Unpredictable Love Ep. 5

Continue from chapter three

Malchai enters first, stretching,still in his Hoodie from sleep

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

(yawning)Morning

Malcolm Encino-Fl Dad

(without looking up) Morning, chai

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

(Smiling) You're up early.

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

Didn't sleep much.

Micah follows a moment later.

Micah Encino-Fl 1st bro..

(dropping into an armchair) Morning.

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

Morning, Mic

Malcolm Encino-Fl Dad

You're heading out today?

Micah Encino-Fl 1st bro..

Maybe, Haven't decided.

Fiora came there while scrolling her phone and sat beside her mother after greeting them

Giada steps in and greets everyone dropping into the couch

Giada Encino-Fl 2nd sis..

It's colder than usual this morning. Is the weather turn or is it just the mood in here 😏

Micah Encino-Fl 1st bro..

(Without looking up) Florence doesn't warn you when it changes. It just does.

Giada Encino-Fl 2nd sis..

(smirks slightly) like people😏

Micah Encino-Fl 1st bro..

you....

Malcolm Encino-Fl Dad

(Folds his paper once) Enough.

A brief pause.Ocean walks in softly,her steps almost too light to notice. She hovers at the edge of the room,not quite joining.

Other family members noticed her but didn't say anything and Ocean directly went towards the kitchen.

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

(Breaking the quiet) She didn't come over here again 😮‍💨

Fiora Encino-Fl 1st sis..

(Without looking up from her phone) She was awake long at night, I heard her moving around.

Giada Encino-Fl 2nd sis..

(arms crossed) She is always moving around. Like a ghost.

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

(frown at her) what if she hears you when you say things like that.

Giada Encino-Fl 2nd sis..

(shrugs) She hears everything. She just doesn't answer.

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

(calmly) That doesn't mean she isn't trying.

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

(softly) She speaks, just not in ways people are willing to hear.

Giada Encino-Fl 2nd sis..

But she doesn't belong anywhere. Not in this house. Not in conversation. Not even in her own skin.

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

(firmly) That's not fair😔

Fiora Encino-Fl 1st sis..

(quiet, thoughtful) It's not fair, but it's true. And we've let it stay that way.

Malcolm Encino-Fl Dad

(sits straighter) She's not less because she's quiet.

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

(a bit sharper now) No, She believes she is. And that's the wound.

[A pause. The weight of Ocean's absence is louder than any voice in the room.]

Micah Encino-Fl 1st bro..

(after a moment) So what should we do?

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

(without hesitation) We wait. We watch. And when she decides to speak, we make sure she knows no one here will interrupt her.

They were discussing her, and like always Ocean heard everything and ignored it like it doesn't matter to her whether they are talking about her willingly or non willingly. For her it's her daily routine.

After her breakfast Ocean quietly entering the room just as the conversation about her reaches a stillness-told in a way that reflects her sensitivity and the atmosphere around her.

The room had fallen into silence. The kind that wasn't empty, but full of something unspoken. Then, soft footsteps. Almost imperceptible.

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

(glancing at her, voice gentle but precise) Ocean. you've come late.

Ocean stood there at the edge of the room.

Ocean Encino-FL

(quietly, trying) I--I was just..... I mean, I didn't----

Fiora Encino-Fl 1st sis..

(without looking up) She doesn't have to explain herself.

Giada Encino-Fl 2nd sis..

(under her breath) But she never can, anyway.

Malachai Encino-Fl 2nd bro...

(frowns) Giada.

Ocean lowers her eyes, barely audible now.

Danika Encino-Fl Mom

(still watching Ocean, with a strange kind of stillness) No one is required to speak perfectly here. Only to listen.

A beat of silence. The family sits in a kind of delicate, unspoken tension. Outside, a church bell tolls in the distance.

Malcolm Encino-Fl Dad

( soft, almost to himself) We're all just waiting to hear what she really wants to say.

This is the almost every morning of the Encino's with a heavy and hostile silence. Where Ocean lives silently and alone not because she was unnoticed, but because being seen too clearly frightened her. A house full of voices, Ocean's presence was like air-felt more than acknowledged. She rose early, but did not come outside the room. She walked the halls, but never where her brothers and sisters gathered. She took the long way around the garden. She breathed in lavender and silence like they were the same thing.

Ocean lives inside herself. Ocean didn't hate her life. She just hadn't found a way to step fully into it.

NOT YET