adolescents - mo (monroe) harris

2

"Home sweet home!" Zeke shouted as he opened the door to his place. It was just what Anna expected, cluttered, smelly, unclean. She followed Zeke, hauling her bags, past the living room and through the kitchen towards the bedrooms in the back. He opened the door to the empty room. It was their grandma's room before she died. Anna dropped her bags by the old oak dresser and looked around. There were photos of family members and mementos on every surface and the quilt on the bed was a dated floral print.

"You think grandma would mind if I spruced up the place?" Anna grimaced at an old painting of a duck wearing a bow hung above the nightstand.

"Nah, you could probably sell most of this shit honestly." Zeke said, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm probably gonna hit the hay, though. Make yourself at home."

Anna looked at her phone and saw it was nearly 2 am. Before Zeke could disappear into his own room she stopped him.

"Hey, I was serious when I said I could take care of myself, Zeke, I don't want you thinking I'm gonna be your responsibility. I really appreciate you letting me stay here. I can do whatever to repay you, I just need a little time to get on my feet."

"It's cool. Don't worry about it, Grandma's life insurance covers the bills around here so do your thing." Zeke said as he stepped back into his room. Anna nodded and did the same, quietly closing the door behind her.

Anna began unpacking her bag and set her clothes aside to wash them in the morning. She made her way into the attached bathroom and flipped on the light. She frowned at her dreadful reflection in the mirror. She remedied her unkept hair and parched skin with a hot shower and a bit of moisturizer. The hot water relaxed her and she finally felt the fatigue her body had been masking. She curled up under the blankets in a clean tee shirt she found in grandma's closet and let out the last of the tension her body was holding with a deep breath and let sleep take over.

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Anna rose early the next morning with a wild motivation. She did her laundry and replaced grandma's old clothes with her own, packing grandma's away in boxes in the back of the closet. She didn't have much, enough to fit in a duffel, so she added thrifting some new pieces to the top of her list of things to do once she started making money. She took down all grandma's old decorations after that and separated what wasn't important so it could be sold or donated. She did some cleaning and organizing in the room and moved out into the kitchen and living room. By the time Zeke had awoke it was nearly lunchtime and she'd cleaned the whole kitchen, filled out paperwork online so she could switch schools, and began making grilled cheese sandwiches for the both of them.

"Morning!" Anna said as Zeke shuffled out of his room. He looked around somewhat confused by the change in the environment but didn't mention it. "I made you one. Here." She placed a plate with a sandwich down in front of a chair at the table.

"Thanks. I'll have to take it I have work in 10 minutes." Zeke picked up the sandwich and started back towards his room. Anna thought he was kidding at first until he came back out wearing his uniform, sandwich still in hand. She laughed at him as she sat down with her own sandwich.

"Are you going to be late?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely." Zeke smiled and grabbed his keys. "Be back at 4."

Anna spent the afternoon putting together the rest of grandma's items and listing a few things online. A woman came by and took some of the wall art and sewing fabric that she had found unused under Grandma's bed and she pocketed $75. She looked up the nearest thrift shop as soon as the woman left and found one a few blocks away in a corner strip mall and decided to walk there.

Zeke's neighborhood, which she could now call home, was different in the daylight. It was a quiet street with a lot of homes just like theirs, small and a little beat up. It looked like mostly old people by the presence of so many old cars. Anna wasn't complaining, her last neighborhood wasn't the best, and she felt a lot safer here than she did back home.