Bleed Until You Heal

6- Old Homes

"I can't do this," I say with a shake of my head.

"We're already halfway there now," Jasper points out.

"Well, we have to turn around," I tell him with a shaky breath. "I really can't do this. I can't believe that I even let you talk me into this at all."

"Me neither, but you did," He chuckles. "So you can't back down now. Come on, you were the one who told me that you want to know what happened to the kid so just do this for yourself."

"You're right," I sigh. "But what if Scott doesn't remember me? I'm going to look so stupid."

"No you won't," He denies. "Just because you care doesn't mean that you're stupid, it just means that you cared. And if he is too stupid to remember you then it's his loss."

"You make it sound so easy, Jas," I mumble. "I haven't seen this guy in eleven years though, this is ridiculous."

"Just ten more minutes," He says. "Don't you want to know how he turned out?"

"Well, yeah I do but I just... I don't know. Showing up at his house is just so drastic, don't you think? I should have just looked him up online or something."

"It'll be fine," Jasper assures me. "I'll be right there with you the whole time. And besides, showing up in person is a lot more romantic than just finding his phone number online or IMing him."

"Romantic?" I scoff.

"I don't mean that like you want to marry him and have his babies. I mean romantic like big and bold and out there," He explains, getting off at the exit that the GPS tells us to get off at so that we can get to the old house. I remember my old address because the house number was 924 which is my birthday, September 24th, and the street name is Groveport which sounds like Grover, who was my favorite Muppet.

"It will be really cool to see him again. After all of the memories we made, I do kinda miss him still," I sigh, trying to make myself feel less nervous than I really am. I've thought about Scott so much, even now, I think about how he's doing nowadays. I think about it more than I probably should and as much as I try to deny it, I do have a built up image of who I think that he is. He's probably still into science, such a gentleman, probably with a girlfriend who also likes science and plays a sport like tennis or volleyball. Scott never was a fan of sports so he probably doesn't play anything himself.

I'm just a little worried that my expectations are too high.

"Just promise me that when you get reacquainted with your old best friend, you don't forget about your new best friend," Jasper says teasingly.

Rolling my eyes at him, I look out the window and try to recognize anything about the surroundings. I had lived there for the first seven years of my life but I don't really recognize anything until I see a small little ice scream shop just outside of the neighborhood that I remember Sienna walking me too a lot just to get me out of the house. "I wouldn't ever do that. I wouldn't really consider you my 'new' best friend either considering we've been friends for eleven years. Longer than I was friends with Scott."

"I'm just saying that you're not allowed to do that," He says.

"We need to go to that ice scream shop when we leave," I say, pointing to the small little shop as we pass it and go into my old neighborhood. "They have the best cake batter sundae."

"I don't like cake batter ice cream," Jasper reminds me.

"Well then you can find something else to eat," I tell him with a small laugh. "That ice cream shop is the only thing I remember about this place, it's that delicious. It's the least that you can do for me considering you talked me into doing this."