One
Erin lived close to an abandoned, haunted cabin. At least, that’s what everyone said it was. From the outside it looked rundown, deserted, as if a living creature had not stepped foot in it in decades.
In high school, Erin and some of her friends had debated going in- why not at least see if there’s truly ghosts inside? But, after only being a few feet away, they chickened out. Wood creaked, and that was enough to send them flying through the woods on foot. Far, far, far away from that cabin.
Though, after years, she’d returned to that town. One that was small, sparsely populated, and located deep in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It was beautiful at that time of year, summer. The weather was warm, the tree’s leaves grew in fascinating different shades of green, overripe peaches dropped from branches, slowly rotting, collecting bugs, until nothing was left but the seeds at the center.
She’d recently graduated from college, and her family gathered at her grandparents house to celebrate. It was a small home they’d bought to retire in, which just so happened to be within walking distance of that cabin.
“Hey, Erin, over here!” Erin bustled over to her cousins. They stood at the edge of the yard sipping on beer, and her one cousin, Liana, who was freshly sober, nursed on a bottle of water.
“So yah’ finally graduated? I was starting to think you’d drop out before you would.” Flynn, the oldest of all of them, the cruelest really as he’d always used his towering height due to the age difference to beat the shit out of them, spoke. Flynn had dark brunette locks like Erin, but unlike her blue eyes, his were a dark shade of brown.
“I only took an extra year.” Her words came out dry, bitter, like she’d taken a bite from a sharp tasting green apple. Sour. Unwanted.
“Yeah, well what did you major in again?” Liana said, trying to soothe the tension. No matter how hard Erin tried, she’d never like Flynn. He was more than just an asshole, he was mean. Not the kind where jokes are taking a tad too far, the kind where he’d shoot squirrels for entertainment, view women as objects, and have little of anything kind to ever say.
“Marketing.”
“Marketing?” Flynn stifled a laugh, but was quick to unchoke himself and left them fly from his mouth.
“What do you plan to do with that? Stupid waste of money, wasting our tax dollars on aid just cause your daddy’s dead? You think Paul would be happy you majored in that?”
“There’s a lot I will be able to do with it, actually. What do you know, you barely made it through highschool.” The heat and anger was intensifying, Flynn was just adding logs to the fire of hatred Erin held for him.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” Susan, Flynn’s mom, joined them.
“Oh, there’s the smart girly! We’re all so proud of you.” Susan’s face lit up at seeing Erin, and she wrapped her free arm around her.
“Aren’t we?”
“Yup, the first in the family to go to college.” Liana added, after taking the time to leave the three of them, to escape the pure looks of hate Flynn and Erin were shooting each other.
“You hear what she got a degree in?”
“Oh, yes, marketing. Lisa was just telling me. My friend, you know, the one from Patrit, the small town here if you go east? Oh, well, who care’s where she’s from. My point is that that’s what she’d got- the girl makes good money! I’m sure you’ll do great, honey.” Susan gave a pat on Erin’s shoulder.
The night went on. Around ten, Erin had somehow ended up outside enjoying the bonfire by herself. Her thoughts surged through her mind, of her dad, Paul. Would he be upset? Was there an afterlife? He’d died just a month before she’d been able to turn five. Flynn, that stupid bastard, had known and remembered him better than her. He’d been ten when her dad passed. Erin could not ever recall what he looked like without the help of pictures. Most of which were printed, stained, and did not do well, did not give him justice. She wanted him there, by the fire, to her left or right, she wanted to hug him. However, death would not allow it.
“Hey.” Liana took a seat beside her, a beer pulled out, she looked around surveying to make sure no one saw.
“I thought you were sober?”
“One won’t hurt.” Erin couldn’t tell if it was a question or statement, either way, Liana was an adult, what could she do?
Liana cracked it open. Pop. Fizz. “Want some?”
Erin plucked it from her cousin’s hand and took a few gulps, each one she grimaced. She’d never been a big drinker, and had only ever found herself drunk once. She hated it, too. Hated not having complete control over herself that was.
“What are you going to do now?” Would the questions ever halt, it was getting old. Erin just wanted to enjoy her new freedom.
“I’m not sure, to be completely honest. I’m going to stay with my mom for a bit, job search, save up some money, maybe I’ll meet a guy finally.” Yes, in all of her twenty three years of being on earth, she’d never been in a relationship. She wasn’t bad looking, at least, she didn’t think so. Perhaps a bit plain, but not to the point she felt made sense with the utter lack of love life she had.
“Ah, that makes sense.”
