Time to Face the Music (Oscar) [PG-13]

[Esmeralda Mendez]

Note: This thread may contain PG-13 material. Do not read if under 13.

Ezzie was back home at last. London was where it all began, didn’t it? It was in that very park across the street that she met the one person that shook up her life more than she could ever imagine. Ezzie had been home for about a day or so, maybe just a bit less. She’d spent most of her time at Casey’s preparing for the tour, but it was finally time to go back, to face what she had left behind just six months ago during the winter holiday. She was barely able to set foot into the empty Jacobs residence without crying. It was in that very foyer that she had seen Mr. Jacobs in his armchair, reading his book as she and Ethan left for a bit of fun in the park. He had warned them to be careful, warned them to watch out. Mr. Jacobs had even suggested that they bring a security guard or two to be safe, but Ezzie wanted her alone time with Ethan. Ezzie didn’t even want to think about what would have happened had the guard accompanied them to the park, how things would have been different. All it would do is make her feel guilty. Ezzie sighed as she walked down the hall into one of the many guest rooms that she occupied. Most of her belongings were still laying around, as she figured her mother had taken her things to a different guest room down the corridor.

Ezzie sat on the bed for about a minute before fresh tears appeared in her eyes. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t be here, in this room or even in this house without Ethan by her side. There was nothing she wouldn’t give to see him again, if only for a moment. She cried for a matter of moments, just letting her tears soak into the sheets. And then she felt her mouth go dry. She was thirsty; very thirsty. She made her way into the kitchen, trying not to imagine the image of Ethan wolfing down his mother’s breakfast and jetting off toward the door with his cool leather jacket and skateboard. As she made her way to the fridge, she passed the infamous alcohol cabinet. Ethan liked to tap into the storage of fine liquor a lot, and in time, even Ezzie herself had developed a taste for such forbidden fruits. Ezzie passed it over and reached into the fridge, finding tears escape her eyes once more. “I need to get out of here.” She spoke softly, trying to rub a headache out of her head. She grabbed herself a water bottle and after glancing at the liquor cabinet one more time, Ezzie found herself incapable of ignoring it any longer. It seemed that the infamous battle between good and evil had ceased. There was no argument between devil and angel on her shoulder anymore. The devil had obviously won out awhile ago, and the angel had fled in anger to a more pure soul.

Ezzie emptied the water from the bottle and replaced it with the clearest of liquids in the cabinet. She didn’t know what it was, but if it could get her mind off Ethan and these memories for even just a little bit, she was perfectly fine with that. The taste seemed a bit bitter, and quite warm against her cold scratchy throat. Ezzie let the feeling overcome her, and after just a few sips, she let out a faint giggle. Before she knew it, the bottle was empty. Normally, Ezzie wouldn’t have even been this fond of such a treat, but her sour mood had led her to the first sip, and the first led to the second until Ezzie found she didn’t want to stop. She re-filled the bottle and, finding she didn’t want to stay in here for too much longer decided she’d go for a walk in the park. Ezzie took her re-filled bottle and walked outside. The media had been banned from entering the property, but Ezzie was never truly safe in the park since it was of course a public area. But of course, Ezzie didn’t really mind at the moment.

Ezzie merely walked outside without anything to cover her identity or who she was. She simply walked outside in nothing but a ripped pair of jeans and a simple pink tank-top. Very summery, but not very practical if you were known throughout all of England and the UK as that girl with issues. Ezzie walked merrily over to the swings, taking a rather long swig of her ‘water’ along the way. Ezzie giggled happily, still somewhat in her right mind. She made her way to the swings without any problems, completely forgetting Ethan’s memorial as well as his grave was located not too far from where she was standing. She simply continued swinging and giggling like the little girl she really never got the chance to be. Ezzie swung so high that she accidentally dropped her bottle onto the floor. She shrugged and got off the swing to go retrieve it, but someone’s foot had stopped the bottle from rolling down the small hill that lead down onto the field.

