Petit Monde (Rye Beaumont)

ASSURANCE

  He smiles at me and pinches my cheek gently.

   “I will always be here with you, Alexandria, I will always protect you.” he says, putting a smile on my face.

   “By the way,” I just thought of how he got into the house. “how’d you get in the house?”

   He pulls out a set of keys from his pocket, “Your mom came over yesterday to give us spare keys, she said that she would be away for a week and asked us to look after you.” he says and I gape at him. “Sorry if I didn’t text you that I was coming over.”

   “It’s okay.” I chuckle, waving my hands in repudiation.

   “Anyway, with that being said; the boys and I thought about having a sleepover if that’s okay.” he sheepishly says.

   “I’d love that.” I reply whilst smiling.

• • •

  “Damn, why are you so good at this?” Brook asks, as soon as the winners’ circle came up.

  Brook and I are currently playing Call of Duty on Xbox and I came up first whilst he was second, I laugh and shrug.

  “I don’t know, probably from playing it too much.” I chuckle.

   “You two have been playing that for hours, mind if we play Fifa?” Andy asks, putting his phone down next to him.

   I look over at Brook and the two of us nod, putting the controllers on top of the coffee table. Andy sits down next to me and picks up one of the controllers, whilst Rye puts the CD into the console. In the midst of their second match, Andy suddenly hands the controller to me.

   “What?” I ask.

   “Take over.” he laughs, before walking away.

  “Wait, I don’t know how to play this.” I say, but he’s already out in the hallway.

   Rye pauses the game and puts his controller on his lap, before he scoots over and puts his hand over mine on the controller and teaches me the controls.

   “You got it?” he asks afterwards.

   “I think so.” I sheepishly chuckle.

   He nods, before resuming the game. I couldn’t quite get it at first, but I got the hang of it after a while. I squeal, when I did my first goal and when I look over at Rye; he was looking at me with a smile.

   “I am sorry.” I say, smiling back at him.

   He bites his lip and looks back at the screen, we continue to play till twelve midnight before the boys ask to go out for McDonald’s. I take the keys to my Mom’s car and let Rye drive to the nearest McDonald’s. Rye and Mikey order our foods, whilst the four of us take our seats.

   “So, did you have fun playing Fifa?” Andy asks, smiling.

   “Yeah, it was fun.” I reply with a shrug.

  “But COD’s funner, isn’t it right, Alexa?” Brook chimes in.

   “Funner, really?” I chuckle, raising my eyebrows. “Yeah, it is though.”

   Brooklyn puts his hand out for a high five and the two of us smile.

   “You know, Rye let you win that match.” Andy whispers.

   I look at him as if asking really? and he nods and before any of us could say anything, Rye and Mikey came back with our orders. After eating, the boys and I head back to our house and I was just on my phone when I realize that I am missing something. I immediately get up from the beanbag in my room and start to look for my necklace.

   “What’s the matter, Alexa?” Jack looks up from his phone.

   “I am just looking for something, don’t mind me.” I assure him, giving him an anxious smile.

   “Oh, I’ll help you.” he puts his phone down and gets up from the window seat. “What are you looking for?”

   “It’s a silver necklace with two letters, an A and an L.” I answer.

   He nods and the two of us start to look around the room.

  “What are you two doing?” Andy asks while furrowing his brows in confusion.

  “Looking for her necklace.” Jack replies.

   Andy gets up from the bed and joins me and Jack, as we look for the necklace; Andy knows how much that necklace means to me and that I would be so upset if I lose it. Later on, Rye walks out of the bathroom with a chain on his hand.

   “Uh, is this it?” he asks, looking up at me.

  I hurry towards him and takes it from his palm, breathing out when I finally saw it.

   “Yeah, it is, thank you!” I exclaim enthusiastically and hug him.

   I quickly pull away and compose myself, “I am so sorry, I was just worried that I lost it.”

  “Yeah, that necklace means a lot to her.” Andy says and I just nod in agreement.

   “Where did you get that?” Rye asks.

    “My, uh, my childhood best friend gave it to me before I left.” I reply, smiling as I play with the pendants.

   I look up at Rye and he looks really confused, making me laugh.

   “Nevermind, it’s quite a long story.” I shrug, walking towards the bed.

   “We have a lot of time though.” he really seems eager to know.

   I sit down on the edge of the bed and he sits down next to me.

   “Um, I don’t know where to start.” I sheepishly say whilst looking down at the pendants.

   “Just start with the reason why you left.” he replies.

   I nod and bite my lip, “Well, um, it was weeks after my Dad died. Mom thought that it would be better for us to move cause the place reminds us a lot of my Dad. So, um, the morning before we left; I went to the park to meet up with my best friend and that’s when he gave me the necklace. I wear it everyday ever since we part, I actually had to change the chain cause it was already small but I still have the original chain with me.”

   “Oh.” he says and I just smile at him.

   “You know, it’s just.. sad because we no longer have communication with each other.” I add, biting my lip.

   “Why is that?” he curiously asks as he shifts on the bed so he’s facing me.

   I look up at him and smile a little, “I don’t know to be honest, we went on talking everyday to once a week to once a month, until we just – maybe we were just busy growing up.” I reply.

   “Maybe,” he says. “it’s really nice to know that you still remember him and that you kept the necklace that he gave you.”

  “Of course, he was my first ever best friend; we dreamt about a lot of things with each other, made promises, shared secrets with each others. I couldn’t help but wonder where he is right now though, how he is, what he’s doing, if he still remembers me..” I breathe out, looking down.

   “Well, I am pretty sure he still remembers you.” he puts his hand on top of my thigh, causing me to look up at him.

  “I hope so.” I reply with a small smile.