by Angel Devlin
I'd had my seventeenth birthday the previous week, but this was the first time I'd seen Ezra since.
He walked in the kitchen and went to give me his cursory nod and he did a double-take. I smirked inside. Had it actually worked?
My birthday money had funded a makeover. No longer would I have my hair in the ponytail I'd been wearing for years. My hair had been lightened and I'd learned how to style it to hang in soft waves. I'd visited the MAC counter and got them to show me how to make my eyes stand out, how to give my cheeks definition, and how to enhance my natural pout with gloss.
New clothes meant I was sitting at the table with faded blue jeans and a casual cream blouse, of which I’d left the top few buttons undone so it revealed cleavage courtesy of the push-up bra around my boobs.
When he'd walked through the door, I'd made sure I was bent over my books so my tits would be saying hi. Then I'd looked up, placing my index finger in my mouth as if I was deep in thought.
And then all I did as I met his dumbstruck expression was wave a general hand in his direction before I went back to what I was doing. This is what my best friend Amy had told me to do. Treat them like shit and they lapped it up, she'd said.
It took him a few extra seconds to move on, mainly spurred on by my brother shouting back to him wondering why he wasn't in the living room yet. They'd never stay indoors for very long. Usually, George would get changed and get them both a drink and then they'd be on their way out to some uni event or social gathering.
Today, Ezra walked back into the kitchen.
"Just getting me and George another drink," he said.
"Yeah, okay." I commented while willing myself to not look up again.
He made the drinks and then asked me if I wanted one. Neither of them had ever bothered with me before.
This time I looked up. "Sure, you can get me a drink," I said.
"Happy birthday for last week. Did you have a good time?"
"Yeah, it was okay. Just need my parents to realise I'm growing up though, you know? They still sang happy birthday to me over a pink cake. I'm more a 'let's clink a glass of wine in celebration' now. I think they're in denial."
He passed me my drink. "Sorry it's just Sprite. Haven't got any wine."
"Maybe next time, hey?" I winked as if I was saying it just in good fun and then I put my attention back into my studies.
He left the room, but it turned out that that was the day Ezra Waite began talking to his friend's little sister.
24 September 2011
It had been my eighteenth birthday on the 19th and I'd done all the family celebrations. Now it was time for me to hit the pubs and clubs for the first time legally. Amy's birthday was two days before mine thank absolute God, so I had someone to party with as we went out together to jointly celebrate.
I'd already had quite a few beers and was feeling pleasantly mellow. We'd gone into the main nightclub in town BEAT! and were doing what we thought were sexy dances near each other. It was working on some males because they kept dancing next to us and occasionally coming up against us to grind behind us. One of them was quite good looking and I'd decided I might just have a make-out session with him in a dark corner later. Amy started snogging the boy who'd been dancing with her and shouted that he was buying her a drink.
"I'm going for a wee," I shouted back to her and I walked off the dance floor.
It was coming out of the bathroom that I walked smack bang into Ezra.
"Birthday girl! How are you?" Ezra gave me a hug. He was also clearly inebriated. It was the first time he'd been less than two feet away from me, despite giving me his attention more regularly over the last year.
"I'm good. I'm celebrating being able to legally drink."
He looked at me. "But you don't have one. Come on. I'll buy you that wine you said I should get you some time."
I couldn't believe he'd remembered I'd said that.
"I'm on beer, so I'll have that instead, if that's okay?"
"Sure. Tastes change, right?" he said, looking at me a beat longer than he needed to before I followed him to the bar.
"Who are you with?" I shouted over the music. I knew he wasn't with George because George had met Bronwyn six months ago and Ezra had been doing a lot more acting, meaning they'd grown apart a little.
"I'm with some uni friends. They came out to help me celebrate. I've won a role in Westside."
My mouth dropped open.
"Westside, the top soap opera that's on BBC1 four times a week?"
"The very one. I'm about to be their new resident troubled manchild."
"Oh my god, that's incredible. I'm so happy for you." I jumped up and down and then I hugged him. As he hugged me back, this time I felt his hard cock pressing into me. I became aware my breasts were squashed up against him.
We were interrupted by the barman asking what Ezra wanted to order. I knew what I wanted to order. A taxi to a hotel where Ezra could take me to bed and do wicked things to me. But I had to remember, to him I was just his friend's little sister.
When we both had our drinks, I stood awkwardly. Did I say thanks and leave? Did I stay next to him and continue to shout over the music?
"Who are you with?" he asked.
"My friend Amy. She's over there. The one with her lips locked onto that guy, so I need to keep an eye on her."
"There are some seats a little way behind her, shall we go and sit there?"
"What about the friends you came to celebrate with?" I queried.
"I've found much better company, and anyway, I want to celebrate your birthday with you."
My stomach fizzed with excitement. He was just being friendly, wasn't he? He couldn't possibly be attracted to me, right?
I took a seat on a sofa at the back of the club and he slid in alongside me, so close his thigh was pressed against mine.
He raised his glass. "Cheers, and happy birthday. May all your dreams come true." I clinked my beer glass with his, took a sip, and then put my glass down on the coffee table in front of me.
