STAY

6.

I woke up Saturday morning, listening to the conversation that was going on downstairs. I had started to hear the discussion between my parents while I was still sleeping, but when my dad raised his voice I opened my eyes and looked at my phone. It was 9:00 am. These arguments didn't usually occur in the household. But that was mainly because mom and dad weren't there. It was at very rare occasions where my parents would both be home on a Saturday morning. Usually one of them had to work, or both.

Angelica was usuallt free on Saturdays and Sundays. I would usually take care of Jacob during the weekends. If I wasn't taking care of him, it would either be mom or dad. They both tried to make sure that one of them was at home on either Saturday or Sunday, so that I could have my spare time. I guess today was one of those days when both parents were going to spend the day together with their son.

I got out of bed and went out of my room, to go down to the kitchen. As I got closer to the stairs, I could hear more clearly what they were arguing about. It was usually the same thing every time; that they didn't spend enough time with their two year old son. I sighed before I walked down the stairs, and the second they heard my footsteps they stopped arguing and the only sound came from the TV.

As I walked into the kitchen, I could see that my mom was leaning with her back against the sink and my dad was sitting with his coffee and the newspaper at the kitchen table. I walked over to the refrigerator.

"Did we wake you up?", my mom asked me.

"No", I said as I shook my head. There was no point in being annoyed about them waking me up. I didn't want Jacob to hear more arguments, from anyone. I looked around the room and noticed him sitting on the floor with some of his favorite toys; his teddy bear he refused to sleep without and his favorite plastic toy that should represent a golden retriever. However, its ear and tail were missing and the golden color was slowly turning into white. A result of Jacob chewing too much on it.

"I was planning on going for a walk today", I told my parents.

"Where?"

"The library"

The Local Town Library was situated almost in the center of the town. We didn't live far away from it, maybe 20 minutes to get there and 20 minutes to get back. I managed to arrive in town at around 10:00am, which was the exact time where the shops and the library would open. The streets were still pretty empty. I didn't expect anything else. It was a Saturday morning, most people were probably still at home sleeping or just getting out of bed.

As I walked towards the library I was very excited. I had heard about this new book that they had received yesterday, and I wanted to be one of the first people at school to read it. Not that it really mattered. No one I knew was interested in books the way I was. Not even Daniella or Christina enjoyed reading. I just didn't understand how they couldn't. I found it enchanting, how different authors could just create their own world and write them down. How they played with their imagination to create these new places and these new people. How they could give simple words a bigger meaning, by telling the readers a touching and emotional story. I just loved it. I loved sitting in my room, a rainy Sunday evening, the day before school, and read for hours.

I walked past a couple of small cafés on my way to the library. Most of them were putting out tables and chairs their customers could sit in outside. As I passed them and walked closer to the library, I had this strange feeling in my stomach. I was walking alone, but it didn't feel that way. Not that anyone was walking beside me, but it felt as if someone was walking close to me. I turned around to see if there was anyone walking the same direction as I was, but there was no one. There were still no people walking around the streets. Strange, I told myself. And even though I continued walking, the feeling never disappeared.