Unseen ☆ j. hale

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Unseen
zero | empty house

NICOLE WAS THE type of girl that would stick to herself and try to stay out of the spotlight. A friend or two would be more than enough for her, especially if one of those friends were a cat. She loved her cat, Sugar, a cute tabby mix. He was all Nic needed, and maybe a few of her favorite novels. She didn't need much to live a life of solitude. She was used to it by now.

Nic's phone pinged off of her bedside table. Sugar rustled from his nap and purred gently, leaning into Nic's hand. She let out a sigh before she placed her book down beside her. The light that came through her window illuminated her room into a golden hue, the sun was coming up for a new day. She let out a yawn and stretched her arms in an arc. The phone pinged again, catching her attention out of the corner of her eye as it lit up.

She reached over for the phone. Several of the texts she had were from her parents.

Nic stared at her phone with her mouth ajar. Before she could comprehend the messages, her phone pinged with a new text.

She stared at her phone for a second before a thought came to mind, "It looks like we're moving again," Nic said to Sugar, who let out a purr in response. "And it looks like it's Washington this time."

Sugar looked up at her with his multicolored eyes as if to say, "We're moving, again?"

"I know, Sugar, I don't like moving either. Especially when we moved here a few months ago." Nic sighed. She petted her cat's fur while she mulled over the texts from her parents.

Another town in just four months. They are like serial movers. We can never stay in one place for at least a year, Nic thought, Well it couldn't be as bad as when we moved to Ohio. There was nothing to do there.

"Let's make some cookies, Sugar. I don't want to pack for the move just yet." Nic slid off her bed and landed onto her cold wooden floor with bare feet.

Sugar stood up from Nic's purple bedspread and Nic picked him up. He cuddled into her as Nic took them out of her room and downstairs to the kitchen. The kitchen was covered in marble, from the countertops to the floor. The newest appliances were sparkling in the morning light through the wall of windows. Not bothering with the material items she didn't care about Nic began to get the things she needed for the cookies.

The butter, the eggs, the chocolate chips. Sugar sat on the marble counters to look at his owner and best friend make the cookies. The pans and the mixing bowl came next. Nic heated up the oven to the preheat temperature before beginning to make the cookies.

"Sugar, the flour please," Nic called to the tabby. Sugar moved the flour over to the fair-haired girl with its head.

Nicole put all her time into the chocolate chip cookies she was making. She didn't want to think about her parents or the move she was going to have to pack up for, again. Her parents moved them down to Austin, Texas from Boston, Massachusetts four months ago when her parents opened up a new branch of their company down here. The longest they stayed somewhere was three years and that was something Nicole couldn't even remember. She was only three years old at the time. That's also when her parents' company capitalized and the moving around the world started.

The timer for the first batch of cookies dinged. The girl moved to the oven to take the cookies out and let them sit to cool. The cookies were a perfect golden brown color and the chocolate chips oozed.

"They're perfect, Sugar." Nic took a small piece of the cookie that didn't have a chocolate chip in it and blew on it.  Once it cooled down the girl gave it to the tabby to try. Sugar ate it up with ease. "Seems like someone likes it."

She gave the cookie a small try and she moaned from how good it was. The cookie warmed her up better than the clothes on her back. She went in to try another before it went cold. Some of the chocolate from the cookie stuck to her fingertips. She gladly licked it off.

"This would be better with milk. Wouldn't you agree, Sugar?" The cat purred happily and moved across the countertop towards the fridge. "Me, too."

Nic poured herself a glass and a small bowl for Sugar. She prepared the next batch of cookies onto the pan before putting them into the oven. The timer was set for 20 minutes so she wouldn't over bake them. She did that once when she first began her passion for baking. It completely slipped her mind until she saw the smoke coming from the oven.

Sitting on a stool over by the peninsula Nicole played with her phone. She didn't really care about social media because she didn't have any friends. Well, few friends anyway. Sure, she had friends she made over the years at the many different schools she went to, but she was never there for long to get to know them well. They never got to know her. All they probably remember is her last name, Everette. That's all that anyone ever remembers.

A loud knock echoed from her front door. It spooked Sugar into a jump before he started hissing at the noise. Nic hushed him down before scooping him up to calm him. They moved to the foyer when another loud knock echoed through the empty house. The duo looked at each other and Sugar gave her a purr of reassurance. Nic opened up the door after a third knock landed.

"Hi, ma'am. We are here to move your furniture to your new house." A group of six men stood behind the biggest one of them taking to Nic. They were all tall and burly. "You just need to sign right here before we can begin."

"Okay, sure." Nicole signed the paper without looking at what she was writing her name for. She moved to the side while opening the door wider for the men. They weren't the first movers she had met.

"Thank you," The large man said before taking a step into her home. "My men and I should be done in about 5 hours. We'll be coming every day around this time until everything is packed up."

"That sounds fine, thank you." The girl said to the leader of the muscled men. "I'm also making chocolate chip cookies if your men would like some."

"Thank you, ma'am, we greatly appreciate that." Then the group of men was on their way with packing up her family's house.

Before they went too deep into her house Nic called out to them, "Also, could you do my room last. It's the one all the way in the back right on the second floor. I'm living here until we move." The men nodded and then fanned out through her home to pack.

The timer for the second batch dinged in the kitchen. Nic sighed and moved herself and Sugar to the oven.

"It looks like it's official, Sugar." The tabby just meowed in response.