A Walk Down Memory Lane

Chapter 8 - Messes

There comes a time in every person's life when they wish they weren't alive, or that they were somebody else; somebody more fortunate than they are. This was exactly what Raven had going through her mind, day in and day out after her little run in with the family that had decided to go AWOL on her since she had recovered from the coma. What is it about family that is supposed to make a person feel secure? Family is supposed to be the magically protected fortress you can hide in when the outside world is being attacked, its supposed to be your safe haven. For Raven, the current situation at hand made her think otherwise. It had been almost 3 weeks since the memorable family reunion and it was still bothering her.

She had friends around, which she was more than grateful for, but somehow she felt like she needed to sort things out with her family. Since she didn't see them taking any steps towards redemption, she thought she'd be the one to take the initiative. But how was she going to close her eyes and jump into a crowd that she wasn't sure was even willing enough to catch her? Judging from the already awkward family gathering that she had been through, figuring out a way to make things normal again didn't exactly seem like an easy task to accomplish. And yet again, she found herself asking a question she had gotten too familiar with: Why me? 

Then there was also the matter of all these new faces that seemed to be popping up into her life out of nowhere. To be honest, there weren't many new faces... the only one that seemed to stick out at the moment was the mystery guy. What was his name again? Oh yeah! Nate! She realised how easy it was for her to get carried away by even the slightest thought of him. She grabbed her laptop and logged into her Facebook account, typing in her e-mail and password from passive memory. Now... Let's see who you are Natha... her thought process was cut off as the first thing that popped up on her news feed made her heart sink in a way she never thought she would experience. It wasn't something that would choke up someone who had their memories intact. But for Raven, it hurt in a way she didn't much understand. Staring back at her through the screen were the gleaming eyes and ear-to-ear smiles of all of her cousins huddled up together to fit into the frame. The caption read: "Cousins are a person's first close friends. Family forever." BULLSHIT! her mind screamed as she shut her laptop furiously and tossed it aside. 

"FUCKING BULLSHIT! Family, my ass! These people don't know the first thing about family!"

She grabbed the nearest pillow she could find, buried her face into it and let out the loudest scream she could muster. Deep breaths, she reminded herself once her throat tired, deep breaths, Rae. Calm down.

**********

After some screams and struggle, Raven chaotically packed a few necessities along with a few changes of clothes and slammed the door shut behind her. Standing on the patio, she took a deep breath and mentally prepared to walk over to Kat's house and, if her parents were going to be okay with it, hopefully spend the night there. 

As she had finally manged to slow her pace down to a steady walk, Raven got the strange feeling that she was being followed. She turned her head to put her suspicions to rest when she noticed an actual car slowing it's pace to catch up with her. She turned her head back around quickly, heartbeat on the rise, and started increasing the pace of her walk. She noticed, however, that the car had come dangerously close to her and so she decided to make a run for it. Preparing herself to sprint off into the sunset, she turned to see the car right next to her and it was none other than Tuck driving it.
"Need a ride?" He smiled at her.

"I'm sorry, my mom taught me to never talk to strangers." She let out a quick laugh as she let go of the stress that had gathered up inside her. Tuck laughed and replied: 

"Where you headed then, stranger?" 

"Can't tell you. Stranger." 

"Oh come on Rae! Cut the dramatics! Where to?" 
She chuckled at how easy it was for Tuck to run out of patience.

"Kat's place." She replied.

"You're in luck! I am headed the exact way. Get in!" He leaned over the passenger seat and opened the door for Raven. 

"You know, for a second there, I thought you were going to make a run for it when you saw me." He said to her as she buckled in her seat belt.

"Don't do well with chasing cars. It's a trauma thing." 
Tucker's expression went from happy to panicked as he came to the realisation of what he must have put Raven through.

"Oh crap! I am so sorry, Rae! Did not mean to scare you at all! It never even occurred to me that you would get scared! I am so so so sorry... wait. Why are you laughing?"
By the time he noticed, Raven had burst out into thunderous laughter, the kind that makes your stomach hurt.

"I. Was. Joking." She could barely manage to contain her giddiness. "You totally fell for it!" She finished with another burst of laughter. Tucker, on the other hand, was not having it. 

"Not cool, Rae. Not cool at all."
With her laughter under control she feigned a sympathetic smile and said:

"Aww Tuck! I'm sorry! I didn't know your sense of humor was so off!" 

"Ha ha! Very funny. I should just leave you here in the middle of nowhere as punishment." 

"Do it! I dare you!"

"Oh shut up!" 

"Relax dude," She punched him lightly on his shoulder, "I was just joking with you."
At that, Tucker screeched the car to a sudden stop and turned to Raven with a glare full of anger.