Turmoil | Spruceworth 5.1 (#Wattys2018)

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Holden

       Shaw had been acting very weird these past couple days and every time I tried getting him to talk to me about it, he would just say that nothing's wrong. I didn't believe him. I knew him well enough to know that something was bothering him.

       But I also knew him well enough not to keep bugging him so I just let it slide.

       Until one morning when he was seeing very irritated as he opened the fridge door, looked inside, slammed it shut, and then opened it again. 

       I walked into the kitchen, resting my arms on the top of the fridge door and placing my chin on top. "You alright?" I asked.

       "I am fine," Shaw said. "Absolutely fine. Just annoyed that we have no food in the house."

       I furrowed my eyebrows and looked into the fridge. "What are you talking about? We got more than enough food here. What's really going on?"

       Shaw sighed, keeping his eyes scanning the contents in the fridge to find something to eat for breakfast. "It's my dad."

       "Your dad?" I asked. "What about him? In fact... What ever happened to him? I don't remember him coming around whenever you and Viola did with your mom."

       "And you also don't remember what you had for dinner yesterday," Shaw said. "Memory loss, remember?"

       "Okay, wow, point taken," I said.

       Shaw sighed and looked at me. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm just really stressed out because of him. He decided to show up to the village not too long ago. He thought it would be completely fine if he waltzes into my and Viola's lives after everything he did."

       "What did he do?" I asked.

       "He left," Shaw said. "Nine years ago. You were nine, so that's probably why you don't remember him ever coming around. And he never made any effort to contact any of us, not even when my mom passed away. And then he just shows up out of the blue acting like everything is okay."

       "Oh, now I see why you've been so weird these past couple days," I said. "I wouldn't be happy as well if my dad left and came back out of the blue."

       "The worst part is he knows nothing about me," Shaw said, finally closing the fridge door because he couldn't find anything to eat. "He doesn't know that I'm a recovering addict or that I have three children or that I'm gay. Well, he knows that now but the point is, he doesn't know anything about me. I don't want anything to do with him but I have a feeling he's just going to keep popping up in my life. Anyway, I just want to forget about all of that. I know you're about to meet up with Jane to do some studying, so can we meet at the walkway afterwards?"

       "Yeah, sure," I said. "And speaking of, I should be heading out before Jane bashes me in the head with a textbook for being late."

       "Alright, then go," Shaw said. "I'll see you later."

       "See you," I said, giving him a quick kiss before heading out of the house and walking to the cafe where Jane and I were going to study. Well, her try to help me study and me complain that I couldn't remember anything.

       Jane was already in the cafe and when I sat down beside her, she picked up one of the books and hit me in the arm with it. "You're late," she said. "I don't have all the time in the world to help you study."

       "Sorry," I said. "I was just talking to Shaw. He has some problems going on right now. But I am here and I am ready to complain about studying. I mean, study. Totally study. Though I don't know why if I'm only going to fail."