It was like the confrontation between the sisters had never happened the morning after. The day of her birthday arrived, and she was handed a gift by Olga and was kissed and hugged. Helga said nothing.
"Well, aren't you going to open it?" Steven asked.
"No," Helga spat, throwing it on the table. "I don't want anything from her!"
"Why are you acting up, Helga?" Olga asked, all innocence. Helga stared at her in disbelief, and even Steven stared at her with a 'seriously?' look on his face. "We've done so much for you-"
"Oh yeah, like locking me up!" she said.
"Oh, I just absolutely can not deal with this today," Olga announced, placing a hand to her forehead. Helga rolled her eyes. "Take her out Steven. Maybe she'll have a better attitude when she comes back."
"Fat chance," Helga muttered under her breath.
. . .
The whole drive to the marina, Helga remained silent, ignoring Steven. She didn't want to go sailing. She didn't want to go home. She just wanted to run away! She was supposed to be strong, independent. So what happened? Tears sprung to her eyes and she blinked, hoping to make them go away. But one escaped. Helga had never been one to cry. But since living with Olga and Steven, she'd cried more in that small time period than in her whole life!
"Let's just try to enjoy the day," Steven said, looking over at her and smiling. "We have a wonderful lunch and dinner packed, and I even snuck in some champaign."
"Ugh, I'm not teenage loser who thinks drinking is fun because it's forbidden," Helga said. Steven just laughed. If he was hoping to get a laugh out of her, he was shit out of luck. She was determined to make this hard. And he knew it, too.
"Helga, your making this hard on me isn't ruining my day. It's ruining yours," he told her.
"Olga ruined my day when she smashed that phone," Helga muttered. "That drunk driver ruined my life."
"Well, what's done is done, and you can't change it," he said. "So cheer up, we're going to have a nice day, whether you like it or not."
. . .
It was a nice day. Steven had a yacht that had accomodation in it. 'You could live in this freaking thing!' Helga thought, looking around. After being shown everywhere, including the bedroom (on a yacht!) they headed upstairs to enjoy the sun. Helga laid down on the deck, while Steven steered. After a while they seemed to just be drifting.
"You should put sunscreen on," Steven warned, coming down to her.
"Whose driving the boat?" Helga asked.
"We've stopped for lunch," he informed her. "We've been out here for two hours already, and your turning red."
Helga looked down at her arms. He was right. "Dammit." She got up and went over to her bag, pulling out her sunscreen. "I put some on before I left!"
Steven wandered over. "Do you need some help?"
Helga just handed him the bottle and nodded, removing her shirt and lifting her hair away from her shoulders. She should have tied it up. Why hadn't she tied it up? She winced as the cold lotion hit her skin and shuddered as it went across from one shoulder to the other. Then he made a line of it down the middle of her back, before beginning to rub it in. It felt strange having him lift the straps of her bikini top to get the lotion undeerneath. She'd never bothered and just slathered it over the top in the past.
"You know, when I first met your sister, she loved doing things like this, or at least I thought she did," he said.
"She's a people pleaser," Helga sneered. "Unless the person is me."
"She's just . . . worried," Steven excused. "They found the body of a young woman dumped in the woods not far from the house. It was on our land . . ."
"Are you serious?" Helga asked, spinning around to look at him. Steven nodded. "But I never saw any police cars and all that."
"Well, it happened," he told her. "It made the paper. They think it was the work of the same person responsible for another death and dumping a few months ago on the other side of the city. There's to many strange people out there who shouldn't be out amongst the public. We handed over our CCTV footage, so hopefully they'll find the person."
"If I was wandering the streets, I would understand," Helga muttered. "But I won't be. I'm just making phone calls."
"I'll talk to her," he said quietly. It was only then that Helga realized he had his hands on her stomach and she could feel his chest against her back, and his breath on her neck. She tried not to quiver, and pulled away from him, standing up.
"Is it safe to swim here?" she asked, wanting to cool off.
"As safe as anywhere else," Steven said, then holding out the bottle, "But first, you think you could return the favor?"
The dormant butterflies in her stomach went crazy, and the heat she felt wasn't all sun. "Uh, yeah, sure." Taking the bottle off him, she squirted it on his back and started rubbing it in. There was no hair there. Her dad had been hairy. She'd had the misfortune too many times, of seeing him raging around the house looking for his belt, or underwear or shirt. She thought it was so gross. But now, seeing a hairless man in front of her, she thought it was strange. Shouldn't men be hairy? 'Why are you even asking yourself this?' her mind asked. She made a closed mouth giggle noise.
"What's so funny?" Steven asked, as she finished and pulled her hands back.
"You've got no hair," she told him. "Well, I'm gonna risk a swim with sharks!" Before Steven could say anything she went to the edge of the boat and jumped in. When she surfaced she swore she could feel a difference in the water where they were, to at a beach. It felt . . . lighter? Colder for sure . . . she paddled around for a bit, dipped her head under, then made her way back. In the meantime Steven had got lunch ready for them. One back on board Helga squeezed what water she could from her hair. She noticed Steven staring at her with an odd look on his face. It made her heart beat fast, and she looked away from him and down at the food. Not saying anything she made her way over to the small table and started making herself a plate.
They ate in silence for a while, and Steven offered her a glass of wine. "Don't tell your sister," he joked. Helga smiled and accepted it.
Afterwards they both dove into the water for a swim, but Helga couldn't help being paranoid about sharks and the boat floating away, leaving them behind. Steven teased her about it, and they had a splash war for a bit, before going back to the boat. Helga had another wine, and soaked up the sun.
