Truce

Twenty Five // Unexpected

Twenty Five // Unexpected

Kaia

Nanna called on Friday afternoon, at precisely seven minutes before my appointment with the psychologist. She made an excessive speech about her regret of needing to cancel dinner for the following evening, and somehow rescheduled for Wednesday night without me saying a word. Then she hung up, and left me sitting half-confused in the passenger seat of Parker's car.

"What was all that about?"

We were in the driveway of my psychologists house, early like every other week I'd been. I was waiting for the time when either my grandmother or psychologist herself deemed me mentally stable so that I could quit going to these sessions.

"Nanna rescheduled dinner for Wednesday."

Her face pulled down into an expression of confusion before laughing. "Good; because I totally forgot we were even having dinner."

I smiled, looking at the clock which read 3:55pm. With a sigh, I slid my phone into the back pocket of my jeans and opened my door.

"You're picking me up, yeah?"

She nodded. "But I'm going to a friends house tonight so I'll just drop you home."

"And Atlas?"

"Work."

"Mmkay."

"Is that okay?"

I just nodded and climbed out of the car, my feet crunching gravel as I made it to the white door. It was stark contrast to the brick structure, the entirety of which I hated, purely on the basis that I was forced here.

The hour went slow and unproductively, with conversations about my childhood that pained me to talk about. I put up a brave face so as not to worry her, even though my Nanna was paying her to do exactly this. I wasn't the type of person to let my guard down in front of people, and I wasn't about to start with a stranger.

Parker dropped me home and I climbed in through an open window, having left my keys in my room that morning. I wandered around our too big house and started to feel the emotions creeping up on me, the ones I got when I was left home alone without a distraction.

I slammed my bedroom door closed behind me and took a deep breath, trying to think of a possible thing to do to stop me from going down that road. All I could think of was not tonight, which led me to my phone.

I had a text from Jacob about the psychology homework we were awarded with this morning, asking precisely what the hell it was. He hadn't been paying attention. I type out the set questions and set my phone on my stomach, looking up at the roof and contemplating my options.

Then my phone rang.

It buzzed on my stomach and I picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hey." It was Jacob. "I was just wondering if you wanted a lift to Landon's tomorrow? Y'know, considering you're underage and can't drive and what not."

"Hey. You're underage too. How come you can drive?" It was the first time the thought had popped into my mind, and he explained that it had something to do with his German license and the amount of time he had been driving and special exemptions for him and his family and so on so forth. He seemed blasé about it all but I figured it would have been harder to swing than he was letting on.

The line went quiet for a moment before he asked; "So, do you want a lift?"

I had no idea we were having a thing at Landon's until lunch time where everyone was buzzing about it. Apparently I wasn't paying attention on Wednesday when it was established, but Parker was going too so she'd take me.