The Face of It by Rosie Williams

Author:Rosie Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autistic Romance, Autistic Main Character, British Romance, Lesbian Love Story, Friends to Lovers, Autistic Love Story, Strong Female Leads
Publisher: Purple Trunk Press
Published: 2021-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Found

Dylan woke up a few hours after his parents arrived. He avoided making eye contact with anyone and instead slipped away to take a shower. Taylor tided up all the bedding while her mum made everyone more hot drinks, then the three of them sat in near silence waiting for Dylan to return. The ticking of the living room clock echoed around the room and the sound of the shower running drifted through the ceiling. The sun climbed a little higher in the sky and more cold light flooded into the room. Taylor took a sip of her tepid tea. Her father was staring straight ahead, gripping his still-full mug with white knuckles. Her mother kept fidgeting, first with the cushions, then with the books on the table, finally getting up and putting them back on the bookshelf. Taylor didn’t have the heart or energy to tell her that that wasn’t where they lived.

The pipes clunked as the shower was shut off, making Taylor and her mum jump. All her father did was set his tea down on the table. Dylan eventually came down the stairs and walked straight through the living room into the kitchen, without saying a word. Their father clenched his fists until his nails dug into his palm. The smell of toast drifted into the room, as did the sound of the kettle boiling and clicking off. A chair scraped on the tiled floor as Dylan sat at the kitchen table to eat his breakfast. Their father moved as if to stand up, but their mother put her hand out and touched his thigh, with a slight shake of the head; that wasn’t how to hunt, you had to let the prey come to you.

Eventually Dylan appeared in the doorway, staring at the floor. He opened his mouth a few times as if to speak, but quickly closed it again and swallowed hard. Unable to take the tension anymore, Taylor spoke.

‘What happened?’ she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

‘I... I don’t know’ Dylan answered.

‘What do you mean, “you don’t know”?’ their father said, his nostrils flaring.

‘I went out for lunch with Mark and the rest of my flatmates. That’s all. That’s all it was supposed to be,’ he wept, his tears cascading down his face.

‘How did lunch turn into getting so drunk you could barely stand up straight?’ their father demanded.

‘I don’t know!’ Dylan screamed before storming off upstairs.

‘That went well,’ Taylor bit sarcastically, taking another sip of her now cold tea. Her mother got up and resumed straightening things around the room, whilst her dad just ran his knuckles up and down his thighs.

‘I’m going to call Mark,’ Taylor said, getting up and heading into the hallway, careful to shut the living room door behind her. The last thing she wanted to do was speak to the brute from the kebab shop again, but she needed answers.

The phone rang for quite a while before Mark groggily answered. Taylor tried to be diplomatic and polite, shoving the memories of last night’s confrontation out of her mind.

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