~~~

What is simple
In the moonlight
By morning never is

~~~

Chapter Twenty Four - Sparks Fly

"No Ashton, she isn't acting hard to get. She is hard to get. Not even, she's someone you're never going to get so you might as well drop your attempts and help me with my homework," I hissed into the phone for what it felt like the billionth time today in the span of an hour.

My table in front of me is a catastrophic mess. A clear rubber ruler inflicted with the words 'Heartbreak is the national anthem' greeted my view as I tried to find the only piece of eraser that I have. I had written on it using my Sharpie one night I was in my Taylor Swift phase not knowing that it was permanent.

That was the highlight of my stupidity.

"No. Can't you see-,"

"Thankfully, no I don't," I interjected.

"That she gave me twenty dollars and said to buy a flower that reminds me of her."

"Probably to get rid of you."

"Will you stop interrupting me? It's annoying."

"No, in all honesty, no."

"I won't help you with your homework."

"Alright alright alright, I'm listening." I grumpily slouched down and pushed my feet with a moderate amount of force to the ground, making the tiny wheels of the chair I had been sitting on slide me all across the room.

In my mind, I was screaming Weeeee! Weeeeee! Like a kid in a Ferris-wheel.

"Just make sure to speed things up and cross out the other insignificant details of your theory of Zahara-who turned you down a hundred times- possibly liking you." I sardonically said and rested my head on the soft cushion of Jordan's old desk chair- which I may or may not have stolen.

" Don't use that tone on me. We both know you owe me a year's time of babbling about theories and expectations. Not to mention fantasies of you and your nerdy birdy. " He pointed out in a tone that clearly said 'Oh you thought you escaped me, haha really funny.'

I bit my tongue and slid over to the side of my bed. Grabbing my pillow, I imagined it was Ashton's face and thought of all the things I would've done to him if he wasn't just a call away from me.

"Then," I breathed in deeply, my hold on the pillow relaxing. "Speak." My homework isn't going to do itself.

"You know what? Wait a minute. I'm feeling hungry for a sudden."

Even when I couldn't see his face I was certain that he had on a grin right this moment, clearly enjoying irking me to the ends of the earth. "How is that a problem. You can still speak to me while going on a short trip to your kitchen you jerk,"

"I can," He dragged on the word. "But I don't want to."

I threw the pillow.

It flew outside the window.

"Oh fuck," I whispered and got up on my feet. The white tiles of my room were cold as I ran hurriedly towards the hole in which my trusty cloud of cotton decided to dive right out of.

I couldn't see anything because of the dark surroundings and the lack of sunlight but I imagined how many frogs might be lurking down there. Croaking, patiently waiting for someone to go down only for them to be jumped with hundreds of slimy, muddy, and bone-chilling amphibians.

My imagination really proved how really afraid I am of them.

I opened my door in a hurry and rushed out of my room, the cream color passing by as a blur, making my way to the twins' room because in this household there's only one little cap-wearing feisty tongued ten-year-old.

I knocked once and swung open the door. "Violet! You here?"

I paused at the sight of Lavender biting her middle finger with a pained look in her face. A considerable amount of mesh in different shades of pink and white was sprawled all across her bed. Her green-gray eyes met mine nervously like she had done a crime and I'm my mother.

Thank God I wasn't.

"I didn't do anything!" She immediately sputtered and blew slowly at her finger.

"It looks like you definitely did something." I stared at her finger which had a red stain on it. I placed the phone away from my ear when Ashton still wasn't talking back.

I still wonder why I put up with him ten years later.

"Here. Let me see," I sat down in front of her and grabbed her hand, setting my phone aside. I made a 'tsk' sound, gently blowing on it and shook my head at her. "You really should be careful when you sew. You won't know maybe you'll start snoring for a hundred years and I would have to post a sign outside. 'Prince charming wanted' that would be bad."

She grimaced, pulling her hand away. I gripped her hand when she tried to draw it back.

