Loss

Chapter 3

"Well, while we wait for Jeremiah let's start unpacking these boxes," he said cheerfully. Raven glanced at him and winked.

"Mmmmmmm Jeremiah," she said, making kissing sounds. Asher wrinkled his nose.

"Uhhh gross. We literally just met," he said in mock embarrassment. He surveyed the house.

Now in clear afternoon lighting he got a better look at everything. From the entrance you could see the living room and kitchen. They had the eating table set up in the kitchen already, there was a large doorway to the dining room.

The house was carpeted, which would have to go. In case of shifting indoors, which wasn't allowed but sometimes mistakes were made, fur was a pain in the ass to get out of carpet. The rest of the "big" furniture was also away in the moving truck, which he made a mental note to bring in soon.

The house actually looked better than it did in the pictures, there were two rooms upstairs, one downstairs bathroom and one upstairs bathroom, as well as a guest bedroom downstairs. No basement.

"I think we should get rid of this horrid carpet first before we even touch the living room," said Asher out loud. Raven looked at him from the kitchen.

"Agreed. It's like... barf colored. It's probably ninety years old or something," she said, casting a disdainful eye on the flooring. It was indeed not a pleasant color to look at in the daylight, a crusty off-white yellow that didn't have the best smell either.

"Mhmm. Do you want to help me set up the downstairs first or go unpack your room?" he asked. Raven looked at the pile of boxes, then at her dad.

"I'll go take all my boxes upstairs then I'll come downstairs and help with this stuff," said Raven, motioning to the hazardous piles of stacked cardboard. Asher nodded.

"Sounds good to me. We can order your new bed and a bed frame how you want it," he said. Raven's bed frame had gotten broken in the moving process by the movers, but it was almost ten years old already, and she did need a larger bed anyway.

Asher watched as Raven took a large box with her name scrawled on with sharpie, then she lugged it upstairs. He turned to the work awaiting him.

"Let's see... here's kitchen stuff, where's the rest of the silverware?" Pulling things out of boxes and placing them in cabinets, he was soon joined by Raven. Taking out his phone he hummed and opened up the app for the classical music station, and they worked in silence to the music.

Soon an hour passed, and Asher was in the middle of stocking the upstairs bathroom with toilet paper when the ringing of the door bell caused him to drop the roll onto the cold linoleum floor.

"COMING!" he hollered, but when he raced down the stairs he realized Raven had beat him to it. She held the door open and he saw Jeremiah standing in the doorway.

"Jeremiah! Hey," he said awkwardly. From behind his back Jeremiah produced a basket filled with baked goods and other things. He held them out and Raven gracefully took it into her hands.

"I ran back to the pack house and it looked like some people got wind of your arrival, they baked a bunch of stuff for you and told me to take it down and wouldn't take no for an answer," he said, scratching his neck. Asher smiled.

"It looks wonderful, thank you. Do come inside," Jeremiah stepped in and looked around with wide eyes.

"Wow it really has changed," he said wistfully. Asher shot him a look.

"You know this place?" he asked. Jeremiah shrugged and headed to the boxes in the living room.

"This used to be my friend Dean's house. He was kicked out of the pack a long time ago, I used to come here all the time when I was little," he reached for a box but Asher shook his head.