. I got the impression that she was more embarrassed at her inability to walk in them than me actually laughing at her though she kept glancing at me out of the corner of her eye and trying to pretend she wasn’t watching me. They all decided to move on from the shoe shop soon after and I spent the next few hours being dragged from shop to shop as the girls looked at clothes. Summer and Skye kept competing for my attention, asking me if they would look good in this or that dress, asking my opinions on what would go with something better. I was bored and suggested a few times that I leave them all to it and meet up with them later but they seemed to think they needed my opinion on everything.

I didn’t realise just how bored they were really until they decided that their next stop had to be the lingerie shop. Skye’s normal taste ran to the kind of panties that she could get at the supermarket but with Jess and Ameila encouraging her, she was looking at the skimpiest ones she could find, dragging me back through the shop every time I tried to escape and wait outside as though I were her embarrassed boyfriend. I know, its not possible to grow up in a household with more women than men in it and escape feminine underwear but I really couldn’t help the wood in my jeans which  I was trying very hard to hide from the girls. I swear though when Amelia showed Summer the display of dildos and vibrators and explained what the various functions did, I nearly had a heart attack. Skye asked if I would prefer to see a thong or a gstring and I thought she was trying to tease me in her usual way, I really wasn’t in the mood for it so I just told her that I didn’t really mind. She was clearly disappointed that I wouldn’t play along with her, with a quick glance at the twins to make sure that they weren’t looking, she leaned in, kissed me quickly and whispered that if I chose then maybe she’d let me see her wearing the ones I picked.

As she was whispering to me, the assistant who was stocking the racks caught my eye and smirked at me as though she knew exactly what Skye was offering and the way I was having to keep my hoody done up, with my hands in my pockets to hide the uncomfortable boner I had from just being there. I tried to pretend I was not embarrassed and play it as though it was something that happened every day but it was difficult to be nonchalant as Skye used her body to hide the fact that she was deliberately bumping her hip against my cock. I tried to give her a diplomatic answer, knowing that whatever I chose would be the source of teasing for months however at the same time I was somewhat confused by Skyes reactions, I’d thought that maybe she would avoid me most of the day but she was either hanging on me like I was her boyfriend or trying to tease and embarrass me like she would normally.

When I wouldn’t give her a definitive answer as to which I preferred her to wear she huffed and joined the other girls starting a whispered conference between the four of them which included much giggling and glancing at me. They started looking at things again as a bunch and seemed to deliberately exclude me so I drifted towards the entrance, glad to be out of the line of fire. The girls emerged half an hour later with small plastic bags each, that had the shops name boldly emblazoned on them advertising to everyone they had bought something possibly risqué.

They barely seemed to notice me at the door as though they had completely forgotten my existence and I had to move quickly to keep up with them. Breaking through their conversation without any attempt at politeness, I announced loudly that I was hungry and was going to find the food court, they could either join me or not as they pleased.

Walking down the aisle between the shops Skye and Summer both decided to hang on me as they might have with dad when they were trying to get him to buy something for them. They took an arm each and hugged it close to them as we walked along, laughing to eachother at how awkward it made me seem. I tried to ignore their jibes though when I caught our reflection in a window, I realised that with Skye only a little shorter than me, it could look as though I was out with my girlfriend and her younger sister.

The food court was busy with people getting their lunch so after deciding what they wanted the girls went to find seats while I was left in the queue to order and bring everything back to them. It seemed to take forever to get to the front of the line and of course I got the trainee server so it took them three times as long to do everything and they got it wrong twice so they had to keep calling someone over to correct it for them. By the time I was looking for the girls I was irritated and hungry. Summer stood on her seat so I could see her easily though she seemed far more distracted by the group of boys that were hanging round talking to the other girls.

I pushed my way through the boys and loudly clunked the tray on the table, giving the boys a cold glare when they resisted me. Summer grabbed her burger off the tray and sat down sulkily while I tried to sort out who had ordered what from the rest of the pile. The boys didn’t seem to want to give room for anything as they poured attention and compliments on Amelia, Jessica and Skye. Amelia and Jessica were clearly not averse to the attention and giggled with eachother in the same silly way the girls at school did. Skye didn’t seem to know what to do, she moved up close to me as I sat down and peered round me at the boys like a nervous deer. Of course the boys all complained loudly when I sat beside Skye, blocking her from most of their attention.

“Dude.” One of the complained at me “We was talkin’.” I gave him what I intended to be a long cold glare before I glanced at Skye who was studiously not looking at him.

