Concern fills Holly’s features as she eyes Zara. “You got drunk again? That’s like three times this week.”
Zara hits me with a filthy look before saying to her sister, “I’ve been celebrating. It’s not every day you make it through your first year of uni.”
“Uh, you finished uni three weeks ago. Don’t give me that shit,” Holly says.
I step away from the door. “I’ll leave you guys to it.”
Holly nods. “Thanks, Fury. I appreciate you bringing her home and letting me know what happened.”
“Yeah.” With one last look at Zara, who is death-staring me, I leave them and make my way to my ute. Whatever Zara’s got going on that’s causing her to get shitfaced so often isn’t something I need to know anything about. Keep your personal shit personal.
2
Zara
* * *
Swallowing down two Advil, I begin my morning ritual. Advil for the headache, a shower to wash away last night’s grime, get dressed, tidy my room, avocado on toast for breakfast, and a prayer for peace sent to a God I’m struggling with at the moment. Not world peace, my own peace, because goodness knows I need some.
“Zara!” Holly bangs on my bedroom door. “You awake and up? It’s seven. I need you to take my parcel to the post office before work, remember?”
I take a deep breath and prepare for her.
My older sister is a hard-ass. A twenty-year-old hard-ass. I don’t even think she’s really twenty. She acts like a forty-year-old most of the time. How she came from Mum and Dad, I have no idea.
“Zara!” She opens my door and her eyes land on me. “Good, you’re up.” Without waiting for my response, she leaves.
Huh.
Not what I was expecting.
I thought she’d give me her opinion of the way I came home last night. I’m sure it’s coming at some point, though. I love her to death, but Holly always has an opinion.
Twenty minutes later, I’m showered, dressed, and ready for the day. Closing the bedroom door quietly behind me, I pad down the hall to the kitchen and make my breakfast, all the while wishing I’d gone easy on the booze last night. The headache I’ve woken with is killer. Worse than any I’ve had this week. Maybe it’s a culmination of three hard nights of drinking. Maybe, you need to ease up.
“Can you buy more avocadoes today? I need some for dinner,” Holly says, cutting in on my thoughts. A welcome intrusion.
“Yeah.” I meet her gaze. “Just text me anything else you want, but do it before about one because I’ll go to the supermarket after lunch.” After living together for six months, this is our routine now: I shop for our food, she cooks.
Holly frowns. “You’re not working today? For some reason, I thought you had a shift this morning.”
“I did, but Allen cancelled it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know, Hols. Maybe you should ask him yourself if you’re so interested,” I snap before yanking the door open and retrieving a bottle of cold water from it.
“Zar,” she starts, her voice softer than I can recall in a long time. “Don’t be like that.”
Shit.
She didn’t deserve that.
I turn to face her. “Sorry.” I sigh. “It’s just that he’s cancelled a few of my shifts lately and I’m a little stressed about it.”
“Talk to him about it. Find out the reason rather than stressing.” She grabs her bag. “Okay, I’ve just gotta go change my tyre and then I’m leaving.”
I clean the kitchen after she leaves, thinking about how everything in my life feels like it’s changing rapidly. And about how a lot of it feels out of my control. Some days I don’t even recognise myself, because the girl I was a few months ago is gone and at this point, I don’t see her coming back any time soon. Not that I want that, but there are definitely parts of myself I miss.