I rubbed my eyes as I woke up, yawning. It seemed I'd slept until dusk. I'd changed into my pajamas and panda hood. The hood why you ask? Well, cause I just thought pandas were adorable and deserved to rule the world which of course my family thought was ridiculous. I mean having a nice panda president didn't sound half as bad when you came to think of it. It sounded cute. I walked out of the room, my beats still dangling from my neck and made my way down the corridor.

The lighting in the corridor was low and ominous. I'd only seen the type in movies where some killer lurked out at you from the dark and slit your throat. Thankfully, Jay came out of his room saving me the paranoia.

I'd always been the strange paranoid type from the start where I thought that someone was following me. Pretty unrealistic I know but that is what watching thrillers in a row every night did to you.

"Dorkie," Jay came up behind me, slinging an arm around my neck. "Shall I escort you to the stairs as you seem scared shitless my darling little sister."

I shoved him away.

"You wish," I replied, annoyed. "I am terrified of your assumptions though they're just horrible."

Jay grinned down at me and tugged at a strand of my hair. I slapped his hand away as we climbed down the stairs and at that precise moment something felt oddly out of place. I could hear him chuckling to himself beside me and my parents laying out dinner below but I could feel something besides that. I couldn't put a finger on it. It was the feeling of something being there that wasn't supposed to be.

"My two lovely children," Mom called as we approached the dining table. "Our first ever dinner in this house. Are you kids excited?"

The feeling escaped me as I sat at the table, groaning internally at my parents' ridiculousness. They'd set up scented candles and napkins and even ornaments and I just felt like banging my head against something.

I dug into the roasted beef and mashed potatoes with the incredibly fancy fork my mother had taken out for this heart touching occasion (note the sarcasm).

"Now we shall all toast to our new house," Dad announced imitating some political dude from the 90s. "May we be blessed and forever remain happy and-"

"Just get on with it," I muttered as I raised my glass just enough to touch theirs and finally when the horror was over went back to eating.

"Rose," My mom suddenly spoke up and she seemed serious. "I know you loved that house but honey things had to change."

"I guess," I said while forking the beef around the edge of my plate.

"This is a beautiful house," Dad said. "It has that 1970s touch to this and makes me remember my times."

"Miles she's sad, okay?" Mom hissed.

Dad then looked at me and for the first time his lips drooped and he seemed like he was hiding how much he missed the place as well. After all, he'd spent half of his life there and watched me and Jay grow up.

"Don't worry, hon," Dad said in a firm low voice. "We'll make even greater memories here and you'll see you'll love every second of it."

I couldn't help smiling against him as he leaned forward across the table and hugged me. I guess you could call this a hearth too. The feeling of your dad hugging you which existed right in the center of your heart.

It was a nice feeling. Maybe one of the best. As dad pulled away, Jay whimpered about not getting a hug and we all laughed.

"Go hug your guitar," I suggested.

"Shut up, dorkass," he shot back aiming his mash potato coated fork at me.

"Jay, watch your tongue mister and I will not have you assaulting your sister with a mash potato studded fork," Mom yelled. "Put it down at once!"

When dinner was over, I helped mom with some of the dishes and Jay wiped the table clean with a Kleenex wipe. He was groaning more and cleaning less. I wiped the soap suds off, handed mom a towel before starting towards the stairs and just at that moment I felt that odd feeling again.

I climbed up the stairs, the unusual feeling weighing with every step. I put my beats back on and the music devoured me but the feeling got past it. I hummed along a little too desperately as I neared the landing.

Paranoia was a stupid bastard that much I knew. I stepped onto the landing and slowly bent my head down so that wooden tiles were looking me in the face. This was an easy way to avoid paranoia just focus on one thing and not the other. I kept walking, my footsteps echoed eerily through the corridor.

I then turned into my room but ended up ramming into the door. I gingerly rubbed my brow while looking up and noticing that it was closed. I never remembered closing it. I sure was an idiot but I never forgot things.

