Coming Home Read online

  Coming Home

  Rachel Haugen

  Published by Rachel Andrews 2018

  Text copyright © 2018 Rachel Andrews

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either production of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  About the Author

  Chapter One:

  It was the worst fight yet.

  “Austin, you need to listen to me,” my dad was shouting. I couldn’t see his face, but I could picture it contorted with rage.

  Austin’s yells back were followed by a slam of the front door, and I knew my parents would now be standing in the kitchen, gripping the kitchen chairs with white knuckles. If I went out there now, I would be subject to their anger, or worse, their tears.

  Silently I slipped down the hall, feeling like a shadow on the wall in my own home. It had been so long since we had had a normal family. I remembered when we used to go down to the lake at the edge of town, Austin in his bright red swim trunks pretending he was a firefighter, and me in my blue suit, pretending to be a dolphin as I jumped into the clear water.

  But those days were gone. Now all that remained were gloom and resentment—and other emotions that I didn’t want to take the time to acknowledge.

  I quietly went out the backdoor, knowing my parents wouldn’t even notice my absence. My bike was leaning against our shed, looking rather beat up. When I was younger, I had hoped that my parents would let me share a car with Austin once I was old enough to drive, but when my sixteenth birthday had come around this year, there was no mention of a car. Only a card and a promise that they’d take me on a trip this year. Only I didn’t see how that was possible, not with my brother the way he was.

  Sighing, I peddled down the road, heading towards LuLu’s diner. I knew Lexa worked tonight, and I needed someone to talk to, someone who actually had time to talk to me.

  The cool night air whipped across my face, and it seemed to sink down past my skin, traveling through my blood, making me feel restless.

  “Charlotte!” Lexa shouted as I walked into the diner. She wiped her hands on her apron and came over, hugging me tightly. “You haven’t come to visit me in two days,” she said, implying that this should be a crime punishable by law.

  “Sorry,” I said. “You know how things are at my house.”

  Lexa grimaced, then quickly changed topics. “You won’t believe who is here!” She started gesturing towards the back of the diner at an empty table.

  I was about to point out that there was no one there, when from behind me came a voice—

  “Charlotte?”

  I turned and saw a boy a little older than me standing just feet away, his parents already trailing out the door.

  “It is you,” he said. “How are you? How’s Austin? I’ve been meaning to see him, but we just got back a few days ago, and things have been a little hectic.”

  I blinked, expecting him to disappear when I opened my eyes, but his dark ones continued to stare into mine. Behind me, Lexa coughed, probably trying to fill the awkward silence as I apparently had become mute.

  “Charlotte?” the boy said.

  I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe it was him. “What are you doing here, Will?” I finally managed to choke out.

  Lexa coughed again, and turned away from us to help a family that had just entered the diner, and I was sure that relief was written on her face as they walked in.

  Will didn’t seem affected by my rude demeanor, instead giving me an easy grin that lit his whole face.

  “My family moved back just yesterday,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to stop by and say hi to your family, but unpacking has been a nightmare.” He gestured at his parents who were waiting outside. “They’re not the best at packing, so it’s been an interesting test on all of us.” He laughed. “My dad put the mixing bowls in the same box as our living room decorations; there’s no sense to any of it.”

  I gave a hesitant smile. He was the same Will that I remembered from two years ago, the funny popular guy, the one that had been best friends with my brother. But so much had changed with my brother, and it was painful to see Will standing in front of me now, almost reminding me of what I had lost when my brother had started going down the wrong path.

  Will had moved so far away, my brother and him had lost contact after a couple months. I had no idea how my brother was going to react to seeing him, but I figured it wasn’t going to be good. Nothing was good to him these days.

  “I hope you’re able to finish moving in without too much chaos,” I said, trying to be polite and stay calm. I didn’t want him to know about my brother. I was embarrassed. Once upon a time I had looked up to my brother and Will. They had been good role models, good students, athletes, and caring people.

  “I’ll probably swing by your house in the next day or two,” Will told me. “I wanted to surprise Austin. He always enjoyed a good surprise.”

  My smile did not match Will’s, and he must have begun to pick up on the fact that I was feeling awkward because he gave me another smile and left. As soon as the door closed on his heels, Lexa came squealing up to me, grabbing my arm and bouncing on her heels.

  “What did he say?” she exclaimed. “No, no, what did you say?” She looked at me with big eyes. “No, what did he say?” She had too much energy to focus on a single question.

  “He wanted to know if I would marry him,” I said with a straight face, and I thought Lexa would keel over in a dead faint. “Of course he didn’t,” I said, although Lexa continued to look too enthusiastic.

  “How is it possible for him to look even more handsome than he did our freshmen year?” While she pondered this question out loud, my mind wandered to more pressing issues. Such as how my brother was going to respond to seeing Will. Maybe it would make him want to be better… I didn’t want to get my hopes up though.

