Scars • hood au

31

c a l u m

BASICALLY, Alex and I were in my mum’s car – heading to the Hemmings’ old home. She was eager to check the house out and all so who was I to argue with that? I was curious in wanting to know the changes made too. Apparently, we wouldn’t know if she and Luke were to like the renovation or not. So we didn’t bring any spare paint and what-not for our own changes.

“Wow, it feels so long ago that I left this house.” She suddenly spoke, leaning to the front in her seat as I turned the corner down to the road where the house was situated. “I want to make sure it really looks nice before bringing Luke back here.”

I chuckled and rubbed her knee in comfort. “You know, as long as you’re there with him, he wouldn’t mind living in an ugly house. He’s just like that.”

Alex nodded and a sigh escaped her lips once the house was in view. It’s pretty similar to Ashton’s home and nothing changed much from the outside. Well, mainly, the part of the house that we saw at the moment was only the front. The damage caused by the fire was the back part of the house.

I halted the car right in front of the house’s curb, turning off the engine. I could see Alex’s legs bouncing and I shook my head, chuckling. “Babe, we’re already here. Stop being so eager.”

She narrowed her eyes at me – which I thought was cute enough – and all I did was lean in and left a peck on her cheek before we both scrambled out of the vehicle. I went around the car and stood next her, examining the house from where we were standing.

“Let’s go inside.” She demanded, tugging at the sleeve of my flannel shirt. “C’mon!” she giggled and I shook her head as I followed the blonde girl.

She took out the house keys that Mr. Joseph had given to us and unlocked the front door before opening it, revealing a neat and tidied home for her and Luke. It did look a bit different than before. Considering that I’d only been in this house for about once or twice, I didn’t really catch any difference between what I had seen before and what I was seeing now.

“Calum…” she cooed, letting go of my hand as she looked around the place. “This is just so perfect. Look at the new wallpaper, and the curtains and the furniture set.” I swear if my mum saw the set in this living room, she’d sneak in here and stole them all in the middle of the night.

The living room was pretty vintage, in my opinion. It didn’t look much different than before but it sure as hell looked soothing. It’s like sitting down in Starbucks and just cramp over your laptop, you know. Not having to bother with any homework or what your coffee tastes like.

“Let’s look at the kitchen!” she was being eager again, so I let her drag me to the back, where the kitchen was. “Oh. My. God.”

Now this part of the house seemed pretty much in the architecture of English houses. White cabinets instead of brown and the walls are clean with marble floors. Even the doors are cherry-wooded. I felt like moving in to this place. But this made me wonder how rich the Hemmings family was because according to all these renovated stuff, the insurance sure was a hell lot.

“Well, that’s downstairs settled. Let’s go check upstairs now?” I asked and she stood there in the middle of the kitchen, staring at the dining table as she bit her bottom lip. “What’s wrong?” I neared her, rubbing her arms.

She shook her head and smiled, “Well, there’s still one more room downstairs but it was Liz’s so I want to lock that room.”

I made an ‘o’ shape with my mouth as I nodded in understanding, throwing a smile her way right after, “Of course. We’ll block that room and put alarms in it so we’d know if someone decides to trash in.”