Just Starting Out
1.1 - Starter Home
“I’m going to tell you both the same thing I’ve been telling you for the past year. You need to move out already! You are both adults, with jobs, and- to be completely honest- your father and I are a little sick of the both of you,” Adrienne Brooks told her children.
“Your mother is right,” her husband, Jameson nodded. “We love you both very much, but to think of all the time your mother and I could have spent alone together had you two just moved out a little earlier…”
“Oh, gross dad! Stop it!” Their daughter, Kayla, exclaimed, reaching up to cover her ears.
Adrienne and Jameson’s son, John, frowned. As he looked around the comfortably decorated living room he’d spent his entire life growing up in, he couldn’t say that he wouldn’t miss it. There was a lifetime of memories there, after all. But his parents did have a point. Everyone else their age they knew had long since moved out, and at this point, their staying at home was starting to appear… weird.
“Fine, I guess we’ll move out,” John said after a pause. “I think it is time.”
“Just don’t expect us to keep paying your electricity bills…” Kayla said threateningly.
“We wouldn’t expect you to, sweetie,” Adrienne smiled.
“You’ll, uh, help us with all of this, right mom?” John asked.
“Of course! It’s what I do, and hey, if it’s going to finally get rid of the two of you and give me and your father the alone time we’ve wanted for the past 25 years… how could I say no?”
“Mom…” Kayla groaned.
“I’ll do what I can to help too,” Jameson smiled. “Can’t say I know anything about real estate like your mother here, but if there’s anything you need, just ask.”
Adrienne was a real estate agent, and a good one too. She brought in most of the money to the household, whereas her husband, Jameson, was a freelance mechanic. While she brought in consistent clients, Jameson’s main gig was driving a truck with the name of his company and his phone number through the streets of Willow Creek, hoping someone was desperate enough to call. So, she knew it’d be rough on her and Jameson once the kids were gone. But above her own selfish reasons, she wanted her children to go out and live their lives, just as her parents had forced her to do. The last thing she wanted was for John and Kayla to be a couple of deadbeats who never left her basement.
Later that day, John and Kayla met with Adrienne in her office.
“So,” she said, typing at her computer. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there’s any good lots here in Willow Creek… There’s a couple of empty houses on this one street I’m seeing, but your only neighbors would be these three teenagers… I think one of them is trying to start as a hacker? I sold the house to them a month or two ago, and judging by the nature of this one girl I interacted with, they’re probably quite the party animals… Not sure if you’d want that.”
“I’m with you mom, that neighborhood is a no,” Kayla said firmly.
“Yeah, I guess we’re old enough to be pretty above that by now…” John frowned. “What are our other options here?”
Adrienne clicked around some more, then stopped. “Well… this place is pretty far from here…”
“Where is it?” John asked
“I typically don’t work outside of Willow Creek, but from what I can see, Newcrest is your best option.”
“Newcrest, mom? That’s a couple hours away! We’d never see you or dad!” John exclaimed.
Adrienne frowned. “That’s… true. Let me call your father.” Adrienne dialed Jameson, and he picked up almost immediately. Placing the phone on her desk, she put him on speaker, and explained the situation.
“Well, I get your concerns, John, and it isn’t ideal, but I think you’ve seen enough of the two of us for a lifetime, sport,” Jameson laughed.
“And there’s public transit between Willow Creek and Newcrest, and while it is a bit of a journey, it’s still totally possible for the two of you to come and see us,” Adrienne smiled, beaming at both of her children.
“It all sounds good to me,” John said.
All eyes turned to Kayla.
“Well, what do you say, Kayla?” Jameson asked, his voice crackling over the phone static, interrupting the silence that had fallen over the room.
Kayla looked around anxiously, then made a split second decision. “You know what? Let’s do it.”
Adrienne clicked a few times, then looked up at her children and smiled. “Alright then! I placed an offer for you on this charming little home right near a lake! It looks like the previous owners are really looking to sell, so I can pretty much guarantee that you two will get the house. You’ll have a lot of room to expand, and I think you two are really going to love it. We can totally go and tour first, if you’d like, just give me enough time to book a hotel for the weekend, and-“
“Mom, don’t even worry about it,” Kayla smiled. “I’m sure that the place is perfect, your judgement never fails.”
A month later, John and Kayla climbed out of a taxi and looked up at their new house. A moving company had moved everything inside the day previously, but it wasn’t like they had much to move in the first place, so it wasn’t much of a hassle.
“It’s… quaint,” Kayla muttered, looking over the place.
“Nothing wrong with quaint,” John said. “It’s just a place to start out, right?”
Kayla nodded hesitantly.
John pulled the house keys out of his pocket, which rang in the slight breeze with a quiet little jangle. “Well, shall we?”
“Let’s do it.”
John and Kayla walked up to the house, and John unlocked the front door. They walked in, and as the door shut behind them, they looked over the dining room, which was completely littered with boxes of stuff the moving company had haphazardly strewn about the room.
“Everyone always says there’s no place like home…” John said, looking around the room. “So, I guess we’d better hurry up with making this place our home then, because it sure doesn’t feel like it now…”
“Some furniture would definitely help,” Kayla said judgmentally. “How did it not even occur to us to buy a chair?
“We’re supposed to be adults and we didn't even think about that… I already miss mom and dad.”
“We both do,” Kayla said comfortingly. “We’ll figure everything out. I mean, we’ve got to, so we will!”