Father (Rewritten)

Chapter 2: Everyone's obsessed but me.

10 AM. Lazy Saturday.

Wafting from the kitchen's coffeepot is a bittersweet roast, the kind that lodges itself in Claudia's throat when she has only exited her bedroom. Not expecting an attack on her lungs. Her coughing fit lasts an excruciating solid minute, the burn and sweat, never fails to ruin her day before it even has the chance to begin.

She doesn't remember making anything last night. It can't be her sleepwalking either unless it's to the fridge.. Ah, spending all night working on making efficient codes for her client's website was a good-bad decision. At least she'll receive the paycheck on this Friday.

Claudia stumbles into the kitchen, heavily clothed in floor-mopping pants and long-sleeved monochrome sweater, ready for a cup of much needed coffee. Mentally preparing in advance to wait for the water to boil..

"Hey loser! Already up?" 

She whips around to the echo.

"Made some coffee for you as an apology for forgetting last week, also good morning!" The shrill feminine voice loudly comes from the only other bedroom down the hall.

Peering into the poorly tied plastic-bag sitting beside the dingy coffeepot, Claudia's lips thinned, shines a fancy coffee brand she never touches due to the fact alone that it belongs to Jenna's boyfriend... The vietnamese one? They all have the same haircut, she can't remember which.

It's not often her sister gets the energy to do something early for her. "Thank you," Claudia shouts down the hall. 

She appreciated her older sister's efforts but... Claudia turns on the gas stove all the way, filling a small pan with water, her favourite plain mug awaiting the hot water. She fishes out the remaining packets of Cafe from a cupboard, the sweet and creaminess promising to brighten her day despite what she looks like.

A sleepy sloth.

.      .      .

Dutifully she checks her emails, ignoring the wet strands of her washed hair sticking to her back, replying to her client with a polite thanks to their compliments then moves on to her social media tab.

Click.

The town's online community page wasn't anything interesting despite being active, when most of the posts consist of old and new gardening hacks, experimenting with recipes to create the best pie crust, some new promotional sales for milk, the date for a halloween gathering...  Nothing Claudia is specifically excited for. 

She only gives likes to her few friends' posts, updating the town's community about the newest arrival of books.

6 likes. Hers included.

Claudia scrolls, pauses. Her cursor is an inch from closing the Facebook tab.

Ding.

 A new post. One second ago by an unfamiliar name and blank profile picture. Oh wait it's about the new neighbor. Too many 'welcome' stickers and comments pile up underneath his first post: 'Hello, great being here. Thank you everyone for the gifts and treats.' There was more but Claudia didn't want to read.

An accidental reflex as she moves her cursor across the screen and over Charles Bergstein, she never stays too long on the town's community group page but something catches her eye.

Huh. 

Mutual Friends: Madeline Smith. 

Why is Maddy's already friends with him. It's only been a day... But of course she's already friends, why wouldn't she add another number to her 100 plus gazillion friends. Claudia briefly checks her own friend list.