[Oscar Flynn G7]

Oscar turned his back on the window in his small room, his figure silhouetted against the strong sunlight pouring in from outside. His mother and father stood before him. The air was tense in the small room; which was barely big enough for Oscar to live in, let alone for the whole family to have an important discussion in.
“So… honey… would that be alright? You really don’t have any issues. It is a big thing, a massive thing. We don’t know who she’ll be or who her parents were. But… it’s something your father and I have been thinking of a lot recently, what with you at that school all the time. I don’t know if it’s a shock for you… but if you have any issues darling, any at all, that’s perfectly normal. We do not want to do this without your support.” His mother’s soft voice spoke out to him. Her furrow was creased and her fingers shook ever so slightly, hidden only by her husband’s tight grip around them. She waited patiently for her sons answer, her green eyes staring straight into his, so like her husband’s. She needed his consent; without it she knew she would not be happy doing this. The left side of her bottom lip disappeared as she tucked it under her teeth, nibbling it nervously. This had to be done as a family; all for one and one for all.

It was still silent as Oscar searched his mother’s eyes. He had only been back a couple of days, barely time to adjust to the in-your-face lack of magic in his house. Whenever he returned home he yearned to transform the armchairs into bicycles or his mother’s ancient cat Edna into a pirate-styled treasure chest. When transfiguring something, Oscar always felt best. But thoughts of bikes and pirates certainly weren’t in his head now. His eyes were wide, the effect of his mother’s words weighing on him. It was not an unpleasant weight however. Oscar knew he had to speak, had to push out the jumble of clumsy words in his seemingly crazy mind.

“Aye… it… you certainly have my support ma! I think it’s brilliant; it’s… its perfect! Couldn’t be a better idea. After all,” Oscar’s lips curved at the corners, forming a small smile. “I have always wanted a little sister.” His eyes twinkled as he added, “And you’ll be turning forty soon, might as well hurry up and raise another while you can.”
His smile grew to a grin as his parents pulled him into a bear hug.
A sister. The concept threw Oscar’s mind into a flurry of thoughts in which he found himself almost lost. He was an only child. He had never known any sort of sibling. He knew that before he was brown his mother had given birth to a stillborn baby girl… he knew how important this would be for her. And he would make sure that he was there, every step of the way… when he wasn’t at Hogwarts of course.
His parents were planning to adopt. Recent events in Africa and Heather and Isaac’s naturally maternal instincts (combined of course with the tear-raising, heart-breaking advertisements which were constantly posted in their letterbox) had made them sure that they wanted to help, and the best way they felt they could do so would be to adopt one of the many babies who weren’t getting all the love and help they so needed down in Africa.

A noisy, irritating buzz broke through the happy moment, and the Flynn family split apart, grins still on their faces. Each one checked their mobiles or pagers until Heather pulled hers from her pocket, a grimace replacing the grin. “Work.” She sighed. Heather was a fashion designer; and a popular one at that. She was often being called out for important things in the worst possible times. “We’ll talk later. About everything. About the future.” She gave the two men before her, so similar, quick cheek-kisses, and was out of the door.

It wasn’t long before Oscar, too, was out of the house. The mad thoughts in his head still there, he plodded in a random direction absent-mindedly. A Richmond cigarette dangled lightly from his fingers, his scruffy converse crushing flicked ash into the grass beneath them. A sister. A sister. It was amazing. The sixteen-year-old felt a surge of powerful love for his parents. They were the best, he knew. He was insanely lucky to have such caring people in his life, especially when life was so fragile these days.

The shadow of a tall house fell over Oscar, cigarette smoke wafting dreamily from his lips. He hadn’t meant to come here… hadn’t meant to come here at all. He didn’t even know he had been walking in this direction. It was, he knew, the old house of Ethan Jacob’s. Oscar’s feet stopped moving as he looked across the street at the house, memories washing over him… he had known Ethan. Not extremely well, but a little. They’d shared many similar interests, and, being in the same house, it was inevitable that they would become friends. The only thing that Oscar wasn’t fond of about Ethan was his famousness. Celebrity’s weren’t people that Oscar related to; he came from a family that was once quite the opposite of well-off, although what they lacked in money then they certainly had in love. Now, Heather’s thriving clothes line could be seen in fashionable shops all around the UK, and money was hardly an issue; although Oscar never took that for granted.

