Take Me Away | ✓

» 14

K A D E N

My new space had two rooms. One was accounted for by myself and my mattress. The other was empty, up until I had populated it with pots of paint on top a sheet I'd thrown over the floorboards.

I unlocked that very room and stood in the middle of it, with my hands in my pockets. Three of the four walls were painted a cream colour and the last one would have been the same if not for me. I crouched down to where I had left off from last time and picked up a paintbrush.

There were a series of black lines across the wall. One for each day I'd been in town. I was counting but I didn't know what for. As my hands moved across the wall a thought passed through my head to what my landlord would say if he saw this. This wasn't exactly something I was permitted to do but my actions were unexplainable even to me.

A noise from downstairs made me hastily drop my brush and stand up. I dug into my pockets for the key but it wasn't there so I quickly dropped onto all fours. I had to squint since my eyesight was really starting to let me down of late and patted the wooden floor until I felt something cool near one of the paint pots. Once I had the key in my hand I left the room, making sure to lock it behind me.

Warily I crept down the stairs then realised how ridiculous I was being. "This is my house." I muttered to myself.

Downstairs, I saw that the front door was open. Wide open. I stepped closer to inspect it when I felt a hand clamp over my shoulder. Without thinking, I spun around, twisting the arm connected to the hand in the process. Except then I saw who it belonged to.

"Crap, sorry." I let go, much to my dad's relief.

He rubbed his arm and I threw him another apologetic look. "Didn't mean to scare you, son."

"You just caught me off guard." I said, rubbing my hands on my jeans to get rid of any leftover paint.

"You might want to get a lock for that door." He gestured behind me.

"Will do." I closed it when a thought occurred to me. "Are you checking up on me?"

"Just in the neighbourhood." He brushed off. "Looks like you've got everything sorted here though." He ventured further into the house, his voice fading the more he went. I followed him as every small detail went under his scrutiny and suddenly I felt self conscious.

Upstairs he stopped by the door I'd locked, trying to open it and then giving me a raise of his brows. "Still waiting for the key." I reassured, burying my hand deeper into my pocket and closing around the object in question.

"If you need anything, don't be shy to ask." He reminded me once the tour had ended and we were in the kitchen where he took a slice of leftover pizza from yesterday.

"Thanks, dad." I joined him in finishing off the rest of the box. We didn't talk much as we ate. It had always been like this between the two of us. Granted my mom had tried to make us go on one of those father, son bonding trips in the past but at the end of them, we'd arrive home with takeout in our stomachs. She'd given up trying in the end but that didn't mean my dad and I weren't close. We were just fine the way we were.

"There was another reason I stopped by today." He said after a long pause, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

"What is it?" I opened a can of soda and poured some into a glass for him.

"Your mom's and my anniversary is coming up soon and I was thinking of taking her away for it. It's been so long since she's just relaxed without worrying so I'd thought a holiday would help with that. But I want to go through it with you first."