“I think you were bothering her actually.” I tried to say it sternly but I’m not sure it came out that way, even to my ears it sounded more like a whine.

 “She never said I was.” He growled back, I was pretty sure that all he wanted was to hit on her.

“I was ignoring you till my boyfriend came back.” Skye suddenly spoke up loudly before snuggling up to my arm more. I looked at her with surprise and could see that Summer was about to burst with laughter but was trying to hide it. The boy made a half snort and muttered something about not seeming like a very good boyfriend before he turned his attention to the twins where his friends were trying to chat them up. The twins seemed to both enjoy the attention though Jessica was harsher and put the boys down more when she spoke directly to them while Amelia made more flirty comments and gave them coquettish looks to encourage them. The boy that had been trying to talk to Skye turned his attention to Amelia and cut across everyone in a loud voice.

“Girl, you so hot, I wish you were my lil toe…” Everyone looked at him as he paused, knowing that he had their attention before he continued. “I wouldn’t mind bangin’ you on every piece of furniture.” I’m not sure if the laugh Amelia gave was at the stupidity of the line or because she was genuinely amused by it but the withering glare that Jessica gave him, which managed to convey her utter disgust without her saying anything, didn’t seem to bother him at all. I guessed he must be used to such glares from the girls at his school if that had been his best line. The rest of the boys whooped and jeered him as Jessica picked up her phone and began texting, clearly dismissing all of them.

I have to confess that I felt somewhat jealous of Amelias laughter and the way she was looking at the boys, I caught myself wishing that she would look at me like that before I reminded myself that she was my cousin so she would probably never even consider flirting with me like that. She made a sad face at him before she replied.

“Aww, I’ve heard that nurses are good with little pricks, maybe one could help with your clumsiness too.” The smirk she had as she delivered the line told everyone she knew she was in complete charge of the conversation. All of his friends chorused an “oooh” and laughed at him, some of them beginning to drift off as they realised they weren’t going to get a chance to talk to the girls. Although Amelia had just owned him, he didn’t seem at all worried and reached out to take a fry from Jessica’s meal as though they were friends. As he reached towards the pack Jess grabbed his little finger, twisting it and bending it back savagely making him squeal in pain.

“Shit for brains, keep your grubby paws off my food, I don’t know you and you are being annoying. I think it’s time that you and your pathetic little band of wankers leave us alone.” She growled at him, his friends laughed harder and started jeering that he was going to get beaten up by a girl. He glared at her mulishly and wriggled out of her grip.

“You fuckin’ bitch, I was only tryin’ to be friendly. No need to break my fuckin’ finger.” He yelped, his voice cracking as he said it, making him seem even more childish.

“Beat it before I really do break it, tosser.” Jessica growled, even more menacingly, making a move to get up from her seat. The boys scattered like pigeons sensing a hawk, leaving him facing her without any back up. He glowered at her a moment longer before his nerve failed him and he turned away, muttering insults and bragging to his friends how he’d let her do it and it hadn’t really hurt, in an attempt to drag the tatters of his reputation back together.

“You didn’t have to be so mean to him.” Amelia smirked. “he was only being friendly.”

“He was being annoying.” Jess mumbled in reply round a mouthful of burger.

“Serves him right, he ignored me.” Summer chipped in brightly. The girls chattered away to each other but I tuned out and let the sound of the environment wash over me as I wondered why Skye had told the annoying boy that I was her boyfriend. I wondered when I’d get a chance to talk to her about what we had done and what it meant. Was I supposed to act like her boyfriend now? How would it change things? I watched Skye out of the corner of my eye, she didn’t seem any different, although she’d claimed I was her boyfriend she was now completely absorbed in her conversation and ignoring me.

We visited more shops after we had eaten, I managed to convince the girls to go in a couple of music shops where I could browse the latest albums and they could play some of the latest charts on the headphone things they have for that but they quickly got bored, when they saw a shop that was offering appointments for a free makeup trial the twins insisted that they went there and each had one so I had to wait for ages as the girls all took turns with the makeup specialist having their faces daubed with all kinds of stuff to make them look good. Afterwards of course they felt they needed to go back to the clothes shops and try outfits on to see what difference the makeup made.

All four of them treated me like their personal porter as they chose outfits they wanted to try on and handed them to me to hold till they were ready. When I complained Jess got huffy and outright told me that was the only reason I had to be there with them so I should be grateful. I stopped complaining and just put up with it, remembering the times I’d seen dad do the same when he couldn’t get out of shopping with Mum, Skye and Summer.

