Chapter 1:
I turned around in my bed, the blankets wrapped tight around me like a bandage. From my dreamy and blissful haze, I could hear the taxis honking and feel the sun's rays trickling across my skin from the slits in the blinds. The downy blankets felt so soft against my skin and smelt like creamy vanilla, the fabric softener that my aunt used. The muscles in my legs felt cramped, so I stretched them out and a wave of tranquilizing contentness washed over me. The moment was so pure, so perfect that it felt like nothing could ruin it.
But then ironically, something did. My alarm clock went off, blaring out into the air shattering the sweetest of dreams. In my head, it was like a thousand tornado sirens ringing and ringing and ringing... It had always been a sound that I loathed. All I wanted was to wake up peacefully with the sun filling the room and quiet. Apparently, that was too much to ask for.
A groan escaped my mouth as I examined the time. 7:32. Why was my alarm going off? It was Saturday, I didn't have school. Did I forget to turn it off? I heard a girlish giggle and footsteps running.
"Rose!" I yelled and got up out of my bed to chase after her. Since I had just woken up, my balance wasn't one-hundred percent great because I had wobbled as I stormed through the halls in the apartment. I stopped when I caught a glance of myself by walking past the bathroom mirror. My hair was sticking up in different directions and looked like a rat's nest. There was also a big red mark on my cheek. It was too early in the morning to be fussing about my appearance.
"Rose!" I roared.
When I walked into the kitchen, everyone was calm. My two younger cousins Evelyn and Rose were sitting in front of the T.V. as if nothing had happened. Aunt Julia was putting dishes away and looked at me with eyebrows raised.
"What are you yelling at her for?" she asked with an upset tone.
"She set my alarm early and woke me up!" I exclaimed, hoping that she would be on my side but as usual, she wasn't.
"She was sitting here the whole time. You probably forgot to turn it off yesterday. There's no reason for you to yell at her," she said sternly and continued with her morning chores.
Un-be-lieveable. Who couldn't hear Rose's loud running? The neighbors from downstairs probably heard it. I had to admit though, for a four-year old, she was pretty clever.
I sighed and took a seat at the counter. Rose turned around and flashed a toothless grin at me. Evelyn and Rose were just like the little sisters I never had. Evelyn was sweet but Rose was the devious one. I decided to stop being mad at her and got over it.
My stomach growled and I hunted for something to eat in the kitchen. The smell of pancakes and bacon wafted in the air.
"There doesn't happen to be anymore pancakes, is there?" I asked my aunt.
"Sorry, kiddo. If you want some, you should've gotten up earlier when I made some."
Earlier? Wasn't 7:30 enough? I glanced sadly down at my ashamed bowl of Cheerios.
Aunt Julia took a deep breath and sat down across from me. "We need to talk."
Abruptly, I stopped chewing my cereal as nervousness pulsed inside of me. She looked down at her hands and chewed on her lower lip. It looked like she was trying to figure out what she was going to say inside of her head.
"I signed you up for a therapy session today. It's just a quick forty- five minute appointment with a therapist at noon."
My eyebrows scrunched together. "Why do I need therapy? Is there... is there something wrong with me?" I asked, putting my spoon in my bowl and swallowed.
She looked at me discreetly, like she was trying to be cautious about my feelings. "No. No, there isn't anything wrong with you, it's just... I'm worried about you, Gabby. I understand that it has to be extremely hard losing your parents; trust me, I miss them terribly too, but it's been six years and you act like it just happened. When someone suffers a loss, their emotions eventually rise back up, but your still down there suffering and as your aunt, I want to help you the most that I can."
I recalled learning something about it in psychology class, but I guess that it never occurred to me that it was happening right under my nose! Half of me was upset that my aunt basically just called me mental, but the other half wanted to be helped. I didn't enjoy feeling this way. Maybe it was time for a change.
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The ventilation system released cool air into the room, instantly relieving my body of sweat from the summer's uprising heat.
"Now, imagine that you're twelve- years old again. Place yourself back to the moment when you first found out about the news," Dr. Pierce's soothing voice said. She had told me to go over every little detail that I could remember from the incident, which wasn't hard because I remembered everything about the darkest chapter in my life. I remembered how it was a spot on 88 degrees that day. I remembered that I was wearing denim shorts, a bright yellow tank top, muddy flips flops, and that I had my hair in a high ponytail. I remembered how bad it tasted when I took a big swig of orange juice after brushing my teeth that morning for breakfast, but most importantly, I remembered the pain.
