THEA
"Hey, I'm going with your mum today."
"Where are you two going?"
"She wanted to go shopping," I joined him in the kitchen and took a seat. "Are you okay being alone?"
"It's fine. I have my best-mate coming over today."
I looked at him. "You have a best-mate?"
He gave me a look. "What? You think I have no friends?"
"I've never met any of your friends, I assumed you were too busy to have one." I bit into the scramble eggs. "God, I'm so starving."
Arthur sipped his morning coffee. "You didn't eat dinner last night. And I do have a few friends I'm still very closed with."
"I was so tired after work, I could pass out. It's a good thing that it's the weekend and I don't have work to do today."
The past 2 days had been exhausting for me. Work was hectic and we had to stay a little longer at work to fix some problems. Last night was the worst, I actually came back from work around 11 pm and literally skipped dinner just as how exhausted I was last night. Today I woke up with a hungry stomach.
"Anyway who's your friend?"
"Name's River, and his wife Lily. We've been friends since high school."
"You guys are still friends until now? That's lovely."
"Yeah, it's a good thing we live in the same city."
He then announced that he would be in his office room to finish some unfinished works, I took this chance to take a shower and get ready, Elisa would pick me up anytime soon. I wore my green denim jacket and let my hair fall. I decided to just wait for Elisa downstairs in the living room so I grabbed my purse and my phone with me. I stopped by Arthur's office room and peaked in to see that he was typing on his laptop.
"Hey, I'll be leaving soon."
"Have fun. Say Hi to my mum, please." he said without averting his eyes from the screen. Guess he was really busy.
"Will do. I'll see you when I get back."
*
"Tell me, dear. Have you finally decided whether to keep the house? The papers are finalized a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard from you about it." Elisa asked as she sipped her coffee.
A few weeks ago, my parents' house ownership paper had finalized and it was now under my name. I got a call from the attorney a few weeks ago, asking if I wanted to keep the house or to sell it but I hadn't decided it yet. A part of me wanting to keep the house because it held so much memories with my parents, but at the same time the house would be empty and abandoned.
Elisa listened to everything I said about the house, how I wanted to keep the house but had to figure out the way to take care of it. I didn't ever want to sell it, I wanted to keep my parents' last memories, but I didn't know how to handle it.
"If you really want to keep the house then that's fine, keep it. I know how much the house means to you. But if I may suggest, you can use the house as an orphanage or a home-school where you can hire teachers to volunteer, that way the house won't be empty."
I thought about using the house as orphanage but it was going to take a while and big responsibility to run it, I didn't think I could do that. And home-school? That was a good idea.
"I think home-school is okay. Parents can take their kids for extra curriculum. That's a good idea, El."
"See? If you agreed, we can start arranging the house and look for the teachers."
I nodded. "Let's do that."
"Perfect! I know someone who can arrange the permission to run the school program and stuff. All we need to do is look for the volunteers and start promoting the school once it's done."
After our talk about the house, Elisa suggested that we should take a look at the house and see if anything needed to be renovated. So we left to my old house using her car. It took 35 minutes from Arthur's house but only 10 minutes away from my in laws'. Once we reached my old house, she parked the car.
It had been 8 months since I last came to this house. Ever since I married Arthur, I had never come to this house. Looking at the place I once called home, brought shivers down my spine.
A hand touched my back. "Are you okay, honey?"
I nodded my head. "I'm fine. Let's get in."
She opened the fence and we walked to the front gate. Each steps to the front door made my legs shaking a bit. I didn't know what happened, but looking back at the house made my heart beating so fast. I gulped down as we stood in front of the door.
I looked at the door knob and suddenly everything went spinning around. I started shaking uncontrollably, my head was sweating, and my throat felt like it was choking me. Before I knew it, I fell to the ground with tears streaming down my eyes.
"Oh my God, Althea, are you okay?" Elisa panicked as she cupped my face in her hands. I was still crying. "Breathe, Thea, control your breathing." she rubbed my back and tried to calm me down.
I shook my head. "I can't do this. I'm not ready to get in the house. It's haunting me."
I was still crying and suddenly felt scared by the house. The house brought back the trauma I once had from losing my parents. I thought I could do it, but I was wrong. I was not ready.
"Okay, we won't be coming in today. Just breathe, okay? Take a deep breath."
I did as I was told. I took a deep breath and steady my breaths as I tried to calm myself. I did it over and over again until I felt better. Once I had calm down, I wiped my tears with my hands. "I'm sorry, I just had a panic attack."
Elisa rubbed my back. "Don't be sorry, honey. You are not ready and that's fine. We will come in next time, okay?" I just nodded in response and she helped me stand up. "Let's take you home."
She drove us back to Arthur's house. Suddenly I was not in the mood to talk and felt a little sad after seeing the old house. Elisa noticed my quietness but decided not to test me. Once we arrived in Arthur's house, I thanked her and apologized for earlier. She hugged me a goodbye and left after that. I sighed then walked into the house, still feeling a bit upset.
Once I was in, the house was filled with men's laughs echoing around the house, making me wonder if we had guests coming today. Then I remembered Arthur mentioned about having his friends coming over. I walked past the living room to find Arthur and his friends laughing at something.
