Song: Watermelon Sugar by Harry Styles
Chapter Thirty-seven: There are no purple elephants
"Did you make up with Samantha?" I mocked.
When I got home and went into Reveka's room she was there with Sam. I guess they made up.
"My name is Sam and you know it."
"Sam is short for Samantha. Everyone knows that." I teased.
He shook his head. "Or Samuel. Or Samson. But mine is just Sam."
Reveka put one hand to block her mouth from Sam and whispered to me. "It's Samuel."
He shoved her as I laughed. "I prefer Salvatore."
He scrunched his brows. "How is Sam short for Salvatore?"
I shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?"
"Well, you're the one who-"
I cut him off and plopped down on her bed. "What are you guys watching?"
"Don't you have friends?" Sam mocked.
I gasped. "Excuse you. Of course I do. I even have a boyfriend." I replied with a proud smile on my face.
He laughed. "I wanted to ask you about that. What exactly are you holding against him?"
I gasped again and grabbed a pillow to hit him over and over again with.
"How dare you? I'm the only one allowed to hit him." Rev yelled as she started hitting me with another pillow, but I ignored her as I continued hitting him.
"This is physical bullying!" He yelled.
"Well, that was verbal bullying. Apologize."
"Never!"
I jumped on his back as I pressed his head into the sheets. "He's not breathing." Reveka mentioned as she stopped hitting me with the pillow.
I gave her a pointed look. "I noticed." I turned to his blond head and raised it. "Are you ready to apologize now?"
"You monster!" He accused. I dipped his head back into the bed.
"Apologize, you dimwit! I do not plan to move a corpse out my bedroom. They stink." Reveka warned.
I just laughed at that before raising Sam's head back up. "Are you ready to say sorry now, Samantha?"
He turned his head slightly to glare at me and I gave him my award winning smile. "Sorry."
I pretended not to hear him. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."
"I said I'm sorry."
I jumped off his back. "Apology denied."
He grumbled as he sat up. "Well aren't you a man." I mocked him.
"I don't hit girls."
Reveka gasped, and I could see a smile playing on his lips as he looked at her. "He hits me!" She turned to me. "I think he likes you."
I turned to him and shrugged. "Who doesn't?"
He gagged. "You two are one and the same."
We shared a look with smiles, and then replied at the same time. "Thank you."
*********
"You're fired."
The next day, after Zane's practice, I asked him to go with me to Tate's before we went out for anything. I needed to quit my job. Seems Benny was more eager to do that for me.
My jaw dropped. "That's not fair. You didn't even let me smile like I did nothing wrong."
"So you know you did something wrong?"
"What did I do wrong? I said three weeks." I defended.
"And did I agree?"
"No." I mumbled.
He asked again, pretending not to have heard me the first time. "What was that?"
"I said no."
"And you went with yes."
"It's not even three weeks yet."
"Still."
"Okay well for the begging part." I mumbled to myself, but he seemed to catch it since he gave me a confused look. I clasped my hands together and pulled a distraught face. "Please, Please, Benny don't fire me. I want this job so bad. I'll be a better employee I promise."
"I can see you're acting."
My face dropped. "You can? I should take classes then."
"Why aren't you actually begging?" He raised his brows.
I shrugged. "Maybe because I came here to quit. I didn't expect you to be so eager to let me go."
"I'm not."
"You fired me."
"That's because I'm supposed to show some sense of authority."
I laughed a little.
"You've been with me for over a year. Why are you quitting?"
"I'm moving away. My dad's back and he brought some money with him." I joked as I rubbed my hands together. "Cha-ching."
"I'm happy for you." He smiled.
"Really?"
He nodded.
"Benny, we need some more- Oh, you." Toni commented as she entered his office.
I rolled my eyes, a smile playing on my lips. "You don't have to be so mean to me anymore Toni, I no longer work here."
"Has he finally fired you for being so incompetent?"
"Well yes, but I also quit."
"Am I the reason? Because I'd honestly love to be."
I laughed a little. "No. I'm moving away."