"Wait wait wait wait," I mumbled and continued to blow on it. After a few moments, I stole a look at her to see her smiling at me. It was a sad curve of a lip, one I haven't got the time to once see the look on her face. Translation: It was hella weird.

"What?" I asked. "Is there something on my face?"

She was still smiling weirdly at me and I stared back, cradling her pricked finger on my hand. She shook her head making her curls sway slightly and looked down.

"N-nothing. It's just that you aren't always this....affectionate." She quietly admitted.

I stopped what I was doing and froze.

The room suddenly seemed harder to breathe in as I looked at my sister. Her gold leaf earrings glinted under the soft color of rose gold. As I gazed at her an unfamiliar feeling settled itself in my stomach and made itself comfortable there.

I think I need to visit the bathroom soon. I thought.

But no, it wasn't that. It was a voice. A voice of a foreign feeling whispering at the back of my mind like a shadow. I knew very well that feelings weren't always a natural subject of one on one talk to me. I always had a dislike for being saying 'I love you'; one that isn't always paired with sarcasm that is. Affection isn't a strong suit of mine.

Even the hugs of my mother got me recoiling back and awkwardly smiling at her. It's just too....weird. And uncomfortable.

I had always known that. But it was moments like these that I wished I wasn't like that. I wished I was different. That I could've hugged and cared and played dress-up with my younger siblings as a good sister would've. And the sad thing is?

Even they noticed it.

I know they love me for how I am but at times like this, I wished I could've molded the Nevaeh I am today in a different way and with a different design.

As the silence ensued, I did what I always do.

Shooting her a look with my puckered up lips I bent down to kiss her finger.

She yelped and tried to draw her hand back but I resisted and mockingly tried to kiss the spot where dried blood now laid.

"Stop it!" She squealed. "Let go!!" She managed to get out of my hold and glared at me, her hand on her chest. I laughed, glancing around the room, and took note of the empty bed on the other side.

"Where's Vivi?" I asked.

"Vivi?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Vivi. As in Violet."

I grabbed my phone and placed it close to my ear to check if Ashton was done eating. Apparently he wasn't, the crackling of chips was still there.

"She went to the bathroom. I think."

I lifted my feet up from the ground and sat cross-legged. Grabbing the fabric that tickled my toe, I lifted it up and my eyebrows raised when I caught sight of our sewing box. "What's with all the fabric anyway, It looks like a unicorn shed all its hair here." I eyed the mess in her bed.

"I'm practicing." She grumbled and continued slowly, very slowly, stitching two pieces of mesh together.

"Is it for school?" I rubbed the pink material between my palms, internally sighing when they made a soft crunching sound as I mashed cloth to cloth together.

My sister, however, didn't like me messing around with her stuff because next thing I knew the mesh was being snatched away from my hand and a whine I was so familiar with rolled out of her mouth. "Why would you that! It's crumple now! Look at it. Look!"

She showed it to me and true to her words, it crumpled with asymmetrical lines forming pointy bumps of mountains at the surface. Oops. "Sorry." I smiled sheepishly. She turned away from me after sending a cold look my way.

"Oh come one Lavender, I said I'm sorry." I tried it again.

Silence.

Cold, silent silence.

I gently reached out and touched her shoulder. "Please..."

She shrugged my handoff. I placed it back resulting in it being shoved away again. I did it again. She shrugged it off again. This continued on for a few minutes with me smiling because of her annoyed expression and her getting angry at my amused expression.

And then finally she had enough.

"MOOOOOM!"

In a flash, I was up and out of the door, my phone in my hand. Well, that was...

Entertaining wasn't the right word to describe it. Maybe mildly enjoyable and acutely life-threatening would be the right description.

"Gghggrgwlklr," My stomach communicated with me.

Automatically I made a U-turn and headed for the bathroom at the end of the hall. The wood decored plastic door had its fair share of vandalism and squeaky hinges, a glass portrait of a tiger imprinted in the middle. The dark eyes and burnt sienna colored striped black of the animal was responsible for some of my nightmares when I was a kid.

As I was about halfway through the hall, a faint sob echoed abruptly freezing me at my steps. Listening more closely, I could confirm it came from the bathroom.

