Unconditional

Chapter 28

Droning echoed over the room, its noise radiating through me as the screen in front of me blasted like the next sun. Baby hairs blew over my nape, the fans breeze tickling me with each swipe. My neck crammed to the side with my eyes squinting.

Ah, are you serious?

Stretching out my back, I curved awkwardly in the chair before fumbling my way up.

There should be a warning for sitting for such a long period of time, like big neon lights screaming: YOU"LL REGRET THIS AS SOON AS ITS OVER.

Life isn't like that though, yet-,

Maybe I should make 'em.

Making my way over to the rotating fan, I hazily glanced at its operating functions only to unplug the device. Too many buttons, yet only rotates?

I beg of you, can't you sit still for a singular moment, please?

Resting a palm across the object, its metal cage provided me the coolness I ached for. My body leaned over it, a moment of mental rest as I shut my eyes.

Alright. Alright.

You have been absolutely too heated, both mentally and physically. Chill, I'm sure we can find a solution that works fantastic for us. What we saw...was not all the options out there. The internet shows popularity, not exact fine tuned searches...

Maybe Pops can help me out? I'm sure the man knows much more than I.

"Daaaaaad," I yelled, prancing out from my cave. My eyes darted over the dark halfway while I made my way down to the living room.

"Dad?" Adjusting to the brightly lit room, I gazed at my seated family which lacked the one member I was in search of. My eyebrows scrunched with my bottom lip pouting.

"Don't look so sad, he's in the art room looking for a book. Go help him if you can," The light coated voice of my mother perked my discouraged spirit.

Shooting her a thank you, I ran past her and Sol who sat on the opposing couch playing with his dinosaurs.

"Hi," I smiled at Sol, making the corner, I called back, "Bye!"

His response echoed lightly in the halls, my feet carrying me closer to my goal.

Oh! How exciting! More time to talk with Pops, with our busying lives and crazy new schedules, is it always a blessing to talk with loved ones, and treasuring the time has become a natural response as of late.

Peaking in the artificially lit room, its windows reflected back my curious look and a hunched man squatting beside the bookshelves.

His brown dress pants scrunched up as though he were wearing wrongly sized clothes with a loose blue dress shirt to further that case. Continuing my way in, an ever so slight creak sounded, with Father taking a glance back in my direction.

His age showed only in the smile lines over his face, the wrinkles of a happy man peered back with an open smile.

"Aruna!" Waving his hand closer, he sat in his squatted position, briefly looking down at a pile of books below his feet. "I'm glad to see you! Do you mind helping your pops search for a book briefly? I've been searching since supper to grab this recent book... It's a history compilation... Wanna take a guess where? I'm sure you guys might've heard of it while traveling, it's England's adored community. Ha, at least for us. Booming with cultures, ideas, prospects and phenomenal people. Ah, even Bennet grew up here."

"Mr. Cox?" I asked, the recollection of his boss coming to mind.

My father nodded, his hand waving me closer. With a titled look, I approached him, eyebrows risen,