Open Up My Eager Eyes

Chapter 20

“There he is!” My mom gladly proclaimed as my family’s eyes fell on me; my sister and both my parents held that over the top joyous expression on their faces as if we’ve never seen each other for twenty years.

“W-What are you guys doing here?” I blurted out, confusion and surprise still evident on my face. My mom, who is the biggest fan of bear hugs apparently, was quick to engulf me to a tight and longing hug.

“Aren’t you glad to see us?” My dad said as he stepped forward, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

“It’s not that, it’s just- you should’ve at least called me beforehand so that-“

“Kells! I missed you so much!” My little sister, Kelly, happily shouted, cutting me off. I wasn’t expecting to see my family at all so you couldn’t really blame me for being all weird and surprised in front of them.

“We’ve been waiting for you all day.” My mom said as she waltzed her way to the kitchen, probably getting food since I heard the sound of plates. “How’s work?” Well, that question is the sole thing that I would gladly not want to answer at the moment.

“Where’s Ken?” I asked, hoping for the heavens to help me dodge away my mom’s previous question.

“Oh yeah, he said he’s sorry that he couldn’t make it today since he’s too busy with law school.” My sister butted in. I just nodded in understanding because that’s just Ken being the typical Ken that he is. I remember when he was in high school, he skipped all the school dances and parties that we organized, saying that he’s too busy maintaining GPA. That’s understandable. Ken has always been that kind of grade conscious kid ever since.

I just nodded in response as I subconsciously dragged my now heavy feet to the couch, sinking heavily to its comfortable material. I just felt so tired and sleepy but apparently, my family just couldn’t leave me to sleep just yet.

“So.. What brings all of you here?” I asked directly which earned a somewhat skeptical look from both my parents while my sister couldn’t care less as she started tapping her thumbs against her phone’s screen.

“We just wanted to visit you is all.” My mom said as she laid down a plate full of food on the coffee table in front of me.

“We’re just checking if everything’s all right here.” My dad added, sitting comfortably on the dark brown comfortable chair near where Kelly was sitting.

“Well, everything’s dandy around here, nothing to worry about.” I casually reassured them as I ate a mouthful of the glistening mashed potato. Even with the food in my mouth, I couldn’t help but to drool over the taste that quickly sabotaged my taste buds. It felt as if it has been forever since I last tasted my mom’s cooking.

“So, how’s it going with Samantha?” My dad finally pop that other question that I have been dreading to hear. I even forgot about my whole ordeal with Sam ever since Vic started invading my head and helping in occupying my spare times.

My mom nodded vigorously at my dad’s statement. “Yeah, where’s that lovely lady?” I could ask myself the same thing because really, the only thing that Sam told me before she walked away was that she’s going to be staying at a friend’s house. Who the hell knows where that is?

“She’s staying over at a friend’s house.” I left my statement like that. Plain and simple and I just hoped that my parents would stop interrogating me for one second.

“Oh, better call her tonight. We’ve reserved a table for all of us tomorrow at this restaurant that we saw.” My mom said, still with that excited tone laced with her voice. Damn it. I haven’t spoken to Sam since she went off. I still texted her a few times a day but she never replied. I called her a couple of times, too but she never answered. To be honest, I miss her so much. We’ve never been this distant from each other before. It made me feel like I was failing at everything. Like everything that I ever so cared about and worked for was just thrown down the drain.