Chapter Eleven: It's Her
It's Saturday morning and Christopher Hayes wakes up late due to last night's party. He awakes and he's very happy he didn't drink last night. If he did, he'd have a killer headache - a freaking hangover. As he looks around his room, he remembers the party and then Piper. He picks up his phone from the nightstand and dials Jason. It rings and then goes to voicemail. Chris calls him again and this time he picks up.
"Jason?" Chris says after he doesn't speak for some seconds.
"What the fuck man! There better be a good reason why the hell you woke me up," Jason grumbles.
"Well, good morning to you too dude," Chris replies sardonically.
"What do you want?"
"Did you see Piper yesterday?"
"Um...I think so," Jason answers.
"What do you mean? You think so? Are you fucking kidding me? Did you even check on her as I asked you to?" Chris's voice begins to raise.
"Chill dude. I checked on her and even gave her a ride home. Now would you please leave me to battle with my hangover?" Jason says grumpily.
Chris can't help but laugh.
"Sure dude. Battle your hangover. Thanks, by the way."
Jason just groans and ends the call.
Chris smiles and then heads out of his room to the kitchen downstairs. He finds his mum making coffee with Emily on a stool.
"Good morning, Mum." He walks over to her and kisses her cheek.
"Morning hun. No hangover today. Hallelujah!!!" His mum smiles waving her hands in the air dramatically.
"Mum!" Chris exclaims grinning.
"What? Weren't you out partying last night?" She asks in monotone.
"I was. You caught me, okay." He raises his hands in the universal sign of surrender.
"But I didn't drink. It's not every time I drink Mum," he adds.
"Hey Em," he walks over to the counter and hugs her patting her hair.
"Hi, Chris."
"How was your night?"
"It was nice," she giggles.
"Chris?"
"Yes?"
"What's a hangover?" She asks after they disengage from the hug.
"Um..." Chris scratches the back of his neck.
"It's a type of headache?" Chris' mum says more as a question than a statement.
"Oh okay," Emily replies.
His mum hands him a mug of coffee and gives Emily a cup of orange juice.
"You know you have to take Emily to the park for the play date?" His mum asks.
"Yeah. I do and I will," he replies as he sips his coffee.
"Yay," Emily yells excitedly.
Chris finishes his coffee before heading to the bathroom for his morning routine.
After getting ready for the day, he heads down for breakfast.
"What's for breakfast?" He asks as he enters the kitchen.
"Cereal?" His mother answers in amusement.
"You're kidding. You know I hate having cereal on Saturday mornings." Chris says dryly.
His mum laughs, "You can always make yourself something else to eat if you don't want cereal."
"But you know I hate cooking," Chris whines.
"Now you're acting like a baby. Dramatic much?" His mum smirks.
"Chris, stop acting like a baby," Emily tells him smiling.
"Listen to her!" His mum exclaims.
Chris groans and sits at the kitchen table.
"Want some pancakes?" His mum asks.
Chris begins to grin, "Fuck yes."
"Language Christopher!" His Mum chides with a frown.
"Sorry," he apologizes and looks at Emily to see if she caught on to the bad word but she wasn't even paying attention.
They have breakfast together and Chris clears the table and wash the dishes after.
They settled down in the living room to watch TV and after about thirty minutes, Emily speaks up.
"Can you take me to the park now?" Emily asks Chris looking at him with puppy dog eyes.
Chris smiles and grabs both her cheeks with his fingers.
"How can I say no to those eyes? Sure. Let's go to the park right away."
Emily giggles, "Yeah."
She happily runs up to her room to get something.
Chris gets his phone and they exchange byes with their mum before heading out.
Chris unlocks the doors to the car and opens the passenger's side for Emily. She hops in smiling, "Thank you."
The shuts the down and walks around the car into the driver's seat.
He ignites the car and backs out of the driveway.
Normally, if Chris wants to go to the park alone - which barely happens - he would walk there. It's like fifteen minutes from their house. But he's going with Emily and it'd be better if they take the car. He goes to the park mostly to take Emily on play dates.
"So...Em?" He begins.
"Yeah?" Emily looks at him.