A noise reached Oscar’s ears and he turned to face the large green park behind him. He recognised the laugh; it was the laugh of Ezzie Mendez. His caring and curious nature overcame his wariness of celebrities and he headed towards the swings, where he could see the Gryffindor girl in jeans and a tank top. A long glass bottle slipped from her fingertips as Oscar walked nearer. Although the hill was steeper here, Oscar’s old football-skills trapped the bottle smoothly. He lifted it, unscrewed the lip, and sniffed. He recoiled straight away.
“Oh, Ezzie. This is certainly not water, my dear.” He frowned. What an unusual situation he had now put himself in. Tucking the bottle into his bag, which he then placed on the ground far from the girl’s reach, Oscar seated himself on the swing beside Ezzie. He took a final drag of his cigarette before stubbing it out on the bottom of his shoe and throwing it neatly into a nearby bin. “I’m certainly no angel filling my lungs with tar day after day. However, Miss Mendez, I have never turned to spirits even in my darkest of days.” His voice softened. He kept it light, knowing that any patronizing tone would not go down well; he knew Ezzie had a strong nature which even vodka could not hold back. “Now I’m extremely fond of swings and I will sit here and swing. You’re mature enough, it seems, to do what you like. So if you fancy a chat I’m here. But if you fancy trying to swing higher than me, although you will never be able to, I’m also here.” He kept a watchful eye on Ezzie as he swung gently; after all, a drunk girl on a swing was never a safe situation.

[Esmeralda Mendez]

The boy looked familiar, though she didn’t think she’d met him formally before. Then again, Ezzie didn’t pay much attention to most people around school. She really didn’t care much for most of her classmates. She got along fine with Carson and Casey, and really didn’t need any more friends than that. He was probably a Gryffindor, though she could see him being a Ravenclaw. Ezzie didn’t even know why she cared all that much which house he was in. Normally she would have walked away. Anyone who had seen her in this state couldn’t be trusted. There were reporters everywhere, and Ezzie didn’t feel like making the cover of every magazine for London’s poster child for underage drinking. Bu Ezzie didn’t care. She simply sat back down on the swing and smiled at the new boy. “You know, you probably shouldn’t be putting that back in your bag. Wonder what your dear old mum would say if she found that in there. Just saying.” She said with a shrug and a little giggle. So the guy smoked. Ezzie had never really cared for cigarette smoking, but she got used to it after a little while. After all, all TJ did was smoke cigarettes and Ezzie really never seemed to care all too much. Ezzie smiled over at the boy and started to swing again.

She’d always loved swings, she never really knew why. She always used to come down here to the park after work or simply when she needed some time off and away from the hotel and the shelter. She loved the feeling a swing could give. It somehow made Ezzie feel balanced and at peace with herself. The world was full of irregularities. Some days something could happen and the next day something completely different would occur. There was no given way to tell what was going to happen next. With a swing, everything was kept balanced. You went up, then down. Then up and down again. There was no guesswork involved. Not to mention when she was on a swing she felt like everything was kept in a certain tempo. Like life now had rhythm. The birds chirped in tempo with the creaking of the swing and the wind blew in time with everything else that was going on in the world around her.

The boy’s offer was tempting. She needed someone to talk to. But she wasn’t going to open up to some random stranger who found her drunk in the park, no matter how drunk she was. But was she even drunk? Ezzie had never been drunk before, so how was she supposed to know what it felt like? Ezzie shook her head to try to shake off a small headache that was forming in her temples. The park was basically empty that day, and Ezzie wasn’t surprised. There weren’t many people that showed up to this park anymore, not after all that had happened there. Last summer, Ezzie was almost kidnapped here, almost exactly where Ethan’s memorial was. Then of course there was the shooting that also took place in this park. Then there was the fact that the creep that did all of this, the creep that caused all this hell was still out there somewhere. No one knew who he was, no one knew what he even looked like. Ezzie didn’t know where he was, if he was still following her or even if he had gone to jail. The police and the entire magical community had searched for months, but no one could figure out who or where this guy was. So Ezzie had to live with not knowing. She had to deal with coming back to the Jacobs’ residence every summer knowing Ethan was gone and not knowing who did this to her.

She sighed and swung higher, forgetting the boy was there for a moment. She glanced back at him with a smile. “You know, I don’t know you’re name, Mr. Mystery. But I don’t care. You seem nice. You go to Hogwarts right? Haha…I wonder how they even came up with that damn name. Who wants to go to a school about pig acne? HA!” Ezzie burst out into laughter. “So what are you doing here anyway? This place is supposed to be haunted, remember? Someone was killed here.” She whispered in a low voice, trying to sound serious although not succeeding all that much. She knew a lot of people were scared to come here now because of what happened. But Ezzie wasn’t scared. She wanted that wack job to come back so Ezzie could give him a piece of her mind. Ezzie knew that in the future, she was going to find that man again. The second she graduated, she was going to take a full year off of music and just life in general to go find this guy and do to him what he did to Ethan. No matter what it took.

((eh, crappy post. ))