"I don't think he's home, I can't see any movements inside Mr. Brown's house" Ellie peeped through the window, trying to see if she could find Sydney's brother inside their old neighbor's house.
They are back from work after shutting the coffee shop since they rarely get as many customers during afternoons as they do in the morning. Most importantly, they had to figure out a way to deal with the threatening presence of Shane in their neighborhood, as well as him being their neighbor now too, so they had to close earlier than usual.
Nothing's more important than this.
"He's not around, I can't smell him. I can catch his scent from here but I'm not getting anything" Sydney threw herself on the couch with a deep sigh of relief, realizing that Shane wasn't around for now.
She can breathe perfectly with the usual headache that comes whenever he's around, gone. It's gone for now, but it'll probably come back when he returns from lurking around whatever place he is at the moment.
"Why don't we break into his place now he's gone?" Ellie suggested, after closing the window with the curtain and rushing towards Sydney relaxing on the couch.
"Break into his place? And do what?" Sydney dragged herself up to sit on the couch properly when Ellie brought up that ridiculous idea without warning. Why the hell would any of them do that?
"And you know…I don't know... To scare him away?" Ellie shrugged with no idea of what to say when it seemed like Sydney wasn't in support of her suggestion. Suddenly, she didn't even know why she had to bring that up. It sounds kind of stupid now she's thinking of it. What exactly was she thinking?
"No one is breaking into anybody's house, Ellie. That is not going to make him move out overnight like Mr. Brown did. Nothing scares Shane. It will only bring him knocking right on our doorstep because he'll know I'm the only one capable of breaking into his house and I'm not a thief"
"Right, not a thief" Ellie scratched the back of her head, feeling slightly embarrassed due to the absurd suggestion that she made.
"But how then do we make him leave? With how desperate he is to bring you back together with your family, I doubt that he'll be thinking about moving out anytime soon" Ellie pointed out.
"You are starting to sound more shaken up about this than I am right now, Ellie. You don't have to, I told you I'm just going to ignore him. Giving Shane the silent treatment and acting like he's a ghost around me, is the only way I know would irritate him so much more than anything else" Sydney smiled widely at the thought of that.
"But what if he keeps on trying? You might eventually give in to him. I don't know, I'm just saying though" Ellie made a very important point here. However, Sydney being too focused on how to make Shane give up on her, failed to notice how possible that is and can happen.
"Tsk, as if" Sydney scoffed and waved aside what Ellie said. "If Shane keeps on trying, then I'll try harder than him and if he wants to keep this going on, I'll keep on going with it too. But the one thing I know for certain is that I'm never going back home. They never wanted me there, I won't be going now either just because my parents are separating"
Sydney vowed and then shifted her attention to the watch on her wrist.
"Oh, it's almost time already. I have to go pick Roman up from school" She stood on her feet, planning to leave when she stopped and turned back, noticing the way that Ellie was strangerly looking at her.
"What is it?" Sydney asked suspiciously with a side-eye.
"Can I come with you? I hate to say this but I'm still kind of scared that your brother might try to eat me if I stay. He could be back anytime soon and I certainly don't want to be left alone here"
"Hahaha, you are so funny and silly at the same time, Ellie. My brother would never eat you, we don't eat humans. Most of my kind does but we don't, I've never done it, and neither has any of my family members, but I'll kind of love it if you tag along. Come on"
"Thanks, I've been wanting to be the one to bring Roman back home one of these days" Ellie excitedly jerked up from the couch and found her way to the door immediately, before Sydney could even open it for them to leave straight away to Roman's school.
****
"Did you have fun today at school?" Ellie handed over a lollipop that she bought for Roman while giving him a piggyback ride. Sydney, tagging along with them back home, smiled affectionately when she saw him give her a peck on the hair as gratitude for giving him a piggyback ride, and a lollipop at the same time too.
"Yes, I had fun, Auntie. A girl talked and played with me at school today. It's the first time a girl has ever talked or played with me and she's really pretty. I told her that for playing with me because the other kids wouldn't" Roman suddenly made a confession that shocked Sydney and left her speechless for a minute, while Ellie appeared to be super excited about it.
"Oh my God, Roman. You did that? You told her that she's pretty for real? Well, did you ask her name so I can set you guys up for a date?"
"Stop, Ellie. You are taking it too far" Sydney chuckled and gave Ellie a nudge for asking Roman that. He's still just a kid and half-human at that.
"I didn't ask her name, but she told me herself, Auntie" Roman went on with the story about the new friend he made. He seemed to be extremely happy about it, coupled with the way he was licking the lollipop.
"She told you her name by herself? Well, what did she say that her name is? Oh wait, let Auntie guess first. Olivia?" Ellie proved to show that this conversation she was having with Roman was fun, as she tried to guess the name of the new friend he made.
"No, that's not it"
"Okay, let me guess again, Emily?"
"No, it's not Emily,"
"Okay, let me try for the last time. I got to get this pretty girl's name right. Uhm…Ashley?"
"No, Auntie, you still didn't get it. It's not Ashley" Roman chuckled lightly at Ellie trying to figure out his new friend's name herself as if she knew the girl in person.
"It's Rose, I think her parents named her that because she's actually kind of red in color."
"What the f, Roman? I'm dead" Ellie cracked up, laughing hysterically while walking in the street and not minding the little attention on her. Roman did his friend dirty. What does he mean she's red?
"Language, Ellie" Sydney warned, while she was silently cracking up inside too. Why the hell would Roman say that his friend is red?
"Why are you guys laughing, Mom? She's still pretty, her cheeks and hair are red I think" Roman shrugged innocently to show he didn't mean anything bad about his new friend. That's just the way the girl is for real, at least in his description.
Everyone was smiling and appeared to be happy returning home, until the huge amount of smiles on their faces disappeared without warning when it happened, that they just took the last turn leading the way to their house only for them to cross paths with Shane, unfortunately.
Roman, as innocent as he was with no idea of what was going on, waved to Shane, recalling him to be the stranger, but also a friend, who helped him get on the school's playground swing the other day at school.
"Syd…" Shane called.
"Who is he, Mommy?"
"He's nobody, baby. He's no one. Let's go home"