"Tell me about your school. Your classmates, you know. Your friends?" Chris asks her trying to make small talk.
"Well...." Emily trails off. "School's normal. Okay, but there are some days I don't wanna go," She confesses with a frown.
A chuckle escapes Chris's lips when she said that.
"I've been there kiddo and I still feel the same. I lot of people actually hate school, Em." Chris states.
"Yeah, I know. Nora makes school more bearable for me. She's my BFF and we do almost everything together," Emily smiles.
"I know that. Don't you have any other friends?" He asks. He doesn't want his sister to be one of those socially awkward people when she grows up. Or even worse- antisocial.
"I have three other friends in my class and there's this annoying boy that's always disturbing me," Emily says with displeasure.
"A boy, eh?" Chris frowns.
"Yes. He likes to piss me off. He'd be pulling out my hair in class and poking me. He sits behind me," she explains.
"Don't worry about him. Boys are idiots."
Emily giggles, "Including You?"
Chris huffs as he parks the car, "Of course not. I'm adorable."
Emily just smiles as they exit the car.
Chris offers his hand to Emily and she takes it. They begin to walk holding each other.
Chris scans the park as they walk. Few people are around. Kids, teenagers, adults, and of course dogs. It's a Saturday after all.
"Where to?" Chris asks looking down at Emily.
"Our favourite spot."
"Okay then."
They reach the so-called favourite spot and look around to see a few kids playing around but no sign of Emily's play date.
"Nora isn't here yet," Emily says.
"Yeah. Let's wait for her at that bench over there," he pulls her along as they walk up to the bench and sit down.
They watch the scenery for a while before focusing on three people. It is a kid with his parents. He's on his dad's shoulders giggling as they run from his mum.
Chris removes his gaze from them and looks at Emily. She's watching them also with a distant look and a small smile- a sad smile- on her face.
"Em?"
"Yeah?" She answers absentmindedly without tearing her gaze from them.
"Do you wish Dad was here?" He forces the sentence out of his mouth.
Emily turns to look at her brother. She knows he hates their dad so it's surprising he asked that question.
She shrugs, "I don't know. I didn't get to know him so..."
Chris looks away and sighs.
"But it really would be nice to have a dad around," Emily says finally looking back at them.
Chris says nothing. He brings out his phone and begins to scroll through his Instagram feed.
Emily tears her gaze away from the family and sights a boy kicking a soccer ball around. As if sensing something, he looks her way and she recognizes him from her school.
It's the boy that likes to disturb her in her class. He smiles as they meet each other's gaze. He decides to come over but sights Chris beside Emily and immediately retraces his steps as his smile turns into a frown.
Emily giggles.
"What's funny?" Chris asks momentarily looking at Emily.
"Nothing," she answers while smiling.
She watches him pick up his ball and walk away, probably to go play on another side of the park from fear of Chris who is sitting beside her.
Then she spots a girl with a cute dog walking together. The girl is holding onto the dog's leash. She looks older like maybe Chris's age.
Emily can't resist standing up and walking over to the girl and her dog.
Chris doesn't notice her leave being entranced by his phone.
"I like your dog. It's cute," Emily smiles as she reaches them.
The girl stops walking and looks down at Emily.
"Thank you. But she isn't mine," she smiles back.
"Oh."
"I'm just helping to walk her," she tells Emily crouching beside the dog.
"Wanna touch her?"
"Um..." Emily trails off.
"She won't bite," the girl chuckles.
Emily moves closer and reluctantly touches the dog's fur.
"You see?" Emily grins.
Christopher then notices that his little sister isn't beside him anymore.
"What the fuck?" He exclaims as he pockets his phone.
He scans the area and thankfully sights her with a girl and a dog.
Chris smiles.
Emily really loves dogs.
He'd get her one of these days.
"Don't run off like that next time, Em," he says as he reaches them.
"Cute dog," he tells the girl crouching down beside the dog.
She looks up to face him and their eyes meet. Her eyes widen as she stares at him.
Even though her hair's shorter, he could recognize her anywhere.
Her eyes.
He can never forget her eyes.
When he's starting to forget about her, she finally shows up.
Chris could swear that time freezes.
It's her.
"Hazel," he says softly.