Charmed Life.

Chapter Two.

© All rights reserved. LittleThingsInLife

Chapter 2

I was sat in Karl Spencer's car, trying really hard to ignore the awkwardness that had been created. I wasn't a big talker and with men my skills went down to practically nothing. Not that I could be blamed; giving my previous experience it was perfectly acceptable if I was finding it difficult to get out a sentence or ... a word.

"We'll be there in about 20 minutes," Karl told me and I internally sighed, praying the time would speed up. Of course I should have known with my luck that something bad was bound to happen...

"Once we're out of this traffic it'll be 20 minutes." Karl added after we'd made a turn and ended up in a long line of beeping cars that had been brought to a standstill.

He began to tap his fingertips on his steering wheel. I kept my head turned, looking outside the window in case we made eye contact and the awkwardness increased tenth fold, but looking at the same bit of road was quickly turning tiresome and I moved my view to the inside of the car.

I looked at the radio, a machine that could have saved us so much silence if he had just turned it on; I wasn't going to touch somebody else's things so it had stayed off for the three hour drive.

My eyes inadvertently went to Karl and they widened upon seeing him already looking at me. I looked straight out to the unmoving cars and hoped he couldn't see my embarrassment.

"How about I tell you what's been going on with us? It's been a long time, 7 years, I'm sure you're curious as to how everyone is?" he asked, I shrugged slightly and he took this as confirmation.

"Well Aiden's 22 now, that makes me feel really old, knowing I have a 22 year old son," he laughed, I thought back to the 14 year old and couldn't imagine him as being a man now. Just someone else I would fear, whether it was reasonable to or not.

"He's studying to be a teacher. Actually he's going to be starting his works experience in a few days at your new school, so you might have him as a teacher as well as a house buddy," Karl joked, and I nodded half heartedly. I didn't want to be rude but I couldn't sit laughing in a car with him; I didn't know what reactions he wanted from me, and the guessing was taking its toll on my body. I was just glad I hadn't started to sweat or hyperventilate; I had been locked in a confined vehicle for over three hours with a man, alone.

I was actually quite proud of myself.

"Then there's the trouble makers Jamie and Lucas. Just had their 18th what a mess the house was, of course they had to clean it up but it's made me and Sandra think twice about leaving the house for when Sam turns 18, at least we've got another year before that,"

Sam would have turned 17 a month before I had my 17th. Of course I didn't celebrate birthdays; even if I wanted to, Derek would never have allowed it, not since it's the day before mom's death day.

"Carla and Nathan, or 'twin set two' are 13 now. Carla loves everything fashion so you'll have someone to talk to if the testosterone gets too much," Karl said trying to soothe me, but although I wasn't as bad talking to girls I still wasn't as articulate as a normal person.

"We've added to the collection and we now have a boy, 5 called Ben, obsessed with all things Spongebob and then there's baby Taylor who's 3 in a couple of months. I know, like we didn't already have enough but we always wanted a big family. So 8... Well 9 with you, is about as big as it's going to get."

The traffic started to move along and I watched as the cars ahead of us started to move. It seemed to only just hit me that I was moving in with so many people. I, who had to really psyche myself up just to talk to someone new, was going to have to live with 8, plus Sandra and Karl... 10 people who were practically strangers to me. This was not good.