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Chapter 17 by cphi cphi

What's next?

Is someone crying?

You pause with the door to the basement open as the faint sound of crying drifts to your ears. What? Someone's home? No cars in the driveway...
The crying is definitely a girl, a young girl. It doesn't sound like Riley, but it's coming....
You softly walk down the hall towards Riley's room. The door is ajar, and inside, you can see Allison. She's lying on her side on the futon. She's crying softly, eyes tight. She's in a pair of simple white shorts and a t-shirt, barefoot. Her iPad is on the floor at her feet. It looks like Facebook is what she was looking at: it's a messenger page.
"Allison?" you speak as softly as possible. She snaps her eyes open to stare at the doorway, scrambling up into a sitting position and wiping her eyes...
"Hey...you're home...?" She's looking away, hiding her red eyes.
"Allison, what's wrong, honey?" You push the door open slightly, but you don't go in. You don't want to invade her space.
"Nothing..." she scrubs her eyes with the back of her hand.
"You sure, Alli? You can talk to me if something's the matter."
She begins to huff, and you can see something bubbling up... "It's....I just.... I want to go HOME!!!" she screams out suddenly. "I don't like it here!"
"Is there something you need? Or want? I can see what I can do to make it better."
"No, Uncle James, I'm sorry...." she pulls her legs up to her chest. "I didn't mean it like that. It's not you or Aunt Jenna or Riley or anything like that... you wouldn't understand."
You shake your head. "Try me. I think you'll be surprised."
She comtemplates for a second. "Ok."
"May I come in?" You motion to Riley's bed. Alli nods.
You go in, an sit on the edge of the bed, across the room from Allison. "Go on. Tell me what the problem is."
She begins, sniffling the whole way through. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I had a plan. I was going to go to Pacific in the fall with all my friends, live at home, commute to school. It was going to be great. Then dad's stupid fucking job..." she looks up at you, but you offer no condemnation. "Tells him to come here, and he just up and says 'we're moving.' So now I can't commute to Pacific, and I can't afford to go there and live on campus without ridiculous loans. My dad makes just too much for me to get enough aid. So I either have to have these student loan debts, or go to school around here and commute; away from all my friends!" She starts crying. "And now, I can't even spend my whole summer at home before I have to say goodbye because Mom and Dad said I had to come with them on this trip! They didn't trust me at home for three weeks by myself!" She cries out. "I want my friends and my computer games and my life!"
"Oh, honey." You say softly. You stand up and head over to sit on the futon next to her. "I know. That all sucks." You put an arm around her and she accepts it, laying her head on your shoulder and crying.
"I know. I sound like a whiny little brat. I'm just lonely. I love Riley, of course, and you and Jenna are fine, and Jared and Tara... but it's not the same."
"I know it isn't, Alli." You rub her shoulder. "It blows when you think you have things all figured out, and then life throws you a slider in the dirt."
She looks up at you. "What?"
"A curveball."
"Ah, right." She laughs. "It's like when you're pushing the payload with D. Va and the other team switches to counter you with Reaper."
{if AlliOW = 1
} You chuckle. "Yeah it's kind of like that for sure." {else
}"Allison...you play Overwatch?"
"Do you?"
You laugh, "Yeah, definitely."
"Wow...small world, I guess."{endif
}

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