The Necklaces

Chapter 8

I let Sam lead the way. I’ve never been to her house before so this is so new to me. I hold Gabe’s hand because he’s the only person that my mom has trusted with my safety before. I look at Lucas and Sam up ahead and think about how much he likes her. I sigh and Gabe looks at me, “What’s wrong?”

“Look at them; they’re just so cute together.” I point at Sam.

Gabe looks out to the beach and kinda mumbles, “We’re cute too.”

I laugh, “You’re cute, I don’t know about me but you’re defiantly cute.”

He sorta yells, “Noo! You’re what makes this relationship cute!”

I laugh, “Wow calm down.”

“I cannot calm down for you are the cutest of all cute things!”

I can feel my face get warm and I let go of his hand and cover my face, “Not cool, we’re in public and you’re yelling some weird stuff.”

He laughs, “Just hop onto my back.”

I raise an eyebrow, “Why?”

“Because I’m offering a piggyback ride so that we can be a cuter couple then Sam and Lucas.”

I smile and jump on his back. He carries me like I’m no problem at all, he moves at the same pace without stumbling or losing his grip on my legs. I laugh as I throw my arms into the air in victory. I can hear Nina talk to Charles behind us, “AWWW! WHY DON’T YOU EVER GIVE ME PIGGYBACK RIDES?”

And he just sighs, “Because I’m not strong enough to carry anyone.”

I laugh and rest my head on Gabe’s. Next thing I know, we’re at Sam’s house. We walk into the building and I say hi to her Dad and brother before heading back outside. I sit near the shore and wait for everyone to come outside. Once everyone comes outside they tell me that all the families are accepting and we can head home now.

“I want to shop around first.” I say and the queen agrees to let us roam around until noon when we’ll have to meet back at the airport for the flight back to California. We get into our groups and the queen tags along with Gabe and I.

“I wanna go to the pet store first!” I say and they agree. We go to the nearest pet store. Inside they had very simple pets and then they had some more exotic pets. I go straight to the hedgehogs. I stare into their cage in envy. I want one so badly, they’re so cute. Gabe and his mother find me obsessing over the hedgehogs and laugh a little.

“Hey, I’ve always wanted one but they’re not legal in California. It’s not my fault that they’re soo cute.”

“The fact that you’re in love with this animal is adorable and I’m going to buy it for you.” Gabe says as he turns to his mother, “Can you buy this for her so that I can pretend like I bought it because I forgot my money.” I laugh and his mother nods. Gabe turns back to me, “Pick one you think is cutest and the nicest and we’ll get it.” I squeal a little with joy and looked at the three hedgehogs that slept. When a shop attendant comes I ask to hold the almost pure white hedgehog with a big black spot in the middle of its head. The woman takes the hedgehog out and puts it in my hands. It’s almost completely calm, it squirms a little but I assume that’s because it doesn’t know me. I smile, “I want this one please.”

The woman takes the hedgehog, “Are you buying any cages and materials for it today or do you already have those?”

I look at Gabe and he looks at his mother and she just smiles, “We’d like to get the best stuff possible for the pet.” The clerk gives the hedgehog back to me to hold and goes around the store to gather that stuff which includes a cage, toys, food, water and food dishes, a little home for him to sleep in, and the grass you put at the bottom of cages. The total was somewhere around $200 and I greatly thanked the queen but she just said that it was no issue because she wanted to get me something to make me feel better about not being able to see my family for a long time. We go to the mall and get a new suit case so that I may put all of my hedgehog stuff in there but I carry my hedgehog in my backpack so that he can sleep in the dark but get used to my scent. We stop inside a JCpenny’s because I saw a sale sign and freaked out. I couldn’t find anything in my section that I had to have but I strolled into the guy’s area and pulled some stuff that I wanted Gabe to try on. He looked a little nervous about trying on clothes for me because he is so used to dressing proper but I push him into a dressing room anyway. Meanwhile I sit outside of it talking to his mom.

“You know we were all worried about you.”

“Why is that?” I ask.

“Well as I said before, you were risky and Gabriel was so in love with you, we were scared that you would shatter his heart.”

“I would never try to do that.”

“He tried so hard to find someone else to fall in love with after we told him that you were risky but he never could fall for someone else. They were all too normal for him, not exciting enough. That’s how he’s always been, wanting an adventure. And I believe that you’re his adventure.”

“What will happen after the adventure is over? Will he just forget about me?”

“The adventure is never over, life is an ongoing adventure and once you find someone who is willing to live that adventure with you, you will never be unhappy.”

I smile and I can hear Gabe opening his dressing room door, “I’m done.”

I walk into the room and gasp at what I see, “You look amazing.” He blushes and I can’t stop looking at him. He’s wearing a beanie and a white courter sleeve T-shirt with black (not tight just nice) skinny jeans. I smile wide, “What’s your shoe size? You need converse.” He tells me his shoe size and I run to the shoe section and get a pair of black converse. I hand it to his mom and he changes back into his normal clothes, “Are you gonna get them?” I ask.

He sighs, “They did look okay on me and if you like them on me…” I smile and he nods. We go back to the guy’s section and get some more clothes and then check out. We go back to the airport and wait for everyone else to come back.