I N V I S I B L E // styles

Chapter Two

I could hear my mother’s heels clink along the tile flooring as I slid down the stairwell. My mother was in the kitchen, whipping about the dust that lingered along the counters and she was stacking a mixture of cookies upon a ceramic plate that was decorated with pink and purple ribbons that swirled around the edges. Her eyes were wide and frantic as she scurred around the kitchen, her hair dangling in her eyes as she moved and her movements quick and startling for early in the morning.

    I walked into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and quickly filling it with water while my mother talked on the phone that was perched between her shoulder and ear. “Yes, yes Irene, I have it all settled.” My mother nodded along to whatever Irene said and pranced out of the kitchen, speaking and nodding along as she went. I turned, pouring half the water down the sink and placed the glass back in the cupboard. My mother always felt rushed in the mornings. She had always gotten out of the house before I arose from the bed, she’d be gone before the sun grazed the horizon. She snuck out in the mornings, and it never meant anything then, but now I can see why she did it.

“Honey,” my mother called out, her head popped from around the corner and she held the speaker of the phone in her hand, making sure that whatever she was saying, Irene couldn’t hear. “Do you mind placing this in the front yard, we are expecting people soon.” With that she walked off, leaving the For Sale sign leaning against the freshly painted wall.

WIthin the week that we had to leave the house, my mother and I covered every wall in the house with new shading and the furniture was at it’s finest. We changed the layout of the kitchen and the decor of the dining room, wanting someone to get intrigued by the way it was all placed and set up and buy it on the spot. We were due to leave tomorrow and someone had yet to buy the house. My mother had been pulling her hair out over the event, she was planning on rescheduling the flight but when she received a new offer upon the house, she became ecstatic.

    I stuck the sign into the yard and stood, examining the neighborhood I had grown up in. There was a local park just a block away and I could hear the rejoicing of the children as they squealed and screamed running around the many obstacles. I closed my eyes, letting the breeze wash over me and my tense body loosened with the relaxing breeze. I jolted out of my trance when a car horn blared through the silent air.

    “Oh sorry,” a young man said as he pulled alongside the house, his music radiating through the air. “Is this your house?”

    I nodded, unable to find the words that were lodged in my throat. The man stepped out of his vehicle and walked up the pathway towards the front door. He smiled politely at me before knocking upon the door, to which my mother answered, a grin plastered along her glossed lips and her stance formal.

    “Oh,” she exclaimed, seeing me watching in the background. “I see you have met my daughter.”

    The man nodded, glancing between me and my mother, his eyes lingering in the space that linked between us. “Yes, she’s quite the talker.” he joked.

    My mother chuckled lightly, waving her hand in front of her as if the joke was the hilarious thing she had ever heard. “She doesn’t speak much,” my mother said, calmly, her eyes not once wavering away from the man that was stepping into the threshold. “I’m Darlene and this is my lovely daughter Jenna.”

    The man turned towards me, his eyes questioning. “How old are you, Jenna?”  

    I took a step back, glancing at my mother who widened her eyes towards me, telling me not to be impolite and rude. “Sixteen,”

    “I have a boy,” he said, glancing back at my mother who listened with thrill. “He’s about your age, doesn’t speak much either.”

    “We’re moving,” I say quickly, quickly regretting my choice of wording as my mother glared at me once the man turned his head, casting his attention slowly back towards me. “To Seattle.”