When Shane came back home and he didn't observe any movements inside Sydney's house, which was just opposite his, he did something kind of creepy. The other neighbors found it creepy, however, he didn't really. He moved out of his house and went over to hers, checking to see if she was around through the window, but he failed to find anyone home.
A certain neighbor, who appeared to be interacting well with his sister definitely would have called the cops, which Sydney once used to threaten him with today. If it wasn't that he made her understand he wasn't a burglar, but a friend of hers as well.
He was able to convince the curious neighbor, who kept interrogating him with thousands of questions like a detective, that he wasn't a homeless man either, due to the kind of judgemental look she kept giving him.
The only reason she was able to believe him was because of the way he was dressed and looked like a real gentleman. Shane's in his early thirties and thanks to his tall and powerful muscular body, a gift that most werewolf males are created with.
It helped make him look huge and quite terrifying that at one point, the over-curious neighbor began to feel kind of intimidated and she had to leave.
She said she had somewhere else to be in the middle of the interrogation all of a sudden. However, Shane could tell that it was a lie. He had no doubt the lady would likely try to report him though, but if she was as smart as she looked, she would know not to do that. Not all gentlemen are gentle.
Shane decided to leave, realizing that hovering around Sydney's house wasn't really the best thing to do when she wasn't home. And he certainly didn't want to attract any unwanted attention to himself again. He's new here, he doesn't want people thinking of him as the creepy man living next door when he hasn't even spent a night in the neighborhood.
He then decided to move around the place to know more about it, since Sydney wasn't home yet anyway. And that was when he mistakenly almost bumped into her.
"Syd…" Her name slipped from his lips unintentionally.
Sydney instantly stood frozen at the sudden presence of Shane appearing in front of her without warning. Ellie did the same too, and for Roman, he got too curious to know why the adults with him were no longer moving and were just staring at the stranger in their way like a ghost instead.
He can see their house not too far away from them. However, since Auntie Ellie, who was giving him a piggyback ride paused in her track as his Mom did, and were still yet to get their ass moving once again, but they weren't doing that, he then had to ask.
"Who is he, Mommy?" Roman inquired, believing the stranger to be the reason why his Mom and Auntie were standing frozen like a sculpture.
"Huh? uhm, it's nobody, baby, he's no one. Let's go home" Sydney regained her senses when Roman called and pinched her softly. She swiftly cut off the awkward eye contact with Shane and prepared to leave along with Ellie immediately, giving her a red alert tap on the shoulder.
"Sydney…" Shane suddenly grabbed her by the arm, stopping her from leaving. Sydney isn't going to pretend to be shocked by that act, having a feeling already Shane would likely do that and he just did. She simply forced her arm free from his hold and walked away. Shane surprisingly didn't try to hold her back again. He's learning how to behave already.
Ellie walked a few feet but then waited for Sydney to catch up with them when she couldn't feel her presence nearby. Luckily, She turned back and was able to capture the exact moment that Sydney forced her arm free from Shane's grip.
To be frank, she's quite surprised Sydney seemed to be okay after that. If anyone else saw the way she forcefully made Shane let her go, they would have mistaken her to have dislocated that particular arm. It was pretty intense.
However, Ellie forgot to realize she still had Roman on her back and the kid also happened to have witnessed that raw scene between his Mom and the strange man. Taking a closer look at the man, Roman thinks he has seen him somewhere, but then he can't seem to remember where he has seen the man before.
He certainly had seen this face from somewhere, he could tell from the man's powerful scent stuffing his nose like the sweet smell of the lollipop that Ellie gave him.
"Let's go," Sydney said to Ellie, catching up with her and hurrying her footsteps a little bit faster than before, with the hope that Shane won't be following behind like a creep.
Ellie didn't tag along immediately as she turned back to steal a glance at Shane before she left with Roman. She failed to notice that he was still looking at Sydney, even though she was walking away from him. Their eyes made this awkward contact and she swiftly broke it, however, she was able to notice this sad, dark look on his face.
Is he really that sad just because Sydney doesn't want to be part of the family again? Or is it something else?
"Ellie, come on!" Sydney yelled out when she paused in her tracks and realized that Ellie wasn't following behind.
"I'm coming!"
****
Since everyone returned home, there seemed to be this tedious, long boring quietness lingering inside the house except for the little sound of noises, which appeared to be coming from Roman playing with his toy train and cars in the living room.
He's no adult, so he had no sh*t to worry about. The adults in the house can do that instead.
Ellie lay on the couch, listening to music with the earphone over her head. She got off the couch and lowered the song to get a drink from the kitchen that she found her way into. But, she happened to stop halfway into the kitchen abruptly, hearing these strange thumping sounds coming from upstairs.
It has to be Sydney, she's surely punishing herself again, hitting her head against the wall.
"And here I go again…"