house help: I never really thought about the future. - Help.com

I never really thought about the future.

It’s all been quite a blur since my mother died. Ever since that incident, nothing has ever been the same. My name is Abigail. Most people, meaning everybody I know, call me Abby. There’s only one person I know who never has and never will call me Abby.
When I was eight years old, my mother died of phenomena. A weird way of dying, now with the new medicine and such, yes. But she became so sick to the point where the doctors couldn’t take care of her anymore. I was at school when the office called me down and said I was getting dismissed. I noticed my dad waiting for me in the office with tears streaming down his face. My mother was supposed to get discharged earlier that day. I didn’t see her in that office.
I have to give some credit to my father. He raised a teenage girl while mourning the loss of his wife. Yet now I’m fifteen years old and my father has decided to escape reality and move to a small town with small schools. I wasn’t too pleased.
“Abby, it’ll be great. Everything is set up just right – we have just the right house and everything.” He looked at the road ahead of him as he spoke in enthusiasm.
“Okay,” I simply replied in monotone. I looked at the road ahead as well as I spoke. “Will Ty be there?” I asked with a bit more enthusiasm. Ty stood for Tyler, my best friend. He’s been with me ever since we were in diapers. He was with me even more when I found out my mother died. Ty has become my older brother. I don’t know what I’d do without him.
“I think so,” he replied. “Ty’s mum…” he started, hesitating for a minute, “she’s missing Erica quite a lot. She was best friends with your mother, you know. She wants to see your face again. To…y’know. Make sure everything is still okay.”
I nodded as my father continued to drive. The rest of the car ride was silent. We finally arrived at what looked like a pile of trash that had just been dropped off. I was surprised to see my father step on the breaks and look at the place happily. “Here we are,” he whispered to himself. He noticed my face of disgust.
We walked up to the door and my father plugged the key into the keyhole. He opened up the door and walked inside. I followed him. “Your bedroom is upstairs,” he said. “The bathroom’s right here.” He poked his head into a tiny room. “I think this is the only one –” I have to share a bathroom with my father. Doesn’t he realize a teenage girl needs her own? I brought my bags to my room and placed them on my bed. The bed squeaked under the weight of all the bags. I was frightened it was going to collapse.
“Hey, Abby! Come down here! Ty and his parents are here!” my father screamed from down below. I squealed at just the thought of seeing Ty once again, meeting his welcoming face. A shiver went up my spine. I dashed down the stairs as they creaked under my feet. Ty was at the end of the stairs. I jumped into his arms once I reached the bottom step.
“Ty,” I whispered. I kissed his cheek.
“Hey, Ab. How are ya?” Ty was the only person – and I mean only person allowed to call me Ab. Even my father, my own flesh and blood, would never be able to call me Ab.
“I’m okay,” I responded, finally pulling myself away from him. “I missed you so much. You have to come down here. For good, I mean.” He chuckled at the thought of this, as did his mother, who was staring at me. Finally, Ty’s dad walked in.
“Hey, Gerald!” my father yelled. His arms spread apart to welcome the family friend.
“Don! I believe it’s been years!” My spine shivered at the sound of my father’s name. Don sounded too…abnormal.
“Let me take you on a tour of the house,” I whispered into Ty’s ear. I didn’t want anybody to know where we were. Ty accepted this statement and followed me up the stairs. “This is a hallway,” I said matter–of–factly. Ty chuckled.
Down the hallway there were four doors. One was simply a study room. “This is the study room.” It was completely cluttered, as if whoever lived in this house before never picked up one single piece of paper that dropped on the floor. Mouse droppings were found everywhere. A dusty old computer sat on what looked like an unstable desk; what looked like an out-of-date printer was sitting right below.
The next room was the bathroom. “The – er – bathroom,” I hesitated. “It’s a small bathroom, but it works.” Ty poked his head into the bathroom and scrunched his nose.
“It smells,” he declared.
“I know.” We walked on. The next room was my father’s room. Don’s room. “We can skip this room,” I urged Ty to continue. Last but not least, my room. On the door it already says “ABBY” in big thick block letters.
“Cute,” Ty said, looking up at the colorful ABBY. I blushed at the sound of his sudden words. I opened the door slowly to add to the effect. When I opened the door it revealed a hideous bedroom with clothes on the floor.
“That’s funny,” I said. “I don’t remember dropping my bag. I must have when I…oh, never mind.” That was so embarrassing. I blushed once again. It’s just Ty, how come this feels so awkward?
“’Tis okay,” Ty accepted. “I have crazy black-outs, too.” He walked into the room, treading through the clothes. He reached a small recliner and plopped his body down on it. “It’s comfy,” he declared.
Ty’s golden-brown hair laid on his perfectly round head. One single curl flopped across his forehead. I’ve never noticed the perfection of his hair before.
“Don seems more awkward,” Ty tried to create what he meant to be small talk, yet wasn’t small talk at all for me. “I think he misses Erica.”
“We all do,” I sighed, sitting on the unstable bed. It laid right across from the recliner. “But I don’t know what’s going on with him. Gerald doesn’t seem any different. Yet Sam couldn’t keep her eyes off of me.”
We always use our parent’s first name. Except for me when I’m talking about my father. I refuse to call my father ‘Don.’ Most people think I’m doing this out of respect. Me, however, feel as if I’m doing it out of disrespect. Sometimes I believe that my father wishes me to call him by his first name.
