Forever & Always

2: The Box Full of Memories

"What do you think you are doing? Get your hands off of me" I angrily said, prying his hands off of my waist.

"Caleb, I said let go. Now!" I yelled, which made him loosen his grip just enough for me to swim away.

"I would never kiss you" I seethed, making my voice sound lethal.

"I always like a challenge, Princess" he smirked.

"I am NOT your challenge" I angrily said.

"One second you are telling me to stay out of your way and the next you are trying to kiss me. What is wrong with you?" I exclaimed.

"I told you! You get under my skin but I am not blind, you are a beautiful girl" he smirked.

"I have a boyfriend" I stated.

"And you think that will stop me, how cute" he smiled.

"Go to hell" I glared, walking into the house.

He is such an egotistical ass! If he thinks that I am going to do anything remotely sexual with him, then he is in for a surprise. I cannot believe that he tried to kiss me. How dare he!

I walked into my bedroom and closed the door whilst muttering my frustration.

I made my way into the shower, letting the hot water roll down my body cleansing me of Caleb's touch. I turned the water off when I was happy that I had cleaned myself enough and put on a pair of tracksuit pants and a T-shirt.

I opened my wardrobe door and stood on the tip of my toes so I could reach the cardboard box that was up on the top shelf. As soon as my fingertips touched the box, I sat on the floor and took a deep breath as I pulled the lid off.

When my dad had died, I created a memory box. One by one I pulled photographs of my dad out of the box. In every single photo he was happy, smiling and living life to the fullest. There were photos of him at charities, helping at homeless shelters, walking dogs and singing with me. These photos really highlighted who my dad was; he was kind, caring and loving.

Once I finished looking at the photos, I pulled out some of his possessions. There was a soccer jersey and a silver chain, his watch, a cap, and his jumper, that, if I really focused, still smelt like him.

The last thing I pulled out was a photo frame. In the photo frame there was a photo of my dad and I when he won Mr. Cuddles. I was on dad's shoulders holding Mr. Cuddles and we both had huge grins on our faces.

I was six at the time. A new theme park had just opened about forty-five minutes away from our house so dad decided to take me there on one of our father daughter days. I saw this giant red monkey and I instantly fell in love with it. It was on the basketball game and dad kept paying to play until he finally won it for me. Looking back on it now, he would have spent a good thirty dollars on a five-dollar toy but I loved it. I remember the feeling I had when the man passed the teddy to me, I was ecstatic. Dad asked me "What are you going to call it?" and I said, "Mr. Cuddles" and ever since then that has been his name. There was an elderly couple who saw us and dad asked them if they could take a photo of us which they gladly agreed to do. Dad picked me up and put me on his shoulders and we were both laughing. I was holding Mr. Cuddles and dad had his fist in the air like we were celebrating. That was one of the best days of my life.

I snapped back to reality when I heard someone slightly tapping on the other side of the large white door.

"Who is it?" I asked, wiping away the tears that had strayed from my eyes.

"It is just me, can I come in?" Julie asked sweetly.

"Yes, of course you can" I said opening the door.