Colliding Stars |✔️

20. Nostalgia

Damn it. I wanted to take a nap by myself before the student council crap started, but there weren't any other comfortable places to take naps here. The library was the only place that had couches and that also brand new ones because of Everett. I was looking forward to testing them out through a nap.

However, going to Everett's house didn't sound like that bad of an idea. Everett wasn't so hard to be around. He didn't talk much except for when he rambled because that was a whole other shitshow, and he was friendly but not too friendly that he was all up in my business.

"Okay," I said, after thinking it over for a moment.

Everett's eyes lit up and he nodded, closing his hands around his backpack straps like a middle schooler. We left the school building together and climbed onto our bikes before racing down the street, the cold breeze weaving through our hair and stinging our faces.

When we reached the point that led to the three main ways, I followed Everett straight ahead instead of turning left where I lived. The street Everett lived on was the street I grew up on. My old house-

"Here we are," Everett interrupted my thoughts when we stopped before a house that was way too familiar for me.

In front of me, stood the biggest house in the whole town that I grew up in until I was eleven. It looked the same as it did back then except the grey paint was slightly chipped, the grass on the lawn was overgrown and the big apple tree had grown older. However, the biggest difference was probably that the Takumi house was now the Weston house.

I seemed to have stopped breathing when Everett poked my shoulder and I almost gasped when I was brought out of my trance.

"Uh, are you okay, Lana?"

I blinked at him, and then glanced at the house. Did I want to go? No. Yes. Both. I hadn't been in there for six years. The house had stood empty ever since. Nobody could afford it. At least not before the Westons came along.

When I nodded, Everett smiled and jumped off his bike. "Okay. Let's head inside."

I got off my bike and followed Everett to the front lawn where we dropped our bikes on the grass. While Everett was already unlocking the front door with a key, I watched the two stairs up to the porch and saw mom and little Yuuki sitting there. She had been teaching me how to climb our apple tree and I had fallen. She was kneeling in front of me and putting a hello kitty bandage on my scratched knee.

My heart swelled. Oka-san. Mama.

She was in her favorite blue jeans and a red sweater that I was currently wearing while her long, inky dark hair was tied in a bun on top of her head. She was giving me that warm smile of hers that I always returned. I didn't know how to smile like that anymore.

"Lana?" Everett was watching me with brows furrowed and confusion clouding his face. "Is something wrong?"

I swallowed hard. I couldn't go in. Could I? Fuck no, I couldn't. But I wanted to.

Concealing my sudden burst of emotions behind my flat expression, I nodded and followed Everett up to the porch. He smiled and held the door open for me but then suddenly Dad with little Yuuki on his shoulders burst out of the door, running past as their laughs combined was the most triggering sound I had ever heard.