Chapter 25
Derrick’s POV
I was lying on the couch watching TV. I still couldn’t believe that today at the park, my daughter had taken my hand to hold and we walked back towards the apartment.
I was so excited and happy.
I heard a door open but I let it go. Probably one of the girls had to use the bathroom. I didn’t want to scare them so I didn’t touch the TV volume but most importantly I didn’t move off the couch.
‘Hey.’ I heard.
I looked beside me and there was Angela in her pj’s.
‘Hi, I thought you went to bed?’ I asked her
I sat up to see her better and smile when I saw the shirt of her pj’s was a big yellow happy face.
‘I did, I stayed there until she fell asleep and then I came out.’ She answered.
‘You in a good mood?’ I asked her.
‘Yeah, I am, this,’ she said, showing me her pj top, ‘is just to fool you. One day, I’ll be so mad and I’ll wear this just to screw with you.’ She said smiling.
My smile vanished, ‘That wouldn’t be nice.’ I said to her.
‘It would be funny…just maybe not for you.’ She said.
‘You’re right. Maybe you could play that game on my brother since you told me your secret.’ I said.
‘Oh, that’s good.’ She said coming closer and having a seat on the same couch as me.
‘I hadn’t thought about that.’ She said, smiling at me.
‘I thought you were gone to bed.’ I asked.
‘Are you watching something inappropriate on TV?’ she asked, smirking at me.
‘Um…no. It’s not even 11 o’clock at night.’ I said to her, pointing at the clock.
‘I’m sorry, at what time do they start?’ she asked me.
‘Um…why am I supposed to know that?’ I asked her, feeling my face burning up.
She gave me this look that I could clearly see as, give me a break.
‘I don’t know at what time they start I just know it’s not that time. Plus, no funny business has been going on since the room across the hall from mine has been taken.’ I answered her.
She laughed, ‘Oh yeah, the room across the hall, is that so?’ she asked, playing dumb.
‘Yeah, this hot blonde and our kid. It’s great.’ I told her smirking at her.
She hit my arm and shook her head.
‘You are still a flirt. Get our baby girl to bed and Mr. Hot Shot comes out.’ She said still smiling.
‘Well, of course. You can’t flirt in front of a child. Let alone, our own child but she doesn’t know me, plus I don’t want to scare her. She held my hand today.’ I told her smiling.
She rolled her eyes and laughed, ‘I know, I think you said that…at least fifty times since we’ve been back.’ She told me.
‘To much?’ I asked her.
She pretended to think then shook her head. ‘No.’ she said with a little smile.
‘Okay, our daughter held my…’I started to say but she cut me off by placing one of her hands in front of my mouth.
‘Fifty one times, we’ll have some issues.’ She said. ‘Got it?’ She asked. I nodded my head to show her I understood and she took her hand off my mouth.
‘Good.’ She said, looking at her hand and wiping it on her pj pants.
‘I didn’t lick your hand. Why are you wiping it?’ I asked her.
‘I know you didn’t lick it, but it’s not dry.’ She said, looking at the palm of her hand again.
I rolled my eyes, grabbed her hand and licked it, just to shut her up and now she would have something to actually wipe.
I looked at her and smiled. Her eyes were huge with shook. I knew she didn’t think I’d do that, at least not now but hey, sometimes unexpected things were good, sometimes.
She held her hand in the air, ‘Did you seriously just lick my hand?’ she asked.
‘Oh my god! Did my tongue seriously touch your hand?!’ I asked her with the same face expression she was giving me.
She smiled her evil smile and came close to me. I didn’t know what she was going to do so I just froze.
She came close to my face with her deadly smile and slowly placed her hand that I had licked slowly on my cheek and wiped her hand and my face.
‘That’s not nice.’ I said to her while her hand was still on my cheek.
‘Awe look at that, all clean.’ She said, still smiling.
‘You mean, you spit shined me with my own spit?’ I asked her.
‘That’s gross…but yeah. Also, then you’re not all clean honey, just your cheek.’ She said back to me.
We both started laughing.
‘I missed this. Arguing with you, for no good reason.’ She said which surprised me.
‘I missed you but the arguing…no one ever really won. You arguing with my brother on the other hand, now that’s funny at least I know who side to be on.’ I said to her.
‘And who’s side is that?’ she asked intrigued.
I laughed, ‘Who ever is winning.’ I said, and automatically she hit my arms again which made me laugh more.
‘Why did you hit me? You always win against my brother.’ I said in my defense.
‘I do?’ she said and we both laughed again.
