Oh Brother - S01 E08

2 years ago

Oh Brother - S01 E08

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 8

continues..

I sat on the couch, watching The Vampire Diaries. From where I sat I could hear the roars of laughter coming from my mom, Stephen, and Christian. Laughter from the kitchen where they were cooking as a family. They asked me to join, but I had refused.

It wasn’t that I was trying to be a brat, but I just didn’t want to join them. Not when I would have to spend time with two strangers who lived in my house. And not when my mom was a changed woman who only saw flaws in me. Being alone was preferable now.

“Autumn!” I heard Stephen call. “The food is ready!”

Sighing, I got up and walked to the kitchen. A wave of spices hit me as I stepped into the kitchen, causing my mouth to water. It seemed like they made Alfredo pasta – my favourite.

Spotting them already sitting at the kitchen table, I joined them. To my disappointment I was stuck sitting beside Christian who sat in front of them. He wouldn’t look at me when I sat next to him, which was both confusing and satisfying. After the whole bath incident, he also chose to ignore me for some reason, and I was fine with that.

“Doesn’t the food look great,” my mom gushed, looking at me with bright eyes.

I forced a smile, not wanting to make the others happy but knowing I had to. “Yeah, it looks delicious.”

“It’s all thanks to Stephen and Christian. You should ask Christian to teach you to cook one day,” my mom said, grinning.

I rolled my eyes. “I’d rather not.”

My mom gave me a disapproving look and Stephen frowned at me. By now everyone knew how I clearly felt about Christian, and only my mom hated it. Surprisingly, Stephen seemed to understand.

“Autumn, I told you to stop badmouthing Christian,” she scolded. “He’s a good boy. You should be lucky to have him as a brother.”

I scowled, but I didn’t say anything. No matter what I said, I knew my mom would support Christian. She always did.

We then all began digging into the Alfredo pasta. It was piled onto all of out plates and I quickly dug in. I gasped lightly as the delicious taste of it exploded inside my mouth.

Feeling like someone was staring at me, I glanced to my right. Christian was in fact, staring at me. He was smirking, looking completely amused by the sight of me. It annoyed me.

“What?” I snapped.

“Autumn, what did I say,” my mom said, tone rising.

My eyes flew to her. “He was staring at me!”

My mom rolled her eyes. “Grow up, Autumn.”

Heat filed my cheeks as Stephen shot me a sympathetic look. I looked down and continued eating my pasta, suddenly feeling mortified. Mortified because Christian had watched my mom call me a child. An immature one, to be specific.

Eating quickly, I decided to grab some more pasta before I would leave. Leave this hell hole of a situation I was in with three people I wasn’t very fond of. The idea sounded good to me, so I quickly reached for the spoon in the large bowl of pasta.

To my surprise, a larger, warmer hand ended up on top of mine. Before I could react, the pasta bowl was falling towards the ground as Christian threw his hand back, knocking it off of the table. I gasped and his eyes widened as we both jumped as the bowl clashed against the ground.

“What the hell!” I exclaimed, looking directly at him.

His blue eyes were still widened with shock and confusion. From his lost look, I could tell he wasn’t processing what was going on. It didn’t even seem like he was awake as he just looked away quickly, staring off at a wall blankly.

“Autumn!” My mom suddenly yelled. “What have you done!”

My eyes widened as I looked at her accusing face. “Me?”

“How dare you ruin the food we worked hard on out of spite!” she exclaimed.

My jaw dropped as I took in the fact that she was blaming me. Me, when clearly Christian had knocked over the pot when he threw his hand back. I couldn’t believe it.

“I didn’t do anything!” I exclaimed. “Christian knocked over the pot!”

“Stop lying,” she hissed. “I’m so sick and tired of you Autumn.”

“Alice,” Stephen said hesitantly.

She stood up suddenly, surprising all of us as she glared at me. Glared at me as if she wanted me to disappear forever. I gulped, feeling my throat constrict as my own mother was looking at me like that.

“I’m leaving,” she hissed. “You better clean up the mess.”

She turned around and stormed off, leaving all of us wide-eyed. After shooting me a sympathetic look, Stephen ran after her. I stood up to watch them leave the house, feeling as if someone had shoved a dagger in my heart.

Once they were gone, I found myself shaking. My eyes began to tear up as I realized my mom did hate me. She wanted nothing to do with me anymore. It was clear after today and I knew the reason why.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and Christian said, “I’m so sorry Autumn. I honestly am.”

I bit my lip to fight back tears as I looked at him. Looked at his innocent face that was staring down at me with pitying eyes. The sight made my stomach churn and suddenly my blood was boiling. I shoved his hand off of me.

“This is why I hate you!” I yelled. “This is why we can never be a family!”

“Autumn, this wasn’t my fault,” he said, calmly but almost sad.

“But it was!” I exclaimed, ignoring the tears slipping down my cheeks. “It’s always your fault!”

By now tears were streaming down my face and I was shaking. I felt horrible. Sickened by everything. I wanted to run, leave, but not until Christian understood.

Christian reached out to touch me, but thought better of it and stopped himself. I felt a pang of anger at that, wondering why he dared try to comfort me. He didn’t have the right to.

“See, everything is handed to you on a silver platter,” I whispered, finding it hard to talk with my constricted throat. “How dare you ruin my life like this.”

“I didn’t ask for this,” he suddenly said exasperatedly. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Good for you,” I snapped. “But you have. You have and always will. Now that you live here, this is the way things are.”

“But I didn’t ask for your mom to like me!” he exclaimed. “Autumn, I did nothing!”

“I don’t care,” I whispered. “Just, let’s never be in the same room again. Let’s pretend the other doesn’t exist.”

“Autumn-”

“Shut up.”

I turned around quickly and rushed upstairs. A part of me felt embarrassed that Christian had seen me looking so vulnerable, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care because my life was not manageable at all. It was horrible. The second Christian entered my life, it had turned horrible. I couldn’t help but detest Christian.