"Close your eyes and make a wish," Ezra commanded.
I giggled. "There isn’t a cake with candles to blow out," I protested.
He held up an index finger. "Pretend." He made his finger sway from side to side.
"You're mad."
"You're beautiful."
My breath hitched and feeling uncomfortable under his intense gaze, I closed my eyes to make my wish.
And then I felt his lips against my own and realised that within two seconds of my wishing it, Ezra was kissing me.
I opened my eyes and his lips left mine. He looked at the floor. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."
"Are you crazy?" I asked. "What do you think I just wished for?"
"Yeah, I'm crazy. Crazy for you." He grinned and his mouth came back to mine.
We continued making out on the sofa until it was time for Amy and I to leave. I didn't think me or my friend wanted to part from the guys we were with, but it was always travel together and safety first.
"I'll share your cab," Ezra told me and I nodded my head.
All the way home I felt my body was coiled like a spring. The sexual tension between Ezra and I hung like smog in that cab. A drunk and happy Amy chatted excitedly about the guy she'd met the whole way back to her house, and we watched her open her front door and move safely inside her own house with a final wave in the direction of the car.
I gave the cab driver my address.
Ezra's foot tapped against the taxi floor and I wondered if he was regretting kissing me. When the cab pulled up outside my house, I went to pay the driver, but Ezra beat me to it and insisted on paying.
I thanked him and got out of the cab and he followed me.
"You should have taken the taxi to yours."
"Should I?" He paused in front of me. "I mean, I can walk back to mine from here. Do you want me to do that now, or do you want me to walk you up to your porch?"
I grabbed hold of his hand and smil
ed.
We walked up to the front of my house and dipped into the shadows of the corner of the building. And he kissed me, again and again and again. His hands trailed up my back, fisted into my hair, and ran up my top, cupping my breasts over my bra. It wasn't enough. I pushed my body against his, against his hard on, wanting to get off against him. I remembered I was dry humping my brother's best friend at the front of my parents’ home, and panting, I broke our kiss.
"Can I take you on a date? We could go a bit further afield, so we're not likely to be gossiped about by everyone in Willowfield."
"I’d like that."
"I'll call you? Maybe we could go somewhere Friday night?"
We both looked at each other, excited but nervous. I like to think we both felt the weight of what was possible between us.
I nodded and then Ezra walked away down the street, waving to me before he went out of view and I thanked God for the best birthday present of my entire life.
As I walked into the house and headed upstairs, I felt dreamy. I went into my bedroom and flopped onto my bed, still fully dressed and with my coat and shoes on. The door opened slowly and my mum's head appeared around the corner. She quite often didn't sleep until I got home.
"You had a good night?"
"The best." I smiled.
"I always knew that boy liked you." She winked. My cheeks flushed but I couldn't help it, I grinned from ear to ear.
"My birthday celebrations have been perfect," I said. "But don't tell Dad or George yet, Mum. I don't want Ezra held at gunpoint."
She mimed zipping her mouth. "It's your life. You make the choices," she whispered.
I was so happy that night, blissfully thinking that Ezra and I would be perfect and those choices would be easy.
Chapter Three
Ezra
My entire family now sat in the living room waiting for Alice Waite's lead performance. I'd had to grab hold of Juliet and stop her from screaming in my mother's face.
It had been Eli, the youngest of us all, that had walked over to Juliet, grabbed her hand, led her to the sofa and sat alongside her. I guess he needed her as much as he thought she might need him. It got her to sit at least.
I'd already been asked the same question by my siblings, either directly or through their questioning gazes or downright hostile suspicion, especially Silas. Silas who had kept in touch with me more than any of them. Silas who I’d not said a word to about any of the past eight months.
Why?
Why had I not told anyone?
We'd see if Alice Waite told the truth now.
"I realise none of you were expecting me to be here today. That you have a lot of questions and a lot of mixed emotions."
Huh, that was one way of putting it.
"I want to begin by saying Ezra knew nothing of this. In fact, I painted a very different picture to Ezra when I arrived. I'm not proud of myself, but I blackmailed him." Her eyes met mine and I could feel the others' gaze on me.
"I turned up at his film set, late on a July day last summer and I made out like I was just there for money, that if he told anyone of my existence I'd get back in touch to ruin all your lives. I was vile to him for months. He put me in an apartment with an allowance and avoided me as much as possible, which was exactly the result I’d wished for while I sought treatment." She looked around at everyone. "And if I'd have got better, I would have contacted you all to ask if you wanted to see me. But fate had other ideas, so I decided to not give you the choice." Alice straightened her shoulders. "Here I am. I don't know how much time I have left, but I've come to see if anyone wants to spend time with me while I have some. To get to know me."
"Why the fuck would we want to get to know you?" Milo exploded. "You've already been dead to me for a long time."
"Milo." Violet called after him as she got to her feet and chased after my brother who had bolted from the room.
Alice took a deep breath.
"Why did you leave us all? That's what we want to know," Juliet asked.