  “Charlotte, what did he want?” Lexa pulled on my sleeve as if she was five and asking for candy.

  “He moved back into town,” I said, and she let out an excited yelp, that made several of the customers look up from their tables, their forks halfway to their mouths. “Yeah, he wanted to know if Austin would want to hang out.”

  Lexa’s excitement drained away at the mention of my brother’s name. She had been friends with me since first grade, and she knew the depths of trouble my brother had gotten himself into. She alone stood by me last year when my other friends stopped calling or acknowledging me, their parents telling them that I was from a dangerous family and not to be trusted. Talking about my brother was the one conversation that made Lexa act her age.

  “What do you think will happen?” she whispered, now aware that the diners were watching us.

  I shrugged, sick of dwelling on my brother, sick of letting it control my life. “I don’t know, and I don’t care,” I said, not quite truthfully. “I have no intentions of talking to Will, and why should I? He was my brother’s friend more than he was mine.”

  Lexa gave me a look, knowing full well tha
t I had always had a crush on Will when we were younger, but I remained adamant about my indifference.

  “I should get going home,” I told her. “My parents will be wondering where I’ve gone.” That was also not true, and she knew it, but Lexa knew better than to call me out on it.

  Chapter Two:

  The next day was a bleary Saturday, much too cold to be the end of August, as if the weather was as sad as I was that school would be starting again in a mere number of days.

  The one upside to my day was that my parents were gone for the morning to see a family counselor. Austin was supposed to go with, but he still hadn’t come home after their fight last night, so I was supposed to keep an eye out for him while my parents were gone.

  I sat down in my old pajamas to watch the morning news with a bowl of cereal in my hand. My cat, Sasha, came and snuggled up against me, causing milk to slosh down the corner of the bowl and drip onto my pajama shirt.

  The doorbell rang. Sasha sprinted off the couch with a yowl, seeking safety under the kitchen table.

  “Yeah, no one can see you there,” I told her with an eye roll.

  I peeked out the front door and saw Will standing on the front step. In my surprise, I opened the door before I remembered that I was only wearing pajamas.

  “Hi Charlotte, I—.” Whatever Will had planned on saying was lost when he saw me.

  My face burned bright red. “Come on in,” I said. “I’m going to run upstairs really quick and be back down.”

  I ran from the front door, not even checking to see if he had come in the house or not. I took the stairs up to my bedroom two at a time, feeling my face continue to redden with each step. I shook my head, stripping off my pajamas and throwing on the thickest sweatshirt and jeans I owned, praying silently that Will would somehow not be downstairs when I went down there.

  He was.

  And he was looking even better than he had yesterday. Lexa’s words ran through my head, “How is it possible for him to look even more handsome?”

  “Sorry to intrude,” Will said, standing up from where he had taken a seat at the living room couch. He ran his fingers through his thick hair, making it stand on end. “I just wanted to drop by and see Austin.” He glanced around the room, as if expecting Austin to pop out from behind one of the couches.

  “He isn’t here right now,” I told Will, unsure of what else to say. I wanted to tell him about everything that had been going on, but it was too difficult to talk about. Especially with someone I hadn’t seen in two years. “I don’t think he’ll be back for hours.”

  “Oh,” Will said, not looking fazed by this at all. “That’s okay, I can wait a bit.”

  My face flushed again at his words, as this meant I had to entertain him until Austin came back. I couldn’t fathom why Will was so eager to stay here until Austin came back. Yes, they had once been good friends, but Will hadn’t contacted Austin in two years.

  Will sat back down on the couch, his long legs sprawling out in front of him. “Man, it feels good to just sit down,” he said. “My parents have had me up since seven this morning unpacking more boxes. We haven’t even found the stuff for my bedroom yet.”

  “What have you been sleeping on then?” I asked.

  “In a sleeping bag on the floor,” Will said with a yawn. “My back’s killing me. I’ll probably look like an old man once school starts.”

  “Will you be going back to Northview?” This question had been in the back of my mind ever since I had run into him at the diner. I couldn’t imagine walking the same hallways as him once again. He was just a grade older than me, so we had been at the same school when I was in ninth grade, but he had moved at the beginning of that year. And we hadn’t heard from him since.

  Will nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be back at Northview. It’ll be strange after having been gone so long, but it’s just a year, so I guess I’ll survive until graduation.” Will looked thoughtful. “I was going to ask Austin if we are going to have any classes together. Do you know his schedule?”

  Shaking my head, I stared at the far wall. I doubted they would have any classes together, as Austin had failed most of his last year and had to re-take a few of them.

  “What does your schedule look like for the year?” Will asked when I was silent.

  “The usual,” I said. “Math, English, Band—“

  “What band will you be in?” Will eyes perked up at the mention of the word.

