𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ━ 𝐬. 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞

━━ . ONE

The sweltering humidity beamed down from the Manhattan sky and slapped Katherine's exposed back with fiery conviction. It only fueled her annoyance. Maybe wearing a dress in this weather had not been the best idea, but despite her own protests, here she was.  Her parents had stopped by to visit her on their vacation, but really, they just wanted a free tour guide. She laughed lightly to herself at the idea and gave a glance back at her mother and father. 

She saw them laughing and whispering amongst themselves like it was their first date and it warmed her heart to see the two of them like that. Sure, the two of them had their qualms and fights over the years, but they loved one another all the same. And they showered her with that same love, which she so gleefully basked in.

Sometimes, however, her father had a difficult time showing that he did in fact love her. As it goes, Katherine Grier  was not her birth name—in fact she had no idea who she was really. David and Pamela had told her the story of how they heard the faint sound of cooing that rippled itself through a midnight summer's air. They had found her beneath canopy of an old Birch tree right outside their bedroom window; David was the one that picked her up and took her inside.

David Grier could not sire his own ilk, but Pamela did not love him any less for it. She remember them telling her how the moment they laid eyes on her that they knew she was theirs. And she believed them, at first. As she grew, Katherine started to display faint tendencies of  idiosyncrasy. The Griers were a God-fearing family, first and foremost and they did their best to love her in spite of the casual abnormalities or minute calamities that tip-toed their way into their rather mundane lives.

Her father started to grow distant as she grew older and like anything fostered with age, so did she. In spite of all that, she still considered both of them hers; Pamela and David were the only family she had ever known and she cherished them deeply. She wished one day she could find someone who gave her a purpose and a reason to want to stay, to belong.

Her father's shoulder brushed against her slightly as he walked past her. A sigh escaped Katherine's lips and she shook her head, glancing back at her mother with a slight grin.

"I don't understand how you guys fight as much as you do and still have a decent marriage. " Katherine asked, slowing in her pace and interlocking arms with her mother.

Her mother let out a chuckle. "Your father's always been a bit short-sighted, but it's one of the things that I love about him."

Katherine let out a snort, followed by a series of laughter between her and her mother as eclectic bystanders walked past them in their own routines. 

※

David stayed ahead of them as they made their way down the sidewalk toward the Empire State Building.

"Honey," Pamela called out. "Don't you think it would be more fun if we went to another one of the museums or back to the zoo? We didn't get to go to everything the other day and I really would love to see the giraffes."

"No," He snapped. "This building is just as good as a museum as the rest of them and I want to go inside it. We can go back there tomorrow and you can stare at the giraffes as long as you want."

Katherine shook her head and fought back a smile at her father's expense. He was never good when it came to crowds of people. It gave him unnerving anxiety seeing herds of people gathered together, voices meshing into static. She could see him slanting looks between her and Pamela; he hated the way they were enjoying him while the liveliness taunted him in some regard. After all, visiting New York was not at the top of his list of travel destinations—not because he didn't want to see his daughter, but because it had become an epicenter for people like her, and that terrified him.