I know it's been ages but I was bored and thought I would add a bit to this. I couldn't remember the plot that well so sorry for any continuity errors. Any comments would be very very much appreciated.
She knew it was going to be a a bad evening the moment she heard the chair hit the ground. A favourite of her fathers, throwing furniture around. It would start with pages torn out of magazines, and progress to smashing glasses before the grand finale. When he was in a bad mood he was going to make damn sure everybody knew about it. No one ever spoke of it after one of his tantrums was finished. The furniture was duly mended, the glass cleaned up. They all smiled and pretended the fits of rage were totally normal, that the things he said and done were to be expected of any grown man.
It was after her stepmother burst out of the kitchen in tears that Alice knew it was her turn. Once he had someome in tears the game was over, he had won. She heard her stepmother yell up the stairs. How she was leaving, never coming back and going to make him pay . Funnily enough she had heard those exact same words from her mother every single day up until something flipped and really did leave for good. Still she had seen her stepmother put up with enough to know that her departure was not imminent.
The door slammed shut and Alice realised that for the first time in ages she was alone with him. Her elder brother away at a party; it was up to Alice to deal with the moods and the yelling, to pray there wasn't violence. She gazed ou the window for what must have been over 10 minutes before she heard that familiar call.
'Aliiiiiiiiiiiiii' He was the only one who called her that. A nickname he knew she hated. She often wondered whether he only did it to annoy her or was he really oblivous to her objections. She kept quiet and prayed for something to distract him.. A local youth for him to complain at, a TV programme for him to yell at.
As she expected It never came and after 5 minutes of waiting she was hearing the thudding of his battered size nine trainers up the stairs...
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