When they disappeared into the changing rooms I looked for somewhere nearby to sit and wait for them, guessing that they would be showing off to eachother and comparing choices for a long time. Unfortunately there was nothing to sit on and nothing to look at except the rack of discarded choices from other shoppers and the lady that was there to make sure nothing was stolen who looked at me from time to time as though I were some kind of lower life form that couldn’t possibly appreciate a woman taking her time to try something on. She seemed even more pissed off about my presence when the girls called me further into the changing area to ask my advice on their outfits. I don’t really know if the worker woman thought that I was there to distract her so the girls could steal stuff or what but she really didn’t seem to like me going up the isle and standing between the little curtained rooms the girls were. Amelia wanted my opinion on a bikini she was trying on, the other girls all stood peeked out of their little rooms to look as she called me over to give an opinion though she didn’t come right out.

I have to admit that I actually didn’t know quite where to look when I saw it on her, the bright, neon yellow colour was attention grabbing for all there wasn’t much material to it, barely covering anything. I knew I shouldn’t focus on her boobs or her crotch but there really wasn’t anything else to look at as I tried to be casual about it, she’d got a really good figure and she looked amazing as she struck a pose to show off a different angle. I felt I had to be honest though, I’m not sure if it was the colour she’d chosen or the artificial lights in there, something was making her skin an unhealthy shade of yellow and even I could see that she’d had to pull the ties tighter than normal to make the top fit enough to hold her boobs. She laughed when I pointed the problems out and Jess pointed out that she’d have to constantly keep it hidden from their dad unless she wanted to get in trouble with him.

Summer wanted my opinion next, she’d been trying on some jeans and wanted me to check they fit alright as she stuck her butt out at me and half leaned over so they pulled tight over her butt. To start with I wasn’t sure if she was being serious or whether she had really not bought jeans on her own before and had always had mum there to check they fit for her. I thought that maybe, where I just picked my jeans off the shelf it might not be quite so simple for a girl so I tried to help as dispassionately as I could. It felt weird doing the things I vaguely remembered mum doing before I’d started buying my own jeans, smoothing the material over my sisters butt, putting my fingers in the waistband and checking the jeans had enough room in them. She knew I was awkward doing it and had a glint in her eye as she tried to encourage me to feel her butt more than I needed to when she thought the others weren’t looking, wiggling it against my hand and grinning cheekily at me over her shoulder. I suspected that she had chosen the jeans to be tight so she would feel sexy but they just looked uncomfortable to me. She was clearly irritated when I told her that I didn’t think they suited her and that she probably couldn’t afford them anyway, I’m not sure if she was hoping I would buy them for her or not but I really had no intention of.

I ducked into Jess’s cubicle quick to avoid another glare from the guard at the entrance to the changing rooms. Jess was in the middle of pulling some filmy pink dress over her head and I got a good look at her skimpy, pink, lacy, underwear before the dress dropped down and covered it up. She examined herself in the mirror and noticed my reflection as I stood there just inside the curtain.

“Figures.” I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me or herself so I stayed quiet and waited for her to continue. After seeing how she had dealt with the boy when we were eating I guessed that she couldn’t be too bothered by my presence.

“You could at least give an opinion.”

“Looks nice.” I offered lamely, really not knowing what she wanted.

“Chiffon isn’t too dressy?” She demanded while turning this way and that to look at how the bottom swirled around her knees and the top fitted her torso in the mirror.

“I can see your bra straps which is something I’ve heard women worry about, but I guess its pretty, what do you think?”

“I know about the straps, its not as though I’d wear a bra like this with it anyway but I asked if it was too dressy.”

“It’s a dress, isn’t it supposed to be dressy?” I knew she thought it was a stupid comment as she glared at me in the mirror.

“Makes me look like I’ve got no figure.” She mused, standing sideways to the mirror, holding the dress in over her sucked in tummy.

“You’ve not got a bad figure though.” I offered trying to be helpful. She just glared at me again in the mirror.

“Maybe if I wore heels?” She asked, clearly ignoring me, rising up on her tiptoes as though she were wearing the high heeled shoes Summer had tried on earlier. I tried to stifle a laugh as she twisted on her toes to look in the mirror but mostly only succeeded in sticking her butt out. She angrily ordered me out of the fitting room with a scowl and a shove as she dropped her heels back to the floor. I didn’t resist too much as she pushed me through the curtain, back to the corridor between the rooms.

