Lost.

Chapter 3 // A Curse Since I Was Born

I ended up staying the whole night at Leslie's house, talking to her mom, Tris, about things back home and my family's store, then discussing my grades with Leslie's father, Harold. Leslie's twin, Matthew, had rambled on about his girlfriend. Pure love found in every word that escapes his lips. Though, I had not seen Ash around anywhere for the remainder of the night.

"Come by more often sweetie. We miss you." Leslie's mother says, clutching onto her husband's arm tightly.

"Will do." I whisper, giving her a weak smile. She hands me a plate of food, leftovers from the luxurious meal she concocted tonight. I take it gratefully, even though I know I won't eat it anytime soon. Perhaps my father will.

Leslie scowls, gesturing for her mother to carry her small conversation with me some time later. Her mother sighs, waving us off after she's given me a kiss on the forehead, and her famous bear hug. Similar to Leslie's, but with a lot more love.

Leslie finally drags me towards her White Jeep - the closest thing you'll ever find that Leslie possesses with her life. Last time I left a little fingerprint on her car, she made me wipe it down with my shirt, claiming it should be clean to the point where she could eat off of it. Let's just say, she may or may not have rubbed pasta all of the part of the hood I barely grazed with my fingertip and licked it off with her tongue. Wow, who knew such actions could be so bitter sweet to watch.

By the time we reach my small abode, the flickering lights of my family's book shop and coffee lounge, THE HIDEOUT, shines brightly against the dark night. My mother longed to be a writer, obsessing over books and columns from the newspaper or magazines. Whereas my father continued his dream to become an orthopedist.

Although my father was getting a lot of free time right now because of the bad things that have been happening to us lately, his employees and the headquarters of the company of the hospital didn't want him being distracted while operating on a patient.

God knows someone getting operated on doesn't want some depressed man messing up their insides.

But if he wasn't at work, I usually never knew where he was. And now without his wife, my mother, and without his eldest daughter, my sister, he was bound to be out and about rather than be home with his one and last child who desperately longed for the love and affection she once used to receive. It wasn't a surprise to me that my father wasn't home when I unlocked the shop and traipsed my way towards the back where our staircase rested and led up to my family's small apartment.

It was big enough for all of us, but now, it was too big. Without my father most of the time, it became a prison for myself, where my surroundings became a constant reminder that I was at loss and I had no escape from my haunting nightmare.

Before I shut the door to my small humble abode, a sweet familiar voice shouts out," Good night principessa!" For the second time in the night, a small smile is cursed onto my face as the little old ladies voice, Gertrude, a family friend of ours since my mother was a child, rings throughout my head.

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"I can't believe he's staying with us! I mean, for God's sake, he's 17 and done with school, and his parents make him come here to find his future or what not and not to mention how annoying he is! He's so rude and disrespectful to everyone. He has never had a decent conversation with me once, it's so sad! Something apparently happened to him back in the UK my mom says but maybe if he just opens up we'll all be able to breathe inside the house." Leslie rants all in one breath, waving her banana around in the air the peels fly around miserably.

"Be nice to the banana, it's making me uneasy." I say, gently taking the banana from her hand, placing it in front of her. She snatches it from her tray, biting off a huge chunk from it. "Please just try bearing with him. You never know what people go through Leslie." I suggest, sinking my teeth into my apple, trying my best to make conversation with my anguished best friend who can go on for days without speaking if you really do something to tip her off of her rock.