Desolation // l.p.

Chapter XL

I knock on the door to my mothers house, I can hear her new dog barking alerting that someone is here. Ever since I moved out it has just felt weird to just barge in, like it would be intrusive if I did. I'm not sure if the fact that Sam and my mother are engaged is what has changed or if it literally is just because I moved out. I turn my gaze from the door and look at the rose bush growing next to me. The red flowers are in bloom and I smile, they remind me of Sebastian. He used to leave a a bouquet of them on the front step every month of our anniversary. It was cute and expensive, I hardly know how to think he could afford them so often on a bartenders salary. Still he managed and I was always grateful for his generosity.

I find myself wondering if Sam will be going along with my mother and I today. He is the one getting married to her so you'd think he would come along. My mother called me in the middle of this past week asking if I would go along with her to set up hers and Sam's wedding registrations. Since I didn't have anything better to do I of course said yes and asked minimal questions about where we would be going or who would be with us.

The door opens and I immediately have Wolf, my mothers new four month old Alaskan Husky that Sam got for her jumping up at me.

"Wolf! Get down!" My mother scolds and grabs his collar pulling him backwards.

"I still can't believe you got a dog." I tell her as she shoos Wolf away and he runs back into the house somewhere.

"Why?" She asks, amused.

"Because you always swore at the neighbors dog when it would come over into the yard." I laugh remembering when I was younger she would curse at our neighbors tiny little Chihuahua  dog that would run into our yard every once and a while.

"That dog did nothing but bark and bark and bark. It's different." She tells me and I roll my eyes, trying not to laugh at her expense.

"Okay, whatever you say." I tease as we walk towards the kitchen.

"How's your sister been? I haven't heard from her since she returned to Florida." My mother says as she grabs a pretzel from an opened bag on the counter and shoves it into her mouth.

"I haven't talked to her." I shrug and wonder the same thing. Usually Genevieve and I talk at least once a week but I haven't spoken to her in months. I haven't had time and she hasn't bothered trying to get ahold of me. I should probably call her and tell her about Liam and the deal that I apparently made with him. She'll love the gossip.

"Do you think something is wrong?" My mother asks with a frown, the worry lines on her face show.

"You know Genevieve, she's always been a busy girl. I'm sure she is just working on some school stuff." I reassure her. Although my sister is a hard party girl she miraculously does take her school work very seriously. She is dedicated to being in the top ten percent of her graduating class and I'm pretty sure as of right now she is close to being top of her class. She may not come across as being a genius but she definitely is.

"Right, her schoolwork... Because she would rather do summer school and graduate a semester early than come back home and be with us for a few months." She complains about the argument her and my sister had about summer school. I don't blame Genevieve for wanting to finish early. As someone who just got out of college at the age of twenty-two, I would have loved getting out early.

"Aren't we supposed to be going shopping?" I ask reminding her of why I am here. I turned down an offer from Liam to go to lunch with him because I already had these plans and if we end up not going out I'll be pissed that I turned him down.