I inhaled a large gust of air and began my story. "It was just like a normal day. My dad had gotten some time off of work and wanted to spend the day with my mom; he was a heart surgeon and was busy working all the time. They were going to have picnic on the beach. I, on the other hand, was going to hang out with my best friend at the time, Luke. We spent time together everyday as a matter of fact."
Dr. Pierce interrupted. "Tell me more about your friend, Luke. Friends are a great importance to include in our lives. I'm just trying to place myself in your shoes. Continue."
"I met Luke when I was five. We were just starting first grade together."
I dove off into the memory.
"You're hair looks like a rat's nest!" he exclaimed, making all of the other kids laugh at me. When I was five, I could sleep restlessly and not brush my hair the following morning, so his statement was true.
"You take that back!" I yelled. I charged at him, head on, and began to punch him in the stomach. I was a feisty child back then. The teachers had split us apart and put us in a room alone together, our backs facing away from one another.
"I was just kidding you know," Luke had said to break the silence. I crossed my arms over my chest, pouting. I heard him sigh and decided to cut him some slack. It had seemed like he was having a hard time making friends.
"It's okay," I replied. "I forgive you."
"Really?" I could hear his voice light up.
"Yeah, but answer me one thing," I told him.
"What?"
"Does my hair really look that bad?" We laughed together and from there on, became the best of friends. I was also introduced to a hairbrush.
I snapped back into reality. "Luke and I had always been there for each other. He was my best friend. Don't get me wrong, I had my girl friends and he had his guy friends, but there were things that I trusted him with more than the other girls. We'd always been there for each other. I remember when he told me that his dad left and that his parents were getting a divorce. What's it called when you feel other people's emotions?"
"Empathy," she jotted into my thoughts.
"Yeah, I felt that. And in that moment, I made a promise to myself to be the most best friend in the whole entire world, which is actually pretty ironic compared to what happened between us."
Dr. Pierce stopped to ask a question. "What did happen between you guys?"
"When my parents died, I didn't want to talk to anyone, not my grandmother, grandfather, not even my own best friend! He called multiple times but I never answered. He even showed up to the funeral, but I just looked right past him and everyone else. Even though I still had lots of love and support, I felt so alone. The whole thing was so sickening; it felt like that I would throw up at any given time. Before I knew it, my bags were packed and I was shipped off here to Chicago to start a new life without saying goodbye to him. Now I know I could've made effort to contact him or something, but I needed to move on. I haven't heard from him in six years."
I heard her scribble down some notes. "Tell me about your parents. What were they like?"
"My mother was one of those crafty people who was into DIY projects and ceramics. Her one main love was photography. Even as a child, I found it so fascinating how she could capture the beauty of something so simple. I remember sitting there and watching her develop her pictures. She even let me help sometimes. We did a lot of things together: garden, poetry, read. Most people said that I looked like her. Even now, I still don't see it. She always repeated this one line to me. 'Enjoy the little things in life before their gone, otherwise, they'll disappear right before your very eyes. After all, no one lives forever anyway.' It seems kind of cheesy to me now that she repeated it so much, but it stuck."
"It sounds like your mom really wanted you to enjoy life. Do you live by what she said?" she wondered aloud.
I ignored her question and continued. "Like I said, my dad worked a lot but we had a blast together. He had this loud, burly laugh, which caused me to giggle every once in a while too. He was a good dad."
"Can you finish telling me about that day?"
"Yeah. I went to Luke's house and played outside in his backyard all day pretty much. Luke's mom, Beth, came out of the house with her hand over her mouth. My grandmother followed her. I knew something was wrong, I only saw my grandmother every once in a while, for she was busy with her small business she ran.
'Gabriella sweetie, your grandmother's here to take you,' she said. My grandma grabbed my hand and we started walking towards the car.
'Where's Gabby going, mom?'
'Her grandmother is taking her home. There's been a terrible accident,' I heard her reply to him.
