Hello Phoebe

Chapter 4: Winter nights

This silence is really getting to me. Theo hasn't come back yet, it was only a peck. 

I used to come over to his house a lot when I was young, my mother off to work and my sister studying at the library 'til late. My mother didn't get me a dog until a year ago, so I have been pretty lonely. 

Theo has a sister, she's small and surprisingly is blonde. She is 4 years younger than me and incredibly smart. It's obvious that she's popular among the guys at her school, always wanting to come over to her house, but to be trolled and given the wrong address.

Our house are identical, so it can be challenging for others too.

Once, we had to fake Charlotte's death at my house, I covered her in red paint and had a realistic knife glued onto her stomach. I helped by acting my role as a her distant auntie, who came to visit for a few days. I'm such a good actor, Theo's sister had such a hard time trying to be dead. 

This only happen because she found out that her childhood bully had actually liked her and became too stalkerish, and she needed to get away from him.

I walked out into his dining room, Theo was nowhere in sight. 

Tap tap, soft footsteps coming towards me.

    "Hey, you looking for Theo?" whispers Charlotte, Theo's younger sister.

    "...Um, yeah"

    "He's  in the guest room...haha"  Charlotte is the only person that knows that I have a crush on Theo. Since she found out that I had confessed to Theo but got rejected. This was in our primary years, so it didn't hurt my feelings much.

We walked to the guest room, I was about to knock but Charlotte just smashed the door open. You think she would be the 'weak' types but she's actually really strong. A black belt in taekwondo in 1.5 years. 

    "FUCKS SAKE CHARLIE! STOP BREAKING  THE DOOR, IT'S GONNA BE THE FORTH TIME FIXING IT"  yells Theo, still facing the wall.

    Charlotte turns and grins at me. She nudge and motions me to walk to him and talk.

     I will be leaving then. She mouthed.

    "Hey... I'm sorry for what happened befo-"

    "I'm sorry too" he cuts me off, still facing the wall, crouched on the couch.

    "Uh. Um. There's nothing to do here. I'm going to buy ice cream, so bye." I say awkwardly and turns to face the door. I feel a hand grabbing my wrist and pulling me backwards, bumping into something hard. His chest. My back on his abs. He wraps his hand around my waist and whispers 6 sexy words into my ear.

    "Wait, I want ice cream too".

I waited in the kitchen and for both Theo and Charlotte to get ready to go out and get ice cream. I turned on the TV, and the news came up with a sudden report of the suicide of a woman in her late 40s in this area. 

My heart sunk. I instantly knew the reporter was talking about my mother, I suddenly switch off the channel before the reporter had a chance to tell me what they had found out.  

Since my mother's death was mentioned on the news, I assume the police has started the investigation to what led her to commit suicide, I believe stress was not the only concern. 

My mother had a double life, some days she would spend time with me and work a normal job, and some other days she would have to travel to places to do business with a few people about things that she doesn't want to be involved with. 

It's very tempting to turn on the TV but I decided to wait until night falls and read about the article later.

------<<>>-------

We all bought different flavored ice creams, I got mint chocolate, Theo had choc chip and Charlotte chose strawberry. We walked around the shop then went home.

Theo suggested I bring my books over as we both have a lot of work to do in the winter holidays, so if we needed help, we could ask each other. We sat in the dining room where there were more space for us to spread our books, biology and physics was my worst subjects but I liked learning about them, yet I constantly stress over folios, pracs and tests. 

On the other hand, Theo was a genius in all science topics and an average student in art, he's pretty talented in my eyes but his teacher says otherwise.

It's getting late, so we pack up and I am invited to eat with his family for dinner before I head back, they don't question where my mother is, they probably assume she's working late as usual. They will find out eventually but not soon.

It's cold and a shiver runs down my spine, I turn on the lights so I could find my way to the stairs and into my room, I don't bother to see whether anyone has broken into my house. The upstairs area is lit up, so I run down and turn off the lights below before rushing back up. 

There's a mini  pantry in my room full of snacks, I grab a packet of chips and unpack my bag onto my study desk. I turn on my heater and prepare myself for bed.

When I go up to my window to close my blinds, Theo on the other side is looking at me with his big eyes under his glasses. Theo is rarely seen with glasses on, he thinks it makes his face square and unattractive, but I think it's cute.

I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, my dog in her bed beside my bed, the door is cracked open like always. I'm tired, I'm scared, I'm stressed, but I open my phone and look up news about the investigation of my mother's suicide. 

It reads,

On the night of July, a woman assumed in to be her late 40s found dead in her backyard, after someone who wants to be anonymous who came over and saw blood gushing of this woman's body. By the time the ambulance came, the soul had already left her body, she had lost so much blood, she died within a few minutes. The investigation is ongoing and  we pray that her family stay safe on these winter nights.   

The news are very brief, I guess they haven't found much and I hope people don't notice that this anonymous person is me. I know that there are someone people that my mother had business with who detested her and had given threats of an attempt abduction of me. 

This is a dark secret that my mother shared with me, because I was nearly kidnapped during the last years of primary school. After that, I took 3 years of hakido, took boxing for 2 years and got into the national team of swimming.

It's nearly the next morning, I grab for the switch that is connected to the bedroom lights and in a flash, my room is pitch black.