thin white lines | l. hemmings

03

A mixture of hunger and anxiety scratching at her stomach woke Delaney up from her accidental sleep. After stretching out her entire body, she immediately trudged up the stairs in search of hopefully some good food.

Relief flooded her as the door gave way at the turn of the knob and opened to the scent of bacon. She rushed into the kitchen to find one plate set up where she usually sat. Bethany appeared beneath the archway that separated the kitchen and dining room at the sound of Delaney's footsteps.

"Did Dad already eat?" She motioned to the one place set at the table, Bethany took in a breath before responding.

"Your father left late last night. He asked me to tell you that he is sorry and he'll be home soon," she said, pursing her lips and lacing her fingers together after speaking.

"He left last night?" Delaney couldn't believe she didn't check again through the night. Bethany nodded. "Did he say when 'soon' is?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm sorry, dear."

"It's alright, thank you. For the breakfast and the message," she said, forcing a smile and receiving a forced one right back. She shovelled the delicious meal down, satisfying her anxious stomach. Her watch read the time as 10:08 and so she figured Willow would be up now, or at least soon.

Delaney
I can definitely come today
meet at like 11?

Willow
thank god! I can't go till like 12

Delaney
that's fine
might go at 11 anyway, just text me when you leave

Willow
okay I will

She wanted to leave early and get out of the mostly empty house, by half-past ten she was itching to leave. As nice as the house was, a feeling crept into it if she stayed alone in the house for too long. A lot of memories were made in the house, some good and some bad. But whichever she focused on, the eerie feeling managed to corrupt her peace in the house every so often.

When those feelings started to affect her the best thing to push it out and pretend it never came up in the first place was to leave. Get out of the house and go absolutely anywhere else. For her today, she had already planned to go shopping she just changed her plans to make sure she left earlier.

She didn't want to ruin her shopping with Willow, so she drove herself to a store she knew wouldn't be appealing to her friend.

Records and vinyl were always appealing to Delaney, but not so much Willow. Willow saw them as old and inefficient. Delaney agreed that they're outdated, even so, she couldn't help but love how comforting it was to have a physical copy of her favourite songs and to hear the static of the needle against the record's grooves.

So she first went to second-hand music and video store, it was her favourite to browse when she was anxious. Plus, she got cheap records that she might've bought for full-price anyway. The odd time she would buy records just to bring them there so people could get the records they want for much less than normal.

On this specific trip, she didn't find much other than an All Time Low vinyl that she bought, granting her a bag of popcorn that was free when another purchase is made. She took the bag to her car where she sat cross-legged and ate the entire bag while trying to decide on where to spend her next half-hour of waiting for Willow.

She typed out a quick text after deciding that she would go to Weston's, a clothing thrift store, so Willow would know where to find her when she finally did come. Weston's was physically small but tended to be very crowded and items moved through the store quickly. Delaney loved to shop there but the environment was so stressful for her that she only shopped there every once in a while.