"If your tired you can go lie down," Steven told her. Helga nodded, feeling tired. The mix of sea, alcohol and sun making her drowsy. Pulling herself up, she gulped back the last of her wine and went down to the bedroom and flopped face down on the bed and fell asleep.
She had a strange dream while sleeping though. One of hands all over her, and kisses. When she woke what only felt like a while later, the sun was gone and the boat was quiet. She sat up feeling groggy, looking around. She felt strange down there, her bikini top was slightly askew. Remembering her dream she felt embarrassed. Then she heard what sounded like her sister laughing. She realized her bag with her clothes in it was still up on the deck so she stumbled her way up the stairs and out to see her sister and Steven sitting at the table, subs and pizza in front of them and a birthday cake in the middle.
"Happy Birthday, Sleepy Head!" Olga sang, giving her a big smile. Steven was smiling and holding a wrapped box for her. She scowled at her sister, but made her way forward and took a seat. "I hope you've had a wonderful day, frolicking in the sea. Nothing like the ocean to refresh you mind, body and soul."
Helga just rolled her eyes, grabbed a piece of pizza and started eating. Ordinarily she would just scoff it, but she couldn't remember the last time she had had pizza. Her parents had been alive, she knew that. After a moment she looked at the pizza. She knew it tasted to fresh. It was homemade. Looking at the subs she figured they probably were, too. Nearly every meal she had eaten since arriving had been home made. Except when they went out to eat. And even then, it wasn't to some chain eatery. It was always somewhere posh. Helga sighed.
"I'm not very hungry," she said, looking down at her lap. She felt like crying. It was her first birthday without her parents. Steven and Olga shared a worried glance.
"Are you okay, Helga?" Olga asked. Helga glared at her sister, causing Olga to sit back.
"No," she snapped. "Mom and Dad aren't here, my friends aren't here, and I can't even talk to anyone, and you've been hiding letters from me!"
She pushed herself away from the table and scrambled off the boat and took off running, ignoring Steven and Olga's calling her name. Freedom! At last! she thought, picking up her pace. She felt like a caged animal that had finally escaped. She ran as fast as she could and saw the beach that still had a few people on it, and headed that way. Once she hit the beach she just kept on running, before finally collapsing from exhaustion near a wharf and just started to cry. She had to get away, but where did she go? She lived in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't safe to walk alone. She had no money. Well, not yet anyway . . .
"Helga?" she heard Steven ask. He knelt down on the sand next to her and touched her shoulder. "Come on. We'll go home. The weather is turning bad."
That was when she felt the first raindrop hit her face. She let him pull her to her feet and guide her back towards the marina.
"I hate her, i really, really hate her," Helga muttered.
"No you don't," Steven told her. "Your just angry right now. We'll go home, you'll have a bath, something to eat, sleep, and it will be better in the morning."
. . .
The drive home was made in absolute silence. When they finally arrived the rain had really started to get heavy.
"It started out as such a nice day, too," Steven remarked, hoping to get a response from one of them. But it was greeted with silence, until Helga broke it by opening and slamming the car door and rushing up the steps and into the house as Colin opened the door. Olga followed and by the time Steven entered the house, Olga was gone and Helga was still stomping up the steps.
When Helga reached her room she opened her closet and pulled out a bigger bag. She was going to need it. Going to the drawers she pulled out her jewellry, underwear, some tops, jeans, socks, and threw them into the bag. When she heard someone coming into the lounge room off her bedroom she shoved the bag under the bed and sat down, wiping away her tears. It was Steven. Of course. It always was. God forbid her sister should do anything to help her!
"You forgot to get your present," Steven told her, holding out the box. Helga didn't make a move to grab it so Steven took the initiative by unwrapping and opening the box for her. It was a gold necklace with her name spelled out in gold letters. He came over and put it around her neck, lifting her hair as he did.
"I'm sorry this day ended so badly," he said, genuinely looking sorry for her. He leaned forward and kissed her cheek, close to her lips. She pulled back, feeling like she couldn't breathe. "Hopefully tomorrow is a better day."
Helga watch him get up and leave, without saying a word. She waited a few minutes before dragging her bag out from under the bed and continuing to fill it with stuff she thought she would need. When she was sure she had everything she looked out the hallway. She could hear them arguing, but couldn't hear what they were saying. Sneaking quietly out she saw she wasn't going to be able to just sneak out the front door. Colin was downstairs, and there were many other people in the house as well. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it was too busy. Going back to her room she closed the door. She'd wait a while then try again. Falling back on her bed she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
When she woke up she saw that she'd been asleep for three hours. Everyone should be asleep by now, right? Getting up she went to leave but found her bedroom door was locked. She stared at it in disbelief and tried again. Definately locked. She backed away from the door. She knew no one would hear her if she called out. She spun around and saw a note on her drawers. She walked over and read it.
What were you planning to do, Helga? Run away?
Helga growled and crumpled the note up and dropped it on the floor, looking at her window. She was leaving tonight for sure. If she had to climb down the side of the house, she was getting out of here. Going over to it she opened it and looked out. There was a narrow ledge she could balance along. She leaned out looking left and right. She could do this. All she had to do was get to the veranda roof, then she could jump down, make her way to that tree, jump over and just run for it. She turned around and grabbed her bag, putting on her back then climbed out her window. Holding onto the guttering on the roof above her window she got up and started to pull herself along, watching her footing on the slippery ledge. There was no way she was going to be locked away for the rest of her life. What was her sister up to? If it was Helga's inheritance, she could have it! She was almost at the veranda roof when the guttering she was holding onto came apart from the roof. Helga could only look at it in her hand in shock as she fell backwards, letting out a short scream before she hit the ground and everything went black.