There are only three possibilities for who or what creature would be sobbing behind the frightening son of a tiger portrait.

A. Xavier

B. Violet

C. Mom

D. A ghost with a long white robe and long dark hair waiting for someone to open it so that she could jump and kill the person at any moment.

Suddenly I didn't want to open the door.

Well, it could be mom who accidentally wiped some soap in her eyes while cleaning the mess that her children don't have the industriousness and hospitality to clean by themselves. Reasoned a voice in my head.

Exactly. Absolutely terrifying.

A disoriented sound that suspiciously sounded like a person talking came from my phone. I almost forgot I was in a call with Ashton. Hastily, I placed it beside my ear.

"Hey, hey you okay?" Ashton's voice mixed with garbled sounds of chips cracking made me lean away from my phone in an attempt to save my still full functioning eardrums.

"If I told you a dog was chasing me would you believe me?"

"No." His voice was muffled. "If you were being chased down by a dog, you would be panting like one and as of now I can hear you speaking coherently."

"Thank you for comparing me to a dog. Appreciate it."

"You should." He piped. "I mean since technically it's a disgrace to their kin-," I ended the call.

With my phone gripped tightly in my hand, I desperately wanted to know what creature was crying its heart out in our solitary bathroom when the kid inside me saw this as an opportunity to mimic one of those investigatory movies Xavier used to binge-watch.

The wall on my back, I slid expertly towards the sound. Eyes narrowed, I stealthily walked sideways.

Please don't be the white lady Please don't be the white lady Please don't b the white lady Please don't be the white lady

The gold coated doorknob was a hundred times colder than the last time I recall.

Please don't be a ghost. Or a white lady. Or mom. Or a zombie. Or a frog mutant sent down to Earth to haunt me.

With the last thought on my mind, I opened the door and jumped in full force. My eyes were closed. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Die you evil spirit!"

"Why would you do that!" A hoarse cry made me snap my blue eyes open.

There, on the floor sat Violet. Her side was to me and her hair wilder than a cranky hen's nest. Her eyes were beaded red and automatically when they met mine she buried her head on her knees. Her side was to me, making her face the toilet bowl and the shower mat being the thing that she was sitting on.

She looks like she needed a hug

"Shoo! Shoo!" She wailed and gestured for me to leave.

What am I? A pet?

"What's wrong?" I asked. I was worried and I stepped forward, not too close though. At the moment although she was my little sister, she was prone to being a rabid and vicious sister who would dare to scratch my face and still not apologize.

She sniffed, her shoulders shaking as she did so. "Nothing, go away."

"Come here," I sat beside her and slowly opened my arms in an attempt of an invitation for a hug. Am I doing it right?

"You want me to hug you?" Her voice was quiet.

"Take it however you like."

"I don't want to." She shook her head, wiping under her eyes using her palms. "Go away. I don't want your stupid hugs." She grumbled but it seemed like her mouth and arms aren't parallel with one another because one second I was struggling to lift my arms like the way they were and in the next, warm hands circled around my midriff.

A weird feeling made itself known at the pit of my stomach as we sat in the middle of the room, the white rough tiles stained with blotches of brown bodies holding each other, enjoying the comfort the other sibling brought as they delicately swayed.

That wasn't the only blotch though, oh no it wasn't. As I rubbed her back I felt the front of my shirt slowly becoming damp.

"Why are you crying you rascal?" Releasing a breathy chuckle, I forcefully rubbed her already messy hair. I grabbed her arms and created a slight gap between us.

She stared at me. "I," sniff "remembered," sniff "Naiya,"

"I remember when she said when she grows up she'll take us to Disneyland and we'll have lots and lots of fun," She was still hiccupping. She used the front of her shirt to wipe the snot on her face.

"Hey, hey," I gently cupped her cheeks. "It's okay." She buried her face in my chest.

"We'll get to Disneyland someday," I whispered trying to soften the mood.

"But she won't be there with us." Her voice broke. This was really shocking to me because in my sixteen years of living I had never seen her look so sad that it broke me.

