Chương 37: ~°~Chapter Thirty-seven~°~

So first h-he took me to a pet shop." I start softly, swirling the meatballs in my glass bowl around.

I feel my mom staring at me. "Suzy's place?" She asks with a frown in her voice.

"You know her?" I whip my head up.

She just gives me a look. "I've lived here for nearly eighteen years, why won't I?"

I avert my face. "But I didn't."

"Because you don't really get around, you should you know." She says seriously, intensely struggling to get spaghetti and meatballs on the poor chopsticks at the same time. "You spend a lot of time inside, that's while you're the color of pasty bread."

I just give her a look. "This is payback for calling your eyes big, isn't it?"

She actually manages to look shocked. "What? No, it couldn't be. You literally told me to diet to reduce my big eyes, my comeback is going to be more savage than that, trust me. Besides your eyes are bigger." She states then sniggers. "It was even worse when you were a toddler, at first glance the only thing to see was your eyes." She teases, laughing hard at the memory.

"Mom?" I whine. "Stop picking on me." I reach forward and yank a lock of her hair.

She just laughs harder. "You'd do that too when I was too caught up wondering just where your saucer like eyes came from and you needed my attention."

I just cover my face with both hands, scared that my next words will be fuel for whatever path she's raging on.

"Wait, that's true, it has been a while." She says getting up abruptly.

I frown. "What has been a while?" But she has already stopped listening to me.

"I can't believe I haven't even showed Dale yet, I need to get that picture out of the attic too." She mumbles to herself, darting out of the kitchen.

I just stare at the spot she disappeared from, is she about to do what I think she is?

"Come baby!" I hear her excited voice from the living room and my anxiety mounts. "Come see your baby pictures, oh! You're so adorable! How did you manage to get me to hide all this…"

I tune her out, groaning in frustration. My life is on the brink of ending again - I know how long it took me to persuade her to hide all those embarrassing pictures, especially the one that shows me getting married to Virgil.

I groan again and get up to clear the table, my mom isn't coming back that's for sure and the thought of those pictures seeing the light of day again is enough to make me lose my appetite.

"Mom, please don't." I half beg, when I come in to see my mom struggling to find the perfect spot for the wedding picture.

"Don't what?" She asks absently, struggling with the huge frame.

I just slowly collapse on the ground and roll around a bit in frustration. "Hide those pictures, they're devasting." I wail, sprawled on my back on the rug.

She moves towards me just so that I can see her creepy smirk. "Devastatingly awesome right." She nods slowly, that disturbing smile still on her face.

I just give her a blank look before throwing my legs and arms around again, my mom didn't comprehend the word embarrassment in relation to me but I might be able to use Virgil to get her to hide at least this one.

"Virgil is probably going to get embarrassed by that picture, mom." I say with as much seriousness I can inflect in my voice, sitting up.

My mom pauses her acrobatics with the picture frame to look at me and a shard of hope passes through me. "You really think so?" She worries, a furrow in her brow and I wonder just what it was with Virgil that made every female specie like him unnecessarily.

I stand up, braver now that I had a good card to play. "Yes Mom, he's already eighteen now, of course he's be embarrassed." I layer it on thick, just in case she manages to convince herself otherwise.

"Oh dear." She murmurs softly. "You could be right." She continues in that same soft voice. "Then I should just put this picture awa… sike!" She snickers at me, continuing the task of finding the perfect place to drop the picture so that it would catch the most light and attract the most attention.

"Virgil asked about the picture." She tells me proudly with an irritatingly smug look on her face. "He wanted to know why I hid it."

"Oh no." I whisper, sliding to the ground again.

Two things, Virgil remembers the picture??

He asked about it??!

He wants it back out??!!

Okay, that's three but right now I'm having a mini mental breakdown as I watch my mom duitifully go around the living room to spread the way too many picture frames of me in life ending scenes.

Like the one where I running in diapers and my mom is chasing after me to put clothes on me, Aunt Candy had taken that one and it was her screensaver for a long while.

Or the one Shana and Virgil were pulling both my arms with mutinous expression on their baby faces, I think they had both been six and I five but I look like I was at least three years younger and my mom wasn't exaggerating about my eyes.

"Mom our house is going to look like an art gallery." I say in a blank voice, already giving up, she wasn't listening to me anymore so anything I say to her to convince her to pack up the embarrassing pictures would just bounce off her serious expression.

She paused again at this, she had been trying to balance a picture on a hanging piece. "It would?" She says in a doubtful voice.

"Of course!" I throw my hands up.

"Oh." She says contritely, stepping down from the side table she had got on. "I'll make a photo gallery tomorrow." She says with sudden inspiration.

