Found You

Olivia: Part 7

It had been two weeks and I haven't heard from Aaron. Since the night we texted each other, for some reason I couldn't bring myself to reach out to him first, though I really wanted to and he didn't text me either. I don't know maybe he doesn't really wanna talk to someone like me. Hallie too has been out of touch lately because of her assignments. It's just been me all alone in the house. Mom too will come in For a few days as I checked with her earlier, she'll be staying at the hospital for some reasons she tried to explain faintly  but I wasn't really interested in knowing.

Today, however I was going to go into our storage room for the first time since we moved into this house. I was suddenly reminded of this novel that I read a few years back, it was called "The nest "and I had this unexplainable urge to revisit it and as I had a lot of time on my hands these days, I took it upon myself to find it. I unlocked the door, it gave a rusty creek and I was in this dusty room full of our old furniture, home appliances, clocks, my old clothes all covered with white cloth. Spider webs were everywhere. I carefully went over to the few boxes labelled "Books" and started the search for my novel. I saw familiar covers as I went through different books and finally found it, such a relief that it was still there. I was about to get going, this room was way too dusty for me to handle but a book caught my eye, it looked old, unfamiliar, it was a diary, brown with a leather cover. I picked it up, the Initials caught my eye, "C.W."

I opened it and it was what I feared, it was what I feared but wanted, it was my dad's name, "Christopher White." I was frozen in time, my hands couldn't turn the pages any further on. I...I couldn't. It took me a while to turn the pages further, the first entry was dated "12th June 1997." 

12th June, 1997 

I was at the Grandview beach, Hampton, VA, Just chilling by myself  when I saw this girl  sprinting towards the waves with other two companions of hers, It was evening and the sun was crimson, the salty beach air was warm and cozy. They started a water fight and this girl was apparently  terrible at defending herself against her two friends, her  caramel hair waved around and she let out a delightful laugh which somehow made me smile. She caught my eye and that's when she completely lost and was with most impartially  thrown into the playful waves. 

I decided to end my one sided admiration and leave, surprisingly this is when the girls  ended their manoeuvre. I started to walk away when a voice stopped me.

"Excuse me! You left your towel behind" the girl was coming towards me in a hurry, two of her friends waiting impatiently.

One of them shouted "April! hurry up! we gotta get going!" April looked back to reply and lost her balance, I without even knowing moved forward , held her , she didn't fall thankfully. She looked up, embarrassed , her hazel eyes locked with mine, we both looked away. She nervously handed me the towel.

"Thank you" I replied.

"No worries, you live around here?" she asked.

" No, I live a few hours away..." I replied.

" Ohh, how long do you plan to stay  then?" she asked.

"Don't really know" I replied, she looked confused but didn't question me any further . 

"See you around then" she said and gave me a smile and turned towards her friends. she looked back one last time, and I knew she was someone I was willing to stay her for , even though it was just for a little while, I really was.

 I was blown away, April was my mom, April white. This is how they met!? My parents met in the cheesiest way to ever meet anyone and I never knew, no one ever knew. Does mom even know this diary exists? They met in 1997, two years before they got married. This was too much to take in, I grabbed both the books and went off to my room. The diary didn't really contain much pages the rest few were some of the dates my parents went on a few days later, contained the name of the place they stayed at,  the restaurant they ate at, the nights they spent drinking bear sitting together at the beach, romantic stuff. It was too much to take in.

suddenly, my phone ringed, It was Aaron. I didn't hesitate, I picked the phone up.

Aaron: "Hey its been a while since we talked, I'm sorry I couldn't reach out to you sooner, it's just that I have a lot going on in my mind lately, my dad's not around, I can't focus on anything, Owen is busy these days, Hazel broke up with me--"

Me: "What! Hazel broke up with you!? When?"

Aaron: "The night I showed up at your place"

Me: "Why didn't you tell me!?"

Aaron: " We weren't close at that time, plus I didn't wan't to make any excuses for my mistakes."

I couldn't object to that. What I did next was something I was going to regret, something I maybe shouldn't have said to him at all.

Me: Aaron?

Aaron: "Yup?"

Me: " If you don't mind would you like to go somewhere with me wait to be exact, travel somewhere with me?"