Fallen Families

Chapter 31

His eyes scanned the wooden room he was currently in. For a tree house, it was very well decorated, almost something out of a magazine. She was definitely related to Scarlett. 

He had come up to the tree house to try and find some common ground with Nicole. He could tell by her outburst earlier that she was having a really bad day, and if he were to guess, he and Scarlett weren't the cause completely. There was something else going on that the other just couldn't see, so he would make it a point to go to her. 

"Hey," Chris started approaching the young girl who sat in the corner of the tree house on a large hanging chair. She looked at him before looking back out the window muttering a hey in return.

Chris was walking into this blindly, he didn't know what he should or shouldn't do, but he knew that he wanted to help.  He went over to the chair, similar to hers, that was right across from her. He assumed that it was Ava's or Emma's. 

He sat down and swung back and forth trying to decide what to say. She made no indication that she wanted to talk to him and he didn't blame her. He was absent most of her life,  and when she came and tried to build a relationship, he didn't put any effort into it at all. But now he wanted to change that. 

He just needed to identify a sense of common ground, something they had in common. He couldn't just come in and start trying to talk about her bad day, there was no trust in that.  Finding a common ground would not only give them a topic of conversation but allow her to see that he knows just a little bit of what he is talking about. And that's when he spotted it. 

As she swung gently back and forth he noticed her hand, which rested gently on her lap, was shaking. He didn't know if she knew herself, but as Chris recalled her actions throughout dinner.

Throughout dinner, he noticed Nicole had been very quiet, staring blankly at her food, the tap of her foot, and then her outburst was very much like how he used to act like as a child. She was too much in her head, and the mind was a very dangerous place to be trapped in.  

"You know it's funny." He started out, she looked up but her hair covered her eyes. He knew she was listening because whenever he talked to Scarlett and she was in a bad mood she looked at him like that. "It's funny how noisy my brain is," 

"What are you talking about?" She asked speaking up just a little bit. 

"I can see that you seem to be lost in your mind right now, it must be very loud since it's captured so much of your attention." He said. 

"You don't know a think about me, and I would appreciate it if you stopped acting as you did," Chris nodded his head, he deserved that one. She was right he didn't know her. 

"True I don't know you, but I know myself. Can I tell you a little bit about myself?" he asked softly. She was silent for a moment as if pondering the idea, before gently nodding her head.  "for me, my brain is so incredibly noisy, everyone's brain is noisy, it's what it does, it makes thoughts. The problem is the rooting of suffering is following that brain noise and listening to that brain noise and actually identify with it as if it's who you are." 

"No offense but you are kind of losing me," she said leaning back in her chair, trying to make an effort to listen to him. "I don't hear things in my head, you may need to talk to someone about that." 

"I do, my brother is often the one I find myself talking to about this. If not him then my closest friends. It's a funny thing that I keep talking to them and they always give me the same response, listing to the noise won't help you at all."  Chris leaned back imitating her posture.