“Language, Ria, do you swear like this in front of your mother?”
“No, because I respect mum”. That reply stung and shook Terry’s hopes of rekindling his relationship with her, but he wasn’t about to give up just yet.
“Please respect me as well”.
“Well do something that deserves it and stop being a jerk”. Terry sat down next to George facing her.
“Do you hate me, Ria?”
“Well that’s a dumb question, of course I do, after all, the only reason I’m here is because mum made me come”. Terry couldn’t believe the words spilling from his daughter’s mouth, they were like acid, burning the very skin from his bones.
“I don’t believe that’s true, or at least I don’t want to believe it”.
“I don’t much care what you believe, just control George, if you can even do that. You don’t need to worry about me”, she replied with the shrug of her shoulders.
“Of course I do, you’re the fruit of my loins, whether you like that or not”. She screwed up her face and shuddered.
“I really don’t want to think about you and mum having sex or any of the fruits and loins that went into it”.
Terry turned and apologised to the old women behind him again, who appeared utterly disgusted by the conversation. George’s ears perked up as well.
“What’s sex?” He asked. Ria burst out laughing.
“See what you’ve gone and done, it’s not funny”, Terry replied, most unamused by the turn of events, “Please watch your mouth. When did you pick up such a filthy tongue? This is not the Ria I knew”.
“The Ria you knew grew up without you”.
“I can see that, I want to make it up to you if you’d at least offer me that chance”.
“You’re just going to say that and mess up again, like as if you haven’t messed up enough already, dad”.
“I know that. My life has been a mess lately, I want to get back on track and be there for all of you again, I want you all back in my life. We can be a family again, a real family”.
“Even with mum?” George asked excitedly.
“Her too”, Terry replied. Ria laughed.
“Now I know you’re dreaming. If you think for a second you’ll be able to snatch mum from Daniel, you’ve got another thing coming, besides, I like Daniel and I prefer him a whole lot more than you at the moment”. The hurtful words just kept coming. When had his daughter become so malicious and uncaring. She was right when she said she was a new person, Terry was having trouble understanding who she had become.
“I still love your mum”.
“If you did dad, you’d make more effort, you wouldn’t keep disappointing us. You’re always such a fucking disappointment”. The old women behind them had had enough and turned to them.
“Excuse me, could you control your daughter, this is a respectful establishment. We don’t want to hear that kind of language, especially not from someone so young”.
“I’m sorry about…” Terry was about to apologise, but Ria cut in.
“Oh, shut up and mind your own business”, she snapped, rolling her eyes.
“Ria!” Terry scolded her as the old women gasped.
“Parents and children these days!” The two old ladies got up and stormed out of the cafe, but not without Ria laughing and mocking them.
“Do you find that funny?” Terry asked, unamused by Ria’s behaviour.
“Yeah, kinda”, Ria replied between laughter.
“I’m glad you feel proud of yourself”.
“Thanks”.
“That was sarcasm”.
“Oh really? I thought you were genuinely proud of me about something for once in your pathetic life”, she replied sarcastically.
“What’s that meant to mean? I’ve always been proud of you”.
“You certainly don’t show it, even before the whole financial issue. Remember that play you promised you would be there to watch and support me when I told you how nervous I was? Remember how you let me down? Mum was there and I was so nerve racked I went silent and couldn’t move. I felt humiliated, dad”.
“I told you that I got held up that day”.
“Yeah, you did, but you always conveniently get held up when I need you, when we need you”.
“That’s not entirely true”.
“It is, dad! What about George, how many times have you let him down? It’s only because he’s young and naive that she still looks up to you, he wants a dad, his dad. But how long do you think it’ll be before he too gives you the cold shoulder? Then you’ll really have no one”. Terry went quiet for a few moments, realising the detrimental impact his behaviour had had on his family, how his period of self-destructive tendencies had created rifts between he and the ones he loved. Ria was right, he failed them.
“I won’t let that happen. Like I said, I’m prepared to make amends and I honestly love all of you with all my heart. I know I don’t say it very often, Ria, but I am tremendously proud of you, not so much the new attitude, but the fine and beautiful young woman you have become”.
“Whatever…” Ria replied and plugged her headphones back into her ears.
Terry wasn’t entirely sure if that was her way of avoiding any further conversation. Ria was never quite sure how to handle compliments, so being given one she really didn’t want to hear was probably a serious struggle to deal with.
Feeling rather flustered by the whole debacle and her strong words, Terry wasn’t entirely sure what to do next, how could he possibly turn this day around for the better? Ria had closed herself off from the world and it was clear that she was prepared to remain like this for the rest of the day. If she kept this up, she wouldn’t be able to appreciate any of the surprises he had in store for them.
Distracted by her complete lack of interest in the two and his probing concerns, Terry couldn’t help but miss most of the questions George had about topics Ria had inconveniently brought up in front of him.
They sat in that cafe for the best part of an hour and twenty minutes before deciding to make a move. Terry had made no progress with swaying Ria’s mind around to his way of thinking and he wasn’t entirely sure if he was going to be able to do that at all today. Still, it was a start and Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Terry couldn’t help but think about her words. Though she was 16 and 16-year olds often said a great deal of things they didn’t mean or frankly quite fully understand, but those words had the stinger of a scorpion behind them, potent and heart wrenching.
