‘Good,’ Beth replied. Charlie and Beth liked their son’s girlfriend.
Peter was a likeable boy, as far as teenagers go. The being permanently glued to his phone, and usually not being able to hold a conversation of over three words with his parents aside, he was a nice lad. Not a dick. No parent really knows what their child is like. But Zoe seemed pleasant enough. She didn’t have those ridiculous painted-on eyebrows for a start, and that, in Charlie’s books, gave her an immense head start over most girls her age. He failed to understand the thing with teenaged girls and eyebrows. But also, unlike their son, Zoe was always happy to chat to them, and she was a nice girl. And nice girls don’t date total dicks. So Charlie was pretty sure that his son was okay. Some of his friends not so much. But you can’t choose them any more than you can choose your kids.
Charlie shovelled the breakfast onto a plate, plonking it down with a clatter in front of Beth, who sat beside her son. Picking up a fork, she began to push food around the plate, unable to bring herself to eat it. She speared a small button mushroom from the edge of the dish. As she lifted it, a drop of fat ran from its edge and dripped onto the scrambled eggs below. Again, Beth looked like she might vomit. She placed the fork back on her plate, opting for a mouthful of coffee instead.
‘The note wasn’t Peter,’ Charlie said, suddenly.
Beth froze, her mug halfway to her mouth.
‘I can’t believe you thought I’d actually have anything to do with some weird note through the door.’
Daisy skipped across the kitchen from where she had been sitting on the floor talking to Cooper.
‘What note?’ she asked inquisitively.
Charlie looked at Beth. She shook her head.
‘Never you mind!’ she said playfully, giving her daughter a fake punch on the shoulder.
Peter slammed his phone onto the worktop with an exaggerated, overdramatic sigh.
‘Careful, Pete! If you break that screen again you’ll be paying for it yourself this time!’ Charlie shouted.
‘Yeah, yeah. Whatever,’ he grumbled, almost unintelligibly. ‘Anyway, why would my mates put a note through the door saying, found you? That’s just weird,’ Peter continued.
‘Peter, can we not.’ Beth rolled her eyes towards Daisy.
Daisy climbed up on a stool opposite her brother and leaned on her fists with her bony elbows on the worktop. ‘What note?’ she shouted.
‘I said never you mind, nosey!’
Beth shovelled a forkful of scrambled egg into her mouth. She chewed, but didn’t swallow. She gulped a mouthful of hot coffee, washing down the food, then slid her plate away from her, placing her fork on the counter. Charlie eyed her curiously, and then the plate, a mock sad expression on his face. He stuck out his bottom lip in protest, folding his arms across his chest.
‘Oi!’
‘Sorry. I’ve… lost my appetite.’
Beth shot her husband a weak smile.
Charlie picked up the plate. ‘Suit yourself.’
He offered the food to Peter, who shook his head, pushing it away.
‘Why do I bother?’ Charlie crossed the kitchen, bending over and scraping the food into Cooper’s red plastic bowl by the back door. Cooper scurried over to it, gobbling up the bacon and eggs.
‘I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me, buddy.’
Charlie crouched, stroking the spaniel on his head. Cooper wagged his tail and trotted off to his bed in the corner.
Peter slid off his stool and strolled to the fridge. He opened it, taking a bottle of lemonade out, before removing the lid and gulping it straight down.
‘Oi! Glass!’ Charlie shouted.
Peter burped, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘Why were the curtains drawn this morning when I got home?’ he asked from across the kitchen.
Charlie looked towards his wife. All eyes in the room were on Beth
‘Because I wanted them shut,’ Beth replied, rather unconvincingly.
Charlie frowned. Something about Beth’s behaviour was off.
‘So weird,’ Peter said, shaking his head. ‘I’m going to bed. I’m knackered.’
He sauntered out of the kitchen and up the stairs, dropping his denim jacket on the hall floor at the bottom. An aroma of stale beer and cigarettes followed behind him as he left. Beth stood up, picking up the jacket from the floor, and opened the cupboard. She hung the coat up on the rail inside.
‘He’s been smoking.’
‘He’s sixteen,’ Charlie replied. ‘Didn’t you ever do anything wrong when you were a teenager?’
Beth shrugged and walked to the sink, filling her mug with water. Draining the cup, she filled it again, sitting on a stool at the island.
Charlie pulled at the doors, opening up the kitchen to the patio. Daisy skipped outside, followed by an excited spaniel. She picked up a tennis ball and threw it into the field beyond the garden. Cooper chased after it, bounding over the low fence and out after the ball.
‘What the hell was that about?’ Charlie asked as soon as Daisy was out of earshot.
‘What?’
‘The curtains. We never draw the curtains. There’s nobody around for miles. Why would you close them? Are you okay?’ Charlie sat down on the stool beside Beth.
‘I thought it was a bit strange, that was all. Somebody had obviously been at the house to put that note through the door. I was worried they might be out there. I didn’t like the idea of them looking at us. It gave me the creeps. That’s all.’
Charlie wrapped his muscular arm around Beth’s shoulder, and pulled her to his chest.
‘Come here you wally,’ he said with a laugh. ‘It’s like you thought last night. Probably someone having a laugh.’
‘Yeah, you’re probably right. I spooked myself. And then Cooper was growling. I felt… strange.’
‘That’s fair enough. It is odd, us getting a visitor at that time, I admit. But I really don’t think it’s anything to worry about.’
Charlie hopped up, grabbing his car keys from a bowl on the kitchen counter.
