Cages

chapter seven (edited)

I found myself knocking on the Colemans front door.

It felt weird. I never saw myself doing it a week ago and now Lola always just came to my place. This was the first time I've been next door. It's been empty for a awhile and the last people that lived there was an older couple.

A woman– who I assumed was Lola's mom– answered the door. I was expecting Lola to answer, seeing as her parents were workaholics. I was not prepared to talk to one of them.

Instead of sharing Lola's light skin and brown curls, she had dark skin and straight black hair. Mrs. Coleman had to be about forty but i was clear where Lola got her good looks from.

Her mother smiled and I noticed she and her daughter had the same smile. “Hi, can I help you?”

I suddenly felt nervous. “Uh, yes. I'm Kacey, I live next door.”

Mrs. Coleman's eyes brightened. “Oh! So you're our neighbor?” she held out her hand. “Nice to finally meet you. I'm Shara.”

I shook her hand. “Nice to meet you too, Ms. Shara.”

She chuckled. “You don't have to call me Miss. I'm always out but I don't think I've seen your family out much. Oh, do you know my daughter, Lola? She's about your age. She went to Preston.”

Apparently, Shara liked to talk. A lot. I smiled politely while I thought about how I was going to somehow tease Lola about that later.

Before I can answer to anything she said, the girl I came here for appeared behind her.

“Mom,” she groaned. “You're talking too much.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, Kacey.” Shara smiled.

“I'm going next door.” Lola said, pushing out the door.

“You two been hanging out?”
“We went to the same school, we're friends now.” Lola smiled at her mother. “If you and dad would've been home more often you guys would've known.”

Her mom either didn't catch the jab or decided not to acknowledge it.

Lola and I started to make our way next door to my house. “Nice meeting you, Kacey!” Shara called before going back inside. “You and your family can come by anytime!”

Instead of correcting her, I just smiled and nodded. Deciding against going in the house, we sat outside and enjoyed the sun. Lola smiled at me. “Sorry about that. For the first time in forever she had the day off.”

I shrugged. “It's cool. She's nice.”

Lola laughed. “Yeah, she is. She's just oblivious. Obviously.”

“Well, I can tell she cares about you. I'm sure both of your parents do.”

“But yet they can't see I'm hurting.” Lola whispered.

“Maybe because you don't show them.” I said. “Atleast you have parents.”

Lola sighed. “At times it feels like I don't.”

A silence washed over us. It wasn't tense, but comfortable.

“Do you ever wish you were something else?” Lola asked, breaking the silence. “Like an animal or something?”

I shook my head. “I never thought about it. You?”

“I always wanted to be a bird.” she smiled.

I smiled too. “Really?”

She nodded. “They're so... free. They have wings that can take them away.”

I never thought about being something else but I think I'll want to be a bird too. Whenever they don't want to be somewhere, all they have to do is fly away.

“I want to be free, Kacey.” Lola said.

I looked at her. “From what?”

“The pain.”

I sighed. “Don't we all?”