"Oh." She crossed her arms.
I walked up to her and hugged her. "I'll miss you."
"Well, I won't."
I released her. "Of course not. Tell the others I said bye."
She didn't reply. I turned to Benny. "Bye." I waved at him before walking out the office and towards the door.
"Avery?" A voice called out.
Keep walking.
But-
Keep walking I tell you.
So I kept walking. That was until his hand clamped my shoulder. "Or do you prefer Av?"
I smiled a little as I turned to face Wren. "I told you that Av just doesn't work."
"And I didn't listen." He smiled. "How are you? Haven't seen you in a while."
"I quit."
He sighed. "And you would have told me, but I ruined our friendship."
"You didn't ruin our friendship." I soothed.
Well, he kinda did.
"You can't even look me in the eye to say that. I'm sorry, I'm sorry I pushed too hard, but I'm not going to give up."
Oh God.
"Well, you're going to have to. I'm moving away."
His face fell. "What? Why?"
"My dad came back to take us with him to," Choose a far away place. "Canada."
Canada, really? That's our next door neighbor. What about Australia? Or Indonesia?
I panicked and said the first thing that came to mind.
"Where in Canada?"
"Ontario."
"Where in Ontario?"
"Uh... Toronto."
"Where in Toronto?"
Really?
"I don't know. Why so many questions?"
"I thought maybe I could come visit sometime."
"No." I rushed out.
His brows crinkled. "But we're friends. What's the big deal?"
"It's so far away. I don't want you to bother yourself."
He shook his head. "I promise you I'll see you again."
Uhh... About that.
I just nodded and smiled. "Goodbye Wren."
He hugged me. "Goodbye Avery. I'll miss you so much."
"Me too."
With one last wave, I walked quite a distance so he won't see when I walked up to Zane's car. Zane was watching him go into his car when he asked. "Will you ever tell him?"
I turned to Wren's direction. "When the time is right."
********
Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.
In the past three weeks that Zane and I had been dating, I've been extremely happy. And now, the insane part comes in. I think about him when I wake up, in every class, when I go to bed. Is this love or an obsession? Someone tell me because I really need to know.
Although I had spent most of my time these last weeks absorbed in Zane, I still spent time with my friends too. Mostly Xander, but still.
Today was the day mom was leaving for her trip. I loved coming here every Saturday to talk to her. It was like writing diary entries. The bond the three of us shared was so strong that I could tell them anything. She wasn't surprised about Zane. She said she could tell by just looking at the two of us. Like that made any sense. She was a little bothered about the car thing, but I assured her it was fine since it was just a one time thing and I was going to give it back once I saved up and got mine.
We filled her in on everything except Jaxon. I also didn't see it necessary to tell her I was finally back in contact with my cousin, Darien. He was a good friend of Shayna and I when we were younger. I lost touch with him a few years back, but he got in contact again. I asked him how he got my new number, and he just said Reveka. I didn't bother telling her because it wasn't important and she didn't bother bringing it up either.
We were at the hospital seeing mom off when I had a little chat with Dr. Wallace. He was smiling at where she stood at the counter talking to some of the staff.
"Do you love her?"
He snapped his head towards mine. "What?"
I repeated the question.
"A lot, but I don't think it's the right time with her ex-husband back and everything."
"How long?"
I didn't need to expatiate because he understood. "From the day she started working here, but I couldn't tell her or make a move on her because she was a married woman. I was there when he left her. I had come to drop some things she left because she rushed home that day. I was about to knock, but he just flung the door open, yelled at me about something I didn't quite understand and marched away. When I walked in, Shayna was crying her eyes out on the floor. And your mom. Your mom was breaking things."
I nodded and then muttered. "She wanted them to be broken like her." I understood because I did that. I destroyed things when I got home and Shayna told me he's never coming back. I couldn't even explain the betrayal and hurt I felt. The fact that I was able to forgive him was a decision I will never understand how I made. But it didn't mean I will ever forget. The family photos without him won't let me. The empty seat at the head of the table won't let me. And most especially, the void I felt when he left that was almost filling up won't let me. And I was okay with that. I was okay with that. I had no more tears left to cry.
