Mr. Lone Boy /BoyxBoy/

||Twenty-one||

"No, but I'm expecting him to stay there a couple of days longer, it's only natural."

"You're right," I agreed.

The car fell into a hush after that.

Although I soon realized that the closer to I drove to my parents' house, the nosier it grew inside my head.

Go to your room, Nate.

You're still a child.

The nanny will take you there.

Why can't you be more like the other children, Nate?

It was the echo of their voices, the sound of their disappointments.

"How much closer are we?"

Ian's voice broke me out of my self pitying stupor, my fingers relaxing against the steering wheel where I had clenched them tight enough to turn my knuckles white.

I cleared my throat before replying.

"Just a few more blocks."

We were starting to approach the higher end of the city, where most of the buildings started to clear away and new, modern looking houses lay in streets facing each other.

"Which one's yours?" he asked.

"It's at the end of the street."

We passed a park and I smiled as I remembered the times I spent there with Devin. The swing set was still there, only repainted a darker shade of red.

"You used to hang out there a lot?" Ian asked.

I nodded. "A long time ago. We used to buy snacks from this small grocery store just a few minutes away and head over to the park when it was dark. Our parents thought we were asleep but by twelve AM sharp, Dev and I would be right by the gate trying to climb over it."

"Sounds like fun."

"It was. We found a hiding spot under the slide, between the slide itself and the ground. It was dark so no one could have seen us anyway. But it was fun pretending to hide from bad guys and stuff. Then we'd eat all the food we bought until our stomachs ached and both of us were too tired to stay there any longer."

It was sunnier than usual in the car. Cold, since it was still winter, but the sun was out. The light bounced back against the windows, producing a supposedly calm environment when all I really felt was panic.

Ian distracted me, his voice diminishing the ones in my head but when he stopped speaking, they came back.

I swallowed hard, reaching out to turn on the radio.

Music started to play and I turned the volume up enough to blur out most of the noise in my head.

I drove the car closer to my prior house, driving up the hill, passing rows upon rows of trees which had lost most, if not all, of their leaves.

"That's your house?" Ian asked, pointing at the big house we were approaching.

"Yeah."

"It's practically a mansion."

It was a big house.

"I wouldn't call it a mansion-"

"It's a freakin' mansion!"

Somehow I found enough energy inside me to let out a laugh. Or a sad attempt of one.

"Are you nervous?"

I glanced at Ian. "A little."

I didn't know how or why I was admitting it to him, but I did, and he only nodded in understanding.