Worry and curiosity filled me up. I noticed that we weren't taking the usual route home, but that we were on our way to the hospital. The next thing I knew, we were in the waiting room. My grandmother was frantically pacing back and forth and my grandpa was impatiently tapping his foot. I sat in the cold, hard chair staring at my hands folded in my lap. The door opened and the nurse came through with a poker face. My grandma ran up to her.
I didn't hear what she said, but then my grandma was on her knees crying her heart out. Grandpa ran over out of his chair to comfort her and I noticed that tears were streaming down his face too. The nurse looked at me sympathetically and helped my grandma off the floor.
For some reason, I started crying too. Little did I know why."
"I'm very sorry for loss," she apologized and popped another question. "Can you tell me about your choice?"
I sighed, desperately wanting this all to just be over. "I was staying with my grandparents and the day after the funeral, the lawyer came to the house. He and my grandparents discussed what would happen with me. He said that in my parents will, it left me a choice: I could either stay in Sanibel Island to live with my grandparents, or move to Chicago and live my aunt."
"And you chose Chicago to get away from everything," she stated.
I looked at her funny. "It's like you can read my mind."
She laughed. "I wouldn't call myself a psychic necessarily."
After writing down multiple things in her notepad, she told me to call my aunt in for a discussion.
I got up and left the room to retrieve Aunt Julia. She was standing against the wall even though there were open seats next to her.
"You know, it's not like we're finding out if I have a deadly disease or something," I said and she snapped out of her daze.
"Hey, how's it going in there?"
"She wants to see you."
I liked to believe that my aunt was a master of disguise. She had several different faces or emotions that she would put on like the don't-argue-with-me face, which I saw quite often, the I'm-so-tired-right-now-don't-talk-to-me-face, and the I'm-not-sure-if-I-should-trust-you face. In that moment, she plastered on her serious face and strode into the room along my side.
"You wanted to see us Doctor Pierce?" she asked in a kind voice. She uncomfortably sat on the chair that I was laying on earlier, probably sitting in my sweat. I grimaced.
"Yes I did." We waited for her to begin speaking.
"It seems that Gabriella has encountered some major trauma in her life. I'm not authorized to tell you exactly what we discussed, it's our patient policy, but I can make suggestions based on our conversation. During our session, Gabriella appears to be isolated and alone. Losing both of her parents must have been really hard on her. It's been six years and she hasn't really.... well, settled with the idea of this," she began. She and Aunt Julia talked about me as if I wasn't there and glanced at me worriedly.
"I've noticed that," Aunt Julia agreed. "Is there anything we can do?"
Doctor Pierce shifted, crossing her left leg over her right, and gracefully placed her folded hands on her lap.
"This isn't a severe thing to worry about, Mrs. Daymont. I cannot recommend a psychiatrist to prescribe medicine for this; it's not that critical. It's more of a mind over matter type of situation."
"Continue," Aunt Julia encouraged suspiciously.
"I think it would be better if Gabriella goes back to Florida to confront the scene of her trauma. It seems that all of the issues that she's having circulate around Sanibel Island," she explained referring back to her notes.
A strange looked appeared on Aunt Julia's face, not one of her faces that I had recognized, a look that I didn't like. It was like she agreed. She couldn't have been serious!
"You're not actually considering this, are you?" I asked, my tone rising.
She shook her head, half sure, and half unsure. "It sounds like a great idea, Gabby. It all seems to fit and make sense. This could really be good for you."
"Good for me? I can't go back!" I exclaimed.
"Think of it, last week were talking about going on vacation this summer. How nice would it be to go back for the summer? All of us could go as a family! Besides, Evelyn and Rose had been asking about seeing my childhood neighborhood anyways. I think this is perfect!" She shot the therapist an approving look.
"I'm not going back," I yelled even louder, standing up.
"Gabriella Heaton, you're going and that is that," Aunt Julia's firm voice warned me. She was one of those people who once had their minds made up, there was no chance of convincing them otherwise.
So many thoughts flew through my mind at once. It was all so unbelievable! As my family, they seriously wouldn't make me go back, would they? Then I thought about it a little more and answered my own question.
Yes. Yes, they would.
Hola! I hope you're enjoying the boook so far. So we found out some major details about Gabriella's past and that she has to go back for the summer. Stay in tune for another chapter! Thank you for reading, leave me your comments and thoughts down below! <3 Oh, and have a great day! :)
xoxo Maya