He looked back at her, unsure of whether to comfort me or respect my personal space since I was lost in thought.
"So, what did you do?"
"Simple. The only thing I could. No questions. Just comfort."
I smiled at him. "Thank you."
He turned to me and smiled. "The fact that you don't seem to hate me for hitting on your mother is thanks enough." He teased.
I laughed a little, then Rev came up to us and cleared her throat. "He better have a good reason for taking our mom about 8,000 miles away."
He smiled at her. "Ah, I see you did your research, but it is 8,766 miles to be precise."
"You must feel so smart." She mocked.
He touched the stethoscope around his neck. "Well, I am a doctor."
"Not all doctors are smart." She scoffed as she walked away.
"I think they are!" I yelled to her, defending my future profession.
She just turned around and glared at me before continuing with mom. We helped move her luggage to the car.
I hugged her. "I'm going to miss you mom."
"It's just three weeks, don't be such a cry baby."
I gasped and released her. "In case you haven't realized, you're the one who's crying."
She rolled her eyes as she used the back of her palm to clean her tears. She turned to Reveka and gestured for her to come over. We did a group hug before releasing each other.
"The past weeks have been crazy." Rev commented.
"I know right." I supported then turned to mom. "You better bring us some baby elephants."
"We're serious. It better be the purple ones."
We gave her an incredulous look. "There are no purple elephants."
She shrugged. "Well paint them before you bring them over. And make sure the paint is dry."
We just laughed at her stupidity as mom got in the car that Dr. Wallace had driven towards us. We waved one last goodbye before entering our own car and driving back home.
Well it's Monday and school is over so, what to do?
Zane.
Exactly.
*********
"She said purple elephants really?" He asked as he laughed some more.
We were on my bed in my room and Rev was in her room with Sam, Chloe and Ella. I told her she couldn't have a boy in her room, and then she pointed at Zane. I scoffed. As if that was the same thing. He's my boyfriend. They have rights. Then she brought up Xander being just a friend and I quickly shut up.
"Yup."
"I can hear the both of you!" She yelled from her room.
"We don't care!" Zane yelled back.
I laughed. "I wanna go somewhere."
He turned to me and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. "Where?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. You're the one who's been coming up with places we've gone so far. You took us to that in-town carnival last week. The one with the Ferris wheel." I smiled at the memory of his horrified-trying-to-keep-my-cool face.
He laughed as if remembering that too. "Remember the thing with the boat in the tunnel of love." I laughed harder. We had thought that was the perfect time to kiss. I mean we were on a boat, in water, in the tunnel of love. What could be better than that?
"We thought nothing could go wrong." He smiled at the memory.
"Then some stupid shark prop was sprung on us from the water." I laughed. "What kind of stupid addition was that?"
"You were so scared. You almost jumped into the water."
"Could you blame me? The shark looked so real. They should have put it in the tunnel of hate."
"No such thing."
"Then they should make one and put the freakishly scary shark in it." I complained. "I'm never going into another stupid love tunnel ever again."
He raised his head and pouted. "Not even with me?"
I kissed his pouty lips. "Especially not with you. You were supposed to be my knight in shining armor and you just laughed your butt off."
He laughed some more. "It was hilarious, can you blame me?"
I gave him a look that said 'Yes, I can and I will most definitely blame you' and he just rolled his eyes.
"You know, I never got to take you on a first official date."
My jaw dropped. "What do you call the picnics? Or the restaurants? The walks in the park? The carnival? The movies? Even just sitting at home."
We've had an eventful three weeks. Everything was literally going great and nothing could jinx it. My friends and I were on perfectly great terms. Leyla was even hitting it off with Jordan. They were getting pretty close. The clones probably got tired of coming to sit at our table during lunch when they realized they couldn't cause trouble when nobody was paying attention to them. Axel stayed since we were friends now and nothing was awkward. He and Zane still had a tense relationship. But what could I do? When you hope for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, you can't expect the leprechaun who owns it to freely give you.