“I know,” Ty blushed. “Sorry. I kept telling her to stop. I just couldn’t drag her away. She really misses Erica, though. Possibly even more than Don.” He hesitated to look at me again. He thought he might have said the wrong thing. Even if it sounds wrong, it’s true. My father doesn’t miss Erica much at all. I didn’t say a word. I could feel my mouth becoming dry.
“I’m thirsty,” I said under my breath. “You want anything?” Ty nodded and asked for a Sprite. I walked out into the hallway and followed the path down the stairs. As soon as Gerald, Sam, and my father heard me take the last step on the stairs, they stopped talking. They stared at me from the kitchen.
“What’s up?” My father asked. “W – we were just talking.”
“Okay,” I shrugged. “I’m getting a drink. You can continue, you know.” They all stared at me even harder than before, to the point where it became uncomfortable. They waited until I started walking up the stairs once again with two cans of Sprite in my hand. It was then that they continued to whisper as quietly as they could. Once I walked down the hallway and opened the door with the ‘ABBY’ blocks on them, Ty immediately jumped up.
“Ab,” he said, a brightness lighting his perfect skin. “I have this brilliant beyond brilliant idea.” That expression was an expression we’ve used between us since we were in diapers. I chuckled at the sound of him using it once again.
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” I urged. He sat down once again. His single curl flopped over his right eye, covering it completely.
“We’re old enough to take care of ourselves, now, right?”
“I guess so,” I shrugged.
“Our parents don’t even notice us half the time. Us, each other, you, me. It’s only been that. You’ve looked after me, I’ve looked after you. I was there for you when Erica died, you were there for me when my Aunt Lucy died. Bottom line, we’ve always been there for each other.”
“Go on…” I interrupted him. I don’t know where he’s going with this, but it must be going somewhere. A shiver went up my spine once again at just the thought of him saying another word. This doesn’t happen often. My spine has shivered three times within the twenty minutes Ty has been here.
“Let’s run away.” It was these words that lit the light bulb in my head. It was these words that made me smile the biggest smile I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t even be surprised if my teeth sparkled. “I know a great place that we can stay until we finish school. Once we’re sixteen, we can drop out. We can get a job at McDonalds or something. Just enough income for one day; To eat a dinner…at McDonalds.”
“It seems too unplanned. Don’t you think we should plan it out first? So we can actually last out there, get groceries, a place to hide, etcetera.” I can’t believe we might do this. I can understand running away from my father, yes. But what about Gerald and Sam? Gerald has almost been like the father I’ve never had, and Sam is kind of the mother I’ll never have. Ty’s enthusiastic expression died a little bit.
“You’re right. We should plan it.”
Maybe my mind is slowly becoming crazy, but I swear I could see Ty smile for just one moment of our talking. He smiles often, yes, but the way he looked was different. A small portion of his mouth curved up, his eyes twinkled, and his teeth sparkled. I’ve never noticed this about him before.
“Abby! Ty! Come down here!” yelled my father, Gerald, and Sam in unison. Ty’s head perked up, smiled, (his teeth sparkled once more,) and he walked out of the room. I followed him, like a game of follow the leader, yet I was unaware of what I was doing. I just followed the back of Ty’s head, waiting for him to turn around and notice my stalker-ish acts. We walked down the stairs together to meet the three parents at the bottom of the stairs.
“I’m taking Abby out, if she wants to, of course. She needs a motherly figure,” Sam said calmly. “Well, do ya? Do ya!” Sam barked like a dog waiting for his owner to throw the Frisbee.
“Okay,” I responded in monotone as I usually do. “I want Ty to come with.”
“Ty’s going to spend quality time with us,” my father replied. My father. Separating Ty and me. “At least that’s what I thought.”
“Yeah, yeah. Of course. Ty, you’re going to go with your father and Don. I’m going to take Abby to the corner street on a little shopping spree,” Sam looked at me hopefully. At the sound of ‘shopping spree,’ my eyes perked up.
“Shopping spree?” I asked enthusiastically. Sam nodded. “I’ll see you later, Ty.” Ty looked down at my face, which I prefer to believe is perfect, at least in his point of view, and smiled. As I walked away with Sam he chuckled, I thought I heard him, and then suddenly stopped as Gerald and my father inched towards him. I heard whispers as I took two baby steps forward with Sam. She noticed my stop, and stopped as well.
“Something wrong?”
“No. Keep going,” I replied. She walked three large steps forward, and noticed I was still in the same position.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“What are they talking about? Me?” I questioned as I could feel all the blood in my body rush to my face. It seemed selfish to think that every single time a person whispers, they are automatically talking about me. I stared at Sam as her cheeks turned a pale pink as well; she looked at me cautiously.
“No, no, darling. They’re not talking about you. Don’t worry,” she took a deep breath in relief. The words spoken just now made me think whether or not to believe her. I scrolled through the clues in my head that made me think that she wasn’t telling the truth:
