Mending a broken heart.

Part 9: Rock collection

Autumn is arguably the best and worst season as it brings along pre-seasonal jitters of influenza, sweater weather feelings and the constant need to consume dozens of cups of coffee.
As the days go by and autumn commences: the Easter weekend passes filled with family faces and annoying little cousins, the days become shorter and the nights become longer and there's still no sign of Christopher Coleman.
But what proceeds Autumn, however, has to definitely be the worst season ever. 

Winter.

Heavy winds, constant rain, the muddy footprints everywhere, the shivering, teeth chattering and let's not forget the mucus coughs that sound like engines on the run. But the worst amongst all; the nose sniffing sods with green snort clogged nasal pathways that somehow seem offended by the mere act of blowing their noses out into a damn tissue. And to make it worse. they always have to be talking even though they sound like their being suffocated to death whilst doing it, isn't it?

"Leya!" Sean calls Leya who's busy looking at Cara, her classmate who's complaining to her friends about how she's coming down with a cold.

"What?" she turns her head towards him.

When she turns around to look at him, she's caught by the sight of what seems to be a sudden stub appearing on his face. A stub all the male teachers will have no problem complaining about as beards do not form part of the school attire and present a non-gentleman, hooligan like lifestyle. Of course, that's what the school sorts after; well-presented gentlemen and ladies of the country with posh accents who do nothing but lick the asses of authority. 

"Will you come over to my place tomorrow, I have something I wanna show you," he says running his hand over his cheeks, subconsciously realising that's where Leya had been staring at all along. 

"Said every serial killer to his victim," she laughs with a snort, looking away.

"I'm serious," he says in a stern voice.

"Is it your rock collection?" she continues mocking him, "Because if so, I could just go-"

"Do you want to come or not?"

Leya looks back at him again, now with slight concern over his raised voice. She swallows the spit in her mouth and squints her eyes as if trying to read him, but hits a wall, "Okay," she says nodding.

The next morning, thankfully Leya manages to tie her hair back into a somehow manageable ponytail, as the winds get stronger and the sky remains cloudy, like the previous day. The last thing one needs is hair to become tangled to the dry flakes on their lips. As if on cue, Leya's tongue sweeps across her bottom lip, hydrating them. She feels the wetness and just like it happened, the wind blows and she can feel them returning to the dry state they were just a few seconds ago.
The grey joggers she has on feel like the paper thin stockings she wears underneath her dress to school every day, as they do so little to warm her unlotioned legs.
Besides her, Chelsea shivers and adjusts the knitted, white scarf around her neck as white puffy clouds escape her mouth and cloud her button, red nose. She moves her fair from her face, fighting with the wind and tucks it behind her ears, enlarging them. She continues to shiver and wraps her arms around her torso, still keeping to step with Leya as they walk up to Sean's house.

"Does it really have to be this bloody cold?" Chelsea complains as they near the grey, two-story house.

As if summoned, Sean emerges from behind the house, his hands in his pockets and smoke around his face, smiling. They make their way to him, the grass in the driveway up to their ankles.

"Gotta cut your grass mate," Chelsea says as they stop in front of Sean.

"I hope you don't mind me bringing her with me," Leya hugs Sean and steps away.

"It's okay I can trust her," he says balancing on the heels of his white sneakers, giving Chelsea a slight up and down.

He leads them to the front door of the house and opens the door and stands aside, letting Leya and Chelsea walk in first. Just like outside, the inside of the house is also painted grey, with a staircase in the middle, leading upstairs. In the dining area, a few brown boxes are packed on top of each other, with labels on.

"That's new. Are you guys moving?" Leya asks looking at the boxes she had not seen the previous week in Sean's house.

"Mmmm," Sean nods, "It's company property, my dad's company to be exact. And since he's no longer here, we have to move out, so they can give it to another company employee. Basically being evicted. We have to find a new place or be thrown out onto the streets like trash," he pretends to throw something into the air before placing his hands back in his pockets.

"It's a beautiful house," Chelsea says from behind Leya.

"This way," Sean says and the two girls follow him, passing a randomly placed shower sized wall in the middle of the dining and kitchen area, acting like a separation.

When they reach the second floor, Sean walks to the second door on the right and takes a key out of his pockets. He insets it into he lock and opens the door, ushering for Leya and Chelsea to walk in.
The room is a massive open space, visibly large enough to be converted into one of those expensive, little apartments with an ocean view balcony, but instead of an ocean view, you'd be walking into the woods during autumn. From the leather brown couches to the brown bookshelf, probably housing more interesting books than their school library, Leya and Chelsea stand in awe, taking everything in. In front of the bookshelf there's a table with a computer and a few books and files, neatly packed away.

"I've never been in here before. Is this your dad's office?" Leya asks Sean.

"Yeah pretty much."

"What did you want to show us?" Chelsea sits down onto the chair by the desk and starts spinning around.

"Well," Sean walks to the table, opens one of the drawers, takes something out and holds it in the air, "this."

"A watch?" Leya questions, confused as Chelsea stops spinning the chair and stares at the silver watch as well.

"Not just a watch," Sean states.

"Am i the only one missing something here," Leya looks at Chelsea who confirms with a nod.

"It belonged to my grandfather. Before that it belonged to my great-grandfather, almost like a family heirloom. My grandfather gave it to my dad on his death bed."

"Okay," Chelsea emphasises for him to continue.

"My dad would never just up and leave without it. As much as I hate him for leaving, I know he'd never leave this watch behind."

"Where did you find it?" Chelsea inquires.

"In this drawer right here," he points at the drawer he had just opened and pulled the watch out of.

"You're still not making sense, Sean," Leya exclaims, sitting down onto one of the chairs in front of the table.

Sean looks between the two girls, placing the watch back into the drawer closing it, "I don't think my dad ran away," he says with a strained voice, " I think something, bad, really bad happened to him."

___________________________________________________________________