‘Yes, arguing against my brother is no fun if you aren’t around. Arguing you and me is funnier if you are around too.’ I said but then thought about what I had just said and looked at Angela who was looking at me. She wasn’t smiling but she didn’t have the hurt look in her eyes either. I knew the look but I didn’t remember well what emotion it was.
She slowly smiled and looked at the TV.
‘Can I ask you a really important question?’ she asked me.
‘You’re going to ask it either way, but yes you can.’ I said smiling.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
‘What’s the important question?’ I asked her.
‘Okay, you know back when we were living at the apartment?’ she asked.
‘Yeah?’ I said, telling her to keep going.
‘Well, there was this show that I liked.’ She said.
‘Are you serious?! Your important question is about a TV show?’ I asked her.
‘It wasn’t just a TV show, it was a great TV show. And, okay this is going to sound so bad but it brings back good memories. Not of what the show’s about but us. We’d sit next to each other watching it and if it would scare me, you’d just…you were you.’ She said.
I smiled at that.
‘Did you just say something nice to me? With out using the word hate?’ I asked her.
‘I say a lot of nice things about you. I just refuse to say them while we are in the same room. It would ruin my reputation.’ She said laughing and I rolled my eyes.
‘What’s the show?’ I asked her.
‘You don’t know!’ she asked, like I was supposed to be the first person who should know.
‘We watched a lot of shows.’ I told her.
‘One we watched together, with the Police people and they solve cases…does that help?’ she asked.
‘No.’ I said to her, trying to hold in my laughter.
‘Really?’ she asked.
‘Do you know how many shows of cops and CSI there is on now?’ I asked her.
‘No I don’t.’ she said taking a deep breath. ‘Oh, it’s not CSI, we watched it a few times but when other CSI started to come out we stopped. It’s not those.’ She added.
‘Criminal Minds?’ I asked her.
‘Yeah! That’s it!’ I said all excited. ‘Is it still playing? I know with everything that happened it’s completely crazy to even think of a show like that but it was so good…So what’s going on in that?’ she asked, getting all down to business which made me laugh.
‘Um…I don’t watch it anymore.’ I told her.
She looked at me like I had lost my mind.
‘Why?! Did it turn sour after a couple years?’ she asked disappointed.
‘I don’t know. Honestly, after I thought you left I stopped a lot of things. It was just too different. They were our things we did together and without you…I didn’t want to do them anymore.’ I told her.
She looked taken aback. ‘I’m sorry. Most times it’s about Amanda and me…It must have been hard for you…to understand anything.’ She said.
‘A million times and more easily than you, I’m sure.’ I told her.
‘We should stop that.’ She said, looking serious at me. I was confused, I had no clue what she was talking about.
‘We should stop saying who had it bad, who had it wrong, who had it worst, it’s who’s fault, this person should have done that…bla bla bla…’ she said.
‘Okay, but why? I know you don’t like me, or your parents.’ I asked her.
‘No, just us, it’s not good for us and defiantly not good for Amanda. The relationship with my parents…it’s still too early to say.’ She said.
‘I never thought I had it bad, let alone worst than both of you. I just said, it wasn’t easy.’ I said to her.
‘I know, I remember…but I’m sure it was more than just…not easy. I want us to drop it and to keep moving. I don’t want the three of us to live in the past. We need to keep moving forward. I know there’s still going to be issues now and then but…I can’t keep holding on to my anger all the time. One, it’s not good and second, it drains me, it’s exhausting.’ She said.
I smiled at that. ‘I could never argue with you for long.’ I told her which made her smile.
‘Darn right. Never argue with a woman.’ She said laughing.
‘I was going to say a hot woman but, yeah…that works too.’ I told her laughing.
She laughed and hit my arm again.
‘You never lost that habit, I see.’ I said to her placing my other hand over my arms where she had hit me.
‘I’m sorry, did little hot me hurt big bad you?’ she asked with a big smile.
I put my hand down fast, ‘No. I was just saying that…’ I started saying, but I didn’t know how to finish my sentence and I just heard her laugh at me.
After a few seconds in silence I decided to take a chance and ask her something I wanted to know.
‘What changed? Since you told me what happened…you’re different…more open.’ I asked her.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘You’re just different with me than a couple of days ago. Why?’ I asked her, being curious.
‘Telling you the truth…being honest with you about that last day…I guess it opened a door, if that makes any sense. It made me realize I can trust you…maybe not like before but, more than I thought. I’m trying to see things from your point of view and…I don’t know, I can’t explain it, I just feel different when it comes to you.’ She explained.