"No, she won't," I admitted.

Nobody said anything after that. We let our thoughts consume us.

"Nevaeh?"

"Hmm?"

"I feel funny." She leaned away and stood up, me following after. Her eyes were still red and blotchy and my shirt was still damp.

"Funny how?" My eyebrows furrowed.

"Dunno. Just... funny. My tummy hurts and I want to cry again."

My face scrunched up and I stopped a moment to search her face.

Probably dehydration with how you cried the whole Nile river.

"Alright, no more sobbing in the bathroom. Brush your teeth and go to bed, I'll tell mom." I gestured towards the sink. She nodded and proceeded to brush her teeth. The whole front of my shirt was damp now so I held it away from me.

In the process, my phone slipped through my fingers. I bent up to pick it up, freezing when I saw something on my sister's pajama bottoms.

Blood.

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"B-but you're only ten,"

I hid my smile behind my hand as I watched my father visibly pale at the thought of another one of his daughters going through the process of puberty. He just came out from his mini-office trying to sneak out a bottle of champagne behind mom's back without a shirt on when he saw my frantic gaze.

Lavender strolled in looking as calm as ever and threw a disgusted look at my father's direction, taking note of the lack of clothing. He always did that whenever he's in the house that it was a normal sight to see but up until now Lavender always showed dislike whenever he prances around the house with his stomach for everyone to see. "Dad none of us want to see that. Put a shirt on,"

"But I don't want to have blood coming out...there," Violet whined and I swear I could see tears shimmering under the kitchen light.

"Well we can't do anything about that now can we?" My mother knelt in front of her and her once pitiful look morphed into something more serious. "Now, let's talk about your friends."

"By friends, she means boys." I pointed out and I watched as my sister shifted uneasily under our mother's penetrating gaze.

"Boys? But mom! Almost all of my friends are boys." She said horrified. She kept adjusting the way she sat since mom and she had come out of the bathroom a while ago.

"Trust me we know." Xavier crossed his arms and leaned on the wall beside me, his blonde hair swept back with a solid black hairband. "What mom meant, is that you need to be more careful okay?" His eyebrows raised slightly then he forced not to roll his eyes at mom, directing his gaze at Violet.

His eyes softened slowly. "Boys... can do some things that aren't polite and now that you're a little lady," She gagged at that. "You should adjust some things and draw some boundaries between you and the other gender. Don't go anywhere without anyone with you. Don't ever go to a room with just you and a boy in it. Don't sit with your legs open when you're out. Don't-"

"Why are there so many rules? And why did this happen to me? I don't want to be like Nevaeh, all grumpy and a crying mess when it's her time of the month." She said with so much security in her voice.

"Why is everybody mean to me today," I grumbled.

"Trust me when I say you handled your first time better than her. Right, Nev?" He smiled mischievously at my direction making poke my tongue out in return.

Mom smiled as if recalling the memory and the same did my father. Lavender was the first to speak from her place on the kitchen counter. "Didn't she cry for a whole hour that morning?"

"Yeah. She woke up and had blood on her favorite pajama, the one with the carousel drawing on it. She looked so miserable that day moping around breakfast with tears falling on her plate." He started laughing being followed by everybody in the room, even Violet started grinning.

"When she came down for breakfast that morning she looked at me with the biggest frown I had ever seen on her." Mom shook her head at the memory, the clip on her hair loosening making her brown hair tumble down above her shoulders. "She cried and kept yelling 'Why now?' Dramatic I tell you, too dramatic." She glanced at me.

"Can I not go to school tomorrow mom then?" Violet asked with a grin on her face, enjoying the idea of being cooped up in our humble abode for an entire twenty-four hours.

Mom shot her a look. "No."

"Why?"

"Because what you're going through is normal, and besides, if I agree with you your sister would complain and say it's not fair." Glad we have an agreement mom.

"Speaking of tomorrow, I have a project to do with a classmate. I might not be home by dinner." The way he said it had a tinge of excitement in his features and I knew automatically that whoever this classmate was, was definitely a person on the female side of gender.

