Walking In Another's Shoes

Calendars and Thoughts

Sneaking down the stairs while also making sure not to make a sound, Graiden arrived at the landing to the living room, revealing Avia and their parents on the couch watching television. Coming up behind them, he walks around and sat down on Avia's lap which earned him a slight groan and some wriggling from Avia as she tried to move her head to continue watching.

"Give it up Aves, you know yourself well enough that you would do this to block me from watching TV too." He taunted triumphantly, with Avia sighing. She knew he was right, she just didn't want to admit that he was right. A small smile came to her face. She supposed this was a small bit of karma from Graiden having to go through her sleepover.

She frowned when she thought on that. Letting Graiden lean back into her as she closed her eyes, she thought about how she had heard them having fun and even practicing the musical for the recital this weekend. She imagined he had found her friends enjoyable, even if he had relied on the memories and emotions from the Manaphy Effect. She was certain he would've formed his own bond with them.

But even knowing that, if they weren't able to switch back he would have to take over her life and vice versa. Sure, their parents had reassured her that they would be able to switch back...but she had a sneaking suspicion about her parents. Something about how they acted...threw up red flags for her. She wasn't quite sure what it was that made her suspect something, her earliest memories of her parents blurred in her mind as that had been a long time ago.

But something about the way they spoke and act just didn't add up for her. But honestly...she could just be paranoid. I mean she and Graiden had to act like each other in front of others, and it would probably result in them picking up each other's habits or mannerisms. Maybe the same had happened to her mom and dad? Shrugging it off, she opened her eyes and took in a breath.

'Yeah...I'm probably just being paranoid. I'm probably trying to find evidence for something that most likely isn't even true. After all, why would mom and dad even still be swapped after all this time? Mom had even said that they had been able to swap back, right? So why would something make me thing otherwise?" She thought to herself, though she was unable to shake the suspicion entirely.

Opening her eyes, she noticed Graiden nodding off a little. Shaking him a bit to bring him back to the land of the living, she smirked. "No going to sleep yet, sleepyhead. I believe there was a reason you came down here?" She asked in a taunting tone. Smirking as Graiden responded with his tongue stuck out, he got up and went over to their parents to discuss how the sleepover had went.

"So at first I was really shy...and then they gave me some bad news as the reason they had been a little late..." He started, with Avia tuning their conversation out after that. She probably figured it had something to do with Ren. After all, it was something that her friends talked with her about a lot during sleepovers. And while she felt like she should be crushed by possibly knowing what it was about, she just... wasn't. A part of her knew she should be wailing and crying about it...but nothing came for her to express.

'Maybe a part of me always knew he would never choose me. And you know...that's okay. He isn't worth getting upset over.' She thought to herself, almost in a monotone. But that was what made her eyes open a little bit in surprise. If she had been herself, she would've been hysterical about losing the chance over Ren. But now that she was Graiden...she didn't have as many worries, or at least not the same worries. She didn't stress over whether she had a chance with someone, for starters.

Which then begged the question, did she even want to switch back? To go back to all the pressure and worrying? The crying over things that she eventually would realize didn't even matter? Resting her head in her hands and her knees into her lap, she honestly didn't have an answer to that. Maybe that was why her parent's behavior was throwing her off. If she was having these thoughts...certainly her mother had had them too?

Humming a bit, she sat up. "I'm gonna go up to...well I guess Graiden's room." She stated, with the other three telling her goodnight before resuming their conversation. Walking up the stairs and turning to the left before finally reaching Graiden's room, she hesitated. What awaited her in his room?

Grasping the doorknob and turning it while pushing the door open, she was greeted by a galaxy wallpapered room with the walls painted dark blue to match the wallpaper. Closing the door, she noticed his bed had Deoxys-themed sheets and covers which earned a slight smile from her. He had always loved to talk about going to the moon and possibly meeting foreign Pokemon that weren't of this world.

Noticing his desk, she went over and saw that he had a notebook that he had labelled in marker 'Journal' . Humming a bit, she picked it up and almost opened it before a feeling of shame came up from within.

'What am I doing?! This is his journal!! That would be like if he found my diary and started snooping through it!!' She told herself snappily, before putting it back down. She wasn't going to lose herself to curiosity. She had standards, and one of them was respecting others privacy. Yawning and sitting on the bed, she couldn't help but notice a sticky note on a calendar on the wall.

'...Well this IS on a calendar...' She reasons, getting up and going to it. Squinting a bit to try and read his handwriting, she gasps a little. May 14th, 2015. His graduation date.

And the note on it:

'What am I gonna do with my life after this..?'