Finding Me

6

William met Felicity at the bar and she gave him general directions and the key. When he stepped into the small apartment a wave of sadness enveloped him. He was greeted by the tiny mewl from a fat black cat with a pink ribbon wrapped around her neck. He walked towards her cautiously and flipped the metal flower around. It read Lily Belle Buckingham. There was a box and a receipt sat next to the cat and he examined it. Felicity had ordered two new tag sets. He looked around trying to figure out where the other animal was and he found him in the litterbox next to the end of the counter. When the cat made it's way to William he was just as fat and the name tag read Poe Romeo Buckingham. 

"Huh." William huffed going to examine the rest of the tiny apartment. 

It was three rooms, the kitchen and living room were combined, only a light grey futon and a grey club chair sat in the living room. Plastic bar stools lined the counter, Her bedroom was pitiful a mattress on the floor with a black and white comforter on it and one measly pillow. There was a rundown dresser with some clothes spilling out, very few pairs of shoes laying on the floor alongside a pile of books. Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe were intermingled with the Twilight series and many Nicholas Sparks novels. The bathroom looked borderline unsafe. The Victrola and records were on the floor and an old Dell laptop was plugged in by the futon. Her only forms of entertainment. He also noticed the cheap wines littering the counter.

He was, however, struck by the numerous candles littered about and the pictures hung up in frames. Most of them were from their beach day but there was one of a ginger, with curls and a blonde with wavy hair. There's a picture of the redhead and Felicity looking around age twelve, the blonde and a man with grey stood with their arms around Felicity in a two-picture, picture frame showing off her high school and college graduations. And finally an old picture of a little blonde baby with a boy in her long tufts of hair and a brunette baby with curly hair lying next to her in the hospital cot. He could've sworn the boy was him at first glance.

William was walking out of the bathroom having taken a shower, as Felicity walks in with two to-go containers.

"What food do you have?" William immediately makes his way over to his sister.

"Bar food. I didn't know what you'd like so I got you my usual." Felicity states pulling out the barbecue chicken tender sandwich. It's a greasy tender smothered in barbecue sauce and placed on a bun paired with French fries. William's mouth salivates when she opens it for him.

"Yum. How was work?" William questions.

"It was okay, I'm content singing and waiting tables, but it'll be nice to get a change." Felicity shrugs.

"When are you moving?" William asks.

"I don't know sometime in May. I still haven't told Dad and Kristen. I kind of ambushed you guys last time and I think it made your mom upset." Felicity shrugs.

"It wasn't you. They've been fighting since dad was fired last year. He wants to save money but she wants to build another house, open a new shop in New York, and she wants to get more horses and build a barn for all of her horses. But yet she flipped shit when Dad agreed to pay for me to have my own apartment close to campus. But then it escalated after dad's surgery. I think reality struck my forty-three-year-old mother that my dad was sixty-nine. He can't do much anymore especially now with his heart. I think it's getting under my mom's skin." William explains.

"Still, I felt bad and I even told dad that when I left." Felicity sighs.

"Mom loves you though." William smiles.