Thankfully mom didn't notice though. "Just be careful okay?" She pointed a finger at him. He nodded.

Dad's phone chimed and we all waited and watched as he opened it. His eyes squinted as he moved his phone away from him, trying to decipher what the notification was.

I snickered along with my siblings. "Grandpa," Xavier muttered.

"Kate, can you read this? I left my glasses in my office." He handed his phone to my mother, who squinted and did the same as he did a few moments ago.

"You guys really are getting old. Give me that thing, I'll read it for you." Xavier held out his palm. He flinched back and closed his eyes hastily when his sight landed on the phone. "Too bright, Too bright. Parents and their brightness I swear you could burn down the entire neighborhood with how much brightness you use."

"Stop nagging Xavier and tell us what the message says." Xavier sat down, and we children immediately crowded around him like a cocoon. I had to shove my face just to see the screen.

"It's from... Grandma? Mom's mom I mean,"

All of us shared a look. We only saw our grandmother once. It was when I was in second grade and the twins were just two-year-old babies, babbling about in a language that no one knew; aka baby language. The Goo goo gaga jam. My grandparents, on the father side, had passed away long before I was born whereas my mother's side, was situated in the Philippines, along with my two uncles and their families who all lived there. Our mother was the only one of her siblings who got separated and lived all the way in Canada. We send money and other packages to them every once in awhile, letting the fact that we never really met our cousins in real life to the side, and enjoying smiling faces via video calls.

"She says she'll come to visit here with grandpa soon," Xavier read aloud. "And that she missed her grandchildren- especially me." I smacked him upside the head. "Ow!"

"Naveah," My mother threw a warning glance at me as Xavier grinned. Idiot.

"See mom? She's abusive and hurts me and what did I do? I did nothing! Absolutely nothing-"

I smacked him again.

--------------------------------------------------------

Blake didn't come to school.

I knew that when he didn't come to Art class this morning. The schedule in this school is the most confusing schedule I had ever seen. On Monday one class would be in the afternoon then the next it's in the morning, a thing that, even though I had three spares was still hard to master which is why it's my current lock screen wallpaper now.

"Nevaeh how much chance do I have in convincing you to be the vice-president of our club?" Sunny asked while bending over and making an arc position with her face staring at me.

"Zero point zero zero zero zero zero-" I started.

"Point taken," She mumbled and rose from her position, her face flushing slightly. She let her right leg slide forward slowly and lowered her body to the ground so she was splitting. While doing so, a hula hoop came out from nowhere and hit the back of her head.

"And now that regionals three weeks from now I am beginning to regret running for President." SHe wretched it away from her like it was a mere slip of paper and slid it back to a boy who smiled sheepishly.

We were at the dance studio at our school. Apparently it seemed that this school had almost everything in it. One side of the wall was pure mirrors with a horizontal pole attached to it like one of those rooms ballerinas used in movies. It had Furnished wood flooring and a big speaker on the edge, currently blasting a high school musical music. I sat at the side, watching Sunny practice and I have got to say the mere split she just did seemed so easy but I know when I try that I would cry.

There were about ten other people in the room and none of them commented anything about their unusual music. "How is that every one of you are unbothered with We're all in this together ringing around?" I asked.

She cracked a small smile, shaking her head. "Oh that. We have a deal, all of us here. There are different people assigned to blasting whatever they want every day. Whoever's name gets picked from that jar over there gets to control the music. It gets so bad that sometimes they would play that moaning soundtrack and we would spend two hours of practice listening to that nasty stuff." She nodded at a white jar on the floor, beside the speaker.

I shook my head and chuckled. "I would pay to see that in live-action. Honestly, I admire you for your concentration and not laughing your ass off. "

If that was me I wouldn't even last five minutes with a straight face.

Her eyes twinkled as she did this balancing position with her hand holding one leg over her shoulder. "I have other ideas besides that to hear those sounds,"

"Please don't share whatever you're thinking to me." We laughed and chatted for a while, me shutting up and going through my camera's photos to leave her to concentrate on her routine.

