3 Intro Part 3

After crying for a while I re-read it and realized that his dying wish was for me not to end up like he did but in my mind he was the best person I knew. How do you even start to become better than gramps?

Maybe it was time to talk to my father but before I could leave there's someone important that I had to talk to first. There's something I have to tell her.

I found her in the kitchen.

"I packed some food and water for your trip," she said. Her mouth said the words but the rest of her face disagreed. She wore her hair in the tightest bun I'd ever seen. It looked like her hair would shear off and fall out because of how tight it was.

"How did you know I would leave?" I asked. I only just made the decision to go and find my father but somehow she already knew. Was she psychic? Is that her secret that she'd been hiding all these years?

"Your mum left, your dad left and your grandfather wished that he had left. Your family seems to be in the leaving business," Abi said. It may have been my imagination but it looked as if she was holding back tears. Additionally, I think she might've read the letter first.

"I know you miss them but I'm going to come back. I promise. I just need to find some answers," I said trying to soothe her a little bit. Truth be told, I was scared out of my mind at the thought of leaving Lindisfarne and going into the unknown. Part of me was hoping that she could talk some sense into me.

"What do you know about me?" Abi asked. It felt like a trick question. I'd been pining over her, trying to get her to notice me for years. I knew everything about her.

"A lot. You think I don't but I do. You hate the taste of the roasted pheasant because it reminds you too much of your past. You bite your hair when you're nervous or upset, so you try to prevent it by wearing it up in a bun as tightly as possible. You can outsmart anyone you want and you could tell me that my ideas are stupid but you don't because you're a good person. That's also why when I'm sad or upset you give me a hard time because you know it works better than sympathy. By the way, I know you told Hans to scream at me."

"Why're you saying all this?" She said. A moment ago she was about to cry but now even her dark skin was turning a lighter shade around her cheeks. I should press my advantage and say all the things I need to say before she recovers and punches me.

"I'm trying to say that I love you. You don't have to say it back but one day, maybe you'll feel the same way about me." Now that I've said it out loud, I lost the nerve to say anything else and just let the tense silence linger.

"You idiot! why would you say something like that to me?!" She asked, breaking the silence. I may have missed the opportunity to run. In the past, Abigail always shouted rhetorical questions before she got violent and attacked me.

"Because It's true," I said like a foolish deer caught in a trap. Whatever happened to running?

"I lo-- like you as a-- as a friend or a b-brother," She said with a stutter. I couldn't believe my ears. Abigail using words like lo-like. I must have died and gone to heaven. Her temper had abated and she was edging towards a blush again. I wondered if dark-skinned people blushed. Maybe their cheeks just turned a lighter shade.

"I know that," I said with a smile.

"And you still said all those things?" She asked.

"Yes," I said confidently.

"I'm in love with Hans," she added while looking at me with the same eyes she made when she thought she'd hurt a baby bird that fell out of a tree while we were picking fruit.

"I also know that," I said unfazed.

"How?!" She asked. Apparently, she had underestimated my sharp perception. She thought that her emotions were a black box.

"I see the way you look at him. Nobody else looks at him that way. Not even his mother. He's not that great at everything or even that good looking," I said.

"Then why did you say what you said?" She asked again.

"I want to start taking chances and chasing my dreams as my parents did. Part of that is you, Abi. I've loved you before I even knew what love is. You don't have to say anything back. I can wait. Hans is bound to screw things up at some point," I said.

At that moment, something unexpected happened. She walked around the kitchen counter and planted a kiss on my forehead. She was so close that I could smell the rosy oils she put in her hair and see the hazel of her eyes. I stared at her lips; they were redder than I imagined and they started to curve as she spoke some terrifying words to me: "If you don't come back, I will find you and kill you."