The minutes passed since I left. Hours. Days. Even weeks. I didn't know what she was doing, she didn't speak to me. It was killing me inside, almost as much as my own self was.

I spent most of my time stuck in the house, reorganizing the disaster made up of empty packs of cigarettes, broken beer bottles, and I even found a few baggies of what I presumed to be cocaine. God, my mother had cocaine. That's terrible to think about.

Thankfully, the house, even in the terrible condition that it was, still had some necessary supplies, like toilet paper, some canned food, and laundry detergent. I could hold off on getting those for now, but I'd need a job pretty soon to be self-sufficient. Oh God, there are bills for energy, water, heat, et cetera. The realization of being an adult hadn't hit me until just now. On the positive side, being the only heir, I got the entire house to myself. On the negative side, now I had to be the one responsible for the upkeep of everything.

I walked across the hallway to the bathroom, in an attempt to get some new cleaning rags. Unfortunately, I was stopped midway due to the ridiculous amount of shattered glass the photo frame had left on the floor.

"DAMN IT!" I yelled. I jumped around uncomfortably for a moment, as I struggled to pull the glass out of my foot. Thankfully, it was a larger piece of glass, and easy to pull out all at once. Little bits of blood were dripping onto the wooden floor. That was jut great, yet another mess I was stuck cleaning up. I grabbed the rags I came for, threw them in the living room, and stormed off to grab a broom.

Once the glass was swept up, and the blood no longer stained on the floor, I grabbed the leftover parts of the metal frame. The picture was still inside, holding on for dear life. Only the glass had broken badly, the metal was just dented a little, along with the floor. I tossed it into my mother's room.

Another hour passed. I began to feel more lonely than I previously had. Nothing specific triggered it, I was just sad and couldn't stand being alone. Surprising, I know, the introvert who needs people. I guess all of us do. The human nature is built in such a way that without contact, we may go crazy. As much as I hated to admit it, I could feel the loneliness taking a toll on me. Tears and anger built up. I could feel a knot in my throat, as I tried not to cry.

I could hear the rain pattering against the the closed windows. It was a calming sound, but not for long.

Tap, tap, tap, it seemed to say to me. It seemed to get more aggressive with every drop.

Tap. Tap. Tap. You're worthless.

Tap! Tap! Tap! You're alone! It criticized me for everything. My head was getting hot, I could feel adrenaline rushing through me.

TAP. TAP. TAP. Jacqueline left you and you'll never see her again. It mocked me. My heart was pounding. I wanted to scream out.

TAP! You'll never amount to anything!

TAP! You should've jumped off that bridge!

TAP! Jacqueline never cared for you, who were you kidding?

"STOP!" I cried out. All of my energy seemed to leave me. It knocked me over. I fell to my knees and began crying heavily. I could hear wind and rain continuing to rush around my house.
The rain stopped being so loud, but it still made me want to cry.

"I can't do this," I cried. "I can't do this alone."

I grabbed my jacket, and I ran out the door.

The wind was strong, and the rain was heavy, but I kept my pace. I knew where I was going, and there was no stopping until I got there.

"Eddie? You're soaked." Plainly stated, nothing more, nothing less. I nodded.

"I had to come."

"I thought you gave up?"

"I did too." I bit my lip.

"They why, pray tell, are you here?" She sounded bitter.

"I missed you. You saved my life and I practically laughed in your face."

"You did laugh in my face." She smiled a bit.

"Okay, so maybe I did, but I needed to come back. I'm ready to let it go, I'm ready to turn my life around and start over."

"Then what," she began, "are we waiting for?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest," I responded. She laughed.

"Ah yes, I forgot I need to go shopping." She laughed.

"Then onward we go," I laughed back. This conversation took a huge burden off of me- I missed it so much.