What Lies Beneath

Chapter five

Chapter 5

Sitting on the bus, alone in my seat, I think back on everything bad that has been happening. Everyone wants to know my story and what's really going on. Why do they need to know? They don't understand what I'm going through and nothing they could say would comfort me. This is why no one talks to me anymore. I shut them out and they refuse to let me back in once they've seen the dark side of me. There is only one glowing hope that keeps me coming back to my godfather's house, only one person I can truly trust in this world.

Janet. She is the one person that I look forward to at the end of the day because she is the mother I have always wanted by my side.

Walking up the perfectly constructed driveway, not one splinter out of place, I vaguely miss my previous home, the cracked driveway and how it gave a ghostly reminder of my life that I had lived before.

Stop, and I continue up to the five star home that I've never dreamed of. An enlarged building of two stories only for one - well, now two - people are not meant to live in. I can only think of how many more people can live in this huge house aside from me, people who deserve to live here.

Either way, I walk in the beautifully carved mahogany door and into the grand entrance of my house. The stairwells cascade from either side of the circular room up to the second floor, highlighting an extravagant chandelier towering over the deep oak wood floors. To my left, James's office door remains closed, but the door is covered in perfectly scattered glass so you could see into the room if you squinted really hard. His desk is in perfect order without a paper out of place, in fact it doesn't even look like he has done any work in years. I usually find him in there but today a dark mass doesn't seem to be hunched over his laptop.

I gallop up the stairs to my room in the right wing; the left wing is where the master bedroom and bathroom sit. I try to stay away from there because that's where James does his own business. My bedroom, a little more realistic, is just as big as his master bedroom but has a smaller scale bathroom with a shower included. A guest room remains across the hall; the aura of that room has always been bland, seemingly untouched for years. It reminds me vaguely of the pink room in my other home so I try to stay away from it as much as possible.

My room is not very homey; it's just another room. Ever since I moved out of my other house, no place has felt like a true home. I miss my closet and how at ease I felt when I truly felt alone. No one would be watching over my every movement, making sure I am being the well-behaved teenager I'm expected to be.

I throw my backpack on my bed and gallop back down the stairs to the kitchen where Janet waits for me.

"Hey honey! How was school?" she asks calm but enthusiastic. She's always made my days a little bit brighter, something to get me through the day.

"Oh just the typical," I respond. If she knew what actually went on, she would be the first one to march down to the front doors of my school - keeping a little white lie never hurt anyone.

"Well that's exciting! It's only Monday so I'm sure your week will get better," she says assumingly. I nod and avoid her gaze, knowing that it truly wasn't.

"So what're you making? It smells fabulous."

"Eh just something I found the other day in the cabinet, nothing too special. Did you meet any new friends? Talk to anyone interesting?" My obvious attempt to avoid the subject fails.

"I have to work on this school project with my friend Alec, he's nice but it's just a project, nothing more."

"What's his last name? Maybe I know him," she asks, simply curious.