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> Chapter Twenty-Seven <
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Ruth Todd
When something valuable goes missing, you don't exactly want to play the waiting game, but sometimes it's the best you can do.
So when Maya disappears overnight, I'm hardly surprised. I am not bothered by the absence. I have no wish to go searching for her.
Her father is home too. Home with me; unbothered to do anything about her missing existence. The house is quiet - which isn't too different, but it's an uncomfortable quiet. One that is eerie, cold and unwanted. Unwelcome.
I stand in the kitchen, light shining against my face as it enters through the window. I can hear the water running as my husband showers.
It isn't odd; the silence. It's just...pathetic. No, that's a bad word. It's more wrong. Like I shouldn't feel so comfortable in the silence.
Was it my fault? The fight we had...maybe I shouldn't have said anything to her. Maybe we should have apologized to each other and solved our problems.
I sigh and prop my elbows on the marbled countertop, resting my head in my hands and drawing in a shaky breath. I hear the water shut off. The absence of that, too, piles onto the cold feeling of missing something.
It is as if I have lost something unimportant, at least to everyone else. Something too small for its loss to be understood. It means something to me, but for everyone else it is something that was there. Now, it's not, but nobody will care. Nobody will notice.
Is that a good thing? If Maya made herself unnoticed, will she simply slip away? Vanish, like nobody will see her fall away?
I look up to see Maya's father walk into the kitchen. He has an old, ragged pair of jeans on, his hair wet and messy. His eyes don't seem to register that I am there, passing straight by me like I'm now a figment of the window.
"Good morning," I murmur, turning around so that my back is against the edge of the counter. Jeremy's eyes flicker up to me as he takes the jug of milk from the fridge and stands up straight.
At our age, his body structure is still quite nice. I admire it quietly, comparing his physique to my own, hidden beneath my clothing.
The business trips really paid off.
At this thought, I shake my head and look away, pretending to be interested in the tiles of the floor. Jeremy doesn't greet me, just sets the milk on the counter and proceeds to make himself a coffee.
"Did you talk to Maya last night?" I ask, looking up at him. "Or this morning, possibly?"
He doesn't look up from where he is filling the kettle with water. "No," comes his reply. "Why are you asking?"
"She took off again." This time he glances up at me, but where I expected a hint of worry in his eyes there is only judgement.
"Again?" He lifts a brow at me. I nod my head in response. "Why?"
Of all questions, he asks why. What does he expect me to say? "How should I know, Jeremy?"
"People don't do things without a reason, Ruth." He turns back to his kettle, plugging it in and flicking the button to turn it on.
I narrow my eyes, glaring at him. I feel my heart start to pound in my chest, adrenaline rising through my body. "Oh, so all those business trips? There was a reason behind those, then?"
Jeremy visibly stiffens, his thick brows furrowing and knotting together as he fixes his eyes on the kettle. "I don't know what you mean." He says.
I stand up straight and scoff, crossing my arms. "You know darn well what I mean, Jeremy."
A silence falls over us then, the kind of silence that makes me feel like I should apologize; the kind of silence that is uncomfortable. I'm quite used to that, as it's been here since early this morning.
At this point, after the silence that has lasted a few minutes, the kettle starts shrieking, howling as the water is boiling. Jeremy turns the kettle off, unplugging it and pouring it into his cup. The water steams, a cloud forming around us.
Jeremy uses his spoon to stir his coffee, the silence continuing to linger. I walk away from him then, deciding I no longer want to do this.
My heart is still pounding as I walk down the hallway and step into Maya's bedroom, closing the door behind me. A blast of cold air sends unbearable shivers though my body. Her window is open, letting in all the cold air.
She couldn't have gotten out of the window; the space isn't big enough to fit through. I don't even think that Maya would do something as sneaky as that, she prefers to make things obvious so that she can snicker when people don't notice - she's intelligent like that.
I look around her bedroom. There's nothing here that hints at another runaway. Nothing significant.
I give up my hopes of discovering where she's gone and walk back to the kitchen. Jeremy is seated at the table, drinking his coffee and staring blankly at a newspaper that lays in front of him. Upon my entrance, he glances up to watch me make my way to the breadbox on the counter.
"We fought last night." I say simply, opening the loaf of bread and popping two pieces into the toaster. "Me and Maya. It was probably one of the worst nights."
Jeremy doesn't acknowledge me right away, and I am almost afraid that he won't answer me at all. "Then maybe she needed a break, Ruth."
I bite the inside of my cheek, putting the loaf of bread back in it's place. This time I don't say anything. I just nod. We both go silent.
Then, after the toaster pops my toast up from its belly, Jeremy speaks.
"Boss called," he mumbles before taking a sip of coffee, finishing the cup. "There's a business trip scheduled for next Tuesday."
.:----:.
Holy crap I've been so busy
My play rehearsals are coming to an end now. Yesterday was dress rehearsal, and Friday is opening night. For two weekends I will be doing shows, so as you can imagine I'm going to be pretty tired. I'll be busy catching up on sleep - and, admittedly, YouTube.
But life is good. New beginnings and loads of change are starting to show up for me and I think I like it. Some change is just so necessary and you don't know that you needed it until it's there, directly in front of you.
Anyways, enough of me trying to sound edgy. About Gaydar - I've been writing down everything that is going to be happening in the following chapters, and let me tell you: it's intense.
I mean this chapter was just a small kickstart; apart from here, you won't follow Ruth and Jeremy's relationship. I just don't see a huge point in adding that in unless it's got something to do with Maya. But there's going to be loads of crap hitting the fan, and I. Cannot. Wait.
Anyways, thank you for reading, and I love you all ❤️
(P.S. hella shoutout to @jaethegay for binge voting this books chapters - my motivation skyrockets when that happens and i love seeing that. )