Violet spent the whole ride to school brooding at her seat and I almost broke my camera when she hit it with too much force when I tried to record her. I blame Xavier for talking me into it.

Sam and the twins had classes at this hour so it resulted in me being dragged here by Sunny.

"You ready Sunny?" A lean yet muscular brown-haired boy wearing a sleeveless shirt approached us. Nodding at me, he turned to Sunny who got up and stretched, making his eyes zone in on her exposed stomach.

Sunny snapped her fingers. "Eyes up here. Come on, let's get started. You got plenty of time admiring my abs when you lift me up."

This caused the boy to give her a mock salute. "Yes, Ma'am."

She turned to me, "You gonna be okay there?" I nodded and she beamed.

"Great. Now watch and behold the amazing talent of Sunnylia Lenox." She struck a pose and walked towards the center of the room where the others are.

They all got into their own respective positions and then the music started. She was an amazing dancer. From how her feet seemed to hover over the floor with how light and precise her movements were to how her face expression changed at the beginning of the beat. Gone was the Sunny I had known as I watched how her body moved. All of them acting as a whole with the flow of the song.

Now that was talent.

The door which was right beside me opened with a creak and I craned my neck to see Logan with a green iPod nano with a sunflower sticker taped on the back in hand.

He saw me and nodded. I nodded back and let out a small smile. He took a seat beside me, a good space between us as we watched his best friend dance her heart out.

I snuck a peek at him from the corner of my eye to see him smiling, gazing fondly at her. Even if I hadn't known them for quite long, it was clear that he likes her.

Platonic or not, I'm not sure. But with how he looking at her like she was the last girl on the planet I knew he must have feelings for her. And judging by Sunny's behavior lately, I'd say it wasn't one-sided.

He caught my eye and the smile was wiped away from his face. Wow, am I that ugly. "Why are you here?" He asked.

"Sunny," I replied and faced the dancers again, watching their movements.

"She's amazing isn't she?"

I was surprised that he was actually engaging in a conversation with me. I was even more surprised when he continued talking. "This was always her dream since we were young. She would make me critique her even if I don't know a single fuck about dancing." The smile was back.

I got infected with the smile syndrome and followed suit. I held my breath when the brown-haired boy lifted Sunny up by the waist, his eyes were straight ahead though.

"You love her don't you?" I asked softly.

When I caught sight of his face I immediately rephrased what I said. "Like a best friend love not love, romantic love."

He played with the string of his jacket. "Yeah I do." He mumbled.

The music stopped and another Disney song replaced it as Sunny approached us. Her eyes brightened when she caught sight of Logan. "Logan~" She sang and Logan eyed her skeptically.

"What do you want," Logan eyed her distastefully. The complete opposite of the look of admiration he just gave her a few minutes ago.

"Who said I want anything."

"I know that look Sunnylia. Just spit it out."

"Will you be the vice president of our club?" She pouted at him. "Please..."

"No."

"Come on at least consider-"

"No."

She smiled tightly at him and snatched away the iPod in his hand. "Fine. Have it your way. Come on Nev, I'll buy you ice cream. One with the flavor of Mint chocolate chip." She loudened her voice at that, slyly glancing at Logan whose finger was twitching.

"Bye Loser," She hiked up her bag on her shoulder and grabbed my hand, tugging me out of the room.

------------------------------------------------------

"Drop everything now!" I yelled, rocking my head back and forth, the ends of my ponytail were like spine needles piercing through the skin of my knees.

"MEET ME IN THE POURING RAIN, KISS ME ON THE SIDEWALK. TAKE AWAY THE PAIN," I and my father sang our hearts out as we swerved past smoke-belching vehicles on the highway. I faced him and guffawed at how his voice cracks whenever it reaches the high parts. He looked so silly with how hard he's pretending to have good singing skills.

"Here it comes." He glanced at me from the driver's seat, his Ray-Ban pushed up in his forehead neatly. I still don't know how he managed to comb his hair neatly without those loose strands falling at the side of his face despite not using gel.

