DarkFall | ✔️

2 | The New Boy

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The nights ~ Avicii
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   "Hey mom! We're home." I shout into the house, closing the door behind Em who was staying the night. It was almost a tradition at this stage, every Friday for the last three weeks Em had refused to leave my side. Always watching and protecting me.

   "Hey honey." My mom answers as she appears from around the corner, her saddened smile is hidden when she notices the girls with me.
"Hey Ms Lake!" Amy innocently waves at my mom, who makes her way over to us.

   "Amy, I've told you seven times now to call me Aileen." My mom shakes her head as she stands before us. "You make me sound so old." She laughs, over-exaggerating the word old. After-all, she was only thirty-eight.

"Sorry, it's a force of habit." Amy replies.

   Mom hated being called Ms Lake. She told both Em and I that when we were younger that it made her feel formal, and trust me, my mom was the complete opposite of formal.

     She was a small-time artist, 'yet to be discovered' is what she would say. But I worried that the day she would be discovered wouldn't ever come. Money was much shorter nowadays, but we made it work - it was only the two of us anyway. After turning fourteen I was able to get a part time job at the nearest grocery.

   Even though sometimes we grew short on money when she couldn't sell her paintings, I was confident we would do okay. We had so far, and I was confident we would continue to do so.

   My dad however was a complete mystery to me, my mom never spoke of him...

   I'd never met him, never seen him, and couldn't tell you his name if I tried. My mom was strong and she brought me up on her own, she didn't need need anyone expect herself and from what I could remember, she'd been on one date my entire life.

   And the rest of my family respected her for raising me herself.

Occasionally, she would joke about me being born because she was artificially inseminated. Part of me wasn't sure if she was joking anymore.

   My mom rushes over to Em and gives her a huge hug, after all, my mom and Em were like best friends. They got on like best friends even with the twenty year gap. Sometimes I wondered if she even knew that Em wasn't her daughter.

    Em closes her eyes and smiles as my mom wraps her arms around her. Recently they'd gotten closer, almost as if there was some invisible bond between them I couldn't recreate with my mom. It was truly beautiful.

   Em moved to the town about fifteen years ago, so I'd known her and been best friends with her nearly my whole life. The bonus was that she lived only three doors down the street. It was perfect.

   Amy however lived slightly further away with her parents and her little sister in a larger house. Both of my best friends had fathers, and both were respectful enough to never mention them in a demeaning way.

   Em's parents however were constantly on holiday, they trusted her with the house by herself. If only they knew about the parties she had while they were away. I hadn't seen them in two years, but apparently they stopped in monthly to check on Em and the house. Em was extremely lucky, her family were filthy rich and she stayed in her house by herself while her family explored the world. Em didn't like moving around, so she stayed here with me in Darkfall.