decisions (n.)
a conclusion or resolution reached after consideration.
CHECKMATE #4
"world-changing decisions are hard to make, but learning you have to sacrifice is even harder."
Life has gone back to normal in the Adelaide Woods five years after t...
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track #06 in eunice raina seyfield
twice // behind the mask
THE ENVIRONMENT of the entire house changes the moment I hear Aiden's door slam in my corridor, and that persists till the next morning, when the hoverhouse is quiet. Really quiet.
As soon as I fling my door open at eight in the morning after brushing my teeth, slowly walking down the stairs and stifling a yawn, I sense something different in the air – Gwyneth and Angela are gone from the house already, I don't see Kunboss or Zoey anywhere. Instead, the only people I see are Tristan, who's marching up the stairs with a bowl of cereal and doesn't bother to talk to me or even look me in the eye; and Aiden, who's angrily eating a sandwich at the kitchen island.
He looks up at me for a second with disgust in his eyes, then immediately turns back to his eggs and bread, wolfing another bite of it down.
"Stop eating so fast," I say exasperatedly, genuinely worried, and he rolls his eyes at me.
"None of your business," Aiden scoffs. "Unlike you, I have somewhere to go."
I raise an eyebrow at this boy who's been going through unusual mood swings – "What's with your mood today? And what happened yesterday, Aiden?"
I know what happened yesterday. I just wanted him to tell me with his own words – that'd be the only way I could believe he'd truly changed, and like Gwyneth and Tristan, be able to let him go.
"Also none of your business."
I get bread for myself and start eating it, making the wrong decision to add fuel to the fire. "Oh, and I do, in fact, have somewhere to go today."
"Stop bothering me, Eunice," Aiden practically yells, leaving his empty plate on the kitchen island, grabbing his phone, and heading for the door, where Laine is waiting. I hadn't even noticed her until now.
The two of them immediately start jogging away into the distance once the door is safely shut, and I watch their silhouettes get smaller and smaller from the tiny windows next to it. Millions of questions arise in my mind, but I stifle the urge to ask. Were they emotionless? Was another of my childhood good friends standing on Aiden's side through it all – even though her best friend was the dead girlfriend he was acting two-faced for?
It all seemed impossible to comprehend – but I had problems of my own to solve. And I wasn't about to let all those question marks that I'd worked so hard just to make lead me to a dead end.
***
The thing is, I was never close to Cadence – her presence in the house wasn't something that meant a lot to me. The most Cadence and I had ever been were just normal friends – I wasn't as attached to her as Gwyneth and Zoey were. It pains me that she's gone, but it pains me even more that I can't see a difference in daily life after she left for good this time. It pains me that I never managed to notice she was depressed. Just like a flower that wanted desperately to bloom but had thorns in its way, Cadence had moved to a nearby vine, which portrayed a better place for her, and for her future life.
