Screaming at the Stars

Anticipation

I woke up at 1 o'clock that afternoon. Everyone was already up by then, and I'd missed breakfast and lunch. When I came downstairs, the adults were sitting in the living room, Nicholi and Claudia were at friend's houses. It was clear that my mom wasn't going to talk to me. My dad gave me a weak smile, but that was all. I was absolutely starving, since I hadn't eaten much at all within the past 48 hours, so I practically inhaled two grilled cheese sandwiches.

My mom was not only refusing to talk to me, but she was also avoiding me. She got up when I would come nearer and didn't say a single word to me all day. This was supposedly her way of "moving on", but how was she going to move on if she didn't even try to talk to me?

I understood why my mother was angry at me, (I mean, I was the one who screwed up), but if she was going to pretend I wasn't there, then I would do the same.

So that's what we did. We didn't say a single word to one another. I was able to keep myself busy unpacking my stuff,  but all I could think about was how I was going to get into the woods again. I mean how could I? After last night, my family was being extra careful to watch me. For example:

I forget that I was supposed to be resting my ankle, so when I started limping around my dad would make me sit down and he'd say, "Why don't you take it easy kiddo?"

I also tried to sit in the grass in the backyard to read a book, but Aunt Rachelle ushered me back inside and made me lay down with my foot elevated on a pillow.

Even my uncle tried to convince me to relax inside for a while. "It's cloudy outside, it might rain," he'd said to me, when it actually said there was a 0% chance of rain on my cell phone.

I could feel my mother keeping an eye on me too, but she never said a word.

With four adults constantly breathing down my neck, I knew that the only way I could get back out again was really late, when they were all asleep.

Alright, yes. I know that choosing to stumble around in the dark woods with a sprained ankle is insanely stupid, but...I can't really explain. What happened was weird. Really weird. Maybe if I went back I would get an explanation for the green thing I saw, or maybe I wouldn't find anything at all. Regardless, I had already made up my mind. I was definitely going.

Dinner sucked again. My brother still wasn't there, and we had pork. I hated pork as much as I hated steak. My mom and I still hadn't talked since the night before, and no one, my aunt, uncle, nor my parents or my cousins had much to say. How long was it going to be before things stopped being so goddamn awkward?

I noticed Nicholi picking at his pork in the other chair next to me.

"You don't like it?" I asked him quietly, as I pushed my pork around with my own knife.

He looked at me as if I'd asked him a complex algebra question that he didn't have an answer to. "No." He replied, stabbing the pork with his fork a couple times. He was probably uncomfortable with all these new changes happening in his house, and for once I found someone I could relate to.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Dinner here was gross, and my mother hated me, but  Nicholi and I had just had the longest conversation we've ever had since I got here.

Progress.

I couldn't wait for tonight.