Page 133 of From Drummer to Gamer

Even her brother couldn’t pull her out of her mood. Raphael was as dejected as Sierra.

Deep down, he was distraught, stuck between his parents and his sister.

“Matty,” Sierra’s soft voice pulled me away from my thoughts.

My eyes darted to her, and the look in her eyes made me still.

She sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, wearing one of my T-shirts, twiddling with her fingers. But that wasn’t what made me still. It was the look in her eyes.

They were brimming with fear and sadness.

“What is it?”

“I think…I think I’m going to go back home.”

I nodded. “Okay, I’ll take you.”

“No, you don’t understand,” she blurted, wide-eyed. “I’m going back home. I don’t know if I’m coming back,” she said the last word so quietly that I almost didn’t hear it.

“What do you mean you’re not coming back? What about the game?”

She shook her head, averting her eyes. “Mom is right. I have no idea what I’m doing, Matty. Maybe I do need to rethink and figure things out.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So what you’re just giving up?”

“I’m not.” Her eyes danced around the room like she did when she lied.

I can’t believe the women in my life lied to me so easily.

“It’s…it’s just that I have all the time in the world to game. But right now, my family is on the brink of disowning me, and I know we have our differences but I love them, and my family is very important to me, Matty. I should go back and fix things.”

“Look at me.”

A swallow worked through her throat before her eyes slowly dragged to mine, and her fear was shining bright. “Yes,” she whispered.

She wasn’t going back to fix things. She was running away because she was terrified.

So terrified out of her mind that she was escaping back home.

“Don’t run away from your dreams, Sierra. You made it this far, so choose yourself for once. Your family just won’t abandon you like that.”

She gave me a morose smile. “But I have thought about it a lot. It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of days, and I am exhausted. I just want to go back home.”

I nodded. Sierra was in a place I couldn’t pull her out of. If she had decided that she wanted to go home, nothing I said would change her mind.

In an hour, she was all packed and ready to go.

Ready to leave me.

Raphael said he was tagging along with her and would return after a couple of weeks, and I agreed. I didn’t want her to be alone with Jen and Victoria, thinking there was no one by her side.

The entire drive to Iona was a silent affair. No one spoke a word. Not even Raphael, who had AirPods in his ears and was blasting some heavy metal music while Sierra had her head tilted to the side and was watching me the whole way. I tried to make small talk but gave up after it led nowhere.

It was almost dusk when we reached the town and I drove us straight to their apartment complex. I wanted to go up and drop her off, but Sierra said she would be fine and that I should get home before it was too late.

She clearly didn’t want me to linger any longer, so I just nodded, not saying a word.

“We’re good, right?” I asked, not being able to contain myself. The fear in her eyes made dread fill my blood. Like almost as if she was pulling away from me too, not just her dreams.