Page 18 of We May Be Fractured
Aaron pulled out his phone and called Tori, only to be greeted once again by her voicemail and the familiar background song.
“Where the hell are you, Tori?” he asked desperately. “Where the hell are you…”
*
W hen Aaron got back, tired and sweaty, he found Nyle waiting in the living room, looking worried. It was just the two of them, plus Kat sleeping on a chair, Luzanne nowhere in sight.
“You heard all that, didn’t you?” Nyle asked, scratching his arm.
“Yeah, more than I should have,” Aaron admitted.
Nyle sighed and headed to the kitchen. “Fancy something to drink? Coffee? Hot chocolate? Beer?”
“Got any peppermint tea?”
Digging through the tea bags, Nyle found one and turned on the kettle while Aaron settled on the sofa.
They stayed in awkward silence, broken only by the sound of the boiling water.
After a couple of tense minutes, Aaron braced himself and asked, “Luzanne…she’s Landon’s sister?”
Nyle exhaled heavily as though he’d just put down a set of weights. “It’s a bit of a story.” He poured the hot water into two penguin-shaped mugs. “But, yeah, Landon and Luzanne are blood siblings.”
Aaron took the tea Nyle offered, but stayed quiet, unsure if he wanted to dive deeper into this.
Nyle seemed to take Aaron’s silence as a cue to go on.
He plopped down next to Aaron on the sofa as if he had a heavy burden to unload.
“Aunt Lucy was seventeen when she had him. A fling with a tourist. My grandparents wanted her to get rid of the pregnancy, but she stuck with it, said she wanted to keep the baby.”
Aaron breathed in the minty aroma of his tea. Why was Nyle spilling all these family secrets? Did he trust him, or was he just being open?
“For a while,” Nyle continued, “she managed, doing odd jobs here and there. Then she met this bloke, moved in with him. Seemed like a decent guy, treated Landon all right. They even talked marriage. He fooled everyone because when Aunt Lucy got pregnant with Luzanne, he did a runner. Took most of her savings too.”
“What a complete arsehole.” It made Aaron think of his own family, how they’d been masters at putting up a front.
Smiles in photos, the perfect little family at gatherings.
But behind closed doors, it was arguments and cold silences.
If something seemed too good, it usually was. He knew that all too well.
“Aunt Lucy struggled enough with Landon. But two kids? Her depression got worse. She turned to booze and ended up losing them both.”
“So, they gave Luzanne and Landon away?”
Nyle nodded. “Neighbours called social services. Somehow, my parents managed to take in Luzanne and raise her like a daughter. That’s why I think of her as my sister.”
“And Landon?”
“Couldn’t take him too. He got put into foster care, bounced around a lot .”
“How much is ‘a lot’?”
“Twelve homes. He’s always been…problematic. So, they kept moving him.”
Aaron winced. He’d had a rough time with just one family; bouncing between twelve was unimaginable. “So, technically, Luzanne’s your cousin?”
“Yeah, but blood doesn’t matter to us. I love them both the same. Landon, though, he sees things differently .”
Aaron thought back to what Landon had said about Nyle being hardly family and referring to his mother as his birth mum. Pretty clear they weren’t exactly close. “What about Landon’s mum?”
“She’s living up north last I heard. Landon and her, they don’t talk.
He tried living with her, in between foster placements, but it didn’t work out.
He lost it with her new partner, and that landed him back in care until he was eighteen.
After that, he was pretty much on his own.
Then our gran died, left us this house in her will, so we all ended up moving in here together. ”
It all made sense now, why they were all under one roof.
“It’s a bit of a madhouse sometimes,” Nyle continued. “We try to get along because it’s convenient. But Luzanne reckons Landon resents her for staying with us while he got chucked around. She thinks he’s out to sabotage any relationship she tries to have.”
Aaron took another deep breath of his tea, trying to piece things together. It was hard to picture Landon, Mr. Apathy himself, getting a kick out of ruining someone else’s day. There had to be more to it than being jealous of Luzanne.
“Speaking of Landon…” Nyle said, glancing around. “Didn’t he come back with you?”
“Nah, he’s out with Ria.”
“Oh, right!” Nyle didn’t seem surprised.
“They do their thing every other Thursday. Like clockwork. Almost makes me jealous. Landon never hangs out with me. But good on him for finding someone to, you know, let off steam with. Sometimes, you need to…let it go.” He winked.
“It’s not healthy keeping it all to yourself. ”
Aaron sensed a jab there.
“Funny thing, though, Ria’s never stayed over, never been in his room or the summer house. It’s like Landon’s got his own little forbidden kingdom. Not even regular flings are allowed, only Kat gets the grand tour.”
“Maybe he’s hoarding a pile of gold in there, Scrooge McDuck style,” Aaron joked.
“Who knows…” Nyle shrugged.
Having finished his tea, Nyle went to the kitchen and popped the mug in the dishwasher. Aaron followed, not having touched his but feeling more chilled out thanks to the mint. A shower was next on the agenda.
As he was about to tip his mug into the sink, Aaron’s gaze landed on the fruit basket.
“Odd, huh?” Nyle said. “Landon’s taken to sketching on bananas, like paper wasn’t enough.”
Aaron picked one up, examining the detailed drawing on the skin. It reminded him of the tattoo sketches he’d seen at the shop.
“Yeah, just the ripe ones. Who knows why,” Nyle mused. “Guess he’s not into green as a canvas. Or maybe his doodles stand out more on yellow.”
Aaron tightened his grip on the banana. Had Landon started marking them because of him?
The idea sent a weird but warm flutter through Aaron’s chest.