my r/nosleep favorites | volume one

Hey /r/relationships... [part 2]

continuing from part 1

Well.

I'm back.

My original post is here, if anyone wants to read it. I realized pretty quickly after posting that /r/nosleep is about the farthest thing from /r/relationships, but luckily you all took it in stride and offered me more than enough advice. I figured I might as well post my update here as well, to let everyone know that I'm okay (or rather, alive). Mods, you can remove this if it doesn't fit the subreddit.

Apologies for any typos. This is my first time using an actual keyboard, rather than my phone's touchscreen, and I'm doing it all left-handed.

My meet up with Toby was set for 1:30, but I didn't want to run off without at least checking to see what responses my post had gotten. While my dad read in his study and my mom did her usual "don't bother me during laundry time" routine, I snuck into my parents bedroom and retrieved my phone from the bedside table. When I was younger, they would hide it from me, probably somewhere in the wardrobe, but at this point they trusted me enough to leave it out in the open. Even if one of them walked in at that very moment, I could have played it off as though I were so excited about finishing my latest round of QuizUp, I just couldn't wait for 6pm.

My parents loved that about me, they said; my mom called it my "thirst for knowledge." I remember pouring through the books and periodicals in my dad's study, absorbing everything I possibly could and regurgitating it over the dinner table that same night. "Did you know that Alexander the Great turned an island into a peninsula? Did you know that the dot-com bubble climaxed in 2000? Did you know that the oldest person in the world was 122 years old?"

I read that last one just two weeks ago, actually. It's funny how much things have changed since then. It's funny how much things have changed in just the past two days.

Of all the comments you guys left, the most common ones had to do with my sister. Everyone seemed convinced that she was going to tell my parents about my plans, and that if I tried sneaking out they would be waiting for me, just like they had been waiting for her. Well, I know the old quote about only fools asking for advice and refusing to take it. So I took it. I stayed home on Wednesday, just going about my normal routine of reading and sleeping and brushing my hair (I think the split ends are beginning to develop split ends). 1:30 came and went, and I imagine Toby did as well.

Around 5:00, my dad came into my room, phone in hand. He joined me on the bed and set the phone down between us, saying that I had earned an extra hour that day. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders to give me a friendly squeeze. "You were always our good little girl, you know. Always." He was looking at the mirror on the wall above my desk, his eyes on the small crack in the corner that commemorated the time my sister had suggested a book-throwing contest. "We raised you the same way we raised your sister, and look at how she turned out. A hedonistic, vindictive liar." He spit the last few words out, then forced a smile onto his face as he shrugged. "Some people are born bad. It all comes down to who the devil chooses. You have no idea how lucky you are that he didn't choose you."

He gave me a light kiss on the forehead and stood to go. I didn't plan on replying. But I looked down at my phone, remembered everything you all had said about how "disturbing" my life apparently was, and blurted out, "Are we normal?"

My dad turned around slowly. He asked me what I meant by that. His expression had been so warm just a minute before, but now there was a strange coldness to it, as though he had just thrown up a wall. I picked up my phone, already regretting having asked, and told him that I hadn't meant anything by it, and not to worry, and never mind.