Crash of Worlds

05

There was something about suburban surroundings that had Alethea leaning against the back of Hank's chair and looking over her glasses, blinking a little rapidly, she had to let her eyes adjust to the different light; the glasses could combat against the glare of the sun to a certain degree, not acting as sunglasses but enough to be somewhat effective. Her purple hued eyes looked around the rows of houses, trees were planted here and there, wide branches spreading out and creating some shade on whoever was walking along underneath them.

All the houses looked the same, she couldn't even lie, it was like they figured out one design and thought they nailed it and went with it; there was nothing different really about any of the houses, other than maybe the door colours and letterboxes outside, it was all so uniform she found herself raising an eyebrow. She hadn't been within such surroundings for years, leaving home and then living with Charles, it wasn't like the apartment in Oxford was conventional, it was crammed with so many of his books it was ridiculous.

Yes, the apartment blocks all looked the same, but the three who dwelt there then found themselves within a CIA base, Alethea remembered the horrid white decor with disgust. What was with people finding one avenue for design and sticking to it? It was so unbelievably dull and boring. The point was that having stayed within the school for the last many years, she had forgotten what suburban life looked like.

Drab, primarily was what was coming to mind. Just, even the people busying around looked like they were on autopilot. Was this what the quiet life was like? She had memories of being back home with her grandparents, and though those were simple times, they were happy times; perspective, her life was anything but normal, but these people's lives were and perhaps they were content with just that?

She didn't mean to appear rude or judgemental, she had been a shut in for a while and the outside world hadn't changed all too much, she was both curious as she was disappointed that it was just meh. That the few times she did go out shopping with Hank, not much had changed within the world then either, and it was much the same as it was now, people were walking about minding their own business, getting on with their day to day lives without much worry to what their neighbours was up to.

Leaning her chin against the chair, she didn't mean to look suddenly disheartened, but she did. It was like she was expecting to go on this sudden adventure and everything would be new, fresh and exciting. Where Peter lived just looked so normal, she couldn't help but wonder whether Logan had the right address, or even the right person. Although, it wasn't like she wasn't hiding within plain sight with her grandparents, was it? Sometimes the best place to hide was in plain sight.

"Here, here. Just up here," Logan seemingly recognised the area, he sat forwards and leaned against the back of Charles's chair. Alethea just flicked her eyes around, the house they were pulling up to looked like the rest, the lawn was perfectly trimmed, the hedgerow the same height as others around them, it looked nice enough.

"All right, all right. Don't get excited," Charles waved Logan away, even more so his hand reaching forwards and pointing to the house they were going to. Charles's disregard of the steering wheel had Hank almost reaching over again, he didn't only because Charles pressed down on the brakes, the squeaking noise made Hank wince and for Alethea to peer over and down into the footwell.

"Next time, I'm driving, all right?" Logan was more than happy to open the car door and get out, standing and keeping the door open he nodded Alethea's way. She left her bag where it was, not that there was anything valuable in it, so no one on a suburban street was likely to break into a rental and take it. She could've just got out her side, but who was she to deny such a gentlemanly act of having a door opened for her?

"You'll have to pry him away, remember?" Alethea climbed out, she straightened her top out, slipping gloves onto her hands that she had plucked from her bag before scooting along the seats to get out of the car.