On The Run

Chapter Forty - "Instinctively, Yours"

To Rabab17. For always getting it so precisely. :)

Sarah

I let my fingers go up to my lips as Aubrey and Ted turned, starting to lead us into the house. Their grins never wavered, so I had a feeling that they hadn’t spotted the awkwardness in Jake’s face and mine.

Jake placed his arm on the small of my back and led me into the house, as I realized that truly, the nervousness and anxiety about the evening was all gone. The only problem was: I couldn’t shake the tingling sensation from Jake’s touch. The interior of Aubrey’s house quickly helped with that.

In high school, Aubrey had been a particularly wild card, determined to be different from the rest of us; she had such strong opinions on marriage and procreation and swore against all of it. She could never understand the completely arbitrary route that everyone’s lives seemed to take – high school, college, job, marriage, and then, family. My mother always wondered why I hung out with her, she thought Aubrey’s opinions would either start to make sense to me and I’d be just as cynical about the world. It really is funny how things turn out, isn’t it?

Not really. More like depressing.

Aubrey’s house could have been out of a magazine called ‘Happy Family’ or something. Walking into their foyer and hanging my coat in the front closet next to the pink child-sized ones, I couldn’t help the tug at my heart at the picture of perfection. The four different-sized sneakers lined against the front wall, the large living room with Barbie dolls poking out between the pillows, the line of cereals on their kitchen cupboards, the occupied picture frames dotted here and there in every room; the Christmas tree in the corner with piles of presents underneath; it was what I’d dreamed of and expected for myself when I was younger. But where change is a constant, plans change. Life changes. Circumstances change.

“Your house is so beautiful,” I said to Aubrey and Ted after they’d taken us on a tour of the ground floor.

“Thanks. It’s all Ted, really,” Aubrey said beaming – she couldn’t seem to stop, “He was the one who picked out all the color palettes and combinations.”

Ted shook his head, still half-smiling, “Well, she was pregnant and biting my head off every minute, so what choice did I have?”

We laughed. The sound of softer giggling drew our attentions to the top of the stairs where two heads were poking out through the metal railings.

“Girls! What are you doing up?” Aubrey exclaimed with an apologetic look to Jake and I; frankly, I didn’t mind at all. It had been such a while since I’d been thrown into simple normalcy and it made me feel less lost somehow.

The two little girls skipped down the stairs dressed in matching Tinkerbell pajamas even though the age difference was clear as day.

“You were noisy,” the smaller one said sharply, climbing into her father’s arms. It was no surprise that she looked exactly like Aubrey; she seemed to have the same sharp tongue that had always gotten Aubrey in trouble.

“Well, at least say hello,” Ted said.

The older one, who was clinging tightly onto her mother’s arm, spoke up, “Hi. I’m Sarah Elena Reed and I’m five; that’s Lucy Sophia Reed and she’s three, but she’s going to be four in two weeks.”

My eyes widened as I heard their names and I looked over at Aubrey, stunned. She’d always seemed to have a perpetual annoyance for Lucy, and after I’d cut all ties with everyone, she seemed to develop a hatred for me, so I couldn’t understand her naming her children after either of us.