The gentle scuffing of slippers across carpet was the first thing to hit my senses the following morning.
Allowing my eyelids to flutter open slowly, I was met with the sight of delicate rain drops rolling down the window of a living room that wasn't my own. My nose scrunched involuntarily as a piece of stray fabric brushed against my nostrils causing my brows to furrow. I moved to sit up slightly, glancing down to find a blanket that wasn't there the night before, slipping from my chest and pooling in my lap as I did so. The multiple frilly tassels along its edge explaining the tickling sensation.
"Oh hey! Good morning, you're up! I was just about to wake you." Izzie practically buzzed as she stuck her head around the doorframe with a grin far too wide for this early in the morning. "You crashed on us last night, so Mer said to just leave you on the couch. I made coffee if you want some, it's in the pot." I smiled kindly, raising a hand lazily to give her a small thumbs up as she turned to shuffle away as, trying to bring myself around, still too asleep yet to speak.
I continued to stare out into the darkness beyond the window for a few more minutes, savouring a moment of peace before the chaos of yet another day began. Almost as though they'd heard my thoughts, the bickering of George and Izzie drifted down the stairs, their footsteps creaking the old wooden floorboards above. Sighing once more, I very reluctantly pushed myself up further, swinging my legs off the couch so I could sit up properly. Turns out, two nights crashing on couches isn't great for the back or neck.
Attempting to stretch out my now aching muscles, I pulled myself up to full height, letting my bones crack and pop as I moved.
Picking up the now discarded blanket, I threw it over the back of the sofa with a wide yawn. Patting the couch haphazardly, I found my phone tucked in between two pillows. A double tap on the screen illuminated the time clearly in the dim room, 3:45am.
Having crashed downstairs, the duffle bag I'd brought with my clothes and toiletries sat exactly where I'd left it when I arrived - tossed to the side of the front door. Fixing the strap over my shoulder, I shuffled my way into the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee for Meredith to hopefully bribe her into letting me use her en-suite since the main bathroom was clearly going to be occupied for a while if Izzie and George's yelling was anything to go by.
Trudging up the stairs, I manoeuvred my way across the landing covered in random boxes filled with a mix of everyone's possessions. Meredith's door was shut so, not wanting to barge in I knocked gently, slowly easing the door open.
Peering around the warmly lit bedroom I found Meredith sat, hunched over at the small mahogany desk positioned underneath the window that overlooked the yard out back. I watched in silence for a moment as she sealed up a letter with a sigh, throwing it to the side before turning her attention to flip through some sort of picture book, stopping on a specific page.
Not having acknowledged my presence I assumed she'd been too caught up in her own thoughts to hear me enter, so I slowly approached to place her coffee down on the desk beside her. "Jesus." She breathed out as she jumped slightly in her chair.
I smiled sheepishly, mumbling an apology as I gazed down at the photograph over her shoulder. I was met with a little girl in a bright red wagon in front of a huge tree, grinning proudly. A man stood beside her with an equally wide smile while a woman lurked slightly behind them holding a blank expression. I didn't need to be a genius to see that this was little Meredith with her mother and father.
I'd never heard her talk about her father and there was definitely something going on with her mother so I wasn't sure what feelings looking back on these memories were bringing to the surface. Knowing the stoic expression her mother held was very similar to that of dads in my own photos however, it gave me a slight idea.
