Serendipity || Sebastian Stan x OC

29. Tears of Gold

A/N: I added the song above just to get the vibe and the feel for the emotion and energy in this chapter. Enjoy!

📍Charleston, NC

Spencer

As we drive through the streets of Charleston, the roads and street names start to look familiar. I lift my head from my rested elbow as I focus on a passing gas station.

"What the?" I whisper under my breath, but actually noticing how loud I must've been.

Sebastian caught onto my confusion, looking around at what I possibly could be looking at.

We were about 20 minutes from the hotel that we were staying in, not even realizing where it was located in relationship to my childhood memories.

I watched as his head turned in my peripheral vision. "Spence? What's wrong?"

My gaze spins to his as Sebastian's hand caresses my thigh a little bit, trying to pull my attention away from the world around me.

"This is where I grew up."

"Where? Here?" He raises his eyebrows as he looks out the window, breaking our gaze.

I nod as I look back at him with a half convincing, showing him I'm okay. "Yeah, down a few neighborhoods." I gesture with a nod from my head.

I watch as his eyes intently focus on the street names, "did you want to drive by?" He asks, not pushing the idea but letting me know it's an option.

Placing my hand on his that was rested on my thigh, I took a moment to think.

This was the house where it all happened. Every hit, every cigarette, every vase thrown, every lonely night... this was it.

Everything that happened in this house stained my childhood, everything before we moved to the apartment is permanently ingrained in that house.

But it was also my parents house. Miller moved in when I was a kid so that I didn't have to go through one more big change in my life; that something could stay the same without the fear of one more element in my life disappearing.

I look down to my lap and pick my nails. I didn't know what to feel. I felt regret for running away and never looking back, fear that Miller would, for some reason, be back in that house. Panic because of all the memories flooding into my head once again, aching all the way to my core.

But I also felt sadness, because I never got to say goodbye. My life with my parents just stopped and I didn't have an explanation as to why. They were just gone, and the house they raised me in was just empty. It was just a house now.

I didn't get another Christmas, another Easter, another birthday, July 4th, Thanksgiving, nothing. It all just stopped.

And that's what haunted me the most.