Chapter 17 - Reminiscing

Five or so minutes later, Chase appeared, grinning like a moron. I was already in a bad mood, and was not looking forward to the rest of the afternoon.

 

“Hi, Chase!” Skye practically screamed.

 

“Hey,” he said dismissively. She didn’t seem to notice.

 

“What are we shopping for?” she asked and proceeded to move closer and closer to him until they were practically face to face.

 

Chase noticed her closeness and backed away. “Uh, I thought we’d just window-shop. You know, look around.”

 

Chase turned to me, his green eyes shining. I never really realized how luminescent they were until recently. I seemed to be mesmerized by them, and continued staring into them until Skye cleared her throat and gave me a look. I dropped my gaze.

 

“Where should we start?” I asked awkwardly. Oh, it was going to be a long afternoon.

 

“How about at Blue Notes?” Skye asked. That girl loved her graphic tees.

 

I smiled. “Sounds good.” And so does this girl.

 

So to Blue Notes we went, and then Garage, Aeropostale, Hollister, Gilly Hicks, Boat House and, against Chase’s will, La Senza. Really, we just wanted to bug him. We didn’t buy anything.

Still laughing from Chase’s reaction to panties, we all got in line for smoothies. I ordered strawberry, Skye got banana and Chase got orange. We sat down at one of the crappy plastic tables near the back of the food court and slurped our smoothies. A few minutes later, Skye excused herself and scampered off to the bathroom.

 

I wasted no time. “Did you tell her?” I asked.

 

Chase took his time answering and finished his gulp of juice slowly. “Tell who what?”

 

I gave him an unappreciative look. “You know what I’m talking about.”

 

Chase wanted me to suffer. “No, I’m afraid I don’t.”

 

I scowled. “Did you tell Skye about our--” I choked on the word. “--kiss?”

 

Chase grinned. “Oh, that. No, I didn’t.”

 

He offered no other further explanations, and I accepted this. We sat in silence for a few minutes before something caught my eye behind him. Or rather, someone. I watched Nate juggle several shopping bags in his hands, as well as a drink and a frilly pink purse. Had to be Clarissa’s. He looked over in my direction, and our eyes met. We stayed frozen like that for what seemed like forever before his eyes flickered to Chase, and a look of anger crossed his features.

 

I contemplated leaning over and kissing Chase, just to make Nate jealous. I’d “pull a Skye.” But that hadn’t worked with her and Doug, so it wouldn’t work with me. Well, it had kind of. Chase and her were friends again, right? So maybe if I made Chase jealous . . .

 

No. I shook away that train of thought away. I didn’t care if Nate liked me or not, and he obviously didn’t anyways. He wouldn’t be carrying around Clarissa’s stuff if he didn’t. But there he was, still holding my gaze, his eyes swimming with different emotions.

 

Should I go talk to him? I wondered. Should I save him from Clarissa?

 

That’s when Clarissa poked his arm, he turned and they went off on their way. He answered my questions for me. He turned back a few times, as if just checking to see that I was still watching, and I was sorry to say I was. Then he disappeared into the crowd and was gone.

 

When Skye came back, we finished off our smoothies, then left. We’d already gone to every good store, so there was no use in sticking around. We all said our goodbyes and headed our own ways.

 

 

 

A sense of sadness swept over me when I got home. Don’t ask me why, I just was really upset and in need of something to cheer me up. And I thought that looking through old photo albums of my family and I before my dad died would be just the trick. Boy was I wrong.

 

I went downstairs, flicked on the light, and was greeted by at least half a dozen boxes. I passed them all without giving them a second glance, and made my way to the big bookshelf against the back wall. I plopped onto the cool flooring, and opted to find a blanket or something. I was already cold. So after grabbing a blanket from upstairs, I sat back down and scoured the shelf for a good album.

