My High School Life pt.2

Chapter 17: Money

Chapter 17: Money

The destination actually took a few minutes to arrive at. It was so close that I could have walked to it if I wanted to. The house was small and old looking, but it was private property. The grass in the front was high, which meant no one has been around for a while, and if someone has then they didn't bother to cut it.

"Are you sure we should do this? What if someone's in there?" I question Tanner as he parks that car in the driveway.

"No one will be there because you have the key," Tanner sighs. "Now let's go," he tells me sternly as he gets out. I get out of the car and hurry to his side. I take the back of his shirt into my hand as we head up to the door. "Where's the key?" He questioned me and I handed it over.

I squeeze his shirt as he twists the key on the doorknob and turned the knob. We entered cautiously and curiously. I let Tanner go as I begin to explore the house. All the furniture was covered in white sheets.

"Paisley! Come check this out!" Tanner shouts out making the house echo. I look around for him and found him in the kitchen. My eyes widened with what I saw. The table was covered with packs of money. "What should we do with it?"

"Leave it," I tell him as I take his hand to get him away from it.

"This is all yours! Why should you leave it here?" He shakes his head at me.

"We don't know that," I remind him. "I'm not a stealer. Just leave it alone, and we'll come back to it after we're done looking around," I suggested.

"Fine," he sighs.

Tanner and I leave the kitchen and began heading up the stairs. There were pictures hanging as we walked up but they were covered in dust. I swipe the glass on one of the pictures and saw my mom.

"What the hell," I say softly. I take the sleeve of my sweater and wiped the rest of the picture to reveal my dad and me.

"See," Tanner says happily. I was young in this picture, I was around five years old. "Do you not remember this place?"

"No", I say shaking my head. I began wiping the rest of the photos to find other couples with their children. Are they supposed to be my family?

"Thompson family tree," Tanner whispered out. "Your dad's family."

"How do you know?" I questioned him as I looked over at him? He had the picture in his hands. He flipped over the back and revealed a hidden family tree. It stopped with me. My dad was the only child. "Let's keep looking around," I tell him as a hint for him to put it back. I begin walking up and looked in the rooms. The rooms were all covered in white sheets as well. They had everything, a bed, drawers, and television.

"You have a room," Tanner says out from across the hall. I come to him and find a door with my name signed on it with other names. "Maybe this room belonged to all the children at one point," he tells me.

We walked in and found toys everywhere. On the wall, there were photos of children and I was the last one. It was a photo of me playing on the floor with a bear. I can't believe this. I smiled out widely, I have a second home.

"The money belongs to you," Tanner whispered in my ear. I look over at him and quickly looked away. He's probably right, but I don't feel comfortable with it. "Come on," Tanner says as he takes my hand and leads me back down to the kitchen. He begins opening the kitchen drawers until he found a bag and handed it to me.

"This doesn't feel right," I tell him. I begin to walk around the table hoping to find something, but nothing. "I'm not taking the money," I admitted.