Alriet: When Love Happens

CHAPTER 02

Harriet

I always overthink things, people talked to me and I wanted to reply, but my thoughts were so different I was sure I was going to say something people would hate. I always expected the worst from people. ALWAYS.

I think I can blame the mighty Agatha Christie and her unsuspected murderers. I learned you can't trust anyone. What if you become friends with someone and they stab you in the back? So, it was a lot hard for me, relating to people. I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I felt it was best sticking with fiction. This way, I knew that wouldn't happen to me.

I can't say I don't have friends, I have some... I guess just two. My grandpa and my grandma, but I can't tell them everything, can I? I can't go up to them and say, grandparents, I watch porn by myself when I'm traveling with my parents.

I was bored, tired of traveling, meeting new places or visiting the same places over and over again. I felt frustrated, to be honest. When I talked to my parents about staying with my grandparents, be stable, have a normal life, I said I wanted to be normal, do the things normal teenagers do.

- Including make friends? – My mother asked once when she was tired of listening to me ask to be with my grandparents. It was a lot hard convincing them. I spent an entire year practically begging.

- Yeah, I'll make friends too. – She smiled when I said that. I don't think she believed me.

- I'll only agree if you promise you will make friends. That you'll have a normal life. – I should have been expecting that blackmail, because if I had been, I would surely be ready to reply, like... Well, I had nothing to say. I just knew I was tired of spending more time on planes than of the ground.

- Okay. – She raised an eyebrow when she heard me, and held my hand.

- She doesn't have a fever. – She looked at my dad, who did the same thing.

- When am I going to Brussels? – I asked, with a smile. I was practically sleeping on the couch in the hotel lobby. We were waiting for the taxi that would take us to the airport.

- Today! – My mother really surprised me. – We're going to spend some days in Brussels to help you adapt.

- Is this serious? – I jumped, feeling my hair jump higher than me and I grasped her. – I don't believe, I don't believe. – I kissed her face a few times. – This is incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. – I held my father's hand. He was smiling.

- Consider this in advanced birthday present! – He said.

- I'm not getting my IPod? – I said.

- That's with your father. – My mother gesticulated with her head pointing to my father.

- Ah yes. – I looked at him, blinking.

- It is in the luggage. – He said rummaging his eyes, but he was smiling.

- Ah, this is the best birthday ever! – I jumped in their lap. People looked at us, but who cared, right? I was happy.

- Let me braid your hair, for the love of God. – My mother was rolling her eyes.

- I like it like this. – I moved some locks away that were disturbing my vision. – They are different.

- It is just that nothing with you it has to be normal. – My parents said at the same time. This was my sentence every time they spoke of my hair.

*

I was happy. I had a room just for me. Actually, I always had it, but I could never take advantage of it as I would like. Since we travelled from a city to another, a country to another one, I always slept in the same room that my parents, even though they tried to give me some privacy, it wasn't the same thing. I ended up hearing everything. And not all the hotels had subdivisions.