Boys, Beers and Bad Behavior

Chapter Four

Death has never felt more painful.

I know from the moment I wake up that I am dying – of a hangover that is. I can confirm with absolute certainty that this is the worst one I think I have ever had. Everything from the top of my head to the tip of my toe’s aches. Everything feels like it’s pulsating, like my body is its own personal bass. My throat is unbelievably dry and sore, and I struggle to swallow as I try to sit up.

And that’s when I realize where I am.

“What the hell?” my voice comes out like a croaked whisper.

“Oh, there she is,” the familiar voice makes me groan. “You slept through the entire flight,”

I stare at my mother, dumbfounded. “Excuse me?”

“You slept through the—”

“I know what you said,” I sit up further, cutting her off. “I mean what the hell are you talking about? What flight?” I blink, I know we are currently in a moving car, but my eyes haven’t quite adjusted yet to see where exactly we are driving to.

“We’re about an hour away now,”

And that’s when it dawns on me. It wasn’t just a dream. They really are sending me away.

The feeling hits me all at once and I fight the urge to be sick.

“Mom, no.” I barely breathe the words out.

She places her iPad on her lap and turns to me. “Nevaeh, it’s for the best darling.”

“The best?” I screech, “you have brought me here against my will! Surely that’s illegal!”

“We have got a court order actually,”

That stumps me completely. I blink at her once.

“What?”

Mom shifts in her seat and faces me. She’s acting like this is the last conversation she wants to be having right now – especially with company in the car but I don’t care. I glare at her until her mouth starts to move and she speaks.

“When the police officers found you, they took you to the hospital because they thought you might have hurt your head. You were asleep when they found you and seemed unresponsive,” she tells me. I frown at her. I vaguely remember being carried by someone, but the memory feels so distant, like I made it up.

“You had to have your stomach pumped twice, Neve. They said they had never seen someone so young with kidneys so ruined. You were this close to dying.” She holds her fingers up in a small pinch and I gulp.

“You’re being so dramatic,” I say sternly after a moment. I contemplate how dreadful I’m feeling, and I can’t deny that surely some of what she is saying must be true. I have never felt so s**t in my entire life.

“Because of the amount of alcohol in your system and your behavior,” her tone is clipped. “Your dad managed to get a court order to send you here. It was this or jail and you have no other choice but those two. We had to make a deal with the police.”

I stare at her, open-mouthed. The words jail or police don’t quite register and instead, I hear dad and court order. “He did what?”

“I know this is going to be hard, but this school excels in getting young people like you back on your feet. We have paid a lot of money to send you here, Nevaeh and you will get better there.”

Better? I want to scream at her. I would be better if my sister weren’t dead, dad wasn’t screwing someone else and we all stopped pretending our life was perfect!

“You’re sending me to rehab?” I choke on the words as I say them. I want to ask how much this place is costing them so I can take full use of not using their facilities.

She shakes her head and mom’s face falls. She even tries to reach for my hand, but I snap it away. I don’t want her anywhere near me right now.

“It’s not rehab, but a school in remote Alaska. You will attend classes as normal, but the only differences will be that you will be living there and will have to undergo therapy every week and partake in random tests—”

“You’re joking.”

“Nevaeh, this isn’t a joke. Your father and I are worried about you.”

“So worried that he can’t be bothered to be here?” I make a gesture to the empty car. Besides mom and I, the only other person in here is the driver who is trying to cover his amused expression through the rear-view mirror. I wonder what he must think of us. I don’t know why I care but I know mom does.

“He wanted to, darling,” she sighs, “but he has work—”

“Oh, give over,” I tell her. “It’s Sunday.”

“Your father works very hard for both of us—”

“Screwing someone else you mean?”

I think I hear the driver snort which he again tries to cover up with a cough. I know mom has noticed too because her cheeks are tinged pink and when she speaks, her voice is a hushed whisper.

“Neveah,” she bites out my name. “Not now, please.”

“Oh, come on,” I curl my lip. “You’re quite literally shipping me unwillingly across the country and you can’t handle it when I bring up the wreck of our home life?”

“It has nothing to do with you,” she says sharply, glowering at me. “It's between your father and me.”

“Screw you,” I spit out and I turn myself towards the window.

She might as well have handed me a diaper. I’m seventeen, not seven months old. I could deal with the s**t show that was our family. I’m not a kid anymore. I just want her to be honest for once.

We both fall into silence for what feels like forever. I can sense my mother fiddling with her manicured fingernails beside me and I spend the entire time gazing out of the window. The more remote we get, the worse the weather is.

I am going to have to live here for a year. Even the thought makes me blanch.

“It’s so…white.” I don’t mean to say the words out loud, but they tumble out anyway. I was planning on ignoring her the rest of the way and hoping that would teach her a lesson. She has already gotten rid of one daughter, here she is pushing away another.

“It’s snow,” Mom says patently.

“I grew up in L.A, I don’t know what normal weather is like, let alone snow.”

Mom snorts and if I weren’t looking at her already, I wouldn’t have caught the small smile that laces her lips. She looks out the window too and frowns. “It does look very cold.” She agrees.

“It’s currently in the minuses,” the driver announces. He has clearly been earwigging into our conversation the entire time. “I think something minus thirty when I last checked.”

“Kill me now,” I mutter and involuntary shiver.

“Do you know where we are?” Mom asks the driver.

“We’re about twenty minutes out from the camp, but we’re passed anything civilized now. We drove through Fairbanks a while ago, you were still asleep, Miss.” He aims that last part at me, and I nod like I even know or care where Fairbanks is.

“Actually, on our right leads to a popular tourist attraction. It’s called Moose Walk Cabin. It’s really pretty.”

Mom continues to make polite conversation with him as I continue to stare at my new surroundings. I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s the first time I have ever seen snow in my life and I am desperate to fling the car door open and feel it but I know mom might just leave me there if I did. She’s had enough of my antics to last her a lifetime.

What I don’t expect is mom’s sudden hand on my arm. It makes me jump.

“Look, we’re here.”

I edge closer to her, undoing my seatbelt as I gaze at the black iron gates in front of us. When dad said I was going to a camp, I expected a cabin in the woods with no electricity and dinners around a fire singing kumbaya. What I didn’t expect was a f*****g castle.

We drive up the endlessly long driveway and pull up outside what can only be described as Hogwarts’ competition. The building is medieval looking with turrets and gargoyles. The front door is in the shape of an arch, with two huge bronze handles. I can’t make out much considering how dark it already is and I swear it’s not anything passed six o’clock. But I can see a man standing at the door, all bundled up in layers that makes me gulp as to what to think mom has packed for me whilst I’ve been passed out.

“Wow, it’s much, um bigger than the pictures.”

I stare at my mother and snigger. “You’re literally sending me to Hogwarts,”

“It’s actually pretty fancy.” She seems pleased, as if knowing she is dropping me off at somewhere that has a working front door makes her feel like a better parent.

The car stops and neither mom nor I make a move to get out the car. We both sit there for a moment like we can’t quite believe either of us is here.

Mom finally gets out the car, wrapping her cashmere scarf around herself like that piece of expensive fabric is going to do anything to keep her warm. I follow her and the moment my feet touch the soft snow beneath, the urge to pick some up and run my hands through it is almost too overwhelming.

“We better go and find your new principal,”

I try to ignore the clenched feeling that grows and then settles in my stomach and force on the fakest smile.

“Do you think they have a moat?”