Imperfect love

Chapter fifty-four

I woke up the next day and decided to go visit my parents, I had missed our house and my old bedroom. I called them to let them know.

I took a shower, ate breakfast, got dressed, and drove to the house. I rang the doorbell and my mum let me in. As I said, our relationship had improved within the last year, but things were still weird.

We sat on the couch and chatted for a while.

“Food will be ready in a while, you are staying for lunch, aren’t you?”

“Sure.” I shrugged. “Would you mind if I went upstairs for a while?”

“Of course not Alex, you don’t have to ask. It’s your house too.” My dad said, and I nodded.

I slowly got up the stairs, looking around. Nothing has changed. I entered my room and looked around. Everything was just like I had left them, a year and a half ago.

The memories started coming back, and I felt my chest tighten. This wasn’t my home anymore. I sat on my bed and hugged my favorite teddy bear. Having to leave everything behind in such a rush was painful, but not as painful as coming back.

I looked at the pictures stuck next to my bed and opened my bedside table drawer. I took out a picture of my grandparents. I let more tears roll down my cheeks.

“Alex, the food’s ready.” Mum said, entering the room. I looked up and she rushed to me.

She sat next to me and hugged me.

“I’m sorry, Al, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay mum, I’m not mad at you anymore. Thank you for keeping the room the same.”

“I wish I could turn back time and force ourselves to therapy before things got so bad.”

“It’s okay mum, everything happens for a reason.” She caressed my head.

She wouldn’t let me go.

“It’s okay, you can let go of me now.” I chuckled. I pulled away and wiped the tears of my eyes. “We should go eat6 food is going to get cold.”

We walked in the kitchen and she served us. We sat at the table to eat. The food was delicious. It was the first time that we sat down to eat as a family, it felt weird but also nice. Once we were done, we sat back in the living room, and my mum got us coffee.

I stayed with them for a little longer, and we chatted.

I texted Charlie that I would be home in a while, and she asked me to stop by the door, to get popcorn and candies, so that we have snacks for when we watch a movie.

I drove to the grocery store, parked my car and walked in. I picked up 3 bags of popcorn, chocolates and some biscuits. I paid for them and turned to leave. Someone bumped into me.

“Oh sorry.” She said and kept walking. She didn’t realize it was me.

“Athena.” She turned around.

“Alex.” She stared at me surprised.

“Hey.” I said softly.

“Hi.” She replied in the same tone.

“How are you?”

“Good…I… I’m good.” I replied and gave her a small smile. Gosh, I had missed her so much. “You?”

“I’m good too.” I hated that things were so awkward between us. “How is college?”

“Hard.” She smiled. I wanted to tell her that I missed her. “But, I passed all my classes.”