Terry glanced at his watch, 11:00 exactly, perfect timing, for he needed a mere hour or so to get into central London. See, despite the morning having gotten off on the wrong foot, things were shaping up a great deal better than expected. Terry wasn’t about to give up hope on Ria just yet, he had the whole day ahead of him to prove to her his worth and he was about to damn well do that no matter what it took.
Arriving at Ilford station, Terry took to the queue to buy travel tickets for the two kids and top up his clam card. An old woman asking a seemingly endless spree of questions about the senior citizen’s pass, held up the queue for a while, but eventually they managed to get to the ticket booth window.
Supplied with his and the kids’ tickets, finally, they made their way down to the platform to wait for their train. The Shenfield to London Liverpool Street arrived no more than two minutes later, they appeared to be good for time, a vast contrast from the debacle that occurred that morning.
Terry still couldn’t erase the thought of Daniel and Natasha kissing from his head, every time he thought he was free of the memory, something only moments later would remind him of it and spike his irritation.
Why was it when you most wanted to forget something, subliminal messages start popping up all over the place?
The train pulled into the station in timely manner and the doors slid open for them to board. For a half term and post peak time rush, it seemed to be unusually busy. Terry let the kids sit and took a spot standing
next to them, half tempted to confiscate Ria’s headphones again as she took a seat and completely disregarded him. Maybe it was wise to wait until they arrived at Liverpool Street before taking it, he couldn’t have her swearing and creating a scene on a busy train like this.
Spacing out as he gazed out of the train window, he considered his life and how similar it was to this scenario, racing past faster than he could imagine and he was missing every stop. Maybe it was time to slow down and focus on the little things, the things that would redefine this life he led, if it could even be referred to as a life anymore.
CHAPTER 4 - RIA: 11:25am - 20 Minutes until outbreak
Simply attempting to get off the train and walk down the platform towards the ticket barriers was an unpleasant reminder of just how crowded London could get, thank heavens it wasn't peak period. If it wasn’t the forgetful or idle-minded holding things up, it was the slow walkers and wayward suitcases.
On top of that all, there were those people who would wait until they reached the barriers to pull out their clam cards and those who despite it not working, would try persistently, as if half expecting the machine to realise the error of its ways, holding everyone else up in the process.
No sooner had he thought that, Ria did exactly the same thing whilst attempting to multitask her texting habit and find her ticket. That was the last straw, time for Terry to switch to dad mode, so without thinking, he grabbed her phone from her hands along with the headphones plugged into her ears and shoved it into his inside coat pocket.
Ria almost immediately protested.
“What the hell are you doing, Terry?”
“Dad, I’m dad to you”.
“You’re no dad of mine! Give it back!”
“No, we are going to have fun today as a family, whether you like that or not”. It was a good thing the noise of the crowds drowned them out, because their raised voices were already enough to pique the interest of any nosey bystander.
“Fun? You call this fun? It’s more like torture! Every minute I have to spend with you is a challenge just to prevent being sick!”
“You don’t mean that”.
“I mean it! Give it back!”
“Fine, have it back”, Terry replied, surprising her, but she knew all too well that it was too good to be true, for no sooner had he taken the phone out of his pocket, he removed the battery and gave her the shell.
“Give my fucking battery back!”
“Ria! I told you to mind your tongue. You’re not getting this back until the end of the day”.
“What! You can’t boss me around!”
“Well I am, get used to it”.
“Ugh! I hate you!” She yelped and threw a strop. “I didn’t even want to go on this stupid trip! I could have stayed with Lacey! I would have actually had fun unlike this... crap”.
“You’ll enjoy yourself, we’ve only just begun”.
“Yeah right, whatever! I wish you’d just disappear! I’m not going to talk to either of you!” She snapped, crossing her arms and pouting her lips.
“I’m sure you eventually will, but until then, I’ll happily wait until you do”.
“You’ll be waiting a long time. Give back my battery!”
“You might get it back earlier if you at least try to enjoy the day”. She shot him a sarcastic smile before completely disregarding him once again.
“You could do better, but I suppose that’s enough to ask for now. Should we make a move then?”
“Yay!” George yelped with glee. Terry took him by the hand and led the way towards the underground, Ria following reluctantly behind in silence.
As they passed through the barrier, at least there was one thing Terry could be satisfied with, it was her new-found ability to focus on one thing, the most important thing at the given time. Hopefully now she would no longer hold up the queues and boy were there queues. The crowds were stressful just to look at, let alone travel amongst. Had he not held George’s hand so tight, he would surely lose him. Was there some kind of event going on?
A platform attendant answered the question.
“Customer information, we apologise for the congestion this morning, we have severe delays on Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City and Circle lines due to engineering work. Again, we apologise for the inconvenience and any disruptions this may cause to your journey. Thank you for your patience".
The slow trail to the trains was mind-numbing, only to have to fight to get to the front of the platform in order to get on the trains at all.
