Beaches, Booze and Falling
Chapter Three
He fidgeted. The silence that engulfed the room was enough to make anyone uncomfortable unfortunately Finn knew that this was the calm before the storm. His parents had now had ample time to brood over Finn's homecoming. Soon the winds would attack at full force howling and knocking people's hats off; cold, hard rain would commence drowning him.
The waiting game had begun. They sat there prim and proper. His mother, legs delicately cross and her elegant hands folded gently in her lap. If you were anyone but Finn or James you would think she was simply sitting down to tea. Finn knew better. His father sat with perfect posture in an armchair, his hands were clasped casually before him. Waiting.
He had only just returned from the pub when the maid had informed him in a small fearful voice that, "your mother and father wish for you to join them in the sitting room, Master Phineas." As he rounded the corner into the sitting room his parents had indeed been sitting there. Calmly, Finn took a seat opposite them and waiting. Thus the game began.
From his father's office he heard the chime of the antique grandfather clock strike nine. He gave a slight shiver. When he was younger the ticking of that clock had been comforting. He had grown up in a house that whether it was empty or not was always buried under layers of silence. The only thing that ever broke the silence had been his father reprimanding him or the bong of the clock striking hour after hour. Even though his bedroom was on the opposite side of the mansion from the clock and on a different level he was still able to hear it at night. He could hear it so clearly that he would go as far as to claim the ticking of the clock had lulled him to sleep countless times. However, now, the chiming of the clock meant something not so calming. It was no longer soothing. The old grandfather clock was now a time bomb, ticking away the hours, minutes and seconds before the storm would break.
He eyes glanced around the room. It was decorated warmly with beautiful dark wood floors, comfortable yet elegant couches and intriguing paintings adorning the walls. The fireplace set in the middle of the primary wall was not lit. Finn couldn't remember a time when it had been lit. Not at Christmas or when it got cold at night.
"Phineas, dear," his mother, Eleanor, said evenly yet Finn could feel the disappointment radiating from her. She wouldn't scream or raise her voice. She never did. Somehow this was what made Finn feel the worst. It wouldn't be his father's angry words but his mother's disappointment in him that crushed him. "As I'm sure you know, dear, we received a call from Mitchum Huntzberger just last week. He claims his son; you and Colin were arrested again. Is this true?"
Finn nodded. It was true and his mother was right to insinuate that he had been arrested with his friends before. They had been, many times, in fact. Finn wasn't sure whether his mother knew how many other times he had been arrested with Logan and Colin and he hoped she never did. The disappointment his mother would feel from that revelation was not something Finn was eager to witness.
"Correct me if I am wrong Phineas," She continued, "but I seem to recall you saying that you would try to be better. Am I wrong?"
"No," Finn muttered not daring to look her in the eye.
"Speak up dear, I don't understand when you mumble like that."
He took the time to clear his voice before speaking. "I said you weren't wrong."
Eleanor nodded. "That is what I thought you said. I want you to know, dear, that I am not pleased with your actions."
"I know."
She looked at him expectantly. Her green eyes, so much like his own, gazed into him. "I see."
A realization dawned on him at that moment as he looked into her eyes. It was easier to act out and do incredibly stupid and illegal things when he was on the other side of the world. When he was in America he didn't have to see the displeasure in his mother's otherwise sweet face. "I'm sorry."
"I know you are, Phineas."
Finn moved to open his mouth to say what he wasn't sure but his attempt was blocked by his father's raised hand. He quickly shut his mouth.
Darren rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Did I not say, Phineas, that if you kept up this intolerable behaviour I would bring you back home?"
Finn nodded. His father told him that every time he got in trouble.
"I let you go off to school in America because that was what you wanted. You seemed to enjoy the company of the friends you met at boarding school, you seemed happy so I let you go. I realize now that that may have been a mistake on my part."
Finn sat up straighter. What was his father saying? These conversations had never gone this way before. Where was the usual yelling? The objects being thrown?
"I have been thinking, since the phone call from Mitchum, that you should come home," Darren revealed. "I want you to finish your education at a college here in Australia. It seems that you need watching over.
"When this delinquent behaviour of yours started I thought it was just your new found freedom. You wanted to see how far you could bend the rules how far you go before you got into any serious trouble. I let most of them go too. Now, however, I think you have reached the limit. I want you home."
He couldn't breathe. His lungs seemed to have temporarily seized up. This couldn't be happening. There were so many things wrong with this scenario that he couldn't get his bearings.
"But--" he spluttered out. "You can't!"
Darren's eyes narrowed. "I very well can, son."
"But Dad," Finn said, "it was just a stupid prank! We didn't think it was all that bad. Honestly, it was just a prank!"
"Be that as it may, I think you should come home from the remainder of your education. Your mother agrees with me," Darren said calmly. Finn looked quickly to his mother for confirmation, which came in the form of a nod.
"You will finish up your semester at Yale and in the fall you will enrol at a school here," his father explained in a tone of finality.
"There's no real point in pulling me from Yale, Dad," Finn said desperately. "I only have a year left. One year before I graduate. My grades are reasonable, its not like I am failing anything!"
"Phineas is right, Darren, he is doing quite well in his studies."
"He is behaving in a manner that is not acceptable from a Rothschild, Eleanor," Darren snapped. "My decision is final."
