It was one of those moments in the Pevensie household when everything was rather unnaturally quiet. Edmund was sitting on his bed with his back against the headboard, his younger sister Lucy sitting in front of him leaning on his chest. They were both reading, Edmund an old, battered version of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' for school and Lucy a copy of 'Pride and Prejudice' borrowed from their older sister Susan, albeit without her permission.
They liked to sit like this, in companionable silence in the rarer times of day when Peter was out at work and their mother was either asleep or sitting in the garden. It was better like this. Edmund often wished that he was older so that Peter could get a move on and leave home already instead of having to take care of them. Although he couldn't pretend everything would be alright, at least then their mother wouldn't cry as much.
Peter was annoying, that much was for sure, but Edmund couldn't bring himself to hate him. Not anymore. He knew that they wouldn't be in this situation if not for himself.
It was almost a year ago now. Their father had just returned from Iraq on leave and, as most people would, he had decided to take their mother out for dinner to celebrate. And Edmund took the opportunity to go out with her again, which his siblings had all advised against doing, especially Lucy who always seemed to care for his welfare the most. But of course he'd gone and ignored them and ended up in A&E. As part of standard procedure, their parents had been called immediately and rushed from the restaurant to the hospital as quickly as possible.
But it was raining.
Unrelenting torrents of water, heavier than they had seen for a long while, the whole week having had reports of flash-floods in the area. The car slipped and smashed into a tree. And it was somewhat inevitable.
The next thing they knew Peter was pushing their mother in a wheelchair with Susan, Lucy and a bandaged up Edmund over to the grave of Robert Pevensie.
Still, it didn't do well to dwell on the past and after two months of silence and locked rooms, things started to try and ease back to normal. Well, as normal as they could have been in a situation like that. Peter moved back in after university and got a job. In a shop. Which, for someone like Peter, was possibly the worst place to work. Day after day the same thing working with the twats he thought he'd escaped when he got into Cambridge. Cambridge for God's sake! He had a first class degree in Medieval History and he was all set to begin working under famed historian Professor Diggory Kirke. But no. That would've been too good to be true. Edmund and Lucy were still at school, their Mum suffering from depression, PTSD and leg paralysis and Susan was away studying abroad in America. Peter had to take care of his family. And he loathed it.
He argued and grumbled and snapped his way through each day, kicking the furniture, slamming the doors. He didn't want to be there, and he'd be damned if everyone didn't know it.
Edmund tried not to take it personally, but of course that was difficult when most of Peter's rage was targeted at him. It made mum worse, it made Lucy cry and it made Susan all the more determined to stay away.
Edmund had begun a routine now, whenever Peter got out of hand Lucy would go round to a friend's house and Edmund would run to the park and call Peter so that he would have to leave mum and come and pick him up. Edmund was contemplating this while flicking through the pages of his book. He was honestly trying to pay attention, to make the words sink in, but he just couldn't. He kept thinking of the little piece of paper in his coat pocket, just metres away. He hadn't had a good friend since the events of the previous year and now he had the perfect opportunity to make one. Lucy didn't know yet, but Edmund had a feeling that his luck might just be starting to change a little.
"You alright Ed?" Lucy asked, looking up from her book at the underside of Edmund's chin. "You're turning the pages awfully fast."
"I'm fine." Edmund smiled at her. "Just thinking."
"Well you might want to think a little more quietly, it's very distracting." She laughed softly.
Edmund kissed her forehead. "Sorry Miss Mind-reader." He lowered his voice a little, remembering his mother asleep in the other room.
Lucy closed her book and put it on the bed beside her. "I'm thinking of making Toad in the Hole for dinner, what d'you think?"
"Sounds good." He nodded. "But you don't have to, if you've got stuff to do, I can always just order something in."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "We can't have take-away every night Ed, we have a perfectly good oven and I'm determined to make use of it. Especially since Peter won't, which I will admit is probably for the best."
They both laughed a bit, thinking of the last time Peter attempted to cook. He had set the pasta on fire and made the sauce with far too much pepper and then had stormed out leaving a broken plate on the floor. Edmund didn't even know how it was possible to set pasta on fire.
"Have you got homework to do?" Edmund asked chucking his own book on the floor.
"Only revision." Lucy shrugged. "And I did some of that at lunchtime."
"I'll let you off then. Shove off and I'll help you clean the kitchen." He pushed her gently off his lap.
Lucy jumped up off the bed and leant on the door. "Come on then!".
"Hold on," Edmund fake groaned and stood slowly up. "It's my old bones, you go on ahead."
Lucy laughed quietly, covering her mouth so as not to wake up their mother. "Alright then grandpa."
Edmund waited until he could hear the sounds of her footsteps on the stairs before rushing over to his coat to grab the piece of paper in it. He didn't really know what to do with it other than stare at the slightly faded blue digits scrawled on. He grabbed his phone from the pocket of his jeans and quickly began to add the number to his contacts.
He began walking down the stairs slowly, typing a text as he went. 'Do you know the little café called Ranmandu's Place, just up the road from Sainsbury's?'
"Come on then slow coach!" Lucy hissed, sticking her head around the kitchen door.
"Alright, alright!" Edmund rolled his eyes and quickly pressed send before tucking his phone away.
Lucy tossed a cloth over at him and set to work sweeping the floor. Edmund ran the cloth under the hot tap and started to scrub down the surface; it had been a while since they'd used the kitchen.
Cleaning wasn't exactly Edmund's strong suit, but he put the effort in to do right by his family. Mum physically couldn't do it anymore, Peter was hopeless at it so that only left him and Lucy. Sometimes he thought Peter could just go and they'd probably be better off, although he knew they needed his wages or else they'd be living on scraps.
He was broken from his reverie however when his phone pinged decidedly loudly. It was a surprise to say the least. He hadn't expected a reply, especially not one that quickly.
"Is that Peter? I thought he wouldn't have been done at work for at least another hour or two." Lucy asked, looking up curiously.
Edmund shook his head. Unlocking his phone to glance at the reply. 'As it happens I do, I'm guessing this is Edmund as I don't make a habit of giving my number out to everyone I meet ;) ~ Caspian'
"Susan then? Is she coming home!?" Lucy gasped a little.
"It's not Susan." Edmund nearly laughed. Like it would ever be. Although he couldn't blame her, he had no friends anymore, what else was she to think.
Lucy frowned, putting her cloth on the surface and tried to look over Edmund's shoulder.
"Hey, privacy!" Edmund swatted her away playfully.
Lucy shook her head in disbelief. "Have you got a secret girlfriend Ed?"
"No!" Edmund scoffed. As if. Never again he'd vowed.
He tapped in a reply. 'Sorry, forgot. I prefer Ed though :P'
"His name's Caspian. He's a friend."