 

The first one I pulled out was a deep brown leather, closer to black really, and smooth to the touch. In fact, it was so nice that I just ran my hand over it for a minute or two before opening it. The first picture was of my mother lying in a hospital bed, her eyes swollen and her hair plastered to her face. She was holding a bundle, but that bundle had a face. The bundle was me. My mother was smiling weakly at the camera, but it looked genuine. More genuine than I’d seen her in years.

 

The next picture on the page was me in my father’s arms. He looked tired, too, but twice as happy. The gleam in his eye was really bright. The next few pages were just pictures of me in a variety of different family member’s arms, wearing the same bored expression every time. Can you spell boring?

 

Then came the pictures of me in my toddler years. Oh, I was a cute one. I had the chubbiest cheeks and my head always looked a little too big for my body. But no one’s perfect, right? In this particular picture, I was shoving my chubby face in a piece of birthday cake. The icing and crumbs were smeared all over my face, and even my hair was coated with the dessert. I smiled at the toddler version of me, congratulating myself on being disgusting and adorable at the same time.

 

I skimmed through the next few pages, not really interested in seeing myself playing in the backyard or the basement. I did stop at a picture of me on my dad’s shoulders, walking through some sort of park. I was asleep on his shoulders, but he didn’t seem to mind one bit. That made me smile.

 

Then came the first day of school. I was hugging my dad, who was laughing. I had probably been too scared to let go, like the majority of kids are on the first day. There were a few other kids in the background, including Chase, who looked just as mischievous then as he did now. I was wearing my pink watermelon t-shirt, with my blue shorts. My hair was in uneven pig-tails, and my socks were a bright orange. What a horrible job of choosing my outfit I did. But the beauty was, when you’re little, it doesn’t matter.

 

I choked on a sob when I saw the next picture. I was curled up, asleep, in my dad’s arms on the couch, the TV still on in the background. We both looked so peaceful, so happy, and so carefree. But those feelings never last anyways, do they? It was depressing to me how normal me and my dad seemed together, and little did we know that in just a few short years, everything would be different.

 

I skipped through the rest of the album, but saw no more pictures of my dad and I. That had been the last picture of us ever taken. I had looked about seven or eight, maybe nine. My heart crumbled and I broke into uncontrollable tears. I only let it last a few minutes, feeling stupid and immature. I collapsed onto the ground, the blanket beneath me, and reminisced about the good old days, before everything got complicated. Eventually, I drifted into a dreamless sleep right there in the basement, thoughts of my dad soothing me. I had never felt so peaceful since his death, despite my tears and pain only minutes before. I’m weird like that. 

Author's Note

Sorry it's short. I'm running out of things to say down in these author's notes....so, enjoy, review and stay tuned for more! i'll write the next chapter as quickly as i can, since this one wasn't exactly exciting.

Reviews

[selkietales]

I wonder how he died... Wait, did you already inform us of the cause? Darn me and my memory... Great chapter though! Your writing never fails to suck me in.

[Jasmine Thousand]

LOL just say Read, Rate, and Review! (the three R's) LOL
But I loved the chapter, in all it's happiness (not much in THAT quadrant) and sadness and jealousy and anger.LOL
~jasmine thousand~

[Ness of Love]

This chapter made me tear up a little bit when she was looking through the albums

[BloodyMary]

AWW.

[Eversea]

Awww, sad face. And i still have no idea what Chase is up to. Geez.

[Caitlyn Murray]

CAnt wait fo rthe next chapter... Really I cant wait...... I being serious post the next chapter now!

[13ReasonsWhy]

Amazing... Can't wait for next chapter. =)

[KT]

Loved it!! :) I thought it was great. 'Specially loved the part "congratulating myself on being disgusting and adorable at the same time". Very cute. Your story has its emotional parts, and although you tell them kinda subtly, you can really feel the emotion that's just pouring out all the same. Outstanding job and I can't wait for more! :D

[TWISTED NIGHTMARE]

i liked it...it brought just those little events or little hits that goes more in depth of a character or situation... it was sad when she chocked up about her dad but all good books have those moments... so again great chapter and will keep reading