I sigh forlornly, I might have gotten her to stop painting the living room with embarrassing memories of me but I haven't been able to dissuade her fully.

"Now let's go through the photo albums." She says seriously, bustling towards the pile of albums arranged in a box.

"Don't you want to hear how my date went?" I throw out, needing to distract her from going through the endless pages of similar pictures and run the risk of her finding another dangerous one to go enlarge and frame.

She takes the bait and back away from the boxes. "That's true, I almost forgot." She says, settling on an empty couch that's not infested with polaroids. "Come sit on mommy's lap." She invites and I go over determined to keep her away from the photo albums.

I sit on her legs facing her, my knees on either side of the couch and she wraps her arms around me - it helps that I'm small enough for this position to be comfortable for the both of us. I sigh into the warmth and comfort of her arms, resting my head on her chest.

"I'm listening." She says gently, carding her fingers through my tied up hair, her hands get tangled so she loosens the scrunchie to better tangle up my hair.

I sigh again and close my eyes, starting the story from the very beginning with my mom humming at the right times, she laughs at my reactions to the puppies then get worried about the panic attack.

Her hands are still in my hair and the repetitive movements start to lull me into a doze.

I tell her about the drive and how Dale carried me through all of it, then the park but and I pause after the scene where we ate…

"He kissed you? She prompts and my eyes fly open.

"How did you know?" I gasp a little, did Dale tell her or Shana or Virgil? No. Did Dale even tell Virgil or Shana? I shake my head, none were looking like possible options.

"Nope." She closes her eyes and rests her cheek on the top of my curls. "I just knew."

I close my eyes too, did I ever mention that I love my mom?

"So how was it?" She asks in a mischievous voice.

"Mom?" I complain.

"What? My first kiss was horrible." She shudders lightly. "Matt might have been the cutest boy in the ninth grade but the moron didn't know what to do with his mouth…"

"Mom!" I cut her off before she goes into the gruesome details of her first kiss.

"So." She prompts.

I shrug. "I don't know, I mean I don't have anything else to compare with it but if that's how kisses feel then novels aren't able to capture how it feels." I say quietly.

My mom makes a small sound and hugs me tighter. "I love you baby."

I smile softly, closing my eyes again. "Love you too Mom."

SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO
Aryna_Stan

I'm sorry lovely readers *sad face* there was a silly mistake and I forgot to put this chapter out. it's corrected now and I hope this doesn't cause complications.

Thanks for reading!!! (≧▽≦)

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Chương 38: ~°~Chapter Thirty-eight~°~

"Baby, hurry up!" My mom's voice floats up the stairs. "I have somewhere to be this morning."

I blink at this, what the… "Mom, it's too early!" I yell back, groggily dressing up.

It was horrible enough that she crashed into my room before the sun was up to wake me up, taking me this early to school was just pushing it. "Why can't Dale or Virgil pick me up?" I whine.

"I can't reach them." She tosses back. "And I don't want you going to school all by yourself."

I just throw my brush on my dressing table and place a hand on my waist, pushing a hand through my brushed hair - I really need to learn how to drive.

I don't say anything else, it's not like I'd be able to find my way there all by myself anyway. I'm horrible with directions and walking wasn't even an option so going ridiculously early to school it was.

"That's it!" I pout to my mom after we get into the car. "I'm taking driving lessons after this!"

She just gives me a look. "Darling, you're still seventeen and your tiny legs won't get to the brakes."

I just collapse against the backrest, I was going to have to survive for at least an hour all by myself before my friends would show up.

School started by nine and ended at three pm. It was barely thirty minutes past seven and we were already leaving the house.

"Where are you going anyway?" I turn to her.

She sighs deeply. "I have a couple of errands to run and I don't want to have to spend the night away."

I just hum, she was probably going to Cone, another small town North of the City, and located all the way across Reef City. "Do you have to always get our toiletries from Cone?" I ask absently.

It wasn't the first time we were having this conversation, for some reason she preferred to do the monthly shopping for toiletries there.

"Nowhere else have butterscotch flavored candles." She says seriously.

I just yank on a lock of my hair, already assigned to my fate of having a slightly loco mother. "Why the hell do your candles have to be flavored? It's not like you eat them! Why do you need to even buy toiletries with flavors?"

"Come on, run off to school, and don't bother me." She tsks, stopping the car in front of Pine Creek High.

I step out and cringe at the flashy banner hanging in front of the school depicting the PCH Spring Dance in horrible shades of pink and puke blue, I just sigh forlornly and trudge through the deserted doors.

Vaguely I wonder who opens up the school, it has to be the janitor. I don't see Principal Hughes coming in so early every morning just to open up the school.

