Water - Complete

Keelan

As soon as class started for the morning I panicked, Ilyse wasn't there and I didn't know if she'd be there for the mentoring program. I assumed that she'd come to class later, but after the first hour she still hadn't shown up and I felt myself starting to panic a little. Did she flake out on me because of what I'd revealed the other day?

Part of me wanted to believe that it was because she couldn't handle the emotions that went with the memories, that I was the biological son of a killer, that I'd seen my mom being killed in front of me. I needed to talk to her, she'd opened this can of worms in my head and memory and it was hard to deal with it without talking. My adoptive parents were no help, mom just wanted to sweep everything under the carpet and forget that I'd been tainted early on in my life and dad was still away working.

I don't think Nat or Corlan would understand what I was feeling either, how could they?

When I was dismissed for the mentoring program I signed out of school, thankfully Ilyse had already explained that our sessions would be off school grounds so no one asked me any questions. Getting in my car, I had to call Nat and ask her again where Ilyse stayed, I hadn't been back to that side of town since I'd picked Ilyse up for the fair.

Thoughts swirled in my mind, where was she? Why wasn't she at school today? Did she still want to mentor me? I really hoped she hadn't told principal Gasfell that I was a fail case again, I'd do just about anything to stay in school...even if it meant lying about a few things.

"Uhm...hi Ilyses' mom, is Ilyse here? We're supposed to be doing a mentor program and she didn't show up this morning, so I was worried and swung by." The woman that answered the door didn't look anything like Ilyse, I just assumed she took after her dad in the looks department.

"Oh sweety, I'm not her mom, I'm her aunt Brenda. But no, Ilyse doesn't live here anymore. Her father came by to collect her over the weekend. Wait right there, I'll go get her address for you." As soon as Brenda left the front door I wondered, my mind was forming a million questions a second and it all had to do with Ilyse.

Where was her mom? Why had her dad just come to get her over the weekend? Why was she living with her aunt?

There were so many more questions too, but they were jumbled when Brenda came back to the doorway holding a piece of paper with scrawl on it.

"Here we go, just ask for Ilyse when you get there." Brenda closed the door as soon as she was done talking and I had grabbed the note. I sort of thought that was odd but really didn't give it too much thought as I looked down at the address etched into the paper, was I reading it right?

If this was where Ilyse was currently living, it was just down the road from my own home. The next block over, I knew the house well because it was secure and had a security camera sitting at the gate.

Without second thought I went back to my car and drover over to the address provided, at the gate I pushed the buzzer and asked who I was visiting.

"Ilyse." Was all I said, there was a moment of absolute quiet. Where I thought I'd be turned away, but the gate started opening soundlessly and I drove slowly up to the front door. The house was massive, like...ridiculously huge.

Before I can shut the engine off the front door opens and Ilyse comes storming out, there's a scowl on her face. But aside from that she still looks like the same old Ilyse, living in a new home with different people. Her clothes are the same, her appearance is the same too but she is decidedly angry when she yanks my car door open and climbs in.

"Drive." Is her only command and for once in my life, I listen.

I understood what it meant to get away from a tough situation, especially when you're angry. The guy that followed Ilyse out the door just stood there watching us as we drove down the driveway, he didn't seem like a threatening sort of guy.

But he didn't look like the fatherly type, his clean cut hair and shaved face yelled that he was more business focused than family. I knew, my current dad was the same. Whenever he had a beard or stubble it meant that he was staying home for a while and didn't need to be in a board room somewhere.

When I glanced over at Ilyse her lips were sealed shut, it didn't even look like she had lips. They were clenched together so tight it looked like someone had super glued them shut.

I drove to the place I liked going when I was angry or upset, it was a little known lookout point out of town, when I first went there it was just a nice escape. But the more I went up there the more I figured out about the place, like that it had some of the best sunsets in summer, that where the sun set in summer...there was a small patch of lake that the sun reflected off. It took me ages before I realized it was a lake off in the distance, I had thought for so long that it was the ocean.

When I killed the engine I looked over at Ilyse, it took her a moment to realize that we'd come to a stop. She looked around when she realized this and then climbed out of the car, I followed her quickly and closed the drivers door on my way.

"Where are we?" She asked breathlessly, her eyes her wide and her jaw had gone slack. Obviously she was impressed with this place, you had to be made of stone not to be.

"Just out of town, I come here all the time when I want to get away from people." I went to the log I had set up a while ago and sat down to enjoy a bit of sunshine out in the open. Ilyse followed suit, dropper her backpack on the ground and plopped down beside me.

"Thanks for this Keelan, I really needed it. So how was class today? Did anyone ask anything stupid?" I shrugged my shoulders at the question, there were no more stupid questions than there typically was. Nothing to worry about really.

"Nah, no one even asked where you were so it was okay. I went to your aunt's house by they way, that's how I figured out you were...there. I sort of panicked and thought you'd skipped out on me and I couldn't go home early cause my dad is back today and if I beat him home he'll probably think I've been lying about everything." That was sort of a lie, my dad didn't think I skipped school all the time but he knew I did it on occasion. I couldn't help myself, having to sit in class was a chore sometimes...a chore I hated.

"I'm not like my dad, I don't skip out on people." Ilyse said defensively, it's like she said it before she realized what she'd said. Her hand went over her mouth as soon as she realized that had come out, I wanted to ignore it but that sort of thing didn't just pop out of thing air.

"I didn't mean that, I meant that I would have given you some warning if I were going to ditch you." A little voice in my head added on 'not like her dad,' to the end of her sentence. Who was her dad? Where had he been and why did she obviously hate him so much.

"You're a bad liar, ya know? But I get it, you don't wanna talk about it. It's cool. So, what are we up to today? I'm all good with just sitting up here, I kinda have to do some study anyways. You cool with that? I got lunch and a bit extra in the trunk anyways, mom kinda went overboard with making my lunch. I think principal Gasfell has told her about our outings and now she wants to meet you and cook you dinner and sh*t." Why did mom's have to read too much into things? I mean, it wasn't like I'd ever mentioned Ilyse to her before and yet one phone call from the principal and suddenly I was in a relationship?

"Thanks, do you mind if I eat something now? I'm kind of hungry and never ate breakfast." I didn't mind, I went to grab the bag of food and cringed, mom had gone the whole hog and even thrown a picnic blanket in too.

"Sorry about this, my mom went way over the top." I pulled the picnic blanket out, set out the food and then went to grab my books before settling down on the blanket opposite Ilyse.

She seemed to have quietened down a lot since we'd arrived and picked at food here and there, when she was done she packed it all away and went to grab her backpack too. We sort of studied like that for most of the day, ate when we wanted to and occasionally I found myself drifting off to sleep.

It was a good thing there was a tree hanging over much of the area, it meant I wouldn't get roasted while snoozing.

"Hey Keelan? Thanks for today, I really needed this." I sleepy shrugged, I could feel myself drifting off to sleep again and this time I didn't mind one bit. I mean, it was quiet, I was comfortable and had a full stomach too. Wasn't this what summers were supposed to be like? Not stuck in a classroom trying to memorize everything?