Attachment Issues // Jess Mariano

CHAPTER 1:

"Anxiety is when the butterflies in your stomach turn into bees." - Bridgett Devoue 

Delilah glances around the pale beige room with distaste, setting down her guitar case on the carpeted floor. The new house is larger than their old apartment, which she thought might make it better, but it isn't. The outside is beautiful, that's for sure, but the inside is less so. From the creaking steps to the all-beige walls, Delilah can tell the space will need to change up a bit.

Starting with the one thing that matters to her.

Paint.

She and Ty end up at a strange looking market that's advertised to sell everything, but when they walk it, everything seems to stop... well, everything but the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Taylor Doose has never seen something so absurd in his life. A young man, barely thirty stands in his doorway with a leather jacket slung over one arm, but that isn't really the strange part.

The strange part is the short girl behind him with dark brown hair and a scattering of freckles over her nose. There's a matching leather jacket over her shoulders, and Taylor can already tell the pair are going to be trouble.

"How can I help you?" He asks politely, though Delilah can tell he's judging her harshly. His thoughts are nearly palpable and she knows he's making a note to watch them and make sure they don't steal anything.

"Yeah, uh, my niece and I just moved into town and our place really needs a spruce up, do you know where we can get paint, brushes, that sort of thing? Maybe a hardware store nearby?" Ty asks him politely, slightly startling Taylor, though the older man doesn't say anything about it.

"You and your niece? Is this her?" He asks, quite rudely in Delilah's opinion. She gives him a small, awkward wave in greeting whilst Ty explains that yes, she is his niece... well, great niece but this man doesn't need to know that. "Well, there's a place down the street that has that kind of thing. You'll want to go two blocks down to your left until you're on Cherry street, then turn right and you'll find it. Macey's Hardware."

"Thanks." Ty says simply, Placing his hand on his niece's back as they duck out of the door.

"Why didn't you ask their names, Taylor?!" Patty shouts at him, smacking him over the head as she walks past, probably to follow the pair.

Ty and Delilah make it to the hardware shop with little confusion and, thankfully, without being stopped by anyone. Delilah smiles at the faint smell of wood and paint that fills the air of the small shop, walking over to the wall of color sheets and looking through the greens for one that she likes. Ty chats with the man working at the counter, asking about a good place to eat lunch as Delilah takes her choice in color up to the counter, handing it to the man. "Do you think we could get three cans of this?"

"Sure, I can grab those for you right now." The man says. She just barely catches the name from his tag as he walks off into the back of the store. Kirk.

A fitting name.

Kirk returns after a moment of rummaging with three cans precariously balanced in one arm, which he thankfully doesn't drop. Ty hands over his Debit card, which Kirk looks at strangely for a moment before ringing up the paint as well as a couple of paint brushes and a paint can opener. Finally, he hands over a complimentary stir stick and watches as they walk out, a can hanging from each of their free hands and a bag from the last one. The girl chuckles at something the older man says, making Kirk shake his head. Before he can so much as look away, though, Patty is bursting through the door and asking questions about the pair.

Luke's diner is a strange place, to say the least. The man in the front didn't even spare them a look as they sat down at a table, placing buckets of paint underneath their chairs. After a few moments, though, he shows up beside them and pauses.