Page 38 of Love is Strange
I get out of the car, closing the door behind me, and hoist the strap of my bag over my shoulder, and put my hands on my hips.
This can’t be the right place.
As the cab slowly begins to drive away, I shrug and decide to make my way up the cobblestone path and knock. Worse case scenario, maybe I can get a blessing or two then walk back home.
With a deep breath, I smooth out the hem of my shirt and push my hands quickly back through my hair before I raise my fist and knock on the door.
I can see Silas peek through the blinds of the window next to the door and feign shock at my presence.
“Open the door!” I call out with a laugh. He wiggles his eyebrows at my command then disappears from sight, the sound of the doorknob following shortly after. I’m kind of surprised to see him wearing black-framed glasses, but I figure that maybe not everyone is perfect after all; not even Si.
Silas opens the door but blocks the path in as I peek over his shoulder in confusion. When he still doesn’t move, I give him a playful poke to his stomach and he chuckles, finally stepping out of the way.
“This looks like a church,” I remark, glancing around the place.
“Good catch,” he replies, rolling his eyes.
“Are you going to be a bastard your entire life?” I snap at him.
A smirk plays across his lips as he crosses his arms loosely over his chest, “Possibly. Life seems to be a hell of a lot more fun this way.”
I give him a level stare as his smirk gives way to laughter and I find myself smiling back, shaking my head.
“What am I going to do with you?” I ask softly.
“I can think of a few things to pass the time,” he says, giving me a salacious look as he comes over to where I’m standing and stretches his arms above his head. He likes to remind me that he’s bigger than I am by doing little things like reaching up and gripping door frames, and while it works, I know that he would never force me to do anything I don’t want to.
I roll my eyes and sidestep him. He lets out his breath in a huff, but when I glance at him over my shoulder, he’s giving me his goofy lopsided grin, so I know that he doesn’t harbor any hard feelings.
“So, why do you live here again?” I ask him curiously as I sit down on a bean bag in the living room area.
“Why not?” he asks as he drops onto the couch across from me. He lays back, crossing his arms behind his head, and making himself comfortable. “It was for sale, I had the money, I bought it.”
“I guess I didn’t expect it is all,” I reply with a shrug.
“Do you believe everything you hear?” he asks curtly, turning on his side to look at me. I can tell that he’s over all of the rumors about him, but I have a feeling that this one holds true by his new-found disposition.
“No need to get crabby, Silas, I was just trying to make conversation,” I reply with a small smile.
“No, let’s talk about it. Why would you think I wouldn’t live in a church?” he asks, glaring at me. I can see in his eyes that he’s fighting the urge to get angry with me, because he knows that curiosity is just a thing I have. I like to know everything—why things happen, for what reason, and how everything starts and ends. I’m not being a bitch to him like I usually tend to be, I’m just being myself right now.
“Well, there’s that,” I say, nodding toward his left eye. Silas smirks and rolls onto his back again before he speaks.
“Do you even know what it stands for?”
“An inverted cross? Not much to think about there,” I reply dryly.
“Yeah, that sounds about right,” he scoffs. I raise an eyebrow at him, but Silas is busy now staring at the high ceiling of his home. He’s lost in thought and more than likely picking his next words carefully before he speaks again.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” I say glumly.
“No. You didn’t. I just hate that people assume shit based on rumors, you know?” he says, turning his head toward me. “Granted, all rumors start fromsomething, but a lot of the time, I can easily crush them for the most part if I just get asked.”
I chuckle. I can’t help it. Ididask him a question and it put him into combat mode almost immediately.
“Yeah, I know,” he replies sheepishly. “So, okay, you wanna know why I live here? I’ll tell you.” Silas swings his long legs off the couch and sits up, running a hand back through his hair before clasping his hands loosely in front of him and leaning forward onto his knees.
“I don’t believe in anything—religion wise, I mean. And there’s a reason before you ask,” he says with a grin as I open and close my mouth. “So, when I was a kid, I was really, really close to my grandmother. She is literally the greatest person that I’ve ever known to walk the face of this fucking world. Always gave a spare dollar to a homeless person on the street; always had extra food for stray animals, even if it meant she wouldn’t get to eat much herself for a day or two. Anyway, the last time I saw her she told me that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and that she hated the fact that she wouldn’t know who I was as time went on. Of all the shit that bothered her the most about that disease, it was knowing that in the coming years, she wouldn’t recognize me that fucked her up the most.” He stops talking for a moment to clear his throat and wipe away a stray tear he doesn’t think I see with this knuckle. “She ended up dying surrounded by a family she didn’t know, and I’ve never been so messed up about something in my entire life. I was only a kid then; fourteen years old without a care in the world except for the old lady in front of me that took her last breath holding my hand.”
