The afternoon went by quicker than I had imagined and before I knew it, it was time for us to leave.
I had so much fun creating messes Julie described as 'masterpieces' and letting my inner child finally be released. It was like a breath of fresh air; much needed change. I hugged Julie goodbye, promising to visit her again soon and left DIMU with Thomas.
If red and yellow make orange and red and blue make purple, why don't nails grow faster?
"Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?" Thomas asked as we took a turn onto the highway.
"Not really." I replied, rattling my brain to think if I was forgetting anything.
"No family dinner this time?" He teased, facing me for a second. "Are you one hundred percent sure?"
"No family dinner." I assured, rolling my eyes. "Why?"
"Just thought we could hang out for a bit." He shrugged, clutching onto the steering wheel tightly.
"Okay? But take it easy on the car." I said, just as his knuckles began to turn white. "What has this beauty ever done to you? Poor baby." I pouted and leaned forward to rub the dashboard.
He looked over at me and scoffed. "Why do I have the feeling that you like my car more than you like me?"
"Because it's a fact." I replied, sitting back and practically melting in the cozy, leather passenger's seat.
Thomas began to sniffle and wave both hands at his face as he broke into fake sobs. "It's just, I can't even. Like, o-m-g. Like, I don't know why you hate me. Like, all I ever wanted was for you to like me. Like, why is this so hard?"
"Oh my God, will you put your hands back on the wheel? Are you trying to kill us?" I yelled.
"At least then, we'd die together."
Na ah.
***
The next half hour of our journey was mostly taken up by the very heated debate caused by Thomas' not so genius plan for us to 'die together'.
"Are we still talking about this?" He asked, handing me my strawberry milkshake after getting back into the car. "Can I just say that I was wrong and you were right and you can let go of it?"
"No. You need to understand why you were wrong. If we got into an accident, the chances of both of us dying aren't any higher than the chances of one of us making it out alive." I began, very confident in my theory. I went on and on about how some people have higher tolerance to things like pain and shit but at the same time, how everything that happens in life is fate and luck. Thomas didn't say a word the entire time until I completely finished what I had to say.
"Deep." He said, making my verbal essay seem like it had been falling onto deaf ears the entire time. "We made it, thank goodness."
I looked out of the window and chuckled once I recognised the familiar, dirt road. "Weird, misplaced boulder, here we come!" I yelled as we got out of the car.
"Believe it or not, it was a proper cliff once upon a time but they just demolished it for no fucking reason." He explained, his face not hiding how much it must've been a big deal for him. "That so called 'weird, misplaced boulder' is all that's left of it."
Once we had reached it, we climbed up it and sat. It was still pretty early and the sun wasn't going to set for another couple of hours, which made me wonder why he had brought me back here. Luckily for me, I didn't have to ask because he got straight to explaining.
"I never knew my dad, never even met him. It was always just me and my mum." He began, tapping his fingers on his thigh. "My mum was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid but the symptoms never died out. Growing up, it wasn't that big of a deal, you know? I just thought she was always fun to play with and I loved it. I never even noticed something was wrong."
He stopped for a while before continuing. "I was around six or seven when social workers who were keeping a close eye on her came and took me away, saying she was 'unfit' to care for a child in her state. I was put into foster care and taken in by The Elms; Monica's family. They treated me like their own son. Jeff, Monica's dad, used to bring me here when I first moved in with them."
In one swift movement, he set his milkshake down between us and stood up. "He used to tell me to scream whatever the hell I wanted to. He'd stay up here with me for hours, watching me let all the frustration out of my little heart. I don't think I ever cried as much in my life." He chuckled, shaking his head. "But it definitely helped."
I slowly picked myself up until I was steadily standing next to him on top of the boulder. "I THINK THAT'S REALLY COOL!" I yelled, raising my milkshake in the air for no reason."
"SO DO I!" Thomas agreed, yelling just as loud." WE SHOULD YELL UP HERE MORE OFTEN!"
"MAYBE YELLING CAN BE OUR ALWAYS!!"
***
We yelled and yelled until our throats got sore. We stayed to watch the sunset before heading back to Georgetown.
"We should make it a monthly thing." I suggested, as the car came to a stop. "It can't be weekly or daily because we'd lose our voices forever."
"Monthly thing it is." Thomas stated. "And let me guess, you're not going to go into your house until I drive off."
"Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner." I said, getting out of the car.
"One of these days, I'll find out." He smirked," One way or another."
"Well until then, toodles." I mockingly waved before closing the door. I stood back on the pavement and waved properly as I watched him drive off. I waited until I saw the car take a turn before continuing to walk down the road towards my house.
Key in lock. Twist. Twist doorknob. Push. Open. Walk. Turn around. Close. Walk like a mothafrickin' boss.
A sound from the kitchen made me turn away from the stairs and head towards it. It definitely wasn't my dad because he wasn't supposed to be back from the gym until later. I found myself grabbing a lamp from the closest table and carrying it over my head as I slowly walked towards the kitchen. Once I had made it over there, there were no people in sight.
Weird.
"AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed as my mum popped up from behind the kitchen island." MUM WHAT THE FRICKITY FRACK!"
"Calm down, I dropped this." She said, showcasing the packet of marshmallows in her hand.
"I thought you were a rapist or a murderer or something." I sighed, putting the lamp down on the island and sitting on one of the stools.
"Busted." She shook her head and took a seat on a stool opposite from me. She tore the packet of sugary goodness open and faced it to me. "Want some?"
Without responding verbally, I stretched my arm into the packet and pulled out a handful of white and light pink marshmallows.
"Why are you home?" I asked. My question wasn't that clear because my tongue was slightly occupied with removing the sticky sweets from my teeth.
"Because I live here?" she replied sarcastically, tossing a marshmallow into her mouth. "I'm taking Wednesdays off from now on. I'm starting to forget what you look like." I couldn't help but laugh and she joined in, the two of us laughing like she just cracked the funniest joke in the world. "I don't even remember you dying your hair."
Heck, I've gotten so used to it, I don't even mind it being blonde anymore.
"It was a messed up form of a welcoming gift into the agency." I explained, a smile forming on my lips at the memory of that day with Iyanu and Thomas at the mall.
"And you're a model." She sighed. "I feel so bad for not knowing anything about my daughter anymore. That's the main reason why I squeezed in a free day into my schedule; so I could spend more time with you."
"I'd like that."
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A/N:
'Awks' has been in the top stories in Humour for the past 3 months now, this is crazyyyyy!!
And yo, has anyone seen the Alex Aiono and Conor Maynard sing off/mashup because I've been fangirling over it ever since they posted it 😭
Dina Evans: played by Kerry Washington.
Feel free to comment, vote, follow, whatever :')
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