Castaway ➳ cth [EDITING/HIATUS]

Chapter 11

A thick scent of tobacco decorated the conditioned air of the car. My mother was sitting diagonally from me, conducting the vehicle as fast as possible.

But it wasn't her who was smoking. A stranger, sitting right next to her, dressed in a big, black coat and a fedora took the cigarillo calmly out of his mouth. He adjusted his golden Rolex-watch, adorning his pale wrist.

"Hello?" I say uncomfortably quiet.

"You must be Juniper, right?" The stranger turned his head around, revealing dark brown hair, cut fairly short, green eyes and a few wrinkles here and there. He was probably around the age of my mother.

"I prefer June", I stated, leaning back on the black leather seat and folding my hands neatly on my lap. I could feel the strange tension in the car when my mother cleared her throat, probably not used to someone smoking in the car. I knew she was too shy to decline the man's permission to smoke.

"June, this is Daryl", my mother broke the silence. From the corner of my eyes, I noticed her mouth slightly smiling, but I couldn't tell for sure. She had her eyes focused on the road and I was surprised she acted so relaxed, judging by her mood on the phone couple hours ago.

"Is that... a friend of yours?" I asked. I made the tone in my voice sounding as politely as it was humanly possible.

"Boyfriend", my mother responded insecurely. As soon as the word boyfriend slipped out of her mouth, I furrowed both eyebrows.

My eyes went straight to Daryl, waiting for his reaction, but the fedora on his head made it impossible to see his face.

My mother boyfriend is Daryl? Since when? Before all of my questions started to blurt out, she looked at me through the rear-view mirror, her eyes slightly closing. Her thin eyebrows crunched together and the little smirk on her mouth disappeared mysteriously.

When my mum does that face, you ain't play with her.

I slowly shifted around the seat and nervously tucked on my black painted fingernails until I lifted my head.

My mum parked the car in the drive way and opened her door in a quick manner. "I'd like to talk to you later, young lady", she spit out and pointing at me with her thin finger. Her angry expression was still plastered on her face.

"We better should get into the house", Daryl proposed calmly. He probably knew that shit was about to get real, so he quickly grabbed the keys from my mum's hand and opened the doors.

I shook my head in confusion and swallowed angrily. I'm not a little child. Besides, why does she care? She never actually did anything to rescue my sister, although it was her daughter. She brings some random guy into our house, calling him as her boyfriend. My parents were married, or just divorced recently without telling me.

It was still a mystery to me why she was so upset of me going to Calum's house and spent a night there. What is wrong with that?

I grabbed my backpack from the seat next to me and as I stepped into the house, my mother took carefully her high heels off and placed them beneath the clothing rack.

"Unpack your stuff first. Then I'd like you to come to me as soon as you're finished. We seriously have to talk." Her voice sounded dull and slightly annoyed, reflecting my attitude about the situation.

My feet carried me to the stairs, each step I took sounded like I was about to kick holes into the thin wood. "Careful with your steps!" I heard her voice shouting.

I walked along the hallway, rubbing my eyes and yawning. These damn dolls. The reason why I had a lack of sleep.

Oh, the little doll in my backpack of course. Before I entered my room, I opened the bag and grabbed the figure, liberating it from all the clothes I ravenously stuffed in the small space.