shades of red

candy apple red;

The car ride to Charlie's house
was awfully quiet. My hands gripped
the steering wheel and I tried to focus on
the concrete road ahead of me, but everything
felt out of place and out of tune with no music
nor verbal communication intertwining the
seats in the car or bouncing off the glass
windows.

"When you were a kid, did you ever think
that the moon was following you home when
you were in the car?" The words spilled out
ever so untamed. I looked over and saw
him trying to recall his childhood.

"Yeah, I think so. My m-mom tried to
convince me that we are the ones moving
and not the moon but w-when w-we would
get h-home, I'd notice that t-the moon would
be in front of the h-house. So I-I would turn
to my mom and say 'I told you!' and s-she
would shake h-her head and laugh." A smile
tickled his lips.

"Aw that's adorable. Where is your mom now?
Does she live in Oxford?"

"Y-Yeah, we moved here once I found out that
I got a-accepted."

"Oh wow, so you know absolutely nothing about
Oxford? Man, I need to show you around! Someday,
maybe."

"That would be really nice of you." He beamed at me.

"It's no problem. I've lived here all my life so
I basically know every inch of Oxford. Growing up,
my dad had a habit of every Sunday, we would visit at
least one new spot-this would go from parks to bookstores.
As long as we continued to explore on his day off from work,
then we were a happy family."

"Do you guys continue to do that?"

"No, I don't see him a lot anymore because he
got a job at a new firm and he has to manage
all of the transactions and administrative work
since it is a new company. He's the CEO,
actually."

"W-Wow, that's so cool. I don't see
my dad a lot either." He muttered under his
breath.

"Why not? Does he work a lot too?" I made
a turn to the right as he pointed out the directions
to his house.

"I guess you can say that."

"What about your mom?"

"She st-tays at home during
the day and then w-works during the night
as a n-n-urse at the John Radcliffe
Hospital. My h-house i-is just two
blocks up."

We pulled up to a beige house with
a cute little black gate to the main door.
I parked the car on the side of the street
and Charlie ran inside the house without
waiting for me.

"Um...okay..do I just wait outside here then?"

I scratched the back of my neck and
slowly walked up to the little gate.
A few minutes later, he opened up the
entrance door and stepped aside to let
me in.

"Sorry about that. I..uh h-had to check
to s-see if the house w-was cleaned up."

"Oh that's fine. I don't mind." I
rubbed the bottoms of my shoes
on the little rug placed outside and
stepped inside the cute little furnished
home, decorated in frames of pictures
and warm candles. A bowl of
candy greeted me on a little stand
near the door.

"U-h, my m-mom like s-sweets."

I chuckled and hung my
coat on the little guest rack.
"You have a beautiful home."

"T-Thank you."

"Aw, who are these little cuties?"
I pointed to a picture of two children, a
boy and a girl. "Your brother and sister?"

"Um, they're family."