ANA

I have been sitting outside my parents' house in my car for over an hour now. Not directly outside, that might rouse some suspicion, sort of down the road a little. I've switched the engine on to go home twice only to switch it off convincing myself that I need to do this in person rather than over the phone.

Unless they're totally awful I'm going to tell them the truth, which is pretty much committing myself to the lie being as my mother will be completely hysterical the moment that I tell her and it will elicit some very heavy tutting from my father, although he won't say anything out loud. He never does. I wish just one of them would be on my side for once, maybe not even that, just not completely disappointed by every decision I make on my own.

I check my appearance in the mirror and finally, I force myself out of the car.

"Darling, why on earth are you here?" my mother asks me as soon as she opens the door. A charming greeting, as always. If I was one of her friends she would never dare to speak to me like that for fear of gossip. I'm just her daughter, so of course it doesn't matter what she says to me.

"Is Dad here? I'd just rather tell you together so I can get this over with." She nods and motions for me to come in. As usual, Dad's in his study, so we have to knock on the door and wait for about an hour before he lets us in. I find myself getting impatient and annoyed; my mother doesn't say a word to me the whole time we're out there, and this only serves to contribute to the feeling. As we go in he nods in acknowledgement of me, but as usual foregoes a greeting. I'm wishing, despite how out of place and awkward he'd feel here, that Christian, my number one supporter at the moment was here with me. Failing him then Isobel, just someone who would be supportive and not as judgemental as my parents to hold my hand through this and tell me I'm doing the right thing.

I find it funny that I'm the kind of person who needs constant reassurance about decisions, yet received very little as a child. Perhaps that's just made me hungrier for it in adult life, though I'm not going to pretend to know the first thing about psychology.

"Anastasia has something to tell us." she tells him. She doesn't sound happy about this. I almost smile when I think that if she's unhappy about this then she's clearly going to be thrown off by the news I'm delivering.

"Robert and I broke up last night." I decide to go for the blunt approach rather than skirting around it. The sooner I get the words out the sooner I can leave, have a good cry in my car and go home and go to bed. It'll be very early when I get in, but I feel I'm owed an early night after staying up so late with Christian yesterday and having to suffer through this ordeal today. "It was fairly mutual."

My mother gasps and hangs her head, and suddenly I'm biting back my tongue to stop myself from screaming at her. The people involved in the relationship were me and Robert, breaking up with him should have never had to take in to account how other people were going to feel about the news. My father remains oddly calm sat at his desk and meets my eyes for just a second before I turn away. Not holding eye contact is a sign of weakness, but he's a lot more intimidating than I am.

"I don't know how he could do such a thing to you!" she exclaims. She looks up at me, shaking her head. She's actually crying. Surely if anyone should be crying, it's me?

The fact that she interprets our break up as him having ended things with me is fine, I decide, whatever gets me yelled at the least. Maybe I'll tell her one day, but currently I have no scruples when it comes to bending the truth to suit my own personal gain if it makes things easier for me.

Looking to my father, he looks a little less convinced by this version of events, as my mother begins some dramatic monologue of betrayal and heartbreak that would feel more in place in a Shakespeare play. I'm just trying to drown her out. Eventually she excuses herself from the room, citing the need to lie down. I plan to have left the house before she gets up, because so far she hasn't screamed at me and blamed me, and I would rather get out of here before she decides that this is the next best course of action. I'd rather have her yelling on the other end of a phone where I can just put it down than in person where just walking away would be rude and just make her even angrier. I stay stood in my father's office, knowing he prefers to dismiss people from his presence rather than have them wander off of their own accord. Again I bring my gaze up to meet his, and am completely shocked to see him smiling. I frown, not entirely sure what's going on.

"He was an asshole, Annie." he assures me. "Getting rid of him is one of the best decisions that you've ever made." This just serves to confuse me even more. I stand unable to speak, completely shocked. My father hasn't said this much to me since I was a child. I wasn't even sure he was capable of speech any more. "I know he didn't break things off with you. I'm not an idiot. I was going to suggest you reject his proposal anyway, find someone who makes you happy. I thought for a while that you might turn out like your mother, but luckily you seem to have some sense. More than I did, I'll give you that. Only one good thing ever came out of my marriage, and that was you."

"If you're so unhappy, why do you stay?" I ask, finding my voice again. He laughs. I don't remember ever hearing him laugh.

"I'm used to it now. May as well stick it out until I die. Plus, that woman would bankrupt me. Easier just to stay and keep quiet and not bother myself with any of that legal nonsense. But you, you can learn. Find someone who makes you happy and stop worrying about what she thinks of you. She doesn't think much of anyone. It's not your fault, Annie." I'm almost crying and I don't really know why. So much for no-one on my side in this family. Apparently I have one person who's been cheering me on for quite a while. It's a very relieving thought. "I suppose you'll want to be getting back now. I'll wish your mother the best when she feels a little better." I nod dumbly and turn on my hell to go. I don't look back as I speak.

"Thank you. I needed to hear that."

"I know. Have a safe drive."