Did you make that up?
Yes.
Stop making things up.
Shut up.
So the people left on my table were me and my friends, my boyfriend and his best friend, then Axel and Jordan. Just the 9 of us. Jordan basically just stayed for Leyla. She wasn't really letting him in, but I was glad she was starting to look happier around him. This jock better not break her heart. The one from Axel was enough to last a lifetime.
Shawn and Mason probably realized that though their captain and co-captain were on our table, we still weren't the popular ones so they weren't back to theirs. Thank God! We got weird stares from the students in the cafeteria and all, but no one dared ask. Ridiculous.
"Those weren't official dates."
I rolled my eyes. "You've got to be kidding me. You're just looking for an opportunity to spend money."
My phone notification ding sound came up.
"Don't look at it." He warned.
"I'm going to look at it." I told him before I reached over to my bedside and grabbed my phone. I laughed at what I saw. Darien had a big elephant head on his head.
Zane looked over my shoulder. "Who's Darien?"
"My cousin."
"How come I've never met him?"
"He doesn't live around here."
"What do you mean?" He creased his brows.
"He doesn't live in this state."
Zane pointed at the picture. "But he was at the carnival."
"No he wasn't."
"Look behind him. That looks exactly like the carnival."
I turned to where he was pointing. "Maybe it's another one."
Zane raised his brows. "I don't think so. That looks exactly the same."
I was about to say more, but then my door burst open and in walked a vampire. I yelped as I rolled over and fell off the bed out of fear.
"Please don't suck my blood." I begged.
Zane laughed and grabbed my hand to pull me up. The tiny vampire who was laughing his butt off removed his mask to reveal Aaron.
"Why can't vampires be pretty like the ones in The Originals? Why do they have to have white faces with blood dripping from the side of their mouths? I mean Rebecca was hot." I commented and they both gave me weird stares. I just laughed it off.
"Because it's Halloween. You're supposed to be scary."
"You don't have to be scary. You just have to wear a costume."
"Wrong." He turned around. "So? What do you think about this one? You acted more scared than you did with the rest."
I gave him a high five. "I should get A for my acting skills."
Zane snorted.
Aaron turned to him, then back to me. "You have a boy in your room."
Zane rolled his eyes. "You say that every time I come here."
"Yet you keep coming."
"Arabella has boys in her room all the time." I commented.
"Yeah. But she said mom allowed her because she's helping them with their homework."
Zane and I choked on our laughter.
"She tutors a lot of students. Plus they're only boys. Isn't that weird?"
"Her teacher must have assigned only boys to her." Zane offered.
"But why are they so much? There are like 3 different boys every week. I thought it was one student to a tutor."
Oh God! Please make him stop talking before I burst into tears.
He's so clueless. Tutoring my ass.
"Yeah, but Arabella is so smart that she's tutoring a lot of boys. Not many students are as smart as her."
"That makes sense. I think they watch videos too because once, I was passing her room and I heard noises."
Zane started choking. I beat his back to calm him down. "It's part of the learning process."
He scratched his black hair. "I thought that only happened in elementary school. When you watch Barney and stuff because the noises were funny. I tried to open the door to see what they were watching, but it was locked."
I gave him a sweet smile. "How old are you again?"
He beamed at me and held up eight of his fingers. "I turned eight this year."
"Isn't that just fantastic?"
He nodded enthusiastically.
"Well, this is better than the zombie doctor and the owl. So yes." I changed the topic before my boyfriend died of holding in his laughter.
He smiled and pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! I can't wait to go trick or treating!" And then he ran out of the room.
"The owl costume was just horribly unnerving." Zane commented.
"I know right. It was so freaky. To add to the freaky effect, it had a button you press for the head to turn 180 degrees. It gave me the creeps. Reveka almost fainted when she saw it."
He laughed.
"So?" I rested on one elbow. "Our Halloween costumes?"
He smiled. "I have it all planned out."
*
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Thanks and Toodles ;)