The BUTTERfly Effect

Chappie 18: An unfortunate blast from the past

I look up and immediately the air gets sucked out of me. I drown in the deep cerulean eyes of my ex, Tobey Wallace. The first boy I ever loved. The last boy I ever loved. The boy who broke my heart. Immediately I'm filled with an unquenchable rage and I have to clench my fist to keep from connecting it with his stupidly perfect jawline or his ridiculously amazing nose. Get a grip honey, this is Thee Terrible Tobey you're talking about. I shake my head to clear my thoughts and he furrows his eyebrows at me. The strong urge to slap him across the face comes back and I take deep breaths to regain my control, I've hit enough boys tonight. He breaks the ice first
"Adelaide."
"Dick"
"Hey now, why so hostile?" he says with his hands up in surrender and a stupid smirk plastered to his face.
I scoff "You are unbelievable" I turn around and walk away, pulling Micah along with me.
"You told me your name was Adeline" he mutters but he's close enough that I hear him anyway.
"Why would I tell a complete stranger, who's friends I assaulted, my real name?"
"Good point"
Tobey's still behind us and I whirl around so fast he spills some of the drink he's holding onto himself. I'd be lying if I said that that didn't give me the slightest bit of satisfaction, catching him off guard for once.
"What do you want from me ?" I ask incredulously.
"I would like us to talk...in private" he adds after he finally seems to acknowledge Micah's presence.
He smirks at me and takes a sip of his aforementioned beverage and again I have to resist the urge to take it and pour it over his stupidly luscious hair. I need help.
"I would like us to never talk to each other again, how about that ? That sounds like a much better proposition if you ask me" I say all this with a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on my face and once again I turn around and continue my search for Animee and Jared.
After 15 minutes of searching with Micah occasionally asking me "Is that them?" and me answering "No, they're family. They would NOT be aggressively making out... well at least not in public" I shudder and notice that Tobey is still with us and looks annoyingly amused by the situation.
"Why are you still here?! Didn't I make it clear about 20 minutes ago that I don't want you here? How did you even find me in the first place?" All these questions bleed into one so that they sound like one huge question.
"I told you I wanted to talk. You did make it clear but I chose to ignore it. If I remember correctly it's a free country and I can be wherever I want to be. Until I bumped into you I didn't even know you'd be here...last person I expected to bump into actually." He says the last part under his breath but I've got really sharp ears and I'm fairly decent at reading lips.
I let out a strangled, frustrated scream and Micah touches my elbow. He's so quiet it's easy to forget that he's actually there.
"Hey, it's okay... look I think I see your friends,  I can drive you guys home and you can forget that you ever saw this guy. How's that sound?"
I'm taken aback by his gentleness and I have the weird urge to hug him.
"That sounds great hey you're... it really is them! Let's go"
I wave at them and shout out their names like a maniac but it's futile because everybody here's yelling because of the noise so my voice just gets drowned in the cacophony of shouts and screams. I wave at them and Jared notices me first because he's tall enough to see me through the tiny crowd of people in their vicinity.
I am immediately relieved and drained and I really want to leave. The excitement and buzz from being here already dead.
Animee immediately hugs me when she sees me
"Oh my gosh First Aid you're okay" she says this and I can practically taste the relief she feels.
"First Aid?" I ask with a chuckle.
"Yeah I know, you're nickname is a working progress but to be fair I came up with it under pretty traumatic circumstances. I'm an awful friend. How did I let you get lost on your first night out with me?" This obviously isn't a question that requires an answer because she grabs me again and strokes my hair rather aggressively and mutters other stuff I don't care to listen to because I'm incredibly tired.
"Hey give her some room to breathe." Jared says after I make eye contact with him and mouth 'Help'
She steps away from me and Jared walks up to me and asks me if I'm okay.
"Yeah, I know how to take care of myself"
"Yeah take it from me, your girl packs a mean punch, my friends would back me up if they could actually get up from the floor... speaking of which I should probably be getting back to them. You gonna be okay?" He says the last part so that I'm the only person who hears it. Again his hand is on my elbow and his looking right into my eyes.
I didn't even notice that he was still here. He seems to be slipping my mind incredibly easily for someone who's been with me this whole time.
The others seem to notice him too and Animee glances at him skeptically.
"Who are you?" She asks, genuinely curious
"I'm Micah, I've been helping your friend look for you."
"Nice to meet you and thank you"
He just shrugs and hands me his phone.
I immediately know what he wants me to do and without thinking about it I type my number into his phone.
"To make sure you get home okay" he says sincerely and with that he salutes us all and walks back the way we came.
"What was that ?" Animee asks with a smirk on her face
"Definitely not what you think it was"
"I'm still here you know" I can hear the cockiness dripping from his tone and I close my eyes before turning around.
"Okay, here's my number. We can talk later but right now if you waste any more of my time I will literally gauge your eyes out with the skewer end of a corn dog."
His eyes widen before he hands over his phone and takes a step back.
Animee is about to say something and I hold up my hand "Please don't"
She shuts her mouth and mimics locking it with a key and tucking it in her pocket.
I give him his phone back and gesture for him to leave.
"You girls good to go?" Jared asks as he tucks his hands into his pockets.
"Yeah one more thing. You need to try the 'Onster Combo' before we leave." Animee says with a mischievous glint in her eyes
"What's the 'Onster Combo'?" I say and immediately I'm intrigued because it sounds like food and I'm starving. Looking for people and confronting your ex is hungering work.
"Oh you'll see." She says this and a little fear slips into my body.

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Authors Note

*sheepishly waves*
I know, I know. There's no excuse but I'm going to publish another chapter for you next week and it's already in the works. It's about to get really bumpy on the Adelaide bus so hold on people.

I'm not going to try and explain why I haven't updated in ten months because that's what I always do I'll just give you chapter after chapter as my form of apology.

I saw the reader number increase so I felt bad enough that I updated and I know how it feels to read a book that just never gets updated and it sucks so I'm trying to stop being such a hypocrite.

Hope you guys are staying safe and staying at home.
Don't worry Adelaide is planning on making you're quarantine really interesting so cheer up.

Au Revoir

Onwards
Shimmer like glitter
AraZee