Set nowish/ next few weeks. Chapters will be short, but hopefully frequent :) Reviews loved x
A half finished box of green tea. Miserable. She pushes it aside, only to find the cupboards bare. She curses silently, her words no longer free to flow. The young boy is sitting at the table, glowering over a bowl of uneaten cornflakes. Closing the cupboard, she sighs regretfully. She catches Simon's eye, the hate in his eyes so obvious, his little mouth tight and strained. She swallows, and finds her throat is parched and sore, causing her to cough, breaking the ever icy silence. She turns her back to the boy, so her face can fall free of it's simpering constraints. Who's she fooling. Not him. He's old beyond his years. Unnerving really. He knows the smile on her face is as real as the 'Gucci' handbag on Kylie Platt's shoulder.
He smiles. His eyes are kind, and warm, but they are no longer happy. They mask weeks of pent up tension, strain, the cracks becoming ever more palpable. He kisses her cheek, the pressure of his lips against her skin so faint it's almost non existent. 'I'll see you later than love, keep going, don't let him win' he says, his words pretty much the same as they were yesterday, and the day before.
Alone in the flat, Carla wondered what to do. She didn't have to leave for work for another half hour. She wasn't in a hurry to. Each day was a step, Peter told her. It didn't feel that way. It was a compromise. She hated it just as much as the day before, but she'd sworn he wouldn't take her baby from her. He couldn't get away with stealing her body, turning her friends against her, lying his way through the courts and take away the object that had caused her so much pain, yet harboured memories she couldn't bare to let go of.
Her new life, suffocated her. Remnants of last nights unfinished dinner clung to cheap, white plates piled high in the shallow sink, unintentionally yet accurately reflecting her state of mind. The garish wall paper, in nauseating shades of salmon and peach and beige, boxing her in making her feel like she was a character in some contrived children's book. She hated the fact she could see the entire flat from one vantage point, no mystery. It was all there, a two bedroom family home. No unexpected surprises, no frills. Plain and simple. And so not her.