Page 104 of Run Away Home: Tempered

I return to the living room. “Hayley, where’s Peter?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t come home.” She stares at the TV.

“I thought I saw the car in the lot.”

“Was he in there?”

“I didn’t look.”

“That’s weird, then. I don’t know,” she says monotone. Her pupils are so tiny that it looks like she has none. Just big blue blobs. She looks possessed.

“I’m going to go look,” I say.

“Okay.” She picks up the remote and makes the medium lady with the big hair even louder.Useless.

I walk back down the stairs and out the door. I jog to the back left of the parking lot where Peter normally parks. I see the car and head over to the passenger side window. He’s in the driver seat with his eyes closed, but he’s talking...to no one...in another language? Is that Scottish? I’ve never really heard Scottish before. Maybe that’s it.

The car is full of smoke. All of the windows are up. He’s holding a cigarette. I knock on the glass. He stops talking, opens his eyes, and clicks the button to make the window go down.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Just...relaxing.” He sniffles and looks the other way. His eyelids are really red and puffy.

“Okay...Were you on the phone?”

“Huh?”

“Seemed like you were talking to someone.”

“Oh.” He looks at the empty passenger seat. “Yeah. Just to myself, I guess. No one’s here, right?” He pats the empty seat.

What the hell?

“Peter, were you crying? Are you okay?”

“No, I wasn’t crying.”

“Why are you out here talking to yourself and smoking with the windows closed?”

“Well, when you put it that way... I don’t know. I like the smell of smoke.”

“Hayley didn’t know you were home.”

He takes another drag of his cigarette and sniffles again.

“Because I didn’t go inside yet.” He coughs.

“Peter, what’s wrong? Is this because Hayley cheated on you? Screw her.”

“No, this really isn’t about Hayley. Go back inside.”

“Did I do something?”

“No, this has nothing to do with you either.”

“Peter, I really want to know what’s going on.”

“Nothing that can be undone or fixed. Why bother talking about it, right?”

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