"You can't pull me from school!" Finn exclaimed as though he just realized the seriousness of what his father was trying to do.
"Yes, I can Phineas," he hissed. "You will attend a university here. Somewhere close to home so I can keep an eye on you I don't want you straying too far from the right path."
"So you can keep an eye on me!" Finn yelled. "What, so all of a sudden you care about my well being. Bull shit Dad you have never cared. You care about what other people think of you not about me. It has never been about me! Never, not once. It has always been about you, you, you!"
Storming from the room, Finn blinked back the tears that he hadn't even notice come. He grabbed his keys and ignored the stunned form of his brother as he made his way out to his car.
He stopped only once on the way to his destination and that was at the first liquor store he passed. He was sure the clerk had thought he was mad or already drunk from the state of him. His eyes were blood shot and his entire body was shaking with suppressed rage. He was quite the sight.
When he arrived at the beach he felt himself calm slightly. The beach relaxed him. Whether it was the sound of the waves crashing against the shore or the vastness, the open space letting him feel free. It was probably a bit of both that helped him breathe more freely than he did when he stuck in the suffocating stone mansion he called home.
He sat down in the middle of the beach, twisted the cap off the bottle of amber liquid with his trembling fingers. He wasn't sure what he had bought. He had taken the first bottle his hand had come into contact with. He just hoped it wasn't cheap wine or champagne. He took a hearty swig; wincing and the liquid burned his throat on the way down.
In a few more generous mouthfuls the angry lion within him roared with raged. How dare his father think he could take him from school? How dare he even say he wanted to watch over his son? He wasn't his son he was a pawn.
Standing, now, on unstable legs Finn grabbed a handful of sand and threw the grains as hard as he could. "HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF MY FATHER? You're not my father! I hate you!"
He had tears streaming down his face again. He raised the bottle to his lips again only stopping when a voice said, "I think you've had enough."
How much of his rant she had seen he didn't know but she was there. Standing directly beside him with her small hand on his gently manoeuvring the bottle away from his mouth. Surprisingly he let her. She pried it from his tense fingers and capped it before setting it down on the sand.
"What are you doing here?" he whispered, his voice hoarse from screaming.
"Apparently I'm not the only one who needed to get away from their father tonight," she said giving a small laugh. It made the corner of his lips tug up.
"Do you want to talk about it," she asked tentatively.
He scoffed. "What do you care? You hate me, remember?"
She shook her head. "I don't hate you, I told you that. I don't know you."
"And you don't care to, so why bother trying to make sure I'm okay?" he asked bitterly.
"Well, excuse me for not wanting you to get so drunk that you would walk right into the ocean," she sounded affronted.
His eyes travelled from the ocean to her eyes. He decided at that moment that the ocean wasn't even nearly as blue as her eyes. His anger seemed to melt away from the concerned yet miffed look that was displayed across her soft features. "I'm sorry."
"My name is Rory," she said holding out her hand to him.
My new favourite name, he thought to himself. "I'm Finn."
"Its nice to meet you," she said smiling an amused smile.
He grinned. "Likewise."
They stood in silence for a long while. It was nothing like the silences back home this one was comforting. It may have been her presence but he wasn't sure. He frowned as he tried to figure it out.
"Do you want to talk about it now?" she asked misinterpreting his expression.
"What?" he asked. "Oh, my father? It was just a fight."
Surprisingly she laughed. "If I have learned anything from my mom, even my father, it's that a fight with your parents is never just a fight, Finn."
Finn turned to look at her with a confused expression gracing his features.
"You see, parents usually take what their children tell them more personally than anything else but refuse to admit it, does that make sense?"
"None."
She laughed and shrugged, "I tried."
That made him laugh. "Thank you."
"But I didn't do anything," she told him.
"I'm not screaming at the top of my lungs anymore am I?"
"Well, no," she admitted slowly.
"I've been getting into trouble, not that that is unusual, but my father is now trying to play the parent card. He wants me to enrol at a university closer to home so he can watch my every move and scare me into obedience," Finn said.
"Well, that sucks," she said giving a small pout.
"It does. I like my school."
"Talk to him."
"Talk to my father?" Finn asked. "Rory, I may have only just met you but I do believe you are mad, love."
"Thank you," she smiled.
He laughed. "Now, I know you are mad."
She just shrugged and sent him another smile.
"It's late, Rory," Finn said. "Your father will be wondering where you are."
She nodded. "I suppose he will be."
They slowly wondered towards the road and his car when she suddenly stopped in her tracks. Her eyes were wide.
"You are not driving!" she cried.
He looked from the keys in his hands to his car. "Why not?"
"You drank half a bottle of scotch. Lets call you a cab and you can pick up your car in the morning," she said.
She pulled out a cell phone and moments later she hung up. She stayed next to him until a cab pulled up in front of them.
"Good bye Finn, it was nice to meet you after all."
He smiled. "You too, love."
He started to climb into the taxi and she started to walk away.
"Wait!" he called. "Can I see you again?"
Rory turned and said, "Who knows," as she gave a small shrug before she continued on her way.
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A/N: Surprise! I still can't believe I had time to write this chapter. Then again, when i wrote it I was supposed to be studying for my math exam.