Patches

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

-Crispin-

"I'm on the edge of glory. And I'm hanging on a moment of truth. Out on the edge of glory. And I'm hanging on a moment with you I'm on the edge, the edge, the edge the edge-"

"If you say edge one more time, I will turn this car around, find a cliff, and kick you off it," Adia threatened without taking her eyes off the road.

"If you were going to have an issue with it, then you should've picked the music first," I said.

"Pop music isn't bad. Your singing is," she mocked. "You don't want to anger the person you're living with over the next how many years?"

She was right; upsetting Adia wasn't one of my goals, but I knew that she was joking. Adia's eight years older than me, and I was grateful for the opportunity to move back to England to stay with her.

That wasn't the main selling point, that was my degree, but it had been nice to walk down memory lane. We passed where the ice-cream van used to stop every afternoon at four, and the bus stop, where I spent every weekday morning groaning about school.

"So, what on earth have you done to the house?" I asked for the millionth time. I knew that she wouldn't answer me, all that happened was a sly smirk creeping onto her face. "You're starting to scare me a little."

She cheered, tilting her head back with a muted shout. Her chin-length strawberry blonde hair got caught in her pink lipstick. "That's what a big sister is for."

The end of the song interrupted our conversation. I reached to pick the next song, but I was interrupted.

"Please give me some peace; we're two roads away," Adia said.

"Since when have you not been into music?" I asked. "You're usually a party animal."

"Since I got a job which requires me to listen to music every moment of every day." We turned onto the street that I remembered most. "Besides, it really wasn't worth putting another song on."

The door had been painted a bright red, that was my first observation of the house I grew up in after not seeing it for the past seven years. The rest of the simple three-bedroomed house looked the same. There was now a bench in the garden, just under the windowsill, but Adia had been talking about that addition for weeks after she got it.

I hadn't realised that she had gotten out of the car until a hand grasped my shoulder. "Wake up Dolly daydream. We gotta get your stuff in there," Adia said and jingled some keys in my face. "Get some bags and follow me."

I exited the car, grabbed two of the many bags which I had brought, and headed inside. The house may have seemed familiar on the outside, but the inside was anything but. Off-white walls were replaced with red and a paisley patterned wallpaper, a long mirror stretching above a black radiator. The floor was still wood, but it was far darker than I remembered.

"You're tinting it slowly to blackness," I teased as I struggled up the stairs. "Soon you won't be able to see a foot in front of you."

Adia scoffed, her arms crossed in front of a closed white door. "You just think that because you're not used to it," she argued. She lowered her arms and put her hand on the door handle. "Are you ready to see your room?"

The last time I was in this house, the room had been a navy blue with white accents. I had a single bed pushed against the wall and a pretty large TV that I used to play my Xbox on. "Should I be scared?" I asked, edging towards the door.

"Depends," Adia replied, not giving anything at all away. She pushed the door open and let me enter. "I had a bit of help from Eve."

I bit my lip, Eve was my childhood best friend, and I would do absolutely anything for them. They were accepted to the same university I was, but they were studying for a degree in fine art.