Olive green

Chapter three

As much as I was happy for my mother to have some fun in life and not just work and me, I was also a little concerned. We were in London only a few weeks now so it was pretty natural that I was caring. Even though the guy seemed pretty decent. We never know a psychopath next to us, after all.

  "Uhm, mom?" I asked the woman, who was paying her attention to the piano she was playing for an hour already.

  "Yes, sweetheart?"

  I leaned into the wall, that was kind of dividing the living room and kitchen, with a mug of tea in my hands as I took a breath: "How long have you known this H... guy?"

  "Henry," I heard her say, to which she started playing some new piece. "We knew each other for a few years already."

  As a sign of understanding, I nodded. However, it still looked like she had something more to say, or maybe she just remembered some more of their encounters. Few years could even mean that they met in university or something like that.

  "He was your uncle's classmate," she said after some more playing.

  University was pretty close. Well, she didn't say which school so I could be right. Mom's brother studied music in one and this Henry guy was playing in an orchestra. Wow, the family meetings in future would be quite interesting if they would stay dating. Stayed. Or weren't they yet?

  "How are the girls?"

  Just as I was prepared to leave for my bedroom, mom gave me a questioning look. I did tell her some news my friends told me over the calls we made and some texts, but nothing over the almost passed weekend.

  "Good," I shrugged. "Nothing special out there."

  "Yeah, it was always a peaceful town."

  I smiled over the thought of my home town. She was right. At least from what I knew since I was only a teenager. There was never much going on. Well, the pregnant student was something I heard from the first time there.

  Soon, I was back in my room, controlling if I didn't forget to do something for school. Thankfully, there was nothing undone so I had a few hours of free time.

  It was Sunday and I had nothing to do. Well, of course I could watch a movie or something, but I just didn't feel like it. Everything just suddenly seemed so boring. I didn't even have anyone to hang out with. All my friends were far away, together, could hang out any time and I was stuck here, alone.

  Sighing, I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. So white. So empty. It felt good to look up there from time to time, however, now it didn't feel that way. Just lonely.

  "Sidney?" I heard my mom's voice from the corridor. I turned my head to face the door as I could hear her steps behind them. "Your father called."

  "Oh. Why?" I asked, waiting for her to come in, what she soon did.

  Leaning on my door frame seconds later, she smiled: "He asked if they could be for Christmas here, with us."

  Now, I had to sit up. First of all, I was surprised. Not badly, but very nicely. I didn't expect dad to spend a Christmas with us and his new family together. However, it sounded nice. Thankfully, this family wasn't on bad terms among the members.

  "Okay," I shrugged, to which I remembered something. "And uhm... my friends asked if they could come over for New Year."

  "Of course they can."

  "Thanks," I gave her a smile before she turned around and left me.

  I sighed, again, as I lay back down on my bed. That piece of furniture felt so big now. Maybe it was because this room was smaller than my previous one. However, I felt so small, so tiny laying there.

  Just as I was back to staring at the ceiling, my phone vibrated, which made me look at it to find out who was messaging me or something. Obviously, it was one of my friends. Delilah texted me and sent me a photo of her new dog. Cute little creature. Their old one died a year ago and it seemed like her family wanted a short break from pets after having Ben for a long time.

  For a short second I got maybe a little startled, thinking, it was that blond bitch from school. However, I could be almost sure that she had no way of finding me on social media. She didn't even know my name. The one percent possibility scared me a little even though I had nothing to be scared of. She was just a pathetic high school bully that had to scrub the floor as her job, part-time maybe. She was just a loser who was trying to get some attention.

  Hearing my phone ring, I grabbed it, once again, soon seeing that my dad was the one who was calling me. Accepting the call, I spoke: "Hi, dad."

  "Hi, sweetheart," he spoke. I could hear someone in the background talking and some traffic sounds. He was probably in the city now. "I just talked to your mother, but she didn't tell me what you want for Christmas."

  A smile crept over my lips at the thought of my dad in a shopping centre while trying to find out what to bring to his teenage daughter. I would say that it would be easier if our family didn't get separated, but it probably wouldn't be much different. No one really knows what others want anyway.

  "I don't know, dad," I answered, sighing. My words were the truth, I haven't really known what to want for that event for the past few years. Thankfully, for my parents, I guess, I have always thought about something in the end. "Maybe Absolution vinyl. You know, Muse."

  There was a silence for a moment on the other side of the call. Maybe the caller was thinking about the band. I already got Black Holes and Revelations as a Christmas present two years ago or so, but he probably forgot about it and now he was thinking from where he knew the band's name. Parents. They always want us to remember everything but they themselves forget.

  "Absolution, you said?" dad asked after a few more seconds, making sure he heard the name right.

  I nodded, although he couldn't see me at the moment: "Yeah, Absolution by Muse."

  Dad hummed, to which there was a silence on the other side once again as well on my side. The awkwardness could be smelled for hundreds of kilometres. We haven't talked with each other that much since my parent's divorce, after all.

  "Uhm, what about you guys?" I asked, waiting for my dad to suggest something I could buy for every one of them.

  "I've already talked to your mother about that, sweetheart," my dad said like I was worrying about something serious. "Just something small."

  "'Kay," I smiled. "So, how is it in Paris?"

  There was a chuckle on the other side as my dad probably thought about something, to which he answered: "Daphné is all work and, well, same comes to me, but I'm worried about all that pregnancy stuff."

  Smiling, I nodded even though it still felt somewhat weird to hear him talk about his new wife. To tell the truth, he didn't talk about her and their little family much around me as he was probably feeling bad for me and my mom. I couldn't blame him, but I also felt a little bad for him, feeling like he did wrong though he just wanted to be happy. And to think that everything was pretty peaceful on top of that. No one was the bad guy here.

  "Your mom was the same," I heard him say, which made me chuckle. So even though he didn't love my mom anymore, he fell in love with the same type of person.

  "I'm not surprised."

  "How's your new school?" he asked suddenly. Of course he knew about us moving when he and his second family were supposed to come for Christmas.

  Sighing lightly, I shrugged: "It's alright. But no new friends, yet."

  "You'll find some soon, don't worry."

  Smiling, again, I looked at the phone screen, the call was ongoing for a few tens of minutes now. I have never called with anyone in my family this long when the three of us were still under one roof. Times change.

  "Alright, I need to go, new case," dad said seconds before we ended the call. He was also a lawyer just like my mom, that's how they met. Well, they told me that they started dating after meeting as interns in one lawyer company. So romantic.