I storm out and Chris doesn’t come after me. Good. I don’t want him to. Who the hell is he, to interfere in my life like this?
Once again Chris has made a total mess and landed me right in it. And now I don’t have a choice because, unless I want to make things worse, I’m going to have to call my sister. Great.
Chapter Ten
I sit down on the bed and stare at my phone. Chris has really stitched me up this time.
He told Claire I wanted to patch things up, which almost certainly makes it seem like I want to apologise to her, but I don’t. Well, I do and I don’t. I want to apologise for the way things have turned out but I stand by my opinions.
I don’t want to call her – I really don’t – especially not at 11:45 pm on New Year’s Eve, when she’s in a fancy hotel with my parents, and I’m stuck here with Chris, who might actually be a sociopath. Imagine if I don’t though. I can’t tell her the truth, can I? That the (almost) random man I went (to someone else’s) home with, took my phone and text her on my behalf. Not only does that sound awful but she would be so upset, to think I’d told someone about it, and that someone had taken it upon themselves to do something as stupid as using my phone to text them on my behalf. I can’t get my head around it myself.
I pick up my phone and hit call on Claire’s name. Hopefully, the right words will just come to me as we chat, and this won’t turn into an argument, but I don’t have high hopes.
‘Hey,’ she says as she answers. ‘I was starting to think you weren’t going to call tonight.’
‘Yeah, sorry, it’s been a day,’ I tell her.
It’s so weird to be chatting, like we didn’t fall out, but I don’t know what to do apart from make small talk. So much for the right words coming to me.
‘How’s the spa?’ I ask.
‘We couldn’t go,’ she replies. ‘Because of the snow. Did you make it out with your friends?’
‘I didn’t,’ I reply. ‘I was at my work’s post-Christmas party last night and I got stuck here.’
I’ll leave it at that.
‘Ah, that’s a shame,’ she says.
We go silent for a few seconds. I imagine she’s waiting for me to make the first move, until…
‘Hayley, look, I’ve been thinking,’ Claire starts. ‘This whole getting snowed-in at home thing, not being able to go to the spa, I can’t help but feel like it’s a sign.’
‘A sign?’ I reply.
‘Yeah, like someone somewhere is punishing me, for not inviting you, for leaving you out,’ she continues. ‘I’ve had a lot of time to think about it and I shouldn’t have done that, and I wanted to call you to tell you, but I was worried you’d tell me to piss off. I’ve been a bit of a cow lately, haven’t I?’
‘You haven’t been a cow,’ I tell her, although she kind of has.
‘I’ve just been so embarrassed,’ she admits. ‘You’re the perfect daughter, with the job and the flat, and I’m the screw-up who keeps winding up back home with nothing.’
‘Claire, don’t be so hard on yourself,’ I tell her. ‘But I get why you would be, because I was too hard on you too, and I’m sorry.’
‘No, I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘And I’ve wanted to say it all day. Especially with it being New Year’s Eve. Life is too short.’
That’s what Chris was going to say to me before. He was going to tell me that life was short and that’s why he interfered, to try and get me talking to my sister again, to get me back in with my family. Of course he did, family clearly means a lot to him, and I’m sure he would give anything to be able to spend New Year’s Eve with his mum, and here I am, avoiding my perfectly healthy family, for a really stupid reason.
‘You’re right,’ I tell her. ‘It is.’
‘Well, the spa said we can rebook for when they can actually open,’ she tells me. ‘So, I’ll book you a place too. I got some money for Christmas, I can afford it.’
‘You don’t have to do that, Claire,’ I tell her.
‘I’d really like to,’ she replies. ‘But I’ll have to take you up on that offer to help me find a job.’
‘I can do that,’ I tell her. ‘I love you, sis.’
‘I love you too,’ she tells me. ‘Do you want to talk to mum and dad?’