I walk solemnly to my locker, it's easier to see my surroundings when there are no people, I hear soft voices in the distance, apparently, I'm not the only unnatural person to be at school so early in the morning.

Exams would begin tomorrow and I wasn't looking forward to them at all but I also couldn't wait for them to be over.

Funny that without even thinking about it I had unconsciously made a decision, or maybe I'm too sheltered to think that far yet. I wasn't thinking about college, not that I had anything against it.

I actually didn't mind but I wasn't overeager to go, maybe I'd wait a year or two. College would definitely be hell for me, High school was bad enough and it was in a small town where I'm surrounded by kids I practically grew up with, no to mention that I'll be all alone.

My future career didn't even involve anything grand, maybe getting a small antique store, where no one ever comes in and I spend most of the day lounging on a sofa, drinking chocolate and reading paperbacks.

Not that I needed to even work but I'd like to do something too by myself, I don't know how my mom can stand it.

I put most of my books inside my locker, today would basically be a free day as most of the teachers were putting up the finishing touches to the exam preparation.

After exams we'll have a free week, then the Spring Dance to mark the end of the semester, then summer break.

I'm looking forward to my final year because honestly, who isn't?

Shana wants to be a nurse and Virgil's dad wants him to get a business degree, I sigh, maybe I'm not made for this world after all.

I close up my locker and debate if I want to find a quiet class to stay in and wait for school to begin proper or I want to go up to the roof.

It's a difficult decision but I know there's a possibility that I'll get lost in thought on the roof and forget to come back down again, plus my friends might not figure that I'm on the roof.

So I start for class, hopefully, it's empty and I won't have to break my legs getting to my seat of someone else is in the class with me.

Unwittingly, Dale and Virgil intrude in my thoughts, I still haven't seen or spoken to Virgil ever since the date with Dale. Absently, I peek into my phone and see no new messages, odd. Shana and Dale are usually arguing on the group chat, maybe they're busy.

I can't seem to think about Dale without getting a telltale blush… all over! Facing him would be nothing but pure torture, which will be ten times worse when Virgil and Shana are there.

Maybe I should just skip school, I'll need the memories anyway, I've never skipped school before unless I was ill or something, that's depressing.

I hike my backpack higher on my shoulders as I walk down the deserted hallway, for the first time in a long time, I can breathe freely in school.

My phone vibrates and I fumble for it while walking into class.

Curiously I start to unlock my phone to check out the new text I'd just gotten but I reflexively look up because I don't want to whack my legs on desks or chairs and if I'm lucky, both. Turns out it was a huge mistake because I look up to get a face full of the Ice Queen herself and her hench girls.

My heart falls to my spine and suddenly my airway feels tighter - it would figure that even air chooses not to exist beside someone like Elise.

I bow my head immediately and start for my seat by the window side, forgetting the text I was so eager to see a moment ago and praying that Elise somehow doesn't see me - I mean, I'm tiny enough - or at least she ignores me.

I feel their eyes on me as I stumble and crash to my seat - so much for trying to stay unnoticeable - but in my defense, that many cold eyes on you are enough to make you trip on thin air.

I quickly sit down when I finally get to my seat, like it's a safe house and I convince myself that Elise won't be able to get to me when I'm on my seat.

When I finally take a breath in, I panic, I should have just turned around and gone back out but as soon as I saw them my brain shut down and could only follow previous decisions, unable to make new ones.

And now, I'd rather lick an earthworm than get back up and walk out even though every moment I spend in here drives me crazy.

Quickly and quietly, I take out a random book which hopefully turned out to be my jotter, and started to doodle to keep my sanity intact.

Why the hell was Elise in school? It was barely 8 am for heaven's sake! Not just her too, but her hench girls are here too. Of all the horrible lucks I've could have had, why didn't I just decide to go up to the roof.

I keep my head bowed and pray for the time to pass as quickly as possible, I peek at my phone's screen, two minutes since I walked in!!

I let out a silent sound of pain, someone should please save me!

Faint footsteps alert me from my mental breakdown and I stiffen, going cold all over.

"Hi, Hayden." Elise's quiet voice comes over and I peek up to see her leaning against a desk directly in front of me.

I risk a quick glance to the side to see that her hench girls are nowhere to be found, huh? When did that happen??

"H-Hi." I stutter in a quieter voice, red alarms blaring in my head, I'm supposed to watch out for Elise, and right now I'm scared she'll pull out a rusty knife and stab me, that is definitely one way I don't want to die in.

"I don't think we've met." She stretches out a slender hand that had blue-tipped nails and a couple rings and charm bracelets adorning it. "I'm Elise, Virgil's girlfriend."