Most of the girls were looking round their curtains to see what was happening and seeing me get pushed through the curtain. Still mostly hiding behind her curtain, Skye reached out and grabbed me, pulling me into her cubicle before I got accosted by either of the others again. Once I was in the cubicle she was suddenly weird, as though she was embarrassed or second guessing herself as she hid herself behind a long dress that she had chosen to try on but was still on the hanger. Standing there waiting for her to say something seemed to be making things worse so I gently took dress from her. She resisted for a moment and then let me take it so I could see her outfit behind it, I couldn’t immediately see what she was embarrassed about. She was wearing a denim dungaree dress similar to some of the ones she had at home, the only difference I could see was that it was much shorter than she would have normally chosen and she had on a top similar to the ones the twins had worn that morning so I could see her skin through the open sides of the dress.

“What do you think? Amelia said its more what guys like.” She babbled, apparently anxious for my approval.

“It does look good on you.” I mumbled, trying not so show how surprised I was. She’d gone from being just my sister with stuff on her face to good looking with just a change of clothes.

“Really? I mean how good? Good enough or date worthy?”

“Yeah, I’d date you.” I nodded, still taking in the sight of how her bust seemed to push the front of the dress out more, how the dress hugged her hips, showing that she actually had a figure and how long her legs seemed when she actually showed them rather than covering herself up completely. She grinned and quirked an eyebrow at me in a cheeky way that probably should have conveyed more than it really did.

“I might have to get a dress like this then.” She teased, closing the gap between us and leaning up whisper in my ear. “I’ll spoil the surprise and tell you we all got matching ones.” I was confused and really had no idea what she was talking about as she stood back. She watched me as she caught her bottom lip in her teeth as though she was unsure if she was doing the right thing then swiftly, unzipped the dress and let it drop to the floor.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I wanted to believe she was trying to make fun of me like usual but she seemed less sure of herself and somehow I got the impression that she still wanted my approval. As my eyes followed the dress to the floor I realised what she was so unsure about. She was wearing a gstring, the cloth triangle barely covering anything and the strings that held it in place, disappearing round her hips.

“What do you think?” She asked quietly, With the makeup she had on it was hard to see the blush on her cheeks but I was sure it was there and I was aware of how embarrassed she was. I tried to stay cool about it but she probably knew what she was doing to me and how flustered I was really.

“Cool.” I said nodding slowly. “certainly a surprise.” She grinned her normal cheeky grin and dropped her voice so that none of the others would be able to hear.

“The surprise is really that we all got matching ones. I thought you should know. I wanted the others to tease you about it, but I changed my mind.” I heard Amelias phone ring and was only half listening as she answered it and I was considering how to reply to Skye.

The thought registered that it was mum as Amelia greeted her cheerfully though I wasn’t really listening. Something in Amelias tone changed though and caught my attention, Skye started to say something but I held a hand up to stop her and focused on Amelias side of the conversation which consisted of an explanation of where we were and some okays. It was clear that the call hadn’t been to remind them to buy food to cook for dinner. I slipped out of the cubicle and almost stepped on Amelia as she emerged from her changing room looking worried. I asked her what mum had wanted.

“She wants us to meet her where she dropped us off in ten minutes, she says she just had a call from David, he’s at the police station and we need to go meet him there.” At the mention of my dad’s name, alarm bells went off in my head, if the police were involved, it had to be serious.

In the rush of getting the girls all changed back into their clothes, the clothes they had been trying on all handed back to the lady at the door and moving, I didn’t have time to think about it, I knew that we had to be waiting when mum got there. It wasn’t until we were crossing the carpark that it occurred to me that perhaps it was all my fault, perhaps dad had worked out what Skye and I did the night before and was making sure that I got to the police where I should be. I felt scared and ashamed, everyone’s holiday would be ruined because of me and they would all find out what a pervert I was. I wanted to run, to avoid what was coming but it was too late, I saw dads old van rattle into the carpark as mum arrived to pick us up.

Mum pulled up sharply next to us and as we piled into the back of the van I tried to gauge her emotions but she seemed closed off and frozen. Although I’ve never really taken mums ability to see auras around people seriously, there was definitely something about her that told us all to be careful when we tried to talk to her.

Amelia and Jessica were clearly worried by this side of mum and didn’t know how to deal with it so they sat close together in silence, their bare knees touching and their heads down as though they thought they might be in trouble. Skye sat close to me, not quite touching me but near enough for me to know that she was seeking comfort and was probably as scared as I was. Only Summer seemed more like her usual self and I suspected that was because she’d had practice hiding her real feelings for so long.