A Returned Nightmare ||Joe Sugg||

Ch. 9

I open the car door and smell freshly cut grass. It's one of the millions of smells that remind me of home.

I didn't have any luggage at all so mom walks inside with me while dad gets a few bags.

"Now I want you to go settle into your room and then we'll eat dinner together." She stops and looks me in the eye. "Oh Kaedan I'm just so happy you're home." She pulls me in for a hug right in front of the front door. I hold her tightly as if to say I will never leave.

As soon as I walk in the front door I'm greeted by Boomer and Maggy who never forgot me. Boomer attempts to lick my face off while Maggy just waits behind him for her turn. I hug them both and then stand to walk to my room. My mom has already started preparing dinner. I open the door and nothing is how I left it. My room was bare when I left for college, now it's filled with sewing stuff and lots of blankets.

"Oh yeah, when you left I converted this room to my sewing room, but I tried to make it like you had it when I heard you were coming home. I hope you don't mind."

"Don't worry mom it's fine, I love it.

"Good." She kisses my forehead and then returns to the kitchen.

I kick off my shoes and breathe in. The smells of home surrounds me and I feel at ease. I plop down on the soft cream carpet that covered most of the floor. The house was all dark wood coloring and I have always loved carpet, so when picking out decor for my room I chose the largest carpet. I wanted everything to be soft and nice. As you can see my life did not turn out that way. But it's okay now because I'm safe.

I pulled out a deep mahogany colored box from underneath my bed, it was coated with dust except for two places where you could see the mark of a hand print. My mom must have looked through this box while I was gone. How did she though? I always keep it locked and I hide the key under my mattress. That's when I noticed that my mattress had been altered the slightest bit. I lifted it up and grabbed the metal key that was cold to the touch. It okay that my mom looked through the box. It's filled with pictures of me, my friends, and my family. I guess this was her way of seeing me again.

I slide the key into the old lock and hear a click. I have to jiggle it a little to get it out. I open the lid and see all the memories that made my childhood memorable. I select one at random. It's of my mom, Mark, Sam, and I playing the board game: Life. 

Oh I remember this one! I sigh and lean back against my bed. It had just started storming after dinner so we decided to play a game. My dad had made his famous berry crisp and we indulged in that while competitively trying to beat each other in the game. Mark ended up winning, as he was the best with numbers. My dad took this picture right before I spilled my milk in my lap. You can see my arm is about to knock the glass over. I was so clumsy. 

I silently look through the photos. Whenever I was feeling sad I would pull out this box and go through the memories. For some reason they always made me feel good, I don't know why.

I'm looking at a picture of Oli, KJ, Lydia, and I from high school when my mom calls me for dinner. I can't help but laugh at this pic. We were climbing over a fence to sneak back into KJ's house after we snuck out at 2 AM to McDonalds for icecream. Oli got her shirt caught and I managed to take the picture right as she realized she was falling. The look on her face was priceless.

I put the picture back and locked the box before carefully placing it back under my bed and hiding the key again. Then I stood up, and walked out the door so that I could eat a proper meal with my parents.

That's something I haven't done for 3 years.