Let's Be Friends

11:

      Once Finn saw how late it was he said he needed to go home too and we left. His house was between the park and mine, so we walked together.

      He seemed worried that his parents would be mad or scared, since he'd stayed out and hour and a half past curfew. I wondered if his parents were strict, but even parents who weren't strict would probably be pissed if their kid stayed out until 12am. (12:30 by the time we would get him back home.)

      When we reached his house I looked around. It wasn't huge, but it had two stories and a beautiful garden and a lattice through which you entered to go down a path up the the front door. There were pretty rocks and crystals littered around the well maintained garden, and even a birdbath. The lights in the living room (or what I guessed was the living room) were on.

      "Oh frick." I heard him mumble and I stifled a laugh.

      I stayed back and watched him go up to the front door, work up the courage, and then knock. The door opened almost immediately.

      I was momentarily blinded by the light spilling from the doorway. "Finn!" A woman's voice scolded softly,"It's past your curfew!" She scooped him up in a hug. I could only really see their silhouettes. His mother sounded strange.

      "Sorry mommy." Finn replied quietly and once again I stifled a laugh.

      A man came to the door,"There you are, we were worried you'd been kidnapped!" They didn't sound mad, just relieved. I noticed the dad sounded strange too.

      The woman, Finn's mom, spotted me,"Who're you?" She called.

      I felt embarrassed, like I was intruding,"One of Finn's friends, sorry- I was just walking this way, since my house is over down this way-" I motioned vaguely to the right,"I just wanted to make sure he wasn't gonna get locked out or anything."

      "That's so thoughtful, do you have a place to go? Why aren't your parents picking you up?" His father asked, coming down the porch steps.

      "I'm good-" I moved my hand to me belt loop to brandish my keys and found that they were in fact, not there,"On second thought no- I uh, lost my keys somewhere." I turned around, trying to see if they'd fallen on the ground. "I was gonna walk home and let myself in, because my mom's asleep- but I guess I can't-"

      Finn's parents looked at each other and his dad said,"You can stay the night here. I don't feel good about sending kids off on their own in the dark. Come on in." He motioned for me to enter the house.

      "Oh- you don't have to- my friend Kaya is having a party, I could stay with her."

      "Nonsense, come with us. We don't bite!" His father spoke warmly.

      I was ushered into the house, as was Finn and we all ended up in the living room. My eyes were better able to adjust to the light and I realized why they sounded off to me; they were very obviously not white. They both looked like they were African-American, so no, definitely not white. I realized this meant Finn must be adopted and wondered about his sisters, if they too were adopted.

      His house was medium sized and well organized, everything was in perfect order- very different from my house. "Now I get to get to give you a tour of my  house." He grabbed my hand and pulled me around the house.

      I took note of how tidy the whole house was. I also noticed we passed one room that he didn't show me, the door was closed. I wondered if it was Marissa and Diana's room before they moved away.