A Known Stranger

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

                “I thought that I loved you, but we weren’t in love. –The Neighbourhood.”

*

                The moment I cut the engine to my car off, I noticed that the lights in my living room were on. A part of me questioned if I had left them on before I had left hours ago but then I remembered that Uncle Adam’s car was parked on the edge of the street in front of the house and every thought of a burglar running around my home vanished.

                Looking into the rearview mirror, I studied my face and pushed back my hair. The entire time I drove home, I had kept myself from falling apart. Not even an hour ago, I had caught my boyfriend and best friend locking lips. Any normal girl, would have ran to her car and cried in there, but I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t care whether or not Ryder started dating Kimberly or not.

                Running my index finger under my eyes, I whipped away the smudged black eyeliner and pinched my cheeks so I wouldn’t seem so pale. Taking deep breathes, I threw open my door and stepped out, the October wind blew, and my hair scattered around me. As I walked up my driveway, I could faintly hear the sound of the TV that was on in my living room, and I felt a faint smile tug at the corners of my lips.

                Uncle Adam, was my mother’s best friend. At one point, when I turned fourteen, she told me all about him. How when they were still in high school, he had been there for her when my father moved away, how all through high school, he stayed by her side. And when the time where college time came around, my mother, Adam, Paisley and a woman named Gracie who later turned out to be someone completely different, ran off to Lubbock, the city of my birth place. She told me how she had ran into my father once again and how at first no one agreed- not even her.

                But as time went on, a certain situation- one that even to this day I knew nothing about- came back and it forced my parent’s together once again. And as time passed and my parent’s relationship became more serious, my father decided to tell my mother that he had enlisted in the army and that he had one month before he was deported. It wasn’t until after he left that my mother found out she was pregnant with me and after that Adam had had admitted to being in love with her.

                The entire situation had caused Adam to leave the house they were sharing and for months, my mother lived alone because Aunt Paisley had moved in with Nick because Noah was going to be born. Long story short, after all the drama, Adam came around and pushed his feelings towards my mother away and helped her out while my father was away.

                Now, he was my favorite uncle, mainly due to the countless times he baby sat me as a kid and let me do whatever the heck I wanted. Also, a part of me saw him as my older brother. He treated me like his baby sister, he understood me and even when I wanted no one around, he stayed and stood silently by my side.

                Maybe he knew that tonight I needed him, that I needed someone at my side. Or maybe it was for another reason that he was here, whatever it was, I didn’t care. I was just glad that I didn’t come home to an empty house.

                Pushing the front door open, I dropped my keys into the small bowl and shut the door behind me with a slam. Exhaling, I shrugged off my jacket and entered the living room. There, lying on his back on my brown leather couch, was Adam, right leg and arm hanging off the edge while his head was tilted to the left, left hand limb on his stomach. He was asleep, the TV was on at a pretty high volume and I wondered how he was even able to sleep with the noise so loud.