temptation- t.c

25. bravery in bits

~Adeline~

The way Timothée was looking at me worried me. My heart fell through my chest when I saw that he was packing up. It was a weird sort of feeling, the idea of him leaving and not seeing him ran through my body like a cold chill.

I wanted to immediately try and stop him but my head couldn't wrap around why he was packing. Immediately I assumed it was because of me, my insecurities screaming I was annoying him to a point where he wanted to leave.

But then he started to talk about my family, I could see the frustration behind his eyes when he tried to think of what to say. Maybe he wasn't leaving because of me, did my parents want him gone? What was he on about talking about shit going down?

It became clear though when I entered my house. I entered through the kitchen which was weirdly silent. Willow was no where to be seen. Looking down at my watch, breakfast would have been over for a while which means lunch should have been started to be prepared.

I couldn't comprehend that something would have happened in the short time I was away. All I did was go to Maddie's for the night to get some space from Timothée but this house did not feel the same.

It was a big house but it was never silent. For one, Willow was always in it if no one else was and she makes herself heard. I stayed in the kitchen, waiting for a sign of life until I heard the almost silent sound of whispering.

For some reason, the thought of my parents being home never occurred to me. I thought it might be Luke and Willow having one of their secret chats so I casually opened the door. Both parents turned to me, a mixture of anger and frustration across both their faces.

"Adeline, not now." My mother sighed. I pulled an offended face, I had barely taken a breath since entering the room.

"What's going on? Where's Willow?" I asked, the atmosphere in the room was far from comfortable and nothing was making sense.

"We sent her to go and find Luke." My dad confessed, earning a light slap on the stomach from my mother. This didn't make any sense.

"Why where'd he go? Is that in her job description?" They both looked as if they wanted to strangle me, my questions were clearly not appreciated.

"Your brother dropped some news on us and then ran. He needs to accept the consequences of his actions." The second sentence was aimed at my father but answered some questions.

Luke was harsh to me sometimes but that didn't mean the pit in my stomach didn't grow when it was clear he was the one causing my parents grief. He must have done something truly bad for them to act like this.

"What was the news?" I asked once their attention was back on each other and not me.

"Adeline, why do you have to get involved? It's a problem that can be fixed when he comes back." My father sighed as if he was giving up.

I stood in silence, waiting for them to tell me what was going on. They're whispering heads turned away from me, purposefully making it hard for me to hear. They underestimated me, I could work this out.

Luke was a tolerable child. He hadn't gone to the college they wanted or the life path they wanted but they had gotten over that. What could he have possibly done that would shock them to the point where they would have to have a long conversation together.

He hadn't gone off the rails, gotten anyone pregnant from what I knew. In fact, I hadn't seen him with a girl for a long time now that he spent all of his time with Danny. Danny couldn't be the problem because he was one of us, there was no reason for them to dislike him.