Cara's POV
The floorboards are wide, like I could balance on just one if the rest were to fall away. Hopefully they won't, although I don't trust it inside. My parents sit next to me on the plastic chairs, while I'm scared. Not scared like Halloween, but scared of how this will be. I've never spoken to anyone about how I feel before, and I would rather not start now, but we're already downtown.
"This place smells like an old person's house," I spout.
"Is that good?" Dad wonders.
"No. Old people die."
The door to one of the offices opens, smooth as sifted sand. She has a silver clip in silver hair and giant rings on her hand.
"Hi," she says with a smile. "I'm Caroline. Are you my new client?"
"Cara," I state as I stand up and fold my arms, looking at her skeptically.
"It's nice to meet you," Mom says, getting up to shake the lady's bony hand.
"Do you have candies?" I question.
Caroline looks down at me and tells me, "I have chocolates."
"What a disappointment," I mutter.
"Be polite," my mom says.
"We don't know her," I argue. "She could be a murderer."
"I assure you I am not," Caroline promises. "You can come take a seat, and you'll get to know that."
She gestures for me to enter her office, but I shove my hands in my hoodie pockets and look back in desperation.
"What about the roller rink?" I say. "Or The Spoon?"
My suggestions all fall through, but my mom at least sighs with sympathetic eyes.
"You don't have to do this is you really don't want to," she says, "but I really think you should."
"Mom, I could, but I don't know. I'm scared."
"It's okay to be scared," Mom says with a hand on my shoulder, "but sometimes fear is a sign that you're doing the thing that will make you grow most."
I take a breath and turn around to look at Caroline without the skeptical gaze.
"Better not be dark chocolate," I say as I enter the office space.
________________________________________
TJ's POV
Cyrus is reading a novel that he bought over two years ago and is only now getting to. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't joked about him not reading it yet. I think he wants to prove me wrong. I don't care. It's cute. I'm on the other end of the couch, reading this magazine aimed for firefighters that my friend at the station got me for my birthday. I kind of get enough work at work, so I don't really want to read about it, but I'm trying to not waste the gift.
A crunch turns both our heads over the back of the couch, and my pulse becomes a snare drum at the sight of Jayda attempting to sneak past us toward the stairs with a chip bag. She failed, but I wish she hadn't. I feel like I should say something, but the discomfort is debilitating. She's been avoiding me since last evening, and I don't blame her. I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to say when this silence eventually ends, but I haven't gotten that together yet.
She flinches as soon as we look at her, knowing she's been seen. And then her eyes accidentally meet mine, and she instantly rushes up the stairs without a word. When her door closes, so does Cyrus's book, and he looks in disappointment at me as he sighs.
YOU ARE READING
The Good Hair Family Sitcom
Fanfiction{4 seasons and complete} Tyrus, Ambi, Muffy, and Wonah are adults now, but growing up and having families brings new kinds of challenges. Through the complications of them and their kids, their life-long friendship is the one thing they can always r...