  “The upperclassmen wind ensemble,” I told him.

  He grinned at me. “So will I,” he said.

  “You play an instrument?” I said incredulously.

  “Yeah, you don’t remember?” He seemed surprised that I didn’t remember such a thing. “I play percussion.”

  I couldn’t help it—I let out a loud guffaw. “You! Play percussion?! You cannot seriously count banging around on a drum with no sense of beat ‘playing an instrument’!”

  Will smirked. “You remember how badly I used to play in middle school,” he said. “You haven’t heard me in a few years, I’ve actually gotten quite decent.” He puffed out his chest in mock pride.

  He glanced at my bowl of cereal that I had quickly thrown down on the side table. The cheerios had soaked up all the milk and were now floating around like giant balloons.

  “I was just finishing breakfast,” I said, picking up the bowl and heading towards the kitchen. “Can I grab you anything? Juice or toast or anything?” I tossed my cheerios regretfully in the garbage.

  “I already ate down at the diner,” Will said.

  “Again?” I asked, surprised.

  Will shrugged. “None of our food or anything is unpacked yet, so it was either eat there or some other restaurant.”

  There was a loud bang, and the front door swung open with such force, it was a miracle it didn’t fall off its hinges.

  “Austin!” I said, surprised and relieved to see him so soon.

  “Hey, man!” said Will, standing up quickly.

  Austin stopped in his tracks and stared at him as if looking at a ghost, although Austin was looking pretty ghostly himself. His face was pale, with dark stains under his eyes. He had a cut on his cheek that looked recent, but Austin was always showing up with bruises and other injuries, and I was losing track of them all.

  Will’s confidence faded as he took in Austin’s appearance.

  “I know this is kind of awkward,” he said, “but my family just moved back into town. I was wondering if you ever wanted to hang out sometime, maybe shoot some hoops.”

  Austin blinked. Then he turned from us and walked up the stairs to the bedrooms. He turned from the top stair, saying, “I don’t play anymore.” Then he slammed his bedroom door shut, the sound echoing throughout the house.

  I flinched, but Will just looked confused. He turned to me.

  “He doesn’t play anymore?”

  I shook my head. “No, he quit sports last year—“

  I couldn’t say any more because Austin had come back down the stairs, carrying a black duffel bag and silently walked past us.

  “If you don’t play basketball anymore, let’s hang out and do something else,” Will said. “Go to LuLu’s Diner, or something.”

  Austin glanced at him over his shoulder. “It’s too late for that”,” Austin growled.

  And with that, he was gone. The roar of whosever car he was borrowing quickly fading into the distance as he sped his way down the street.

  Will turned to look at me, opening his mouth, then closing it again, looking like a goldfish blowing bubbles in water.

  I met his eyes, my own feeling watery. “A lot has changed since you left,” I told him.

  Chapter Three:

  The first day of school was always an interesting day for many reasons. It was a reminder that I was one step closer to freedom. It was a slap in the face after having three months off. It was a chance for me to spend less time around my family, their growing instability causing me daily stress.

  I had to a
dmit… I was excited for third hour—band. The band consisted of sophomores through seniors who had auditioned well enough to make one of the top spots.

  I sat down with the other trumpet players, most of whom were the same from last year. I was third chair, behind DeeDee Durin and Vince Apple. I had sat next to Vince for the last three years in band, and during that time he had only spoken a few words to me. And over the last three years, I still hadn’t decided whether it was because he didn’t like me or if it was because he was shy.

  “How was your summer?” I asked. He gave a noncommittal grunt and shrugged his shoulders. “Mine was okay,” I continued, pretending as if he had returned my question. “Didn’t do much, but it was really nice to soak in some sun.”

  While saying this, I turned in my seat to see if I could see Will. Unfortunately, the percussion players were behind the rest of the band, so the only way I could find him was if I turned completely around in my chair, which was very obvious. But I had to see if he was actually there.

  And he was. He was standing next to a girl named Katie Trell, a girl in my grade that was good at everything, including percussion. Katie was giggling at something Will had said, and one of the other percussion boys shot a glare at Will, who appeared too engrossed in talking with Katie to notice.

  A sinking feeling overcame me, and I felt nauseous.

  “Alright, Wind Ensemble,” Mr. Berg said from the podium, waving his baton at us. “I want us to get first place at the annual competition this year.” He stopped to stare at us, slowly turning to each section of the band as if would add more intensity to his words. “First. Place.”

  I imagined Katie in the back by the percussion nodding her head fervently.

  Never having understood the importance of winning this competition, I merely gave Mr. Berg a sympathetic smile. He had been going on about the competition for all of last year as well. Having gone through a rough divorce the year before, he had poured all of his emotion into the band competition instead of his personal life. When we lost the competition to a rival school last year, he had cried up on stage when they had handed the other school the trophy.