Phantom Blood

Phantom Blood [3]

Eden

Friend

'You don't mind, do you?' Mom asked me. We had just had lunch and Mom wanted to go back to bed.

'No, course not.'

She smiled slightly, 'sorry. I'm pathetic.'

'No you're not,' I protested.

Mom smiled a bit but looked down. I could tell she was about to cry. 'You can take the car out if you like. Look around. Meet people. You could try and get a job too. And if you go into any stores could you buy some milk?'

I nodded.

Mom got up from her chair and paused before turning back to me. 'I know you're not keen to start school straight away in the Fall, but I think you should think about it Eden. You shouldn't put your life on hold because of what happened. Megan wouldn't want that. You are smart. You deserve to get far in life. She always said you did.'

A tear slid down my face and again I nodded. Megan wouldn't want us moving away from the ranch house either. From all of our memories together. Mom squeezed my shoulder as she walked past.

'Keys are by the door.'

I heard Mom's footsteps going up the stairs. I felt so frustrated, suffocated and pissed off. I was an emotional wreck. Whenever I felt like that before all I needed was to go to Megan and we could talk and talk, and when Megan was around anyway, which was all the time, I didn't feel like that often. After the accident, this hopeless feeling was constant. I missed her so much. She was part of me and now there was a bleeding gash where my heart was.

I needed fresh air. Going out was the perfect thing to do at that moment. Carelessly, I swiped the keys as I left the house and got into the car.

I had to ask for a lot of directions before I could find the closest grocery store. It was a cute little local shop that didn't have that many items in it but it had what I wanted. I bought milk as Mom asked, a Snickers bar and a packet of cookies.

On either side of the store there was a café and a drugstore. I went into the café briefly, ordering a coffee before sitting in the outside seats eating my cookies and drinking my coffee, deciding to save the Snickers for later.

Everything around there went so slowly. Barely any people were around. And, even worse, over here it was colder than California. It didn't feel like summer to me. I couldn't imagine how cold it would be in the fall.

Eventually, after an hour and finally giving in to the Snickers bar, I got back into the car and tried to find my way back home.

I smashed my foot down on the brake as I turned into the street. There was a car parked by our mail box which was bent in an odd angle. As I crept the car forward I noticed there was also a guy getting out of the car.

'Um, excuse me?' I asked as I got out of the car after driving it into our driveway and made my way to the guy who was stood by the mail box hands on hips.

He turned around and raised an eyebrow.

'Yeah?'

'What are you doing?'

His forehead creased, 'why?'

A laughed escaped my mouth, 'what do you mean why? I live here...?'

'You live here?' He seemed shocked. 'No way, no one lives here. No one has lived here for ages.'

Once again I laughed a bit. 'And I've just moved in, because no one lived here.'

The guy was silent for a moment before looking up at me.