Dinner was silent, only the sound of our spoons and plates made noise, my eyes drifted to my aunt engrossed in eating.
I swallowed hard before opening my mouth to speak, tugging some loose strand of my hair behind my ear. "So… are there any other house rules?"
Seemed like she was waiting for me to speak as her face beamed. I didn't know what that was but it seemed as if she wanted me to be comfortable with her.
"The first rule is the important one,"
"So there are other rules" I raised an eyebrow.
"Well not much, you're a growing teen I'm sure your mom already told you the dos and not,"
"Right," I muttered, poking my fork into my salad.
"Well like no much friends over the house and oh the one with the parties and boys"
"Relax, none of those are gonna happen," I said with a huff.
"You're certain," she said, seeming amused and interested in what I had to say.
"You don't need to worry about friends coming over or parties or boys" I threw my stress word at the word 'boys'. "There weren't any in my old school, so…" I shrugged.
"You shouldn't look down on yourself dear, who knows you might make a bunch of friends in this town, it's easy-going. Just not too many friends" she paused. "Just the ones you can trust"
"I find that highly impossible for I can pass a crowd without being noticed like a kid with a teddy," I said with a touch of sarcasm in my voice.
"Hmm" she just made a sound. "Still new things are in order"
"How come you aren't married and staying in this house all alone, don't you wanna move out or" I blurted out before I could stop myself, my nosy habit was quite overwhelming.
Vanessa giggled, the noise rang around the table.
"What?" I shrugged, what I asked wasn't funny but she seemed to find it funny.
"Well it didn't work out darling and why should I move? This…" she waved her hand around. "...is our family legacy, I can't possibly just leave it"
"Yes in fact only sis had the pleasure of leaving, she had her whole life planned, I'm happy for her. We always saw things differently and had her eyes away from town and she chased her dreams" Vanessa said without her smile ceasing. "And I'm proud, a secretary to a professional singer... that's such a grand job,"
"Yeah... I know" I said, ducking my head and licking my lips. "Caused her to move around a lot and it was really affecting my studies" I raised my gaze. "So I had to move in with you"
Vanessa stressed out her hand and took mine in a tight hold, I felt comfort from it.
"So what's the family legacy about?" I asked in hope to divert the sensitive topic.
"Well… the house is the legacy" she shrugged.
I just nodded my head not understanding at all, but I was about to speak again.
"Eat now and get some sleep, it's your first day at school tomorrow"
~
At midnight I groaned opening my eyes before rubbing them, the dangling noise of the dream-catcher made it harder for me to sleep, I growled using the pillow to cover my ears hoping it would go away but it didn't, the wind was really ardent outside because of the trees, which only made it worse. Fed up I tapped on my nightstand before grabbing my glasses and sluggishly putting them on, I groaned getting off my bed like a zombie, I reach for the dream-catcher in a great attempt to take it off and finally have some peaceful sleep but I remembered the rule not to, I groaned scratching my hair before collapsing on the bed.
"Gimme a break!"