fearless

xvi, message in a bottle.

chapter sixteen. message in a bottle.

angelina's mother liked to send boxes of old stuff every now and then. angelina would store it in a unit she was temporarily renting - the dorm was small enough already. however some stuff she pinned on the wall.

today was one of those days. olive and tommy were playing uno on olive's bed, while angelina dug through a cardboard box that looked slightly beat up from the delivery process. mainly same old stuff, photos, yearbooks, little things she used to keep in her room, and a few records that previously hung on her wall.

pursing her lips as she continued digging, angelina came across an old camcorder. this caught tommy's attention, making olive turn as well. they both jumped to angelina's side, leaving the uno game behind.

"god, how old is this thing?" tommy furrowed his eyebrows, taking it out of angelina's hands and holding it delicately. "looks like something i used to film youtube videos with when i was twelve."

"there's a note with it," olive handed a sticky note over to angelina, who immediately recognized her mother's handwriting. "god, this thing must be ... what? six or seven years old?"

Angelina -
Found this while digging through the basement. Thought you might have some memories in it.

furrowing her eyebrows, angelina took the camera back and opened it carefully, blowing some dust off. tommy and olive looked from behind her shoulder, watching intensely as if they might miss something.

"i used this thing 'till i was around seventeen," angelina said, not looking back at the two. "dunno what i have on here, though."

going through different videos, it was all around the same sort of thing. some videos of elodie and kasey from school dances, some band concerts, graduation photos - angelina kept going, though. she had a feeling there was something there.

and she was right.

"woah, woah, woah, go back a bit," olive put her hand up, making angelina go back a couple videos. "what's this, now?"

it was a very scuffed video of angelina playing acoustic guitar. rewinding a bit, angelina restarted the tape, fixing the grip in her hand so all three friends could watch. they all seemed a bit confused, until old angelina finally spoke.

"so why can't you see?"

"woah." tommy raised his eyebrows as the video finished. it was scuffed, but it was clear. angelina remembered filming the video like it was yesterday. she remembered being very pissed, that's for sure.

"woah indeed, tom simons." angelina closed the camera, putting it down in her lap.

this could really go somewhere, though. she thought, biting the inside of her mouth and thinking. she certainly knew a lot more about recording than past angelina had, and maybe her old dream could come true.

"liv?" she asked, finally turning to make eye contact with olive. "could i use your backup mic?"

olive smiled softly, reading perfectly into angelina's mind and thoughts. their best friend dynamic had come back even after years of being apart, and olive knew exactly what angelina was going to do.

"hell yes, you can have my backup mic."

angelina didn't sing much anymore - though she was in the art program for recording music. it just wasn't really big on her anymore. a lot of impulsive decisions were made on the night of her graduation.