I get out to my car, having not stopped smiling since I left the study. I feel a lot lighter, a lot freer than I did when I was last sitting in this car. I call Christian immediately, knowing he'll be home from work by now and wanting to share my success with him.

"Hey, Ana. How did it go?" he asks as soon as he picks up the phone on the first ring, not giving him time to have checked the number before he picked it up.

"Am I the only person who ever talks to you?"

"Pretty much. Answer the question." I roll my eyes.

"So demanding today!" I exclaim, deliberately pausing for a long time after I speak, forcing him to wait a little longer. "I never knew you were such a gossip. Well, my mother gasped and invented her own Romeo and Juliet, true love lost kind of speech which I forced myself not to laugh through, but she didn't actually yell at me before she retired to her bed because she was about to faint or something else designed to be over dramatic that wasn't actually ever going to happen." He laughs.

"And your Dad?"

"Is apparently a very supportive person, actively trying to prevent me from making the same mistakes as him. Honestly, it's the first time he's ever spoken to me properly since I was about eight, and I felt like I had an actual parent rather than just an older person who sits around looking bored most of the time. He actually laughed, which was slightly disturbing. He's glad I'm proving to be a lot less like my mother than he thought I would be." Even though he's never met her, from some of the stories I've told him, I'm willing to bet that Christian's probably pretty glad I'm nothing like her too.

"I'm really glad about that. It must be awful to feel like there's no-one on your side. At least you have one half decent parent. I don't understand why it took him this long, I mean if it was my daughter then I'd want her to know she could count on me all the time, not just when I feel like she's made an acceptable decision, but it could be a hell of a lot worse.

I have to agree with this.

"Well, he still can't appear to be in front of my mother, I suspect, as that would single-handedly cause World War Three and destroy the world, but I know he's silently cheering me on, and that's enough." I take from Christian's silence that he probably doesn't feel the same way, but that's just because he's protective of me already and very vocal in his support and appreciation. My father just isn't like that, and as long as I know that he is sitting there silently supporting me rather than silently hating me, I don't actually care.

"As long as you're happy, Ana, then I am too." I smile. This is why he's such a wonderful person to have around. This and so many other things, of course.

"I am, definitely. I don't suppose this is the last of the issue I'll hear from Mom, but that was always to be expected, and she assumed it was Robert's idea anyway, so she's probably more annoyed at him right now than she is at me. I just hope she doesn't call him and start shouting at him, that would be disastrous."

"Agreed. Look, I don't really have time to get to yours this evening, but if you want to come over here and don't mind dealing with my insane little sister, then you're very welcome to."

"Sounds good. Can't wait to meet her."

"She just said the same about you."

Christian gives me his address and I input it to my Satnav, too hopeless when it comes to directions to even attempt to find it myself. It's not too far from here, but a long enough drive that I can enjoy a good few songs on the way there.

It's a fairly small two bedroom house, but in a nicer area than I assumed it would be and a lot less run-down than I had been imagining. I think my original estimation of Christian and his lifestyle may have been a little harsh and clearly I was way off base. I walk up the little path and knock on the door loudly. I can hear squabbling on the other side of the door and it makes me smile. I definitely wish I had siblings so I could have done that kind of thing. I think I would have enjoyed embarrassing my brother or sister when a friend of theirs came over. I would have had even more of a field day if it had been a date, I would have jumped in to the deep end with that, showing them baby pictures and telling them embarrassing stories. I wonder if Mia's like that, I assume, since I've been told she's studying some ridiculously difficult science at college that she's a bit more sensible.

My estimation is totally off base.

Mia has sleek raven hair with one long blue streak going through it on the right hand side and glasses too large for her face. She squeals when she sees me and grabs my arm, pulling me hard in to the house.

"Mia, careful, she's breakable and, contrary to popular belief, not your new ragdoll." Mia pouts before she bursts in to laughter.

"I'm Ana, obviously." She nods.

"It would have been great if you weren't though, just some random girl coming to ask for directions or something and you thought I was kidnapping you." I look at Christian who sighs and shakes his head. I'm a little overwhelmed but managing to smile through it. She's forceful and possibly insane, but I like Mia, the well dressed, exuberant, slightly hipster scientist already. "Trust me, he's talked enough about you that I already know you better than I know most of the people I've actually met." Christian rolls his eyes and I let out a nervous giggle.

"Right, you've had a stare, go away now. At least let me say hello uninterrupted." Christian tells her. Mia pulls a face at him but waves at me and makes a retreat to what I assume is her bedroom. "Sorry about her."

"Don't be, she's lovely, a very bright vibrant girl. I wish I had a sister."

"Trust me, you don't. They always seem fun, and then you get one and you remember how much fun it was before you had to put up with them."

"You don't mind her really. You wouldn't be helping out by letting her live with you if you did."

"No, as usual you're right." This elicits a beam of a smile from me. I like when people admit I'm right. It happens to frequently. "Let's go sit down, I'm sure you need to after that encounter." It's my turn to roll my eyes and he laughs as he leads me through to his front room.