♥Chapter 2: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱʜᴇ ꜱᴇᴛᴛʟᴇꜱ ʜᴏᴍᴇ♥

✿Kennedy✿

"Is this your house?" I ask, gazing at the dark blue and white two-story house as Alex rolls up his truck in front of it.

"Yup." He cuts off the engine. His car smells like mouthwash. Maybe he washes his car with mouthwash. Maybe he doesn't have water. Does he shower with mouthwash too? Should I smell him and check?

Alex throws open the door of his side and jumps down. I jump out too, only wheezing a bit when I land harshly on my feet in that not so graceful manner how Alex jumped down. My chest hurts a bit.

"You okay?" He asks as he takes out my bags.

"Yup," I say, giving him a thumbs-up, "My lungs are just really sensitive to any form of fun."

"Right. Doctor Gabriel did tell me you had a lung problem."

"A part of my left lung was collapsed for almost five months. I still have asthma and Gary tells me I have ADHD too. I tell him he has diarrhea that comes out of his mouth."

Alex smiles before carrying my huge bags to the porch. How is he able to carry my panda-sized bags? It must be those muscles. I should ask him his secret to it.

He unlocks the door and mentions me to follow. Obviously, that's what I was gonna do. Did he actually think I was going to build a shed on his porch and live there? Giving a sad shake of my head I follow him inside like I was always going to do.

I think...

My eyes move around, taking in everything. The house looks pretty decent with cream couches, a white rug, a TV and a slightly messy kitchen.

Alex walks up the stairs with my bags and I widen my eyes. "Oh, mama. Stairs?"

"Yeah." He replies already at the top. "Sorry but the bedrooms are up here."

I take in a deep breath and roll the imaginary sleeves of my t-shirt and pull up my shorts a little higher. I can do this.

Very slowly, I take one step after the other. Then feeling annoyed by my slowness, I decide to just make a quick run for it and wheeze my lungs out at the top.

I do exactly that.

Alex's heavy body appears in my line of sight.

His face looks worried. "Are you okay?"

I smile and wave it off, slowly standing on my feet, "You mean this girl?" I point towards myself. "Yup."

He shows me my supposed-to-be-room and I look at the plain bedroom with a bed, desk, dresser and a wardrobe.

"I erm didn't have time to decorate much or bring any presents and all. Sorry for that." He rubs the back of his neck.

I smile, "It's fine. I'll do it myself."

"You want something to eat? My son will be home by tonight." He says and suddenly there's some uneasiness in his tone when he said the word 'son'. "He's sort of closed off and hard to get to."

"You have a son?" I ask.

"Yeah, his room is right there." He points a finger at the door across mine.

"Where's your life partner?" I ask.

A distant look crosses his face and he was mid-wincing and mid-smiling. "She passed away quite some years ago."

My mouth parts open, and a wave of sadness washes over me. His wife passed away. He must have been so sad. My bottom lip trembles as I reach out to wrap my hands around Alex's huge frame. My head presses against his hard chest.

His body stiffens as he holds his arms on either side of his head. "Oh don't cry, really, it was a really-"

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," I say, honestly.

"I-" he starts but then sighs, loosening up and hugging me back, "It's okay."

He leads me to the kitchen after that for some food.

"What do you normally eat?" He asks, searching through the cabinets.

"Food." I snort.

He raises an eyebrow at me, and I laugh.

"I eat anything, really. Except for anything spicy. It makes my lungs burn. I can't spicy chips because of that." I grumble unhappily. "Can you believe it? I try sneaking some spicy chips, but Gary always catches me then he pretends to poke needles into my arm. Once I accidentally slapped him but-"

"Do you like pasta?" He gently cuts me off.

I give a nod of my head. "I like pasta."

He smiles, "That's nice." He walks over to his fridge and takes out some pasta, heating it up for me. "That's all I got for now. I guess the grocery store needs a visit from me."

"Can I come with you?" My head perks up.

"Why don't you stay and rest for today. You just landed a while ago." He walks away and into a room across the house.

When he comes back, he's changed into regular clothes and takes out the pasta from the microwave, placing it in front of me.

"Don't do anything dangerous and all that stuff alright?" He asks, giving me a worried look.

My eyes flit to the stand of sharp knives kept on the counter. Alex notices my stare and moves to hide the knives on the top shelf before giving me a warning look.

Ha! He thinks I'm way too short to reach that shelf.

...which is correct. I can't reach it.

I can just grab a chair and get them. Maybe those knives will help me take over the world.

Alex gives me a one last worried look as if I'm a candle that is gonna burn out any second. He meets my eyes, and I give him a wide smile showing all teeth. He blinks at me before shaking his head and turning away to walk out the door.

As soon as he was gone, I jump off the stool I was sitting on before regretting that decision immediately as a near pain starts in my lungs. Taking a few pumps from my inhaler, I look around the house.

If I start exploring will I find a dead body?

Or maybe Alex's gun?

