My True Colors

Settling in

   We pulled up to the corner of the street that my aunt's house is on. We pass by a cute little café and bookstore. As we continue to go down the road I pass Sara's dad's house where she will, hopefully, be living in soon. When we finally reached the dead end of the road where my aunt lives and...I guess I do now, too. We pull in to the drive way where I see my two cousins. Evan is holding a giant sign that reads 'Welcome home Scarlett. We missed you!' While my other cousin, Emily, was on her phone typing with her purse on her sholder and all dolled up like she's going out. We step out of the car and as I grab my bags she runs up to her mom and says "Can I go to the rollar rink with Kate and Sam? Also can I have ten dollars from my allowance, please?" Her mom shook her head and said "Don't you want to talk with Scarlett for a while before you go?" She huffed "Moooom, this is the only time Kate can go out for weeks, besides I'm sure Scar understands, don't you?" She said looking over at me. "Uh-yeah. I mean, I don't mind." I stuttered. My aunt reached into her purse muttering a short "Fine, be home by eight."

   I vaguely heard Emily squeal and say thank you but I was busy giggling at Evan, who was trying to catch his sign that was being blown away by the wind. He finally caught up to it because it got caught in a bush, grabbing it he turned and waved at me, smiling I went to wave back and realized my hands were full and my twig arms began to ache. I turned to my aunt and asked "Can you show me my room, please?" She nods her head and starts to walk to the front door, as we walk in I am nearly knocked over by their massive dog named Broody. I smile and put down my bags for a moment and pet him. I got back up and looked around the quiant living room, picking up my bags again I followed my aunt into the hallway.

   She opened the door for me, walked in the room and sat down on the bed. Placing my bags down again I looked around, there was a window that you could see that back yard through with beautiful lace curtains. The light that seeped through the window shown down on the bed and the dresser that had been placed across from each other. Two sliding doors that were mirrors opened up to a closet and the hard wood floors looked nice with the scarlet walls. I laughed, "Nice wall color." My aunt chuckled "Evan thought you would like it." We giggled some more and I sat down on the bed next to my aunt. She looked at me and took my hand "I know it's not the best place but I'm hoping you'll able to call it home soon." I smiled, my eyes filling with tears again and said "It's the best I had in a long time." She smiled and pulled me into a hug causing the tears to fall from my eyes.

   We stayed there for a moment before we heard Evan open the door. Pulling away from each other we looked at Evan. "Aw, maaan. Did I just intrude on a tender moment?" He said throwing his hands up in the air accidentally throwing the sign across the room. "Jeez, I just can't hold onto that thing, can I?" He laughed running his hand through his golden hair, me and my aunt chuckled in response, watching him walk across the room to retrieve it. "Any way I thought maybe you'd like to hang it up in your room as a sort of house warming gift?" He asked. "Yeah, that sounds great." I replied.

   He walked over to the bed, stepped up on it and pushed a pin into wall, holding the sign up. I stepped back and looked at it hanging over my bed and smiled. Evan stepped down and I hugged him as he turned around. His reaction was slow but he hugged me back and said "God, I missed you." He said I smiled, squeezing him a bit tighter. He backed away from me, keeping his hands on me and gliding them down my arms. His hands passed over my wrist and to my hands cuasing me to flinch but I covered it up best I could. He quickly removed his hands from mine, looking very flustered "I'm so sorry, did I do something? Dumb question. What did I do? I'll never do it again I swear. I'm so sorry." He said so fast it was hard to understand him. I stared, completely stunned for a moment. I had never seen someone besides Sara freak out that much for hurting me, especially not a guy. I blinked a few times trying to come back to reality and said "No, no. It's fine you didn't know and you didn't mean to. It's ok, really." I said trying to reassure him. I saw his shoulders relax a little but his blue eyes still held a look I couldn't explain.

   My aunt stood and walked over to the two of us, breaking the silence saying "Well it's late. How's dinner sound?" I smiled "That sounds great!" I took step forward grabbed Evan's hand, playfully nudging him and pulled him along following my aunt trying to get the happy mood back. Not focusing on where I was walking I tripped over one of Broody's big bones that was sitting in the middle of the hallway. Falling, I pulled Evan along with me trying to get a hold of something. I hit the ground with a thud and Evan fell next to me moments later. Letting go of Evans hand I let out a groan and rubbed my shoulder where I hit the ground. Evan did the same and I began to chuckle. He looked over at me and laughed with a pained look. "What are you laughing about?" I asked. He smiled "Just you. You're still clumsy." I stuck my tongue out at him as our aunt walked in with a apron "What do you guys want for-Oh my! What happened here?" She said as she saw us lying on the ground rubbing our shoulders. We broke out in laughter again. "What? What's so funny?" My aunt said over our fits of laughter. She gave up and walked back out to the kitchen. We got up off of the ground and walked to the kitchen to help cook dinner.

   We ate spaghetti at the table. My plate remained pretty much full the whole time. We talked and laughed late into the night just sitting there at the table. It was perfect. I excused myself from the table to go the bed. I showered, brushed my teeth and put on my pj's. Climbing into bed I stared at the sign and smiled, falling asleep. For once I actually slept without a nightmare, I had almost forgotten what that was like.