The Long Way Back

Chapter 8.

A few days had passed since my escapade with Colby when Balke had found me coming home and boy was he not happy.

Honestly you'd think he was my dad with how protective he was. He's been making sure I'm not out till 4 in the morning again, by guarding my room at night.

I'm now in a little coffee shop near our school with Carson and Emma. I love it here, it's called Jane's and it's the cutest coffee shop I've ever been in. Looking around made it seem like a cosy, winter cabin. There's a little fireplace in the corner surrounded by sofas and thousands of pillows.
Everything seems wooden and rustic. The whole ambiance is just perfect, I think I found my new place.

You know, like a place to just sit with a book and avoid/ ignore the rest of human population?

"So, what've you been up to Mel?" Emma said cheery as always. Even though her strong personality scared me off a bit at first, me and Emma got along well and she was a friend I was glad I had. Talking to her felt so natural now.

"Well apart from school and homework not much." I replied honestly. "Ino, they've actually been giving us so much more than they usually would for the start of the year. It's awwwful." Carson droned.

"Yeah, well I wouldn't really know, this is my first time at an actual school." I said chuckling. "Oh yeah." Emma said. "To be honest I kinda forgot honestly, it feels like i've known you for ages."

"Yeah you too." I nodded.

"What was homeschool actually like?" Carson asked. "I've always kinda wanted to know if it was as great as it seems. Like, couldn't you just play video games all day with no teacher to tell you otherwise?"

"No." I laughed. "Having your dad as a teacher is worse. I think I probably did more work with him than at school now. That's why I'm not really finding it bad. Especially because dad taught me and Blake like a thousand different subjects. He studied history at Uni, so every new place we went he taught us the history behind it along with religions and any other philosophical stuff about it." I scoffed.

"Then on top of all that, we took online courses and dad taught me the piano, and mum the harp. So no, it's probably not as easy as you imagined. Well for me anyway. I actually didn't mind it though because I'm very...introverted, so i didn't really mind my own company doing school. Plus its not like we ever had time for a real school."

I looked over to Carson who now sat staring with a look of astonishment. "Wow." He breathed out. "I think I'd much rather have normal school, that's so much. I now have major respect for you Mels, I couldn't do it."

We all laughed at that, "why thanks Car, Inappreciate anyone who sees me for how amazing I truly am." I said sarcastically.

"Ha ha."

"So, have you actually seen much around town? You've only been here like a couple weeks right?" Emma asks.

"Umm...not much, just what i've seen passing for school and stuff. Oh! And i was at the beach with Colby a few days ago, but that's about it." I replied casually.

"COLBY?!" They shouted simultaneously as their eyes seemingly popped out of their heads. "Since when were you friends with him?" Carson said emphasising him sourly.

"Wow..shhhh. I'm pretty sure the whole shop heard you. And he was the first person I met here, we're neighbours too. Why's it such a big deal?" I was confused.

"Oh, just because Colby is like the quietest, most intimidating guy in the whole school. He talks to literally like nobody, I rarely even see him around school, I'm pretty sure he skips half of it. How the heck did you manage to get him to talk to you?" Emma asks, sounding completely shellshocked.

"Oh" now that I thought about it I rarely saw him at school either, not even at lunch.
"Well i didn't really think it was that big of a deal honestly. I mean he's pretty talkative and seems like a really good guy. And he's not intimidating." I scoffed.

"He comes to school late 24/7 with bloody knuckles and bruises if you hadn't noticed. He's always in fights outside of school and nobody even knows who with, probably a gang. But he's like literally the epitome of cliche bad boy." Carson said matter-of-factly.

"I'd stay away from him if I were you Mel, he's bad news." Emma said genuinely.

Good thing your not.

"Okay..." i said, but really I knew that I wanted to do the opposite. Mystery was alluring, curiosity may have killed the cat but satisfaction sure brought it back. And I was gonna find out what was wrong with Colby. He seemed like a genuinely good guy and I wasn't gonna judge him based on everyone else's opinion.

I've never really found myself wanting to spend more time with a complete stranger, but Colby somehow seemed different, I wanted to know what that difference was.

"Okay good," Emma said, checking the time on her phone. "I best get going anyway, mum wanted me back early for dinner."

"I probably should too," Carson agreed. "This was really fun though, we should do it more often." He smiled.

"Yeah it was, well see you guys tomorrow."
"Yea, see you Mels." They both replied, as they were leaving.

/////

Back at home everything had been going surprisingly well. Mum was being her smiley self once again. (For the most part anyway)

I knew it was going to take a while for things to truly be as they were before, and I accepted that. For now we were in the hardest, awkwardest phase.

The middle.

Dinner tonight had been the same as all week, the four of us together at the table, it was nice. No matter how much free time I wanted as a 'teenager' I still appreciated time together as a family, it hadn't been as easy and carefree between us in a long time.

I was now sitting on my bed studying as per usual. I'd gotten through a full school week, that should be an accomplishment in itself. It honestly wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, it was actually less work than dad set us. But that being said we had to do a lot more independently, like studying.

So that's how I ended up now sprawled on my bed surrounded by piles of textbooks and highlighters, trying to make sense of A-level maths, honestly an impossible challenge if you ask me.

I was trying to make sense of algebraic equations when I heard banging coming from next door. I didn't know what it was that was so loud it could be heard from my room. If i could hazard a guess I'd say it was like a massive box or drawers were being thrown down the stairs.

The adventurous side of me wanted to go see what was wrong, while the rational side knew I was being stupid. Unfortunately the rational side won. What use would i really be, I'd look stupid going to investigate a banging coming from the house next door?

Shoving my worries to the back of my mind I went back to studying for a few hours before calling it a night and heading to bed.

As I lay in bed that night my thoughts drifted to the mysterious subject of Colby Bradshaw.

I'd barely texted him since we had been out that night at the beach on Tuesday. It was now Friday and I hadn't heard from him. It's not like I'd texted him either though so...I couldn't really complain.

It's not like I was avoiding him, I just didn't want to be the first person to reach out, what if I came across too clingy? Or what if he hadn't texted because he just wanted to be left alone for a while?

I thought it best to just let him start the conversation, it was much easier that way.

And with a mind racing a million miles a minute, I slowly drifted into the dark nighttime abyss.