A case of Stockholm.

Chapter Six.

After I get home, the house is completely silent. I dumped the bag of food on the floor and stick the hastily written letter in the middle of the piles of paper on my desk. I started eating and reading the night away. The book falling from my hand.

I woke up with a splitting head and my vision was all blurry. Darkness still invaded my room so I turned over, out of the cocoon made of my duvet. My phone wasn't where it usually lay; next to my bed. Confusion struck and I decided that my mind was just playing tricks on me. It must be the exhaustion. I curl back up and sleep.

I reawake some time later, sunlight streaming through my window, a tray of food lay on my dresser. My stomach rumbled in response to the thought of food. Slipping my feet off my bed and carefully placing them on the floor, I make my way over to my dresser. Scrambled egg and bacon. Still warm. Lovely. I take the tray over to my bed and begin to eat, in no time it's all gone and my stomach rumbles again, this time in appreciation. I lie back and rest my head on my pillow; pretending that none of the past week had happened. Everything was back to normal and it stayed that way for three or four days. I was polite to my parents, most of the time was spent reading and pondering ideas released from the book. Are we really alone in the universe? But thinking about it only made my head hurt so I gave up. So what if we are, there's no evidence that there are other life forms out there. Unless you count the alleged sightings or stupid conspiracy theories which, if you ask me, are a load of crap. Everyone has their own beliefs. So whatever floats your boat or something along those lines. 

When I wasn't reading I was usually sleeping oreating. The new motto of my life had become 'eat, sleep, read, repeat' because well, that's all I did with my time these days. Sounds repetitive I know but it worked for me. These were three things I loved and also three things I was good at doing. My trips to the shop in town had been normal, run-of-the-mill visits. No strange encounters. My life had become ordinary; or at least as ordinary as it gets. 

Of course, knowing my luck that just had to change. It was Friday, I woke up, shower and throw on a baggy T-shirt and jeans. Nobody important would see me anyway. I casually walk from my room and head to breakfast ready for another day. Carpe Diem. As I enter the dining room I can already tell that something is off. My father is picking at his food and avoiding my eyes. My mother offers me a forced smile but nothing more.

"What's up?" I enquire.

"Look sweetie. There's something that I need to talk to you about." Uh oh. Alarm bells were ringing. This couldn't be good. "The Hamiltons asre wondering," shit "if this wedding is to go ahead or not". My first reaction is to yell at her but I take a deep breath and ask calmly:

"Why does it matter so much?" I look up from the table briefly, make eye contact and hurriedly avert my gaze back to the table. My mother takes a deep breath and pauses before continuing.

"Aiden is a fine young man and you have to become a fine lady and it's just..." she trails off. It takes her a while before she can continue. It's easy to tell she'd had a speech planned for this but was beginning tolose her nerve a little. "you're not exactly doing much with your life. Aiden will inherit the Hamilton's legacy and can take care of you. You wouldn't need to work a day in your life. That's unlimited time for reading." I look at the hope in her eyes and feel immediately bad for the trouble I've caused but this isn't the middle ages. People don't just marry off their children to complete strangers. 

"Look. I'll give it a shot, okay? I can't promise anything. I'll get to know him, spend some more time with him and take it from there." My father looks up at me in disbelief and my mother breaks into a smile.

"Great because it just so happens that they're visiting today." She gets out of her chair. "Oh. You might want to change your unfortunate choice of clothes". I look back at her in astonishment as she sweeps out of the room.