Well, she blushed when I asked. She was also quick to respond to me stopping in my tracks. She hesitated, however, when I asked if they were talking about me. I also was very observant to the fact that she sighed, most likely in relief. Her face, this very moment, looked horrorstricken. Very slowly, I turned around in my tracks to face the boys, I should call them. They were still huddled up, whispering about something that seemed very important. I snuck up until I was nearly half an inch away from Ty’s back. I punched him as hard as I could in the back, without hurting him, of course. He writhed and turned around to greet me with a smiling face.
“Oh, Ab!” he exclaimed, looking over my shoulder to make eye contact with Sam. It was just now I noticed that Ty was extraordinarily taller than me; my estimation was nearly six inches. “We were just talking about – oh it doesn’t matter, does it?” he cried. “There’s no use.”
“No use.” I sighed. “Upstairs. Now.” I dragged Ty’s body up the stairs until he finally accepted the fact that he had no choice but to climb the stairs step by step. He climbed each step shortly after I did, however, he just reluctantly climbed the last step and met me in my room. “Explain.” I demanded. His face showed traces of being worried, however, I didn’t care.
“I was thinking,” he started, “we shouldn’t go.” I looked at his face in disgust. That’s all he wanted to say? That was everything? All that work up, for nothing.
“That’s it?” I talked my thoughts. “Were you actually talking about that with them? I mean, my…father,” I paused in disgust once again, “and Gerald?”
“They heard us,” he said, simply enough. My face relaxed, then tensed up once more. Ty seemed to notice this. “It’s okay. It’s fine. We just, shouldn’t go.” I nodded in disbelief.
We walked out of the ‘ABBY’ door once more. I don’t know if Ty did, but I heard whispering down below at the bottom of the stairs. Ty’s golden hair shined as we passed the fluorescent lights. I’m not sure, but I think even Sam looked at Ty for a moment and thought he was beautiful. Gerald glanced at me and quickly looked away.
“I never really wanted to go. I was just trying to make Ty happy.”
Everybody became quiet.
Ty’s face slowly became a deep red. I thought I could see his golden brown hair become a shade of light pink.
“You didn’t want to go where?” Gerald asked. His face had a deep sense of worry. “Tell us.”
The kitchen beeped. My father jumped at the sound, realized what it was, and quickly scurried into the kitchen. He came back with traces of chocolate on his face. Ty laughed, I could only imagine what he thought the brown marks on my father’s face were traces of. I snickered at the thought of Ty thinking that. My father glared at Ty and then at me, surprised at the fact I was laughing at all. “Go where?” Gerald pestered once more.
“I thought you told them.” I declared, more than asking a question.
“Ab…” he paused. Oh no. This couldn’t be happening. There for each other always, and now he has lied to me for the first time in his life. I took a deep breath. He started once more. “I’m sorry I –”
“No.” I said very simply. “No. Sa – Mrs. Elferd, let’s go on that shopping spree you talked about.” Sam nodded quietly and quickly walked to the door, opening it, waiting for me to pass through. “Thanks.” She nodded once more.
I can’t believe that Ty would lie to me like that. Best friends forever; he’s always been a brother to me. I was even starting to have – yes, feelings for him. Wait – was I? I’m not sure anymore. I shivered in disgust.
“Where are we going?” I asked, following Sam. I had just come back from my thoughts and into the real world. I hadn’t even realized that we were already outside my house, half way down the street. I noticed her mouth was curved just a tiny bit, only on one side. I never noticed she had crooked smiles.
“Somewhere all girls love to go.”
I thought and thought, going back into a daze again. Where do all girls ‘love’ to go? The mall, perhaps? Nah, too general. I thought some more.
“Chacharoo Mall Complex?” I asked hopefully. Sam nodded and smile, this time her smile was complete. I squealed unknowingly. The Chacharoo Mall Complex was complete of three hundred twenty five stores, all on one floor. I squealed once again. Sam smiled at my squealing, but looked down at her boots as she did. Her smile quickly faded. “What’s wrong?” I asked. She stopped in her tracks just as I did when we were at the house.
“Tyler likes you,” she said in dismay. I looked up at her face for the first time I’ve done in years.
“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t Sa – Mrs. Elferd…”
“Call me Sam.” I looked at her once more. I never noticed how flawless her facial features were as well. I can see where Tyler got his appearances from. I nodded. “And he does. Like you, I mean. I’m pretty sure he does.”
“Then I’m in denial,” I simply said. The land around us was plain yet beautiful. The red, orange, and green leaves on the threes shimmered in the light of the bright sun. The sun glared at my eyes as I walked towards it. Little before I knew it, we reached the Chacharoo Mall Complex. Sam and I walked into the large building. As soon as we walked in, we looked to see what the farthest thing we could see was. Neither of us could see past the McDonalds that was a couple hundred yards down. “This is wonderful.” I declared. Sam nodded.
The first stop we made was at a jewelry store called Blair’s. Sam dared me to get my ears pierced, yet I refused. I acquired some bracelets that I seemed to develop a desire for. Sam bought the bracelets for me, however, I feel as if I’m inclined to pay her back. She won’t let me.
“Erica,” Sam started. She startled me from her lack of speaking. “I miss her so much.”
“I know,” I replied reluctantly, glancing at some nifty mechanical pencils in the office supply store.
“You look a lot like her.”
“I know.”
“Your dad feels disconnected from you, I hope you know.”
“So that’s what this is about? You trying to ‘connect’ to me? It’s not going to work. So you can just bring me home right now.” I paused. My face turned a light pink, slowly turning into a deep red. “I’m sorry,” I finally replied.

