Home Base

Candy, a Forrest, and Confusion

The taxi pulled up to a large white house with two tall trees hunched over, limbs looking for something to grab onto. Childish toys were parked everywhere on the driveway along with a Harley Davidson. Actual dark green grass covered the yard and showed life was on this lot. It felt like home.

A thick, muscular man and a short, adorable woman came skipping out of the blue front door. I looked over at Kerrie to make a comment, but she was already unloading my luggage from the trunk. Turning back to the window, the man was opening my door and pulled me right out of my seat. "Nicola, it's been so long since we seen ya!" He smiled brightly at me. "Oh, Ray, she probably doesn't even recognize us." The woman swatted his arm lightly. "Right, I'm your uncle Ray, and this is your aunt Aubrey." He introduced us. "Hi." I managed a word out before they started in about how excited they were.

I had been at a hotel for a week so the police could to get the okay from Raymond to me to fly out. That was a week I spent by myself watching terrible cable channels and ordering pizza to my room. A week of complete loneliness. In Destiny, I was already feeling like I wanted that hotel room again. Aubrey led Kerrie in with my bags as Raymond continued to talk wildly. I acted as if I was interested, but I could hardly understand what he was saying. His Southern accent and how fast he spoke threw me off.

The white stairs spiraled up to an open game room with a flatscreen on the far wall. A glass door led out to a balcony to overlook their ten acres of trees and a pool yanked straight out of a magazine. There were four other doors that withheld bedrooms and a bathroom. My room was on one side by itself. It was twice the size of my room back in LA. The ceiling was high up with clear beaded strings hanging. An elegant three paneled fan slowly rotated. Three elongated windows with shear white drapes on the half hexagon shaped walls faced the backyard. A desk with a MacBook provided looked out the windows. The bed was in an indention in the wall opposite of the door. Shelves were fashioned above the bed and a small board ran beside the bed as a night stand below the window in the indention. Two doors were adjacent to the bed. One was the broad walk in closet and the other was my own private bathroom including a claw foot tub and waterfall shower.

The room was every Pinterest girl's dream. I felt undeserving of it and very out of place. I was used to having everything so close and small. Kerrie set my suitcases next to the door and waited for me to stop wandering around. "If you have any troubles here, please call me and I'll come get you." She half smiled. "I will." I nodded looking at the ground behind her. She headed out of the house, and I strolled downstairs to familiarize myself with the place. The living room had a long couch facing another flat screen. Their kitchen was a chief's dream. A blimp of a fish tank filled with exotic fish separated the kitchen from the living room.

"Who are you people?" I said under my breath as I stared into the water. "Weird, huh?" A deep voice came from the couch. I jerked around. A brown eyed guy with a mop of hair on his head sat on the back of the couch peering at me. "Uh, yeah, really weird." I agreed in surprise. "You don't even remember me, do ya?" He grinned nervously. The only possible person I could think he could be was my cousin, I shrugged, "Ashton?" "Yeah. You grew up a lot since I last seen you." He laughed, hoping down to his feet. "You've change a lot too. You look so-" "Manly? Handsome? Sexy?" He joked pulling me in for a hug. The warmth and love was too much, and I tried to break free as soon as possible. Touch wasn't something I was a fan of.

"You haven't even met Forrest?" He asked, walking around the couch. "Who?" I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms. A little boy was dragged from the couch, giggling wildly. "Here he is." Ashton picked him up and walked to me. "Hi." I smiled at him. Forrest stuck his tongue out at me. 

"Forrest, be nice." Ashton sat him on the ground and watched him run off, "So how long ya staying?" "Until my mom's case is over." I answered quietly. "I hope you like it here. I know you don't like Texas much, but I just want you to be happy." He shyly looked down at his hands. He obviously was uncomfortable and forced to say that. "Thanks." I smiled, "I'm just going to go back to the guest room." "You can call it your room. We spent all week fixing it up for you." He told me as I slowly backed up to the staircase and ran up the steps.