Emerald Chains

02. Friends

In the living room, her Aunt Claire was curled up on the couch watching TV. "I made some pasta. It's on the kitchen bench, you'll just need to heat it up," she shouted over the noise of the TV.

"Thanks" replied Raelyn as she headed into the kitchen to warm up the pasta in the microwave. Aunt Claire erupted into laughter continuing her TV show. That was just her personality, always out for a laugh and quite childish at times. When it came down to it though she was always there for Raelyn.

Aunt Claire was 36 years old and had taken over looking after Raelyn after her father, David, was murdered in a robbery at his local cafe. David was heading in for his morning coffee when three gunmen robbed the place and shot dead five people, including David. His killer was never found.

Aunt Claire was David's younger sister and although she missed her brother she was happy to have Raelyn around the house. Claire had never been married and didn't care much to have children of her own so Raelyn had been a nice addition to her life.

Raelyn's mother passed during childbirth so she never knew her mother but her Aunt was the best mother figure she could have asked for. Raelyn was only 14 when she was taken in by her Aunt so her Aunt Claire helped her through her teenage years and encouraged her to pursue her passion and study a computer science degree.

Raelyn never felt like she missed out on life. Her father always tried his best to provide and be there for her. She may not have grown up with the best house or the best clothes but she always had fun laughing with her dad and having fun adventures. She tried not to feel too sad when he passed, he wouldn't have wanted her too. And besides, she still had her Aunt Claire who pushed her to continue onto to college.

Raelyn grabbed her pasta from the microwave and headed back to the living room where she proceeded to sink into the couch.

"What are we watching?" asked Raelyn

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Funniest show ever! How was your day at work?" replied Aunt Claire.

"It was good, same old." Raelyn proceeded to dig into her pasta while staring at the TV.

"Did you meet up with that hunk of a man again? What's his name...Ethan."

"CLAIRE! He's just a friend. Not even a friend really, more of an acquaintance. Scratch that, he's just a customer." Raelyn blushed at the question.

Yes, he was just a customer but he was still a very good looking customer. Raelyn didn't want to admit to herself but she found herself enjoying when he came in at the end of the day. She often blushed as he gazed into her eyes, or brushed up against her hand when she handed over the coffee. Her thoughts were drifting away with her.

"Sure, sure" replied Aunt Claire, bursting out into fits of laughter again as she turned back to her TV show.

Raelyn finished up her dinner and headed to her bedroom. Her bedroom was small, as was the entire apartment. The apartment consisted of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. It was cosy and Raelyn liked that. Her room had enough room for a double bed, wardrobe and a desk with her pride and joy, her computer.

She felt lucky that she had an ensuite bathroom and proceeded towards the shower. She hopped in and enjoyed the soothing hot water washing away the grime from the day.

After her shower, she hopped into a fresh set of PJs and slumped down at her desk, turning on her computer. Raelyn reached over and grabbed her book "Practical Malware Analysis" and proceeded to flip through the pages. Her assignment wasn't due until next week but she found the content fascinating and she was compelled to keep researching. She turned page after page, highlighting a few passages here and there while proceeding to research on her computer to find out more.