Page 6 of Distortion
The hesitant touch of her fingers makes me jolt back to the present as she elegantly swings her legs around and gracefully rises from the vehicle.
I half wonder if she wasn’t at a clinic at all for the past decade but at some finishing school or something instead.
I watch as her head tips back to survey the house in front of us, her expression inscrutable. I follow her eyes, taking in the white exterior, the columns by the large front door, and the many windows that make the house so bright inside.
Does she remember her year here, though it was almost a decade ago?
‘Dad will be waiting,’ Andy says, looking impatiently down at us from the top step.
Her eyes find him, and she blinks slowly.
I stare at her as covertly as I can. I’m sure there was something defiant in that blink, but it was gone in less than a second. I get the feeling that there’s more in her expressions than I can discern at the moment. I wonder if we’ll get to know each other again while she’s here. I guess that depends on how long our father has decided she’s staying for. It’s up to him. Despite the fact that we’re the same age, her mental state means he’s still her legal guardian.
She walks up the stairs slowly, her movements poised and her back straight. Could probably put a book on her head right now, and it would balance there easily.
A butler opens the light grey door, and she nods her head at him almost regally as she enters the foyer. Her heels clack on the parquet flooring as we move past the stairs and toward the back of the house, where our father’s office overlooks the tiered gardens, pool house and tennis courts.
Andy knocks on the last door on the left, and I hear our father’s voice say, ‘Enter.’ He opens the door and goes in. Marguerite hesitates for a second but then follows my brother while I bring up the rear. As soon as I’m inside, I can hear a discernable clicking, and my eyes search the room for the sound. I find a metronome on the shelf in the corner. I stalk to the closest wall and lean against it mostly so I can watch Marguerite’s and my father’s expressions while they talk.
She’s giving him that vacant smile again, and my stomach twists unpleasantly. She was always weird when we were kids. She was very quiet, yet quick to anger, and had a lot of issues at school, but she wasall there. What happened to her?
I shake myself a little. What do I care? She was put in that place in England for a reason. She was a fucking danger to herself and others.
Marguerite moves into the room almost carefully. She looks at my father and then her head turns toward the metronome as well. She stares at it a moment too long before she gives my father her attention again, the child-like smile still on her face.
John Novelle senior regards her and then snorts.
‘I already read Stoke’s most recent notes, Marguerite. Did you think I wouldn’t keep tabs on your progress?’ He sits back in his chair, and it creaks a little. ‘He’s admitted that you’re ready for life out here. That you’ll no longer be ... an embarrassment to this family.’
She looks souncomprehendingas she stares at him that I open my mouth to tell him to stop being so hard on her, that there’s been a mistake because how cansheever have a life in the real world?
But my father speaks again before I can. ‘Cut the shit, Marguerite. Do you want to go back to The Heath? Is that it?’
To my surprise, the empty look melts off her face, and a more assessing and much worldlier expression takes over her features. My mouth falls open and I see Andy’s do the same. What the fuck? Has she been playing us?
‘I do not,’ she says simply, her accent holding a bit of a British lilt.
My father nods. ‘Well, I’m giving you a chance. I was told you were able to keep up with your studies and that you earned the UK equivalent of a High School Diploma plus,’ he waves a flippant hand, ‘a few college credits. So, I’ve enrolled you as a sophomore. You’ll be getting your Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Do you understand?’
‘Yes. I understand.’
My father’s eyes narrow a fraction. ‘Yes, I understand what, Marguerite?’
‘Yes, I understand,Sir.’
His lips turn up a little. ‘Let’s see if you’re as cured as Stoke believes you to be, shall we?’ he leans forward. ‘But any repeat of the problems from before, and you’re going right back.’
She inclines her head.
‘Good. You’re enrolled at Richmond University. You’ll be staying with Jack.’
I push myself off the wall at his words, sure I’ve misheard.
‘You think she’s going to be staying with me?’ I splutter. ‘In thehouse? With the others? You aren’t serious.’
But I can see from my father’s expression that he’s not kidding ... not that he’s the joking kind.
‘It’s aFrathouse, Pop. I know I’m a senior and all, but we can’t just have girls living there. Especially not ones like ...her.’