"I was a drug addict, Jules. Dan got me hooked on drugs and he and substances were all I gave a damn about. I cleaned my act up while I carried Eli and then I went right back to it, only far away from anywhere I might have to deal with nappies again. I only gave a shit about myself. That's what drugs do to you.”
"Do not call me Jules. You have no right to call me anything other than Juliet."
Alice nodded. "I don't expect everyone's forgiveness. I'm just here so we can say our goodbyes."
"Is Alice staying with you, Ezra, in a hotel?" My father asked.
"She's staying with me in my house. The one I bought from Becca."
Cal's head snapped around to me. "What the fuck did you just say?"
"I bought Becca's house. She doesn't know. I went through an intermediary. I've had Lisa staying in it to keep it ticking over until I was ready to come back. So that's where we'll be for now, until Alice decides what her next move is."
"Well, I think it's time you went there and left everyone to process what Alice just announced. I know I for one need some time to think." He stood up and looked down at Alice. "If you're ill and are dying then I'm very sorry, Alice, but if you're looking for forgiveness from me for what you did to me and our children then you're wasting time you don't have."
He walked out of the room. Angela's eyes followed him, but she stayed where she was, her eyes landing back on Eli who still hadn't said a word.
Letting go of Juliet's hand, he rose to his feet. "Shall we go now, Mum?" he said clearly to Angela. She smiled at him and nodded.
Eli stood in front of Alice. "This might seem weird, but thanks for ditching me because I got the best mum I could ever have hoped for. I won't be wanting anything to do with you. You're nothing to me. Nothing at all," he said, and he walked up to Angela, threw his arms around her and began sobbing.
"We're leaving," Angela stated and she escorted her son out of the room, her arm around him protectively. I heard the door bang shut and the sound of a car engine.
"I think it's time we left too, Alice," I said. She nodded and rose to her feet. It wasn't fair. I didn't want to be with her any more than anyone else, yet I'd been responsible for her for the last eight months and it looked like she intended I stay that way for however many more she had left.
But she's dying. Soon she won't be here at all.
"I'll catch you all later." I strode out of the room, the sound of my mum's feet behind me as she tried to keep up with my wide stride.
I walked up to my new house for the first time. It should have been a happy experience, being back near my family and yet it was the stuff of nightmares. I walked around to the back of the property and grabbed the front door key from the box and then walked back around to the front door and opened it.
The smell of cleaning products and air freshener hit me. Zesty lemon mainly. The entrance hall was spotless. I'd had it all redecorated under Lisa's watchful eyes when I'd first bought the place. Neutral walls, beige and brown carpeting. There were two bedrooms, a master that looked over the front of the house and a second that was still a reasonable size for a guest room which looked out over the back garden. You could see Milo's garden and my family’s garden and the back of the house from there. It was also where Lisa had stayed and so I decided my mother could have the main bedroom and I’d take this one.
I showed Alice up to her room and left her to it and then I returned downstairs, opening windows and putting the kettle on. Lisa had left the place stacked with fresh produce. The fridge was full and when I opened the freezer, she'd even left that stacked with pizzas and oven chips and a few microwave dinners.
It made me smile. I was much more likely to just send for takeout, but she'd cared. Cared enough to make sure I had beyond the basics. It gave me hope that things weren't completely beyond repair.
The other Waites fixed houses. I needed to repair the damage of my past romance with Lisa McKenzie.
Given my excitement about this pla
ce was currently zero, I went back upstairs, knocked on my mother's door and told her there was food in the house, but I was going out, and then I left her to it and strode down to the Half Moon pub, after dipping into my jacket pocket for a folded ballcap first which I put on my head and pulled down low.
It was four pm and with my body still being on US time, to me it was eleven am. I was hungry and really needed to sink a pint. As I stared at the bar, my stomach sank. There was no sign of Lisa behind it, but the landlord, Geoff, spotted me straight away and beckoned me over.
"Your Milo said you were headed back here. Premiere on Friday, hey? Can't believe little Ezra Waite grew up to be a big star. What's your poison, son?"
I asked for a pint of beer and as usual Geoff wouldn't let me pay for it. He never did let me get the first drink when I was home. "You'll find out soon enough, so I'm telling you myself now, Geoff." I leaned in closer. "My mother's back."
His jaw dropped open, but the shock on his face soon turned to concern. "How? What? Are you okay?"
"It's a long story that I can't get into right now. I'm here because to be honest I'm having trouble getting my head around everything, but she's here and it'll not be long until the gossip starts, so just prepare and know that it'll be more exciting to Willowfield than me being here."
"I got your back as always, son. You know that."
Nodding, I picked up my glass. "And as always it's appreciated. I'm going to find a space in an alcove and enjoy my drink."
Walking off, I went and sat in the corner. As I slid onto the banquette seating, I took a sip from my pint and closed my eyes.
Alice was dying.
My mother was dying.
Everything she'd said to me over the last eight months had been a lie.
So what made this different? How did we know this wasn't another elaborate lie? The first thing I was doing in the morning was bankrolling a private doctor to run independent tests and tell me exactly what was going on with her health. Then we'd need to sort out a plan. For as much as I hated what she'd done to us all, I would make sure if she was terminal, she would be as comfortable as possible.