What If | #Wattys2020

8.

Baby you look happier...
Ed Sheehan

Knock knock knock

Scott's house, or mansion, was located in the suburbs of the city. I found myself at 1PM knocking on his white wooden door. I had changed my clothes as fast as I could and rushed to the location he had sent me. His parents had just been kidnapped, he needed a friend to talk about it and support him, tell him everything would be alright, and he had called me. A girl who he met scarcely a week ago.

When Scott opened the door I distinguished his messy brown hair and red eyes, he had been crying. He was wearing a white v-neck t-shirt and some gray sweatpants, once again, he looked like any other teenager.

"Hey..." I said softly, "You okay there?"

He gestured me to come inside while rubbing his eyes as if he just woke up, he closed the door behind me and that was when I realized the beauty of the house. White marble everywhere, the most expensive-looking art hanging from the walls, jars with flowers laying in the corners... and a fainted chocolate scent. You know how everyone has a special smell, and even with your eyes closed you could recognize the person? Well Scott smelled like chocolate, and oh damn I loved it.

"Woah, I like your house," I said admired.

"What did you expect from a family like mine?" He answered, maybe a bit too harshly.

I nodded and continued walking, I wasn't going to complain about his coldness now that he was going through something like this. We crossed a long hallway with a red furry carpet on the floor until it lead us to what it looked like the living room. A gigantic TV placed in front of a coffee table with three couches the same color of the carpet in front of it, it was beautiful, elegant... movie-worthy. And still, it felt like at home, underneath the TV there was a fireplace, it was on by the moment, and even though it wasn't that cold outside sensing the warmth of the fire felt somehow good.

He sat down in one of the couches and grabbed a blanket right next to him, without even asking he threw one at me, I caught it in the air and covered myself with it while making myself comfortable in the couch, right in front of him.

"Thank you for having me, Scott," I told him sincerely.

"My pleasure," He answered. But his voice felt wrong, it sounded broken, dead.

We kept the silence for a few more seconds until I asked him, "Why am I exactly here?"

He looked asides, "Because I don't have anyone else. My friends at university are only my friends because of the fame and money my family has and Hunter is grounded  because of Saturday's party."

My heart broke, and for a moment I could really feel how it was like for him, or at least I tried. Everyone trying to be your friend because of your wealth, being nice to you, just to get something in return...

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" I asked him with a whisper, "It's okay if you don't want to."

He breathed deeply before we locked gazes, his eyes so deep and pure you could see the pain he was going through, "They left for a business trip last week, to Mexico. Yesterday they were supposed to attend some Orchestra where they had been invited by some influential Mexican accounting managers. And when the concert ended, they got out of the theatre to head back to the hotel... but they never did."