2.

“Tyler, we need to tell you something,” Don and Gerald said in unison. Ty nodded, showing he was paying attention to the speech they were about to make. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” Gerald said quietly.
“Just spit it out,” Ty mumbled as he fiddled with a mechanical pencil. “I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”
Gerald and Don had drifted off into the kitchen. Ty was sitting in a chair at the dining room table. The legs wiggled back and forth every time Ty shifted his weight. Ty swirled the mechanical pencil in his hands, manipulating each and every movement of the pencil. “This takes skill,” he thought.
“I can’t lie to Ab anymore,” Ty released his thoughts. “I need to confront her. I can’t lie.”
“DON’T.” Gerald and Don yelled in harmony. “Tyler, Abby will need to live with us for a while,” Gerald spat out. “Don needs to recover from…, a few things.”
“No, she can’t.” Ty spat out. The mechanical pencil descended out of his hand, made a large clanking sound, and snapped in half is it reached the floor. “She can’t.” The clock rang twelve times, marking the 12:00 PM time. Don’s eyes turned pink, tears formed in his eyes.
Gerald looked back and forth from Don to Ty and cried, “Look, enough. Ty, Don needs to get some things straightened out. Abby’s coming to live with us weather you like it or not. You need to accept that.”

Something I’m working on. The beginning is kind of strong, it gets less strong as it goes along. Yet PLEASE LET ME NOTE: No matter how much something seems pointless in the story, EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT. It has something to do with something that will happen later on in the story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FIX ANY SPELLING/GRAMMAR MISTAKES. Thanks. [:

This open post was written 12 months ago | V/U/S: 145, 2, 2 | Edit Post | Leave a reply | Report Post

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