Page 16 of Walk the Line

“I wouldn’t exactly…choose that for myself.”

She laughs. “Exactly! Anyway, I’m sorry that I’m now randomly talking to you about serial killers. I’m not really much better. But I just thought I would introduce myself because you’ll probably see me a few times over the year. Julius likes to pretend he doesn’t appreciate my visits, and that’s exactly why I go out of my way to make them.”

I quite like this woman.

“That’s a good move,” I say.

“Thank you. I have some work to get on with now, but I’m sure I’ll see you soon, Kaylah. It was lovely to meet you. It’s usually men in my house, so it’s always great to speak with women!”

“It was…good to meet you too.” It’s not exactly a lie, but I think I’ve been so deprived of conversations, I would enjoy speaking to most people whose jaws don’t tense as a reaction to me.

That takes Julius out of the running then.

Through his tense jaw, he manages to get out, “Let me speak to her.”

“Take care, now,” Vivian says at the same time. Okay, bye.”

“Bye,”I say, then pass the phone over to him, but the second he intercepts it, he scrunches his face.

“You trying to stop me from speaking to her now?”

I guess she ended the call.

I can’t help but ask, “That’s actually your mum?”

“Yes, what are you trying to say?”

“Oh, definitely nothing bad about her,” I say blandly. “And I wasn’t trying to stop you from speaking to your mum, she’s the one who said bye first, so you should probably take any grievances you have up with her. I don’t think you’re going to though, seeing as she just told you off already. If I knew that was the way to go to get you to turn that music off, I would have tried that a lot sooner.”

“You think you’re funny?”

“No, I think you being treated like a little boy by your mum is, though. And you’re…how old, exactly?”

“Get out of my room,” he says. I took my foot off the door a long time ago, so it’s only a few seconds of him pushing the door closed before it’s slamming behind my face.

“Gladly,” is the last thing I say.

At least I got what I wanted.

CHAPTER SIX

JULIUS

This summer couldn’t have gone any slower, but maybe that’s just how it felt living in a house with a woman who witnessed me getting scolded by my mum on the phone, which ended with her getting exactly what she wanted from me. I’m sure she goes out of her way to avoid me as much as I do her, but that smirk on her face when we bumped into each other in the kitchen the other day was telling.

I’m just glad it’s not just the two of us here anymore. Although I don’t think the alternative is any better, seeing as the house is also now being occupied by the two most unbearable guys on the Hockey team last year, Nathan and Daniel. I find everyone annoying, so it’s not hard to fit that category.

But somehow they managed to surpass that.

I’m sure at this point Kaylah must be wishing it was just me and my music she still had to contend with, but now we’ve got these guys who come as a pair, and who are incapable of having conversations below a specific decibel. Maybe I understand her about the loud noise thing, after all.

The guys are good at the Hockey thing, though.

Maybe it’s me wishing time away, but their addition to the house somehow sped it up for me and I can finally feel productive now that term, and more importantly Practice has started.

I hate not knowing what’s going on, and that’s all I’m thinking about right now. Coach said things are going to be a little different this year in the email he sent out to us the other day.

It sounds ominous as fuck, and if I had any doubts about my skills I would think I’m in trouble.