Don't remind me.
I winced. "I know, but in me defence, I ordered the doll she wanted online, but bad weather halted the order till January so I just cancelled it and got me money back. I tried other sites, but everywhere is either sold out or couldn't make any deliveries until after Christmas and into New Years."
My mother lifted her hand to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose. I'd bet my life that she wished she had something stronger than a cup of tea to drink right now.
"Nothing is ever an easy ride with you," she muttered and took a gulp of her tea.
I snorted because it was true.
"Are you saying I'm difficult?" I grinned.
My mother cackled, "Honey, you've been difficult since the day you were born. It's a trait you share with Darcy."
The smile that was on my face vanished and my grip on my mug tightened at the mention of his name. My mother knew good and well that any mention of him was not well received around me.
"Don't mention his name in this apartment."
My mother dramatically sighed, "For goodness sakes, Neala, you're twenty-five not five. Both you and Darcy need to get over this childish... thing you both have towards one another.
'Thing' translated into hate.
I growled in annoyance, "I hate him, and he hates me. Period. End of story."
My mother's shoulders slumped as she sighed. "But he is such a nice young man, Neala, couldn't you just-"
"Mother! We have had this conversation a billion times before. I am never having any sort of romantic relationship with Darcy Hart, and that is it."
I had to put my mug on the coffee table across from me because I suddenly felt like hurling it against the wall. I sat back and folded my arms across my chest in anger. This sudden feeling of rage was exactly what Darcy, or any mention of him, did to me. It severely pissed me off and always in record time.
My mother watched me with a raised eyebrow and smiled at me like she knew something I didn't.
"Hmmm."
She sounded thoughtful about something.
I blinked. "Hmmm? What does that mean?"
My mother uncaringly shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing dear. I'm going to top up me cuppa."
I watched her get up and leave the room through narrowed eyes.
"'Nothing' me bleeding arse," I grunted.
She was up to something, I knew her well enough to know 'hmmm' meant she was considering something, and that worried me. I reached out and lifted my mug to my mouth and took a large gulp of my tea to calm my spiked nerves.
Darcy Hart.
I hissed at my thoughts.
I hated thinking about Darcy, talking about Darcy, looking at Darcy, and hearing about Darcy.
I simply hated Darcy.
They say hate is a strong word and an even stronger emotion, I agree with that because the passion in which I hated Darcy filled me completely. It wasn't one-sided - that man hated me just as much as I hated him, and that's how it was between us. It's how it's pretty much always been between us. We hated each other, and that was it.
The feud between us started twenty years ago, we were both five years old, and out in Darcy's back-garden with our friends. One of Darcy's then friends, Alan Pine, put his arm around my shoulder and jokingly called me his girlfriend. I giggled because I thought it was the funniest thing in the world, but Darcy didn't find it funny at all.
The lad just got mad.
He threw the world's biggest tantrum and punched Alan in the nose and made it bleed. The poor kid ran home crying which he had every right to do - he did just get punched in the face after all. After the vicious assault on his supposed friend, Darcy turned his rage spotlight in my direction. The eejit shoved me in the shoulder and told me to go home because we weren't friends anymore. That was how it all started - he went crazy and kicked me out of his house for something I giggled at!
He has been a dick from a young age as you can tell.
When Darcy told me to go home that day he also mentioned he never wanted to see me again, and as much as I hated to admit it, it broke my heart. We were best friends since we could walk then in the blink of an eye we weren't. I was a very emotional child, so I fought Darcy's anger and rejection with my own. I didn't cry in front of him, and I never would. Instead, I became an evil menace when in his company and that turned out to be very often.
You see, Darcy and I were best friends by default. Our mother's were best friends, our older brother's were best friends, our dad's were best friends, even our grandparent's, God rest them, were best friends. There was no escaping Darcy or his family after our falling out, so we both learned to tolerate one another as best as we could... Which was usually by fighting or pranking one another.
Our hate for one another grew as we got older while our tolerance for one another's company lessened. Our families didn't seem to understand our mutual loathing, because they always tried to force us together so we could learn to 'get on'. They still did. Never mind that we were now both twenty-five, and any chance of mending our joke of a friendship was long gone.
Our mothers, God help them, had this silly fantasy that we would get together, fall madly in love, and give them grand-babies, but I could tell you that was never happening. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell. You had a better chance of fusing oil and water together to form a single liquid than you did of Darcy and I being civil to each other. That was how deeply we hated one another.
We were a lost cause and as far as I was concerned that wasn't a bad thing.
"What's that look for?"
I blinked my eyes, and shook my head clear of my thoughts then I looked to my mother who retook her seat next to me on the couch. I wasn't telling her I was thinking about Darcy and our past because she would take it as a stupid sign that it meant he was my future or some bullshit like that.
I cleared my throat. "Nothing, this is just how I look when I zone out. It's me duh face."
My mother grinned and quietly sipped on her tea, and it grated on my nerves. I hated when she looked smug after pissing me off about Darcy - she knew what she did bringing him up and it bothered me deeply.
I needed to change the topic of discussion away from Darcy and to something mundane. Anything else would help, just as long as it wasn’t about him.
I blew a breath out through my nostrils and asked, "So, breakfast?"
My mother smiled to herself as she stood up and winked. "Yep, let's go get some breaky. You can tell me how you plan on getting me grandchild that doll for Christmas along the way. I can tell it's going to be interesting.”