I looked away from her and smiled. That was defiantly good to hear, I thought to myself.
‘Can I ask you a favor?’ I asked her, curious if she would actually do it.
‘Um…okay.’ She answered hesitantly.
I turned and grabbed a remote off the coffee table that was next to me, I pressed mute for the TV, put the remote back on the table and stood up.
‘Remember you just said okay, so you got to do it now.’ I said to her.
She rolled her eyes while nodding her head and I brought my hand in front of her.
‘Dance with me.’ I said to her. I watched her eyes as my words registered and her eyes got bigger.
‘Um.’ She started saying.
‘One dance, we agreed to start from scratch besides, I’m harmless.’ I said to her.
She took a deep breath and her eyes found mine. She stayed there for a few seconds, I never moved my hand and slowly I saw her half smile. She took my hand and got up.
‘So, what are you going to do now? You got a song in mind?’ She asked me.
I picked up the remote for the sound system, I remembered listening to some music the other night and it was a good CD.
‘No, I don’t.’ I said to her, and we started to laugh.
‘I’ll press random and we’ll see what we get. Ready?’ I asked her with half a smile.
‘Go.’ She answered.
I pressed random then play and put the remote down.
We stood there until the song started.
I listened to the beginning of the song and smile.
‘That’s a perfect song of us. And before you say anything you saw me press random.’ I told her.
She nodded then slowly got closer to me and we began to dance. It wasn’t a slow song but it wasn’t fast either.
Her hand was in mine, my other hand on her lower back and hers going around the back of my shoulder.
‘What’s the name of the song that is so perfect for us?’ she asked me.
I smiled, ‘It’s by James Morrison…the name of the song…Fix the World Up For You.’ I told her.
She looked at me as I said the words to her. I didn’t know all of the lyrics but I just told her the ones I knew. I didn’t sing, that would just ruin everything so I whispered them to her.
‘I’m gonna fix this world up for you’
‘I’ll try to build it all around you’
‘You’re never gonna have to be alone’
‘You’ll always know you’ve got someone’
‘To fix the world up for you’
‘I bet I’ll get it wrong’
‘More times than I’ll get it right’
‘And I won’t even realize it’
‘But I’ll be doing all I can to stop you falling’
‘Even now I’m holding my breath for you’
‘That’s all I know.’ I said to her when I was done saying all the lyrics I knew.
She smiled. ‘You sure you pressed random and not pressed the number of the song?’ she asked me.
‘No, I honestly pressed random. No joke, I swear.’ I told her.
She let go my hand, got closer and wrapped her arms around me, giving me a hug.
I was stunned and surprised. But I snapped out of it and hugged her back.
‘You know it’s going to take more than a cheesy song to fix…anything…everything, right?’ She said.
I breathed her in. I had dreamed about holding her for the past five years. When I saw her at the hospital, the need to just touch her was overwhelming and since both of them came to live here, it was difficult for me to stay at a distance.
Holding Angela in my arms, having so many different emotions all at once was something I couldn’t even describe or put into words.
‘I know.’ I said to her, then added, ‘But like I said before, I’ll wait 20 years if I have to.’
She didn’t pull back, which surprised me again. We just held each other until the song ended.
‘I missed…I missed…I missed…’ She tried to say but never finishing.
‘I know me too.’ I said to her, knowing what she was going to say.
When the music stopped she pulled back and smiled. I could see a few tears going down her cheek so I wiped them away with my thumb.
She pulled further away and went to sit back down on the couch and I followed.
‘I forgot how cheesy romantic you could be.’ She said laughing.
‘Only if I like the person enough.’ I told her.
‘You weren’t romantic with you ex?’ she asked me.
‘With Carly?’ I asked her.
She nodded and I laughed.
‘No.’ I answered.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know to be honest. Didn’t feel right I guess.’ I told her.
‘Well…you’re still cheesy but just the right amount. I think if you were like that everyday, it would just be…weird.’ She informed me.
‘Good to know.’ I said smiling at her.
I saw her yawn which made me yawn and she laughed.
‘I’m going to go too bed. She wakes up early.’ She said.
‘Yeah me to.’ I said.
We got up, off the couch and walked towards the rooms.
‘Have a good night Angela.’ I said to her when she was in front of her bedroom door.
‘Night.’ She said back.
I watched her slowly open her bedroom door, making sure not to wake up Amanda and before she closed the door she waved me bye.
I smiled at her. When her door was closed I started to get ready for bed.
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