Ursa Minor (On hiatus)

Wanderer like me

A/N: Dedicated to ChyloU for reading and voting and leaving such lovely comments! And for recommending me great music!

I stomped my feet against the wooden porch, crossed my arms. Not because I was particularly cold, more because I was anxious. Waiting made me anxious. Rubbed my quickly reddening cheeks with my hands. It was a clear day for once, but with the blue sky came biting winds instead. A definite smell of snow in the air, even if the real deal was weeks, maybe months away. I stroked my hair out of my eyes, watched Allen searching his bag for his keys. The keys to his house this time.

We were standing on his front porch, the kind that went along the whole front of the house. And it was a big ass house. Allen of course lived in the Roseview Hills, not all amicably nicknamed 'the hills', with mansion-like buildings with pillars and pools and rose gardens in front. With gardeners. Some of the houses even had with these ornate grand windows. Church-like houses for church people. Will Bradford also lived around here.

I'd been kinda non-plussed when Allen caught up with me after last period and suggested that we'd get out of school and go to his place instead. Non-plussed, but giving it some thought I'd agreed to it. The computer labs were at the basement floor and usually filled with creeps that smelled like onions and tried to kill you with a glare if you sat by 'their' computer. That they had marked with an intricate pattern of coke cans and tootsie roll wrappings. And since it was Friday probably only the creepiest creeps with no resemblance of a social life would be left. And yeah, so I honestly didn't care much about Allen or whatever, but I had to admit I was maybe a bit curious. A tiny little bit.

Allen finally proudly jingled his keys and unlocked the door which opened with a distinct sound. I followed him into a grand hallway, open all the way to the ceiling twenty feet up. A living room straight ahead, a kitchen gleaming to the left. A curved staircase leading up to the second floor. Allen removed his shoes, threw his jacket onto a cream-colored leather chair. 

"You want anything?" he asked, heading for the kitchen. 

"No, I'm good." I looked down at the carpeted floors that went on for miles. Cream-colored carpet. Should I remove my shoes too? I carefully placed my jacket next to Allen's, and on its shiny new chair buddy it looked kinda sad, scuffed and worn out. Fucking weird to remove my shoes. Man, I hated these situations when I didn't know what to do.

"You don't have to remove your shoes," Allen called from the kitchen just as I bent down to take them off. I ignored him and continued, imagining dirty footprints for miles and miles. I still tip-toed on the carpet to peer into the kitchen, where Allen was putting a milk carton back into the fridge. All stainless steel. It looked more like the control bridge of a spaceship. And the living room straight ahead, furniture so plush, you'd either bounce off them or get eaten up by them if you tried to sit down.

"My room's upstairs." Allen said, motioning to with to follow him. The wall climbing with the stairs was filled with photographs. Like from the 19th century onwards. My family didn't have those naturally. Allen commented some of them as we as ascended. Great-grandfather. Grandmother. Aunt that became a missionary in Congo. School portraits of his parents, that had been like high school sweethearts.

"She wore his pin and everything, they married after collage," Allen explained. He looked more like his dad, I saw now, the same narrow face, same curly hair, but Allen's redder. But the smile was his mom's and yeah, there was the dimple. As a teen she still knew how to smile apparently. The whole family all dressed up from what looked like some years ago, the two clean-cut older brothers, I'd seen fleetingly on some other pictures. And Allen with cropped hair and a shy smile with braces. The braces like a sixth person in the portrait. And to think I'd made my mom remove my pictures from junior high because I looked dorky.