Chapter 2: Rumor (Blake's POV)
I walked into the house completely covered in sweat, my hair was damp too, and I was stinking.
"Blake!" I entered the kitchen, taking my earphones out. "I need your help. I made too many of these today." My mom works in a catering company. "And I'm giving them out around the block. The only house left is Mr. Kingston's, will you go drop it off, please?"
"Right now? Mom, I'm covered in sweat, let me take a shower," I replied, heading for the staircase.
"No, Blake. Right now! It'll be dinner time soon, it'll go to waste then."
"What if he isn't home?" I know he works late.
"Then leave it on his porch with a note. Here, I already wrote one," she said, handing me the tray of lasagna with a sticky note stuck to the top. I set my phone and earphones on the counter and grabbed the tray, groaning in protest. I was heading out when she stopped me. "I feel like there's something you should know before I send you there..." She was mostly mumbling to herself but that's all I could make out.
"Mom, are you okay?" I chuckled.
She seems so nervous. "You know about Hope, don't you?"
"Hope? The one who left? What about her?" I asked, my smile all gone.
"She's back." I stared at my mom, not knowing what to say. "She's been back for a while," she sighed, "She was by my work today, I saw her outside. You should know before you go on over to her house. If her dad isn't home, she'll answer the door." She dusted her hands, placed them on her hips, then looked at me. "I've heard a rumor that her father asked her to come back. I guess it's not such a rumor if he's confirmed it though," she shrugged, getting busy with work.
I stood there for a minute, not knowing what to do. I just picked up the lasagna tray, deciding to leave it on the front porch and not even risk ringing the doorbell. I'm not ready to see her again. Things were a mess with the way they happened, let me tell you how that was. At least from my point of view.
We hung out the night before she was leaving. Only I didn't know she was leaving. I remember going to the arcade with her. This was two years ago, that was our idea of fun, all right?
It still is but whatever.
We were hanging out and I remember kind of forcing her there because her mom had passed away about two months before that night and Hope was keen on locking herself up in her room and never coming out. I just wanted to help her cope so I was taking her everywhere, seeing her every day, getting her food, toys, candy, trying to make her smile. And for the first time since forever, she smiled that night and she laughed. And I thought I did something. But apparently not.
Because the next morning when I went to her house, she was gone. She had left the city and gone to the opposite coast. Her dad told me that she wasn't able to handle things very well after her mom's death and she wanted an escape so she enrolled herself at a boarding school in New York, and left. At fifteen years old, she left. All on her own.
He said one of her aunts within New York was going to be keeping an eye on her and basically being like her parent there and she wasn't going to come back until she thought she was ready to. I really thought she was never coming back. I believed the death of a parent isn't something you ever get over, so I thought she was leaving and starting a new life for herself. But I'm guessing she was either ready to come home, or she missed her dad, or he really asked her to come.
I stopped in front of her house, seeing the lights on inside. I slowed down my speed and left the tray on their porch table, deciding that I'd ring the doorbell and then run as fast as I could. Which is very cowardly of me. I was about to ring the doorbell and sprint, but I didn't. I walked down the porch and over to the side of the house where the kitchen window was.
Maybe I should just see her and get it over with. Better than running into her somewhere.
I crept around the huge tree on this side of their house, like a stalker, which I am most certainly not. I crouched under the branch and looked through the window. My breath got caught in my throat and my heart stopped beating for a moment, I think it had to have flatlined.
She stood there with her hair pulled back in a low ponytail, a huge grey hoodie on her with plaid sweatpants. She was cooking herself spaghetti. She's always been a good cook but she never cooks good food for herself. I don't know what it is with her.
She poured the food out onto a plate for herself and sat on top of the kitchen counter. She put the food down to let it cool down and stared off into space for a really long time. She's either zoned out or she's thinking about her mom. I know that look. She rubbed her nose which was turning red if I'm seeing that right.
She's crying.
I heard her dad's car pull up and she must have heard it too because she snapped out of it and grabbed her plate, wiping her face hastily. I walked backward until she was out of sight and her dad was already inside. I turned back around, walking to my house. I shoved my hands in my pocket and stared straight ahead of me.
She's back. She's seriously fucking back.
After what felt like the two longest years of my life, she's back. Her absence hit me so hard. She was my best friend, not to mention, I was sort of in love with her. As in love as a fifteen-year-old gets.
I wish I kissed her before she left.
I didn't get to.
I walked back into the house, silently grabbed my phone and earphones off the counter, and headed upstairs. "Ew, you smell like shit," Kimberley said, passing me on the stairs. Meet my sister. She's fourteen. And a brat too.
"And you look like it," I rolled my eyes, walking past her and into my room. I headed straight for the shower, turning the water on and leaving it to heat up while I took my clothes off. "What in the name of fuck is she doing back?" I groaned, leaning my head against the cold tile.
I finished up my shower and stepped out into my room in my towel and then grabbed my pajamas and got dressed. I had just collapsed onto my bed when my phone started ringing. I answered it, seeing Jonah's name flashing on the screen. "Hello?" I huffed.
"We're at Serene, where are you?"
"I already told Vince I'm not coming," I replied while grabbing the TV remote.
"He didn't say anything. Why aren't you coming?" he questioned.
"Cause I'm tired. And it's winter." I hate winter.
"You're in California, it's not that cold. Get your ass down here."
"Jonah, not tonight. I'll see you this weekend, man," I said, looking for something to watch. School ends this Friday but I'm not allowed to go. Because I got myself suspended for putting an air horn on the principal's chair. I just thought they won't take it seriously cause school was coming to an end anyway and shit but apparently not. And anyway, it just means it's a week's extension to my Christmas break.
"This weekend is the family dinner. And it's not the best time for you to meet my new girlfriend," he said, sounding smug over the phone.
"You got a girlfriend?" I scoffed. Jonah's never been one for relationships. He's more of a one-woman man in the sense he dates for marriage.
"Why do you say it like that? She's amazing, I was gonna invite her to meet you guys tonight."
"Well, I guess you and your girlfriend are gonna have to wait to meet me till this weekend. Sorry, bud."
He sighed in defeat, "Okay, whatever. Night, man."
"Night." I hung up the phone and stared down at my stomach as it grumbled. "Right when I get comfortable, isn't it?" I groaned, getting out of bed and quickly going downstairs.
"I was waiting for you to come down here clutching your stomach," my mom laughed, sliding me a plate of lasagna.
"Thanks," I chuckled, pecking her cheek while grabbing iced tea from the fridge.
"Did you see her?" she whispered.
"Who?" Kimberley asked.
I ignored her and nodded at my mom. "Did you speak to her?" I shook my head, clucking my tongue. "Why not?" she sighed.
"Didn't want to," I shrugged. I turned to her, closing the fridge. "I still hate her."
"Who? Hope?" Kimberley questioned. We both turned to her in shock. "I see her here all the time, she bikes around town every day. She's really nice, didn't you have a thing for her?" she asked, not looking up from her phone.
I glanced at my mom. "No, I didn't," I lied.
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Chapter 2
I get my Invisalign tomorrow and I'm lowkey scared. what if my teeth fall out when I pull it out to eat. it's like having dentures. wtf.
next chapter: hurt