Spark [ Enlight Series Book One ]

Careful Secrets

Words: 1807

Alexis sat tiredly on the dinner table, her bottom numbing more and more for every minute that passed. It was almost 11 p.m, and her dad still wasn't home. It wasn't something unusual, so she didn't worry. 

She had learned to keep herself occupied while he was still at work. She had already prepared and served dinner, and then eaten when it was obvious that her dad wasn't going to come for a while.

 Spaghetti sauce still smeared across her lips, she grabbed her special notebook. The notebook was always hidden from sight, so nobody could see it.

The tapping of her pencil echoed across the house. The tapping only stopped when she occasionally wrote some words on the lined paper in front of her. "Hmmmm, when the...the..the" Then she groaned in frustration and slammed her pencil against the hard wood of the table. 

She had been trying to finish some lyrics of a song she had been working on, without much luck. She just couldn't find the correct words to express herself in this song. 

The 3 other songs she wrote had been difficult, but she never struggled with the words, just the beat. With her head throbbing, she gently closed the notebook, not wanting to rip its pages. Enough writing, she told herself. It was stressing her out, and she didn't like stress. 

She got up and stretched flexibly.She checked her smartwatch for the time,and for any new messages from her father.He hadn't even given her a hint about where he was and what he was doing. Strangely, that wasn't unusual. 

He was a pretty secretive person with Alexis. Maybe it was that he didn't trust her. 10:56, read Alexis's watch. She shook her head. Where is he? Alexis snatched her phone from the chair and raced to text messages.

 She tapped on the only contact she had, her dad's. She just wrote " Where are you?", and put the phone in the back pocket of her jeans. Notebook and pencil in hand, she walked up the stairs tiredly. 

She walked past what used to be her sister's room, still filled with gloom. Alexis shuddered. She entered her room, her eyes scanning for a new place to keep the notebook. 

She settled for her bag basket and shoved it into her jean bag. Just as she put the book back in its hiding place, she heard the door open and close slowly. She quickly walked out of her room, careful not to give away the hiding spot of her notebook. She threw her pencil on her couch and walked quietly down the hallway. 

She heard a yawn, which was as familiar to her as a mouse was to a lion's roar. She walked down the stairs, her tiny foot causing the stairs to audibly creak. She turned off the dining room lights and glided into the kitchen, and saw her dad hunched over a can of canned corn. 

She walked toward him and gently put her hand on the corn, shielding it from her dad. He jumped up, startled at first, but saw her face and smiled. " Hi Alex." He said. Alexis nodded in response. 

Then she pointed at the meal near the microwave. Her dad's gaze followed her finger to the plate. " Thanks for cooking. I was gonna order takeout, but work kept me longer than usual. The pains of being a senior CEO...right?" 

Alexis just nodded. He chuckled uncomfortably. " I will order us food tomorrow, okay?" He promised. Alexis just smiled and left the kitchen. She felt her dad's stare torching her back, but she didn't turn around. Her feet gently made a tapping noise as she walked up the stairs. The pains of being a Senior CEO... Alexis repeated his words in her mind. 

If it was so painful, why didn't he just quit the dumb job? They had an over large amount of money, and since her dad was only providing for her and himself, what was the use for the rest of it?