Jason & Darius |Craving Yours| ✔

19. Drive & by

Darius Dixon

I sat outside the picturesque white picket fence. The house couldn't have looked more perfect.

It was the perfect example of a perfectly average family home. Which I guess they were, in their own way. The evergreen wide lawn was cut to perfection and not a blade was out of line. The walls were painted with a light shade of something resembling white and not a handprint was on them. Even the driveway was clean and clear. Just like the rest of the neighbouring houses. It all seemed quiet and peaceful as if they were plucked out of a too good to be a true brochure. The ones realtors show you so you can instantly fall in love with a house you were never meant to like. And even the silence had a certain air of snob in it. Like the atmosphere could sense an intruder among it.  It all felt so surreal. My presence was starting to feel more like an intrusion. 

I slowly thrummed the steering wheel with my thumb as I tried to convince my self to make a  turn and go home. Sitting in the dark and watching people's house was definitely not a good look. Especially in the dead of the night. I slipped my phone out of my pocket with a new wave of dread. The screen was still on the last application I had opened mocking me for my cowardness. I stared at the same ten-digit contact and wondered how bad this idea was. A phone call would have solved all my problems this was better, it had to be it was after all more confrontational.

I let my thumb hover over the contact for another minute as I tried to decide. Maybe... I could just call now. Then avoid all the weirdness that would come with me showing up unannounced. Or maybe just maybe this was the right thing to do. This had to be. Didn't they say if something terrifies you its the right thing to do?

A knock on my closed window startled me and cursed as my phone slipped between fingers onto the mat under my seat. Instead of immediately reaching for it I looked out the window and saw a face I wasn't particularly thrilled to see.

"What are you doing?" He said the moment I cracked the window open.

Slowly taking my time I fully opened the window before answering him. He had no right. Well sure he had a right but he still had no right to demand answers from me as if I owed him anything.

"Relax I am not here for you," I said as I bent over to feel my way around the car seat. After blindly groping at air I finally gripped my phone and pulled it out.

"Well, I would hope so." He said eyes searching mine. "You don't look okay. Are you okay?'

" I am fine." I snapped before closing my eyes and trying again. "I am fine. I am here to see my sister."

"James looked at me with a somewhat sadistic smile. Is that it?"He asked leaning onto the car window before looking directly into my eyes, like that would affect my answer.

I looked back at him silently as I let the silence stretch and hang uncomfortably between us. Whatever he thought was going on, was definitely not happening. Did he think his dotting father routine would intimidate me into cowering away with my tail between my legs?

"Dad? Mum said what is taking so long." Carol's voice broke through the silence before she squealed out my name.

James abruptly moved from the car and looked back at Carol's excited face.

"He was just leaving." He clipped.

I opened my door and enveloped her in a hug.

"Not yet I wasn't," I replied with a challenging look in James direction.

Carol immediately launched into an excited chatter of what was happening at her school. She spoke with the same childlike wonder that she had when she was seven. It was great knowing that she didn't have to grow up too fast. I listened attentively as James begrudgingly led the way into the house.