The Asylum On Chestnut Street

Chapter-3

"Wendy" my mom said my name as soon as I walked in. I shut the front door behind me, kicked my sneakers off and unbuckled my pink helmet before hanging it on one of our hooks.

"Why are you home so early,honey? Is everything alright?" She asked.

No everything was not all right. In fact, everything was the opposite of all right. I was going crazy but I didn't want my mom or anyone else to know that. What would people think of me if I told them an eerie laugh was invading my thoughts? Knowing my mom, she'd probably send me to a therapist and anyone else would most likely avoid me.

"Um, yes" I lied, nodding my head. I had already come up with an excuse incase my mom was curious about me coming home early. I was usually back home at 7:25, an hour before school but I guessed it wasn't even 7' yet. "It was just really foggy out, and I couldn't see that well so I turned around to come home" I explained.

"Oh" my mom was sitting in the living room adjacent the mudroom. Her right leg was crossed over her left and she had a book in her lap and her reading glasses rested low on the bridge of her nose. She peered over her glasses at me. "Well, it's good that you're being safe. Anyhow, would you like me to make you breakfast? I just bought some more eggs yesterday. I can make you omelette if you want."

"Yes. Please." I was always polite to my mother. We were basically all we had to each other, being our relatives lived across the country. I was her only child and she was a single mother. And to be honest, I kinda liked it that way. It was peaceful around our house as compared to my friends' houses where it was chaotic and loud with two parents and multiple siblings. 

My mom closed her book and set it on the table to her left. She stood up, swiped her hands to her pajama pants and then I tailed her into the kitchen.

"So is your friend still coming over after school today?" Mom asked, opening the fridge. She took out a carton of eggs and set it on the counter.

"Yes" I replied, "Her name is Brenda, by the way"

"I remember" mom said, with a smile. Of course she remembered. After all I didn't have an excessive amount of friends. I only really had a few that was close with. But I was like that. I preferred a few friends that I could be my honest plain self with, as opposed to multiple friends, in which I would probably act fake around. That's how it seemed around my school anyways.

"Do you know what you're going to be for Halloween, yet?" Mom suddenly asked while mixing the egg yolk in a glass pitcher to pour into the pan.

"No" I said. Halloween was about a week away and while it was my favorite holiday, I hadn't been thinking about it much, lately. My high school started couple of months ago. There was a lot more work than I was used to and it was stressful and time consuming. "I think I'm gonna ask Brenda and others, what they're going to be, so I can match them."

"Sounds like a plan," mom replied "let me know soon, so that we can buy your costume, the stores will be selling out this week. We don't want to go too late and find that the costume you want is no longer there."

"Okay," I agreed. I was sitting on a stool next to the counter, watching my mom cook. I tapped my fingers along the surface as she cut up the veggies to put in the omelette.

"So what do you plan on doing with Brenda? I can take you girls out to see a movie or something"

"Oh no, that's okay," I said, declining her offer."Brenda actually wanted me to show her the old asylum on the chestnut street, so we're going to bike over there."

My mom turned to look at me and her face showed creases of worry. "Just... Don't go inside." She hesitantly said. "It's not safe and I hear a lot of bad kids hangout around there. I just don't want you to mix up with the wrong crowd, Wendy."

For a second, I wondered if kyle fit that category. Was he a 'bad kid'? He did smoke, for sure, bit since he was trying to quit, I guess that didn't make him all bad. Still, If my mom heard anything about kyle, she'd probably ask me to stay away from him. Heck, she would probably tell me to never bike again on chestnut street if she knew that I was talking to a boy, three years my senior. 

"We're not going in," I assured her, shaking my head oof thoughts of kyle "we're just biking the street so that I can show her what outside of it looks like. Brenda likes scary things"

Brenda also like story of nineteen-year-old boy who smokes and were considered 'cool' for doing that. I told her about Kyle, and I wondered if her sole reason for wanting to bike there was to see if we could run into him. I also wondered, I didn't object the plan because a part of me wanted to see him, too.

I think I kind of liked Kyle.

"Earth to Wendy," my mom chuckled, snapping her fingers in front of my face. 

"Huh?"

"Honey, your food's ready," she said, setting down the plate of omelette on the table. She placed a fork, knife and a napkin, too.

Oh, thanks." I said.

I started digging into my food as my mom started talking. I wasn't really listening to her. My train of thoughts kept spiraling towards a certain blonde-haired boy with crystal blue eyes. Kyle said, he was intrigued by that old, abandoned asylum -- but me, I was started to get intrigued by kyle.

No longer was I thinking about a menacing laugh that sent chills down to my spine, or matching costume for Halloween with my friends. All I could think about was him. Was I started to more than like kyle? If I did, how was that even possible? I hardly knew him. Plus he was like three years older than me.

I sighed, finished my food and got ready for school. All the while, thoughts of that blonde-haired boy with crystal blue eyes kept invading my head.

All I really knew was, I wanted to see him again. Soon.