You and Me

You and Me: Chapter 4

                “I’m home!” I shouted as I pushed my way through the front door.

                “In the kitchen!” Maddie yelled from a distance. I bounced into the kitchen happy to finally be home away from all those strangers.  Maddie was sitting at the island- which was littered with receipts and small scraps of paper- bent over her laptop. Her concentration faltered for a moment as I thudded into the kitchen breaking the stillness. She looked up at me over the top her glasses the same look in her eye that was always there. That look that made me feel so small I couldn’t be seen.

                “Well don’t you look happy?” She said taking in my giddy features and exuberant posture. If I told her that I was only happy to be home, she probably wouldn’t ever let me go back. Then every day I stayed at home she’d remind me that she had warned me high school wasn’t a place I wanted to be.

                “Yes ma’am, I feel happy.” I said smiling.

                “Well that’s wonderful darling. Now how about you go study?” She didn’t sound disappointed but  she turned her attention back to her laptop.  That’s when I knew this conversation was over, so I spun around and drifted through the house on cloud nine. I kissed the banister before walking up the stairs, not realizing how much I’d truly missed this place until I’d walked around it. I couldn’t help but wish I had someone to talk to about my horrible day with, I knew Maddie wouldn’t understand and Ken was always away on business, so he was rarely home.

                Maddie is an emergency room doctor and is practically always on call, she’s around more than Ken, but I feel like she’s always too busy for me. When I was being home schooled she was always here. Then we’d decided to let me try out school and she went back to her old job from before I was born. Her life is dramatic and outgoing and I’m the exact opposite. Maybe that’s why she never really wants to spend time with me; because she doesn’t understand me. Either way, I sometimes do wish I could talk to her.

                I pulled out my phone and looked at the screen. Maybe if I had friends there would be a message waiting for me, but I only had two numbers in my phone- and one of those was Maddie’s- so obviously there wasn’t. I flipped onto my bed and stared at my blank ceiling .

                The ceiling matched the entire room. White. Everything was white, it never really bothered me before, I usually really liked the way natural walls made everything so clear but I found it extremely irritating in that moment. Why did everything in my life have to be so simple, yet so difficult? I was a shu in to get a job someday, I was going to be successful, no doubts in my mind. Yet I was also going to be alone the rest of my life if I didn’t figure out how to make friends soon.

                I really don’t want to be alone forever; I want to have friends, maybe even a family someday? Even if a family is too much to ask for, an acquaintance or two? That couldn’t possibly be too much to ask for right? Although, I had Britney and Kit…

                Oh of nowhere, my phone started buzzing from my bed, disturbing the silence around me. I examined the screen where the only other number aside from Maddie’s was lighting up the screen. I excitedly pressed the send button before swiping the phone to my ear.

                “Hey squirt, what’s happening?” I heard Benjamin’s sweet sultry voice from the other end of the line.

                “Hey big bro, what’s crackin?” I joked back to him. Man I wish he wasn’t so far away, I always felt alive when I was with him.