"Hello," I greeted as I walked in the living room. They noticed me coming then Arthur stood up.
"Hey, you're back." He approached me and took me to his friends. "Guys, this is my wife, Thea. Thea, this is River and Lily."
"Hi, Thea." River shook my hand and I found his face quite familiar but I was not too sure where I saw him.
Lily walked up to me then pulled me into hug. "It's so nice to finally meet you, Thea. I can't believe this idiot married a very beautiful girl."
"Hey, I'm not an idiot." Arthur protested.
"Yes you are. You'd better not make her life living hell just because your wedding was arranged." this time River said.
I pulled away from Lily and looked at them. "Wait, you guys knew?"
"Hard not to when I saw yours and his face on the wedding. You both looked like you wanted to murder each others," River laughed. Now I remembered where I saw him. He was one of Arthur's guests on our wedding.
"Bro, that was months ago. Thea and I are civil now."
"Good, because if you dare to hurt her I will shave your balls." Lily threatened him, I quietly laughed. These two seemed like a fun couple.
Arthur looked horrified. "Gee, Riv, control your wife."
River walked a step and pulled Lily closer. "Don't worry, I always take control in bed."
He kissed Lily and Arthur groaned in annoyance.
"God, I don't need to know about your sex life!" Arthur hissed as he cringed. River and Lily laughed at him, clearly enjoyed pulling on his leg.
"As much as I love talking to you, I need to head to my room to change. I will be back soon." I told them then excused myself to head upstairs to my room.
When I reached my room, I closed the door behind me and let out a sigh. Today had been pretty rough for me, all I wanted was to lie down and cry myself to sleep, but I had guests downstairs. I didn't want to be rude to them by not showing up, they seemed like a nice people and I would actually be glad to spend time with them to talk.
I undressed myself and took a quick shower. I brushed my hair and looked at myself in the mirror. Though I cleaned up, I still looked a mess. My eyes were still a bit swollen from crying and I looked like someone who just woke up from their death.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I needed to forget about the sadness. I needed to be strong. I didn't want to keep grieving over my parents' death and living in the past. They wouldn't want me to keep grieving over them.
"You got this, Thea. You're strong." I told myself.
Just when I opened my eyes, someone knocked on the door. I went to open it to find Arthur.
"Hey, I was just about to join you."
He searched my face. "Are you okay?"
I frowned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
He still looked at me. "Are you sure?"
He must've noticed my swollen eyes so I quickly broke my gaze to him and looked at the floor. "Arthur, I'm fine."
He lift my chin up. "Hey, what's wrong? I noticed you looked upset when you came back. Was it my mom? Did she give you a hard time?"
How did he notice I was upset?
I shook my head. "No, it's not her. It's just.. I had a panic attack, but nothing to worry about."
He frowned. "Panic attack? What happened?"
I sighed then told him everything about today, minus my old house that was going to be a home-school. I would tell him that some other time.
"Are you okay now? Be honest."
I sighed. "I'm trying. I'm still a bit upset but I'll be fine."
He searched my face once again before slowly engulfing me into hug. "Come here," I accepted his hug and buried my face onto his chest. "Can I do something for you?"
"Your presence is enough."
And I meant it. His presence had slowly made me feel better. His hug had calm me down. We stayed like this for a while, until I remembered that we still had our guests downstairs.
"Arthur, your friends.."
"They're still here, don't worry, I told them I wanted to check on my wife. They noticed you looked upset too."
I groaned. "Great. Now everyone thinks I'm a mess."
"Don't say it like that. You're not a mess. You are grieving and it's perfectly okay," he pulled away and cupped my face in his hands. "It's okay to be upset, but don't let it ruin your day."
I sighed as I melted in his touch. "I'm fine now. I'm not that upset anymore, your friends made me feel much better."
He raised an eyebrow. "Just my friends?"
I looked at him and pretended to wonder. "Who else?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, perhaps your husband who was worried to see his wife upset."
Somehow I smiled as he said that. "You're worried about me?"
He grinned. "Ha! I see a smile."
I gasped as I realized what he had just done. "You jerk! I really thought you were worried about me, God, you're heartless!"
He laughed as he stopped me from pulling away from him. "I'm just kidding. Listen, I want you to keep that smile on your face. It suits you good. For whatever happens, just remember that you are not alone. You've got me, so next time you are upset, you can tell me everything."
I was not used to tell him how I felt. We just made up after months of not being civil. But I was willing to try.
"Fine. I'll try."
"Good," he then pinched my cheeks. "Your cheeks are red like tomatoes."
I slapped his hand. "Don't touch me!"
Though I was annoyed by him but I knew he was trying to distract me from my sadness, and to cheer me up.
He chuckled. "Come on, River and Lily are looking for you."
"I'll be down in a bit, you go ahead first."
He nodded then opened the door but stopped as he turned to me. "Hey, Thea?"
I looked at him. "Yeah?"
"I am worried about my wife."
With that, warmth crept around my cheeks. He noticed it then winked at me before going downstairs, leaving me with my heart beating fast.
Arthur you are going to be the death of me.
*****