Chapter 2

Back home and without Gabe looking at her as if it were a hit man, Ilem began to think slowly and systematically, what did she remember from Friday? she hadn't given it so much importance before, she just had suppressed everything, it wasn't important anyway. There was no way she could afford to think like that anymore, now that the police were in the middle of it, they would want to talk to her and she couldn't just say that she didn't remember how she told Gabe.

She remembered leaving school at two in the afternoon, she felt sick to her stomach and needed to go home. Once there she emptied her stomach three times as she felt herself slowly dying. He took some medicine for pain and fever, then he only went to sleep around eight forty-five and everything was black nothing, until Saturday morning maybe he had the slight feeling that he had woken up to go throw up again but it seemed more like a lucid dream than something that actually happened.

Returning her gaze to the door, Allin was watching her with a frown. Ilem was being judged by everyone and no one seemed to care in the least how that made her feel.

"Now what happens Allin?"

she asked rudely making her sister turn her back on her and walk away from her.

"Allin, wait!"

She yelled at the teenager's back.

"That?!"

"I told you not to go out in that state on Friday no matter that you left like hell, now you're involved with Grace and her crazy things but of course nobody listens to Allin" .

Ilem saw how mature her younger sister was, how much she cared for everyone even though it wasn't her responsibility to do so.

“Allin did you see me leave the house? I mean, what was I supposed to do?"

She asked in surprise, since she had started to force her mind to remember and the images began to come back slowly and like a blurry photo she wondered if she was sick to her stomach why would she come out? She would never go to a party with a stomach cold.

"I don't know, you just went out and said he'll take care of Ellen while you came back or Gabe came back, then Gabe came home and you didn't come back".

"What happened to dad, why didn't he stop me from going out so late at night?"

she insisted again, Allin's frown made her feel nothing but nervous, Ilem was a blank page, the memories of her clouded or completely empty of her.

"Do you really remember nothing?"

Dad had an emergency at the Liverpool office and left around six then you woke up threw up and left around eight. Mom came back at nine thirty and Gabe came around ten to go back immediately with another guy to a party, a few minutes later Ian came to bring the car because Gabe needed it and Marianna came to get Ian since he had some swimming or I don't know what.

“You really are into everything sister".

Ilem mocked, smiling at how nosy Allin could be, she just rolled her eyes and walked away from her, moving her brown hair like a catwalk model. Ilem smiled to herself, Allin was the most similar to her mother of all of them. She was always trying to keep them together and safe, she was like a little mother duck.

When they were children and their parents worked much harder than now Allin was always after Gabe to remind him of Ellen's meal times and that she shouldn't watch TV until late, when her mother worked overtime at school and had to be up late it was little Allin who was aware of the things they had to do.

On the other hand Gabe was the black sheep of the family, he is nothing like his mother and he did not look as much like his father as Ellen and Ilem, illogical but true, while Ellen preferred to play chess and read all the books in the house Ever since he learned to read, Gabe as a child had preferred video games and swimming or some pointless sport. Ilem, like her little sister, preferred everything that had to do with books, study and research before any sport.

Of course Gabe loved to read and be at home as much as his father, only it was not his priority, he was so cheerful and kind, so naive, loving, and above all that empathic; things that almost every being in that family lacked, if it wasn't for Gabe no one would speak beyond saying hello and giving orders. Rules, protocol, study, and reason were natural laws for the Fullers; Except for Gabe, another reason why he fell into Grace's clutches.

Moon and Star; Gabe's cats were both lying comfortably on the couch when Ilem pushed them away. Another particular thing about Gabe, animals clung to him like leeches, that's what Moon and Star had come home from.

Ilem kept her attention focused on everything but the real problem. Anyway, what else could he do without his family telling him what he was supposed to do, they had to agree or else when he had to testify they would think he was lying but even though he didn't remember being in the library with Grace or anything like that Tonight he somehow knew that whatever Grace was up to, it wasn't looking good.

Grace had arrived when she was in third year of high school it had been fun to have an American at home, weird sometimes but other than that Grace was very friendly and fun, that's only until a month passed and she stopped talking to everyone except Gabe, and sometimes she would cross words with Ilem but only to refer to silly and trivial things like asking about something or making a comment, she and Gabe despite spending so much time together were more like frenemies.

Moon and star got back on her lap taking her out of her thoughts, the cats begged for caresses from her which got on her nerves. Animals weren't her strong one, she didn't hate them but she wasn't a big fan of being so close to her either.

While she caressed Moon, Star went to Allin and Ellen's room. Ilem declined to go back to her room, and think a little more about all that Friday meant to her, but she stopped when she saw the cat peacefully asleep and decided to spend a little more time there in the living room that everyone seemed to avoid years ago.

Already lying on her sofa, her thoughts were full of Grace again, she was so strange and in turn she always seemed so sad, Ilem thought. Maybe she had just gone back to her house it crossed her mind, she remembered hearing something like a fight that Grace had on the phone a few weeks ago, she was upset and hung up when she realized that Ilem was also in the kitchen ; then she just glared at her, she grabbed the bag from the counter and walked out of it. Just like that whenever someone from the house arrived, Grace would leave or return to her room without trying to be even slightly polite.

Ilem took Moon in her arms ready to walk to her room and follow her timeline connecting memories of her when her father and her mother entered the room. She thought she heard the door a while ago but she was so immersed in her memories that she didn't care, seeing the look on her parents' face she knew it was time to talk about the statements they should do. Her words left her mouth and she only limited herself to looking at the sadness of her parents until finally her mother asked her the most anticipated question of the night, she had to look for the lost words in the head of her.

"I really don't know what happened mom, I just know that I woke up at Ian's house on Saturday, I… I couldn't say anything".

Her voice trailed off at the end of the sentence.

“Gabe… you know how he is, he would have jumped to conclusions and created an unnecessary problem, plus Ian was in Liverpool and nothing happened between us.

Her mother glared at her father as if she was somehow more angry with him than with her".

“Okay, I know about Ian and his competition. He was here on Friday around nine or ten, but why did you go to the library? And where were you for almost five hours before your father and sister saw you sleeping?"

Her mother demanded answers, this time sounding angrier than she allowed herself to be.

"I do not know".

I almost screamed in anger, the lecture, the pressure, all the blank spaces in her head were already more than she could bear and her mother kept asking questions that she had no words to answer.

"It's okay. Lera, you don't remember".

Her father scolded the furious woman who was now her mother.

“Besides, Grace always leaves and comes back after a while, it's not her fault that she was in the same place as Grace.