I sat down, and so did Darcy and everyone else.
I glanced around the table; I didn’t want to cause a fight, but I also didn’t want to not say anything.
“Sean, did you know what Dustin planned to do with the doll?” I asked my brother.
He nodded reluctantly. “Yes, but he made Justin promise not to tell anyone, because he wanted it to be a surprise.”
I felt my eye twitch. “You didn’t think to clue meself or Darcy in on his plan? You knew we wouldn’t have told him we knew.”
Sean sighed from across the table. “That’s Ma’s fault, not mine.”
I flicked my narrowed eyes from my brother to my mother.
“What does he mean by that?” I asked.
My mother had a guilty look about her. “It’s been a long time since you and Darcy spent any time together, even if it was just to argue . . . I thought prolonging this doll thing would be good for you both.”
A light bulb went off in my head. That’s why Justin had been forbidden from helping me – our mothers didn’t want the war for the doll to end too soon. It was not because they didn’t want us to fight at Sean and Jess’s engagement party.
I trembled a little as anger rose within me, and tears of betrayal stung in my eyes.
Darcy humourlessly laughed next to me. “We almost killed one another for the stupid thing.”
My mother froze and said, “Sorry.”
Like that was any help.
I looked to Sean, who was gnawing on his lower lip.
“What about you? Are you sorry, Mammy’s boy?”
Sean grunted. “Yeah, I am.”
Doubtful.
I felt like I was in a sudden state of shock.
Darcy and I had fought tooth and nail for that bloody doll, and now I knew that if I had just let Darcy have it, both Dustin and Charli would have gotten what they wanted. I didn’t know where my family got their logic from, because they were all plain bloody stupid.
“It was a surprise, Neala.” Justin sighed. “Dustin made me promise not to tell, and since Sean, my ma, and Clare were in the room when he told me why he wanted the doll, he said they didn’t count. He made us pinkie swear.”
I went through hell over a pinkie swear?
I growled. “A . . . pinkie swear?”
“We took an oath too, if that helps,” Sean murmured.
I was about to speak again when Charli and Dustin barrelled into the dining room all dressed in their ‘dinner clothes,’ which consisted of plain t-shirts and trousers. If they got them dirty with food it wouldn’t matter, because they’d just change out of them and back into their Christmas clothes for picture time later.
“Auntie Neala?” Charli said as she sat in between Darcy and me.
I looked at her and forced a smile onto my face for her sake. “Yeah, baby?”
Charli tilted her head to the side. “Are you still sad?”
Everyone froze; then after a moment they looked at me. I avoided their gazes.
I swallowed. “What are you talking about, babes? I’m not sad.”
Charli clicked her tongue. “Yeah, you are. I heard you crying in your shower earlier when you came home.”
I stared at Charli with my mouth open.
I didn’t know what to say to her.
“She probably stubbed her toe is all, kid.” Darcy chuckled and nudged Charli.
Charli giggled; then she turned to me and asked, “Is it still sore?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “It’s still pretty sore.”
From the corner of my eye I caught Darcy looking at me. He knew I wasn’t talking about my toe.
I looked to Charli, who was still snuggling that godforsaken doll while Darcy scooped food onto her small plate.
“What’s her name?” I asked.
Charli giggled. “Her name in the film is Reni, but I’m changing it to Neala Girl, like what Uncle Darcy calls you. I love it.”
I felt everyone look at me but I refused to show any emotion.
I simply smiled and said, “Pretty name.”
Charli hugged her Neala Girl closely to her, and Dustin chuckled from across the table. I looked at him, and found him smiling as he watched Charli. In that moment he reminded me so much of the young Darcy who had fawned over me all the time . . . before the shit had hit the fan, of course.
I could tell from the look on Dustin’s face that he loved Charli; he just wouldn’t realise the emotion until he was older. They were so much like Darcy and me before we fell out. That knowledge warmed my heart.
I only hoped they wouldn’t let something so stupid and petty come between them; their friendship was too precious to lose.
I zoned out for a while, while everyone said grace and then tucked into their food. I wasn’t into it at all. I played with the potatoes on my plate and couldn’t even look at the meat without my stomach threatening to revolt. I felt like shite and I wanted nothing more than to just go up to bed.
I made it through dinner, though, and after, when everyone retired to the living room, I waited about thirty minutes before I told everyone I wanted to go up to my room to sleep for a while. I was just about to make my escape when I heard Sean and Justin exchange words outside in the hallway.
“She’s really down, man. I feel sick that we pretty much caused it,” Justin said, sighing.
Sean grunted and replied, “I know, but we never planned for it to go this far.”
Planned?
What the hell were they talking about?
I stepped into the hallway, and when Sean and Justin spotted me they both flinched and shook their heads.
“Bollocks.” Sean grunted.
Sean and Justin both walked by me into the living room and I quickly followed.
“What did you mean by that, Sean?” I asked him.
Sean walked over to my mother and leaned into her as he whispered in her ear.
My mother smacked his arm when he pulled back.
“What do you mean, you never planned it to go this far?” I asked Sean.
“He meant—”
I held my hand up in the air and cut my mother off – she couldn’t tell a lie if she didn’t speak.
“What did you mean, Sean?” I asked, my eyes narrowed.
“What’s going on?” Darcy chimed in.
I glanced to him. “I overheard Sean and Justin talking about me outside, about me being upset. They said they were the cause of it and that they never meant for it to go this far, and I want to know what the hell they’re talking about.”
Darcy stood up from the couch and came to my side, and turned to glare at our brothers.
“What the hell is going on?” he asked.
I didn’t want him to be in my corner, but whatever Sean had done involved him too.
Sean looked to my mother, my father, and then Justin before he looked back to me.
“It was just meant to be a joke . . . a prank, really. Like the ones you and Darcy pull on each other all the time.”
I swallowed down the bile that rose up my throat.
“What. Did. You. Do?” I snarled.
My father sighed. “Just tell them; it’s best they know the truth.”
I looked from Sean to my father then back to Sean.
What truth?
“Sean?” I pressed.
He lifted his arms and scrubbed his face with his hands.
“We buried you two in,” he said, avoiding eye contact. “Us and a few lads from the pub we paid to help.”
What?
“Excuse me?” Darcy growled.
Dustin whistled from the hallway. “Uh-oh. Uncle Darcy is mmaadddd.”
Sarah, Jess, Jimmy, and Charli walked into the sitting from the kitchen upon hearing raised voices.
Justin nudged Sarah, who moved next to him, and nodded towards the kids. “Take him and Charli up to her room and close the door, will you?”
This was serious if Justin didn’t want the kids in the room to hear the exchange.
&
nbsp; I kept quiet until Sarah had taken both Dustin and Charli upstairs and I heard Charli’s bedroom door click shut.
“Talk. Right now.”
Sean sighed and looked to our mother. “This was your idea; you tell her what you had us do.”
I began to tremble with fury.