I: Blake
Blake's hand shook as she gripped the handle and pushed open the door to her empty house. She always had her key with her, even bringing it to school, and Grandma had said they hadn't changed the locks yet, since the house was still in the family and still had all the furniture inside. And all of Blake's things that she hadn't taken to school with her.
It looked exactly the same as it had when she'd left in August. She didn't know why she'd expected it to be different, but...
Blake sighed, looking back toward the door.
I shouldn't have come here. I should have just gone straight to Grandma and Grandpa's—
She shook her head.
No.
Blake needed to do this. At the very least, she needed the house to cam in. Her grandparents didn't know about that, and though the walls in their house were thick, they weren't that thick.
Dragging her suitcase along with her, Blake looked around at the empty rooms and the signs of her mom.
Pictures still hung up on the walls and sat on the mantle and table-tops and in bookcases. None of her dad, of course. But plenty of Blake with her grandparents and some pictures of her and her mom where Blake didn't see how anyone could overlook how fake their smiles were.
All of them were from before she'd started dying her hair, of course. Even when she'd just dyed it black, her mom had hated it.
Leaving her suitcase at the bottom of the stairs, Blake went through the kitchen. Her grandparents had cleared the fridge of any food and the counters of any fruits, with just a Britta and bottles of water in the fridge. The pantry was pretty cleaned out, too, but Blake found a few of the old protein bars her mom had liked that weren't expired yet, and unwrapped one of them. She hated long flights, and hadn't been in the mood to get food after getting off the plane, but was hungry.
Blake finished the protein bar and realized she'd just been standing in the kitchen, leaning on the counter, mind blank. Shaking herself and taking a deep breath, Blake threw out the wrapper and headed back around to the stairs. She didn't take her suitcase yet, instead walking up with her thoughts swirling. When she came to the top of the stairs and looked down the hall toward her mother's bedroom, a vice pressed in on Blake's ribcage, blood thrumming in her ears. She realized she was clenching her fists, and forced air into her lungs, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before stalking down the hall toward her room.
Once inside, she slammed the door, then frowned. There was no one else in the house, so she'd done it out of habit. That annoyed her.
Looking around her room felt as weird as Blake had expected it to.
She'd taken most of her things to college with her when she, Marie and Sophie had found an apartment, and had kept her room just "her" enough to annoy her mom without keeping anything in plain view that would make her mom actually worried about her. She also had a few things at her grandparents from when she would spend the night at their house.
At least I have my bed.
The sheets probably needed washing, but after being on the plane for so long, she didn't care.
Hopping onto her bed, Blake wiggled around, feeling a little better, and gazed up at the ceiling for a few minutes before pulling out her phone. She'd already sent texts to Liam, Chloe, and Marie and Sophie saying she'd landed, but only the latter three had responded. Liam's flight had left after hers, and he had just as long of a flight, if not a little longer, so it would be at least a few hours until she heard from him.
Without him to talk to, though, Blake didn't really have anything to do. She looked around her room for a while as she sat laid back on her bed, still in her beanie, though she'd let some of her hair slip out, and catalogued everything she would need to put away before using this space for camming, and where she would need to put the lights, but that only kept her mind occupied for a short while. Without that, her mind started to wander. Toward her mom and how fucking angry she still was at her. Toward her dad and all the complicated emotions there.
Taking a deep breath, Blake rose from the bed. She thought about showering for a moment, but for whatever reason, that just made stomach knot.
After getting one of her heavier winter coats out of the closet, Blake headed downstairs and grabbed her suitcase. She stepped outside, locking the door behind her with one hand as she called a ride with the other, then called her granparents.
"Blake? Hello, sweetie! Are you almost home?"
Blake smiled at her grandpa's voice, feeling a bit warmer, "Hey, Grandpa. Yeah, I should be there in about ten minutes. I can't wait to see you two."
A/N: This arc is a bit slower on the spice, since I'm not just skipping to when they're back together after break, but the character work gets sooo juicy!!! I hope you all enjoy this--I'm so excited for you to read it!!! Don't forget to check out my Patreon if you want early access to the chapters!
Also, I'm posting scene-by-scene as I wrote these, so I might post twice a week sometimes when one of the chapters is shorter, like this one:)
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/taylorstorms