Page 9 of Room Service

Another person I hadn't thought much of once I’d left. Idly, I wondered if I’d be running into her again.

I walked into one of the salons, looking for Emily. Luckily, I found her in the first one I walked into. She was lounging on a couch, her legs up and curled under her, her hair falling on either side of her face as she frowned down at the phone in her hand.

“Hey,” I called, more to get her attention than an actual greeting, but it was enough to get her to look up, eyes slightly widened in surprise.

Wow, was the first thing I thought when I saw her. She’s grown. Then, we look alike.

I frowned slightly at the obvious implications. She looked just as much like me as my brothers. Hair and eye color might differ between us, but besides that, we must have taken after my father. I’d gotten more of my looks from the old man than I liked. A part of me had wanted to think that I had something in me that resembled my mother. But clearly, Dad’s genes were just too strong.

How had I not realized it before?

“Trent!” she yelped, scrambling to get off the couch and stand up.

I wondered what she was so surprised about. Wasn’t she the one that called me and insisted I come back home?

“What is it?” I asked. “You wanted me home, and I’m here.” I held my arms out and open, before letting them fall back to my sides.

“Um, that’s right,” she murmured, fidgeting. “You’re here. But you’re not supposed to be here until tomorrow, you said!”

I watched as she looked anywhere but at me, her eyes moving in my general direction, but skittering away when they got anywhere near looking right into mine. She tucked her hair behind her ear on one side, then smoothed down her hair on the other. Her other hand was wrapped around her phone tightly enough her knuckles were white.

I frowned at her when I realized that she looked, nervous. Or, more like she looked afraid. Of me.

Fuck.

For a moment, I felt bad. Why was she acting as if some monster had come home? She was the one to call me back in the first place! Was there any need to look like I was going to eat her?

But the moment passed, and I just felt annoyed.

What the hell?

Did she have any reason to be acting that way around me? I’d been distant from Emily most, second only to her mother. I’d been nearly a teenager by the time she was born, and around that time I didn’t even spend all that much time at home. I had no interest in playing with the new baby in the family. She’d still been young when I left, and I’d only seen her on a few occasions since then when dad would sometimes bring her on one of his visits.

The last time I saw her, she was just going through puberty. There was some resemblance, but the young woman standing in front of me looked almost nothing like the gangly girl I’d met last. After that, Dad had stopped dragging her along and I hadn't spoken to her face-to-face since then.

Was it because of that? Because we were meeting for the first time in a long while that she was acting so strangely? I was pretty sure I’d never been cruel to her, though I couldn’t say I’d ever been welcoming. Most of the time I was just dismissive of her presence. That didn’t exactly instill fear in anybody. Of everyone, she should probably be the one to feel nothing at my sudden arrival back home.

But then a thought occurred to me.

“Did something happen?” I asked, my voice tight.

She did that thing again where her eyes would rise to meet mine, only to stop halfway, and she’d end up looking over my shoulder instead. Why couldn’t she meet my eyes?

“What do you mean?” she asked.

I wondered if I was mistaking the slight tremble in her voice.

“I mean, did something happen to do with Dad?” I asked, voice growing impatient. “He had a heart attack, did his condition get worse? Can you tell me where he is, so I can see him? I forgot to get the details from you before, so I just came all the way here.”

She fidgeted some more, chewing down on her lower lip.

“You want to know about Dad, huh?” she muttered, finally meeting my eyes.

I frowned. “Yes. Where is he?”

She looked away, her hand rising once more to play with her hair nervously. My frown only deepened the longer she made me wait, and I wondered why she was so unwilling to answer me.

Why, after calling me back, was she suddenly getting possessive over Dad? Maybe she didn’t want me to see him, even in the state he must have been in? Or… was Dad’s state so bad that she was deliberately trying to keep me away from it?