An evil look comes on my face. But that dismisses within a second at the change of my mood.

I want to do something else.

Decorating?

I could do something about this house. It's kinda messy and lacks some colour and decorations.

I start with my new room first. Opening my suitcases I rummage through them and find photo frames, small fuzzy soft toys, fairy lights, a Yoda plush toy that was half the size of me.

Most of them came from when people visited the hospital and brought gifts with them. The rest are my childhood toys that I could never seem to get rid of. Gary always gives an unamused look at my collection of soft and plush toys, but I love them. I always love cute things.

I start with decorating my plain ol' room by hanging up the fairy lights and placing some of my toys here and there wherever they look cute. I place a few frames on my desk.

Within fifteen minutes this room looks somewhat bright and cute.

I move towards the living room with a giggle coming out of my mouth. I want to surprise Alex, so I start by cleaning up the living room. When the living room is done, I placed a few of my plush toys on the couch near the cushions and some on the side tables and near the TV.

I grab my Yoda next. It has his arms wide open with a smile like he's welcoming someone. So I put him near the front door.

Finally being done, I move towards the kitchen to get my hands on the wonderful knives—the front door opens.

Dang it!

Maybe next time.

Alex's eyes widen when he looks around. His hands fill with grocery bags. He looks surprised, "W-wow. That's a lot of toys..." His eyes roam all over them.

"Doesn't your house look cuter now?" I grin.

His eyes meet mine and for a moment he just stares at me before a smile comes on his face and he walks in, shutting the door behind him. "It looks nice." He says, genuinely.

He sets the grocery bags on the counter, and I hop over to him.

"What'd you get me?" I peer around him while his tall figure looms over the counter taking out the things.

"Just some grocery." He replies. "And candy. You like candy?"

My eyes widen in seriousness, "I love candy."

"Could you hang these keys near the door?" He fishes out a set of keys from his pocket and I take them from his hand, walking over to the hook near the front door.

One of these keys should be his car keys. I should make a full-proof plan and steal this along with my knives in the middle of the night.

Hanging the keys on the hook with a hidden evil smile, I turn around.

I don't even take two steps before the front door jerks open, making me jump out of my skin. Turning around, my eyes lands on the heart-attacker.

My eyes widen. A guy looking around twenty stands at the threshold of the door. Long brown hair lays messily on his head with the colour of the ocean glimmering in his eyes. Even standing four feet away from him, I can tell I wouldn't reach anywhere above his shoulders. He looks like Alex.

His deep piercing eyes roam around the living room, slightly wide. And that was the only expression on his blank stoic face. Then those eyes snap to mine.

I stand still, staring back.

Even Alex stops what he was doing and stares at this guy from the kitchen.

Why is there sudden silence in this house?

Should I fart?

Would these boys mind if I fart?

I probably shouldn't. I just ate pasta.

Instead, I smile widely. "Hi, I'm Kennedy and I love warm hugs. Yeah, I know that's from Frozen. Eh, who cares? Do you want food? Are you here for food? You don't look like a hungry homeless man. I think."

A slight frown creases his brows before he looks at Alex and frowns deeply at him. Without another word, he slides the door shut and walks past me and up the stairs, leaving a trail of tense silence behind.

My smile falters as I stare after him.

"Don't mind him," Alex speaks after a while, looking a bit uneasy. "He's always like that."

"That's your son?" I ask, walking back to the kitchen.

He nods. "Yeah. Jake."

"He looks..." I try finding the right word. "Like a storm." That was more than a word.

Eh, who cares?

Alex chuckles that sounds a little strained. He fixes his eyes on the grocery items. "He's been like that for a long time. Don't let him get to you though."

"No one can get to me," I state before patting my heart. "You see this? It's made of steel. I got a steel heart."

He smiles but doesn't say anything in return.

A few hours passes by of me telling Alex all my childhood horrors of how I saw a fat man wearing a red swimsuit in the ocean and rushed towards him thinking he was Santa on a vacation. Obviously, I couldn't make it that far because the waves washed over me and people around me had to pull me out of the water. Plus the fat man accidentally sat on my face, while trying to help me.

Alex didn't give off any expression except smiling at me frequently, silently working around in the kitchen.

At night when it was time to sleep, I climb up the stairs and see the door to the room across mine lay slightly ajar.

I shouldn't peek...right?

I peek.

There isn't anyone in the room when I look. The lights are turned off and I could hardly make out the interior of the room. There's a bed pushed against the wall, a desk with a big pile of books. There's a wardrobe, a dresser, a door that's opening, a— wait, what? A door that's opening?

My eyes snap back to the door. It looks like a bathroom. Is that Jake stepping out?

My eyes widen and I dash away from his door to my room before he can catch me spying on him.

I close the door to my room with an evil laugh. He didn't see me. I'm getting good at this. I should spy more often. Maybe I can even find that dead body and claim that I killed him. Then people will fear me, it'll make it easier to take over the world.

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

How old are all you people?

Date of posting chapter: 17th March.