I remembered more than well that I'd left it open so that it didn't take me a whole effort to turn around the knob and open it. What can I say? I was lazy. I always left my bedroom door open unless I was changing or sleeping.

I shook the thought off for a moment and opened it. My room was as it was, the duvet messy over the bed otherwise untouched. I checked my wardrobe which I didn't know why I was doing and there in the corner lay the same pair of pink underwear I'd thrown out.

I must've tossed it in again so I didn't give it much thought. I just closed the wardrobe again and took off my slippers and slid under the duvet. My iPhone was in my bag and I hadn't bothered to change it cause the effort was huge but now I wanted to talk to Ethan.

It'd been eight weeks since we last talked. He'd changed schools and that was the reason why I didn't feel heartbroken of the shifting. I mean sure I felt sad but this sad was different. Ethan was my best friend and I'd cried over him when he changed schools.

He'd been my everything which sounds corny as hell but it was the truth. He was irreplaceable. He was one of a kind. He was just amazing. I moved on though and told myself that you can't always have everything. Crying over something wasn't going to bring it back. That was just pathetic.

Ethan was my childhood friend. We'd both rode bikes when we were six, we'd both got our first tooths broken at seven and we'd both had enrolled in school at the same age of five.

We'd participated in a school play when we were twelve where I was the stupid damsel in distress and he was my prince charming. It was the cringiest crap I'd gone through but I still cherished the memory. We both signed up for the literary club at fifteen and we both dated people around sixteen which was extremely weird.

And here I was at eighteen, in a new house starting a new life but just wanting to grasp the old one by texting Ethan. I'd always had a special place for him in my heart.

He was the king of mood swings, was outrageously charming, smart and funny. I'd never to say this to his face, god forbid, but he was just so damn likable.

I got up and moved towards my bag. Then a chill brought me to a stop. I hugged my arms to myself and turned around. The window was halfway open and the curtains fluttered only slightly. I felt my throat drying a bit because I never ever opened windows. I just felt like opening windows was stupid because they were meant to stay closed and only to be looked out of.

"You're acting stupid," I said out loud to myself and crossed the room to the window, my footsteps harsher and faster. I leaned out only to look down at the side of the house and the darkened fence.

A tree stood below but it never quite reached the window sill. I shook my head, leaned in and closed the window firmly.

I felt my actions more drugged and flustered as I walked up to my bag, fished out the phone and took it over to my nightstand. I put it on charge but couldn't stop turning to the window every once in a while.

I was just acting stupid. Beyond stupid. I waited for the apple sign to come on when it did I quickly opened my messages and went into Ethan's messages. I quickly wrote him a text. My hands were almost dragging over the keypad. I suddenly felt tired.

-I moved into a new house. It's better than crap. Hopefully, I'll survive lol.

I took off the beats and rubbed the corners of my eyes. The silence was dull and harrowing. I checked the window once more feeling like this was one of Jay's dumb attempt at scaring me. Well, he'd failed badly.

The phone buzzed suddenly and I jumped slightly almost crushing the phone against my ribcage as I held it to my racing heart. It took me a while to recover and then I blushed because it'd actually scared the crap outta me. God. I was so stupid. Well, at least Jay would never know.

-Roseee, long time no talk. Really, you moved? Where? Near me? Is that why you're so happy? I knew you liked me but never this much.

I was so flustered at the moment I couldn't even properly roll my eyes at his text. I gathered my nerves, told myself to quit being a baby and settled back against the pillow as I wrote him a message.

-Dream on. I didn't move near you. I moved to Colombia. Unless you are already here somewhere to haunt me through the rest of my life as well. :)

I waited for his text while chewing my bottom lip, music pulsed against my chest through the beats. It was the only thing that broke through the chilling silence and the only thing that made me feel less paranoid. I glanced again at the window and peeled my eyes away as my phone buzzed.

-Colombia eh? Well, that's miles apart. So we have a long distance relationship thingy going on now, have we? Clever, Rose. Very clever.

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Sorry for updating after so long!

I had school and stuff!

Hope you like it!

Don't forget to vote or comment!

-P.R