The door slams open about thirty seconds later, and my mom sweeps through the store.
“Are you okay?” She presses a hand to my forehead as she speaks. How will that help anything?
“I told you, I’m fine. There was just a guy here who seemed to think it would be best if I called someone.” I remove her hand from my head and clean up the front desk. There are no customers left, so I’m free to go home.
“Was it worse than usual?” She asks tentatively.
“Yeah.” I admit and shove a stack of books to the side of the counter.
She bites her lip and grabs the car keys where she threw them a moment ago. “Okay. Let’s go home then.”
I grab my backpack and sling it over my arm and follow her out to her black SUV. I lock up the store and smile up at the sign that says “The Reader’s Repository!” When the store was my parent’s problem, it was named “The Book Lover’s Store For All Things Book Related!” I decided the first thing to do with the store was to change the name.
We ride in silence until we reach my house. It’s a ranch style house, long and low. I’ve lived here all my life. I hop out of the car and run inside. I pass the kitchen with the wafting smell of spaghetti. My dad must be making supper, since my mom came to pick me up.
I run to my room, only pausing to rap on my older brother’s door first. It’s our code for “I’m home, come talk to me!” We developed it in middle school when we decided we were sick of the other barging into their rooms. Ryker is older than me by three minutes and roughly thirty seconds. And he never lets me forget it.
I open the door to my room and am automatically greeted with the chirping of my macaw, Eyre. Technically her full name is Jane Eyre, but I shortened it a long time ago. She’s deep blue and sits in a cage on top of my desk while I’m at the store. Every once in a while I allow her to come with me, but she sort of makes a lot of noise. I throw some sunflower seeds in her dish. She looks up and caws as a knock sounds on my bedroom door. “Come in!” I called through the door.
The door swung on it’s hinges revealing my twin brother in the door. “Mom says you had a headache again.” He stated, walking in my room and settling himself in my blue chair in the corner. His eyes bore into mine. His default color is brown, but right now they’re a mix of white and blue. Fear and Concern.
“Yeah.” I reply simply.
He plays with the hole in his jeans on his knee. “Who was it?” He questions uncomfortably.
“Customer. Guy. I just couldn’t look away. I don’t know why. I’ve never not been able to look away before Ryker.” My voice falters at the end.
“Did you tell mom?” He asks, tentatively.
I shake my head and look away from his eyes. I quit telling my mom about my weird eyes a long time ago. The first time I told her her eyes had changed color she laughed at me. I guess it didn’t help the situation that the day happened to be April Fools. When I had implored that her eyes had indeed changed from Purple (Happiness) to Orange (Physical Pain) they had changed yet again to Pink (Frustration). That was the day I learned what the colors meant. I could actually feel the frustration coming off her. Just like I could sense that she was hurt, and that she was happy. I taught myself in the third grade what all the colors meant, and now I no longer felt the feelings. I just knew what they meant.
But, as much as I’d love to think my entire family believed me about my eyes seeing changes, I think the only one who fully believed me was Ryker. I think my mom and dad tried their best to believe me, but in the end they just didn’t buy it. I think at heart they think their only daughter has some mental problems. And hey, maybe I do. I am, after all, the only one who can see the colors.
“Are you okay now?” He asks, and I nod looking back up.
“I’m fine. I just was scared. I’ve always been able to pry my eyes away before the pain got too intense. But today for some reason, I didn’t even want to look away even when the pain got torturous. It scared me.” I feed another sunflower seed to Eyre and she caws gratefully.
“That’s definitely odd, Rae.” He flips his blonde hair to the side as he speaks, his eyes changing colors to Gray for confusion. Good, I can look at him now without killing my head now.
“I know. Well, maybe it was a one time thing. I hope so anyway.” Right then my dad yells through the house calling us to dinner. I hop off my chair and Ryker and I sprint down the stairs to the dining room.
My dad’s spaghetti is sitting in the middle of the table, giving off an unpleasant aroma of burned food. I will never understand how someone can burn pasta and sauce. Seriously.
Ryker and I sit down across from my mom and dad as my dad plops what I assume is supposed to be food into a bowl. Ryker and I exchange a glance that means “Ew.” His eyes don’t have to change color for me to understand that glance.
My dad shovels a forkful of food in his mouth and then gestures to the three of us with his fork. “Well? Eat up!” The three of us each take a fork and pick at the pasta carefully. My mom takes a bite first, and nearly spits it out. I watch her face, attempting to laugh, and eventually having to cover it with a cough. When she looks at me, her eyes are a deep pink. Disgust. I almost laugh again, and have to take a gulp of water.
I push my food around my plate as does Ryker and my mom. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those nights when my mom ends up making toast and scrambled eggs at 3 am, because all three of us are starving.
“So, Rae, I heard you got another of your,” my dad coughs, “headaches again today.”
I take another sip of water. “Yeah I did. It’s not a big deal though. I’d really appreciate it if we could all forget it happened and just go on with our normal lives.” I put my fork in my plate and shove it forward.
“Honey, our lives aren’t normal.” He says sympathetically. I grimace.
“Yeah, I know. I’m not really hungry. I’m going upstairs.” I grab my plate and cup and head into the kitchen, ignoring my parent’s talking behind me. I scrape my dinner into the trash (heck, no one’s eating that left over) and stick my dishes in the dishwasher before heading to my room to go to bed extremely early and try to forget about my life.
YOU ARE READING
Irised
Teen Fiction"That's Knox Parker, Rae." "Thank you Captain Obvious. I know who he is," I roll my eyes and buckle up. "What's wrong?" "That's the biggest jerk at school. He's popular and he knows it, he's good looking and he knows it, he's funny and he knows it...