Who would believe at the time that just a little impatience could turn the tides of their fates so drastically and the same could be applied to just about everyone here.
No sooner did the train doors open, people flooded in, some even disregarding those attempting to get out. Ria, who stood just a little ahead of Terry and George was forced by the crowd onto the train, but before Terry and George could join her, another man pushed in without regard for the fact that they were ahead of him and took the remaining spot
“Fucking idiot, don’t just push in! We were ahead of you!” Terry snapped.
The man, headphones over his ears and seemingly oblivious to the world around him, completely disregarded Terry.
“Ria, can you get off?” Terry shouted over the man.
“I’ll be fine, Terry. Where am I getting off? I’ll just wait for you both there, you don’t have to make an issue out of nothing, I can look after myself”.
“Okay, we’ll get on the next train, meet us at South Kensington”.
“Fine…” She replied simply and said nothing more. If anything, this to her was probably a blessing, a chance in a lifetime to escape her so called father.
“Don’t wander off”, Terry instructed as the doors shut, but he was fairly certain she didn’t hear a word of it. The train left the station as George waved to his sister and it took some time before the next one would arrive.
Terry and George managed to wriggle their way onto the next train and there they waited for the doors to close, not realising what lay in store for them.
Ria stood in the train ahead of them as it pulled into Aldgate, brooding over her confiscated battery. She glanced down at her dead phone and just looking at it stirred her irritation even more. Why did Terry have to be such an asshole? Were the imps of bad luck - a reference to a concept she and her best friends had conjured up to make sense of unfortunate situations - looming over her again? Was she the only one with an incompetent chimp for a father? Bearing in mind that the thoughtless comparison was probably more offensive to the chimp.
He was supposed to be supportive like that of her friends’ fathers, instead he was a constant burden, a constant disappointment. It wasn’t that she genuinely hated him, she just hated the fact that she wanted to hate him so much. What was it about his half-hearted attitude that irritated her so much?
Ria could recall a time when he was her favourite person in the world, so maybe it was just the fact that it was more painful for those you loved the most to let you down.
What hurt her most wasn’t that she was ashamed of him for not having a job or anything like that, in fact that was pretty miniscule in the grand scheme of things. It was that he made little to no effort to return to the person he used to be. The business loss shouldn't have been the be all and end all, but it sapped every last bit of zest for life he had remaining and in return he constantly let her down,
She didn’t want to admit it, but she only swore at him because this man posing as her father didn’t deserve her respect and it was the only time he seemed to react to anything anymore. Did things really have to get to the extreme before he acted like a father should? Then if swearing and acting up in front of him was the only thing to spark any reaction out of him, at least enough to prove he wasn't just a zombie, then she would keep on doing that, because as things currently stood, the dire reality was that Daniel was more of a father figure to her than he could ever be.
In the interest of keeping up a
ppearances, she neither ignored nor disrespected Daniel or her mother for that matter, in any way. That didn't mean that by any measure she liked Daniel, but it was just frustrating that he was a great deal more attentive, responsible, proactive and useful, not to mention a lot easier to introduce to and brag about to her friends, the ones who hadn't had the misfortune of meeting her real father already that is.
It was true, her life was a sham, a massive cancerous sham, but there wasn't exactly a fountain of choice. She was embarrassed to even be with her real father. He always looked scruffy, rarely showered - today was a surprise, evidence that he had made some effort - and always looked lazy and spaced out, it was pathetic. The least he could do was care about his presentation a little more, maybe then he’d be presented with more job opportunities.
She sighed and fanned herself with her hands. She hated underground trains, they were always hot and filled with smelly people crammed together like sardines, it was truly an unpleasant experience. At least if she had her music she would be able to drown out the anguish. Her taste in music had transitioned drastically over the years, from cheesy pop to indie rock, that was part and parcel due to the change in trends and maturity having kicked in, it simply wasn't cool to listen to pop any more. Even if there were some guilty pleasures, her friends wouldn't find out she liked them.
On the thought of friends, she only had three that she could genuinely call friends and they were the same and only ones that knew about her family situation, she would fabricate most of the rest to the other more materialistic girls at her school.
Pompous daddy's girls playing big shit, the lot of them. Honestly, her school was absolutely plagued with competitive, status obsessed, materialistic girls. Maybe that seemed a little hypocritical given that here she was doing just that.
She sighed again, she was doing a lot of that today. Lacey, a friend she had known since nursery, probably wasn't going to get a reply until Ria got her battery back. Before Terry had taken her battery hostage she was in the process of sending a text regarding a boy she had a crush on. Lacey, being Lacey, mocked her taste in boys usually, but she was particularly brutal with this one. It probably had something to do with the fact he was a bit of an airhead, but he was also tremendously cool, he smoked after school and had a tattoo his parents didn’t know about, also he was really cute, with his long rocker hair, his tall stature and those brown puppy dog eyes that left her in a trance every time they locked gazes. Had her father simply not shown up and dragged her on this stupid trip, she could have gone to Lacey's house and invited him over.
Cryptophobia (Book 1): Outbreak [Fear The Unknown] Page 3
