Hours After Sundown [Completed]

15

CHAPTER 15

We left the fair soon after I received my marks. It didn't affect me much, surprisingly, but I wanted to clear my head and not go back to the apartment, yet.

"Where are you going?" Drake asked as I began to walk away from the building lobby where Taylor dropped us after we left from the fair. 

"Somewhere."

"It's quite late though."

"I have done this before. It's not that far anyway." I shrugged.

"Can I join?" he asked, slightly surprising me. I thought about it for a second. Over these weeks, I had started to trust Drake. We still had our random encounters at the rooftop. They didn't stop. And to be honest, they were no longer random. Every night when my parents weren't present, I would go there just to find him sitting and working on some new track. He would mix all these different sounds and somehow even the most irritating of sounds were likeable when he put them in a certain way.

We wouldn't talk- I got that after three to four times of unintended dull, and sometimes mean, responses from his side. He preferred the silence and it scared me that suddenly I was okay with it. I can't stand silence.

When he was done with his tracks, we would listen to different music genres and discover new songs. A few times later, whenever I came up, I always found one of the earphones hanging by his side waiting for me to put it on. This was his time and I was honoured that he shared it with me- maybe I should too, I thought. I hadn't gone there since I met him; our midnight encounters occupied that time now.

So, taking that as a point, I nodded and we started walking.

"Why did you move here?" I asked, curious. He probably was going to wave it off, but held himself back and replied, "My parents wanted to get me away and got an offer to move here just a week later."

"Why?"

"I came late every other night, without giving them any information."

"Why?" he looked at me and chuckled lightly.

"Where are we going?" he asked, dodging the question.

"My childhood home." The said place came into view along with a familiar park as we turned another right. Few memories came rushing back as I saw a younger Cole and myself running around the park on a bright sunny day- toothy grins on our faces. On the swings, I sat grinning- two front teeth missing- and my best friend with golden hair pushing me, laughing loudly. My mom calling our names to come inside for lunch.

"Earth to Astrid?" the brown eyed guy said, waving hand in front of my face. I snapped back to the dark empty streets with an empty house on the side, near a smaller dimly lit one.

"See the house on the left of empty one?" I said, pointing towards it.

"Yeah."

"That's where Cole lived. And the empty house? That used be where I lived."

"Why did you move?" he repeated my earlier curiosity.

"Too big for just three people. Come with me."

We weren't always a family of three. There were two years of brightness in our lives. 

I led him to a wooden bench facing my previous home where we sat side by side. "Everything used to be so perfect, you know? There are too many memories connected to this place. More happy than sad. Thinking about all those things leads me to my peaceful and happy place. My paradise."

This was the first time around him when I wasn't talking his ear off with irrelevant stuff. He said nothing but held my hand, trying to provide me some comfort as we sat silently looking ahead. That night, I realised one thing- I had started to like the guy sitting near me.