Loving You Differently

Thirty Four

Aria Adkins

"What are you looking at?" Savannah's voice cuts through the air, ripping me out of my trance in front of the kitchen window.

After my heart rate slows, I turn around and shoot her a scowl. "Jesus, what is up with you and sneaking up on me lately?"

My sister frowns, tugging the throw blanket that's wrapped around her shoulders closer into her body. "Why are you so jumpy?"

I sigh and spin back around to face the window. I carefully move the blinds and peek through the tiny gap they create, my entire body physically relaxing when I see that nothing is there.

It all started this morning when I woke up at 4 a.m to get a glass of water. Well, the paranoia started last night after my uncomfortable stand-off with Scott.

The stalking started today.

And I swear that's not just the paranoia talking, if the headlights staring directly into my kitchen window at the ass crack of dawn is anything to go by. I'd opted to sitting at the kitchen table, thinking that it was the neighbors across the street and deciding to wait for them to leave.

But they never did.

By the time I woke up, a crick in my neck from being slumped in the uncomfortable wooden chair for hours, the headlights were turned off, but the car was still parked there. Right across the street, staring right at my house.

The black Ford Expedition sat far enough away so that I couldn't see into the windshield. An hour later when I peeked out the window again, the car had rounded the curb and was parked horizontally, their tinted windows skewing my view from my vantage point even farther. But they were still there, watching, waiting.

After it had been sitting there all day, I no longer chalked it up to it being merely a coincidence. I was too scared to walk outside and see who it was. Too shaken up from previous sketchy encounters with my father, and then Scott. All fight had seemingly left my body. Instead, the car outside felt like a message.

One that I was hoping would be answered today, considering Mom promised her arrival this afternoon. I was eager to get her signature scrawled across the divorce papers, beyond ready to put this entire situation behind me and finally free myself from the chains of misery and complacency that my parents continuously tighten and reel in whenever they feel like it.

"Are you looking for someone?" Savannah asks, rising on her tip toes to peer over my shoulder.

I snatch the curtain closed and step forward, crossing my arms over my chest.

"No, I thought I saw.. a drug deal going down at the intersection. False alarm," I wave her off.

"Oh," She shrugs. She opens her mouth, looking like she wants to say something, but then decides against it.

My curiosity gets the best of me. "What?"

"Nothing," She bites her lip. "The way you were acting just... it reminded me of Dad, that's all."

I can't help but recoil backwards in shock. "I'm trying really hard not to be offended right now."

"Sorry," She shrugs again. "The whole peeking out of the window thing kinda threw me back in time. He was always paranoid and peeking through the blinds when he was high, ya know?"