A Place Called Winter.

07

Isaac's run down jeep pulled up outside my Aunt's driveway. He pulled up the handbrake as the car grumbled to an unsteady stop. He pushed his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose, sniffling, a cold stemming from the frosty weather.

"So..yeah," I started, warily. "Thanks I guess."

Isaac had driven me home from the party once I had returned, a hundred and one questions circling through my head. Ethan had been busy and I wouldn't be able to look at David without swinging my fist at his face.

I don't think my Aunt would take that well.

"Thank you accepted," Isaac said, fiddling with his fingers, his eyes ahead of him. I rolled my eyes, placing my hand on the door handle, pausing for a few moments.

I didn't want to leave. To be left to my own troubled thoughts. Sometimes it felt as if I was dragging myself around, pulling myself through every pointless day. One after the other, a never ending cycle until the day there was finally no more days. Only darkness.

"Why are you still in my jeep?"

"I don't know, why are you so rude?"

"I gave you a lift home. That is not rude. Quite the opposite actually. I d-"

"Isaac," I cut him off. "You really can't talk to people can you?"

Isaac continued fiddling with his fingers, his eyes moving to the dashboard. "I'm not like everyone else. I don't see things the same way. I can't act like them." He ran his tongue over his teeth, looking at me for the first time. "And you're not exactly the social butterfly either."

I sighed, falling back against the seat. "We're screwed for life."

Isaac and I just sat there for a few moments, staring in front of us at the black sky, the dark clouds covering the stars. I thought of the poem by Sylvia Plath we were studying in English. How Janice had said stars represented hope. This town was literally hopeless.

"Are you gonna get out of my jeep now?" Isaac said, hopefully.

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes, stepping out of the car and slamming the door. I trudged up the driveway, my feet crunching on the frozen grass as Isaac's jeep drove away, the engine protesting as he shifted up the gears.

I opened the porch door, stepping through the front door and into the house. It was quiet, and dark. The only noise was my gentle steps as I searched for the light switch. Suddenly the kitchen light turned on, brightening my Aunt's stern expression as she sat at the table, her hands clasped together in front of her. 

"Oh, hey." I squinted through the brightness.

"Hey?" Donna repeated, frustration etched across her features. "That's all you have to  say?"

"Um...sorry for waking you?"

Donna laughed, a humourless, bitter sound.

"Waking me? Ellen, I haven't slept." She stood, a line forming between her thin eyebrows. "You didn't come home. You didn't call. We didn't know what was wrong! You could've been...you could've been dead!"

"What?"

"You were gone. I waited. And you didn't come home!"

"Neither did David! Or Jack!"

"Jack was in detention and David told us he was staying the night at a friends." She brushed off, clueless as ever. "And you didn't even call. Or text."

"Come o-"

"No!" She said sharply, like a knife making a clean cut. "Don't say anything. You may have been used to doing whatever you wanted in San Francisco but not here. People were worried about you. People love you!"