Be Rude but Love Me | ✔

CHAPTER 19

The ride back home is silent. I am staring out the window, seeing trees and pavement, but not really seeing them. My mind is everywhere and nowhere at the same time, no coherent thought forming, no specific topic on my mind. I can't focus on anything.

I wish Ellie would turn on the radio so I wouldn't have to hear the rumbling of the car or the whizzing of the wind blowing past us. I would do it myself but I feel too depleted to even move and reach for the radio button, so I remain completely immobile. I can tell my neck is going to hurt by the time we reach home but I can't move. I don't want to move. It might wake me from this trance I am in, pull me out of this world I am locked in and I don't want to be anywhere else but in that world. A world where I don't think, where nothing exists, where nothing matters.

Ellie pulls in the driveway and only then do I snap out of it. Without waiting for her, I walk up to the door and twist the doorknob, pushing it open. Thirsty and mildly hungry, I decide to make a quick trip to the kitchen before retreating to my room.

But the moment I enter the house, I can tell something is different. I'm not sure what it is but something is not quite as usual. Carefully, I take a few steps into the living room, peeking carefully but nothing seems out of place. No broken TV or lamp. Then as I am about to head to the kitchen, I smell something. The sweet smell of... shrimp rice. And not any shrimp rice, the kind my father makes. The thought makes me frown and I wonder if I've gone completely cuckoo. Turning left, I head for the kitchen.

And am assaulted.

I stumble backwards as a tiny little being jumps at me, wrapping itself around me and not letting go.

"Tracy!" It squeals.

I recognize Lucy's voice. She hugs me tightly, burying her face in my shoulders. Without hesitation, I wrap my arms around her and spin us around happily, my previous mood forgotten upon having my little sister with me.

"Lu!" I squeal with her, "Oh my gosh! I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

Finally, I quit spinning us and put her down, sinking on my knees to face her. I take her beautiful face into my hands and smile at her. Somehow, my heart finally leaves the bottom of my feet and comes back up where it belongs.

I hug her again. "I can't believe you're there," I say, tremendously happy.

"Dad wanted to make you a surprise," she says with a wide grin as she turns back to face our father.

He's standing by the fridge, looking at us with a wide smile on his face. As I get up to go hug him, he rounds the counter and without warning, picks me up and twirls me around.

"Dad," I laugh, "put me down."

He complies and doesn't wait for my feet to touch the ground before he enfolds me in his embrace. "Missed your old man?" He asks.

"Of course," I say and try to ignore Lucy's squeals in the background as she probably throws herself at Ellie. I pull away from my dad. "I didn't even see your truck outside. Where did you hide it?"

My father doesn't answer and simply winks at me. "Now, I can't share all my secrets with you, can I?"

I roll my eyes at him. "As if you ever kept secrets from me, Dad." My father and I have a close relationship, one that revolves around honesty at all times, and openness. We tell each other everything.

He winks again. "You don't know that."

He's about to talk again but something behind me has him raising his eyebrows. I turn around, wondering what it could be. And I wish I hadn't.