Then the moment came.

'CAUSE I SEE," I sang on an imaginary mic, bringing my knees up to my chest, having a brief battle with the seatbelt.

I brought it up to my father's face. "SPARKS FLY," He sang while maintaining his eyes on the road. "WHENEVER YOU SMILE."

I jumped in my seat when a car overtook ours, honking like there's no tomorrow. "Tune it down!" A bald man let down his window and yelled at us, his hairless head glinting under the afternoon sunlight.

I turned slowly to dad, a grin forming on my lips. He met my eye and we both laughed. "We still got it kiddo." He reached out and lowered the volume making me pout slightly.

I absolutely adore Taylor's old songs. They were my childhood and also because of the fact that it was my father who introduced them to me. We would go to somewhere far for vacation and trust the fact that he would blast 'Fifteen' and 'All too well' the whole way there. He would even max the volume just to keep me from sleeping since I always had a problem maintaining an active state whenever we got into the car.

Dad, noticing the way I was sitting, reached over, and pinch my leg. "Ow!"

"Nevaeh Misxielle Wilson what did I say about seating properly. You're wearing a skirt for goodness sake." He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at me.

It was Saturday. We had just gone from the Supermarket and I was in a good mood since I wasn't banned from there.

And also because I managed to sneak a candy bar in the cart when he wasn't looking.

The twins were at Sam's helping her design her mother's miniature garden. Xavier had gone to do the project he was talking about which I suspected to be more of a date because he actually spent the time to find decent clothing and even asked me and my sisters' opinion about how he looked.

We all teased him about growing up to which he replied by attacking us with a men's cologne. It was one of those strongly scented perfumes that made your nose ache with the severity of the odor. I shuddered, the smell still faint in my senses. Why would men think that horrid thing would make their dates like them.

"Technically I'm not outside so I can seat the way I want. Plus, we're in a car." I flashed my father a wide smile. He shook head at me and directed his gaze forward again.

I noticed how he looked on the edge, his fingers drumming at the steering wheel. "What's wrong dad?" I asked, 'Back to December' was playing and suddenly I felt like I got heartbroken even if I wasn't in a relationship in the first place.

He rubbed his forehead. "Nothing it's just I have this feeling that I forgot something." He looked deep in thought then his eyes widened and horror-filled them like he just found out where Atlantis was.

"Oh no." He mumbled.

"Oh no what?" I said.

"What's the date today?" He asked. I fished out my phone to check the day. At the same time, a message from Xavier popped up. I ignored it and when my eyes landed on the date I immediately understood the reason for dad's behavior.

"You forgot your wedding anniversary!?" I stared at him in disbelief. It was understandable to forget at least one of his children's birthday but his wedding? Wrong move.

"It must have slipped through my mind. There's a flower shop near the house right? We'll just go there."

He turned a sharp right and after a few minutes, we had parked beside the road. Me clicking the hazard button as my father shot me a smile and ran outside to get flowers.

Once his back faded as he sauntered to the shop, I grinned and turned the volume up. I began Jumping and having a mini-concert as far as the seat restricts me, I gave the bobbing figurine of lightning McQueen a five-star show.

When I saw my father reappearing with the biggest bouquet I have ever seen in my life, I turned the radio off and unbuckled my seatbelt. Twisting in my seat I watched as he opened the back and shove the flowers at the back.

He climbed in but didn't drive like I thought he would. I shot him a questioning look. "Uh... dad? Shouldn't we go home now? You know, vroom vroom." I made steering wheel gestures.

"Didn't you read your brother's message?" Now it was his time to ask me. What could be so important that we were wasting gasoline on.

My eyebrows scrunched together. "No, I didn't," I admitted. "Why?"

"He said someone's asking for you. Uh... wait let me check." He scrolled through his phone and I snickered at how big the letters were on the screen. It was no doubt my parents were getting old, white hair and whatnot. The only reason it isn't visible on dad's head is that it blends in with his blonde hair.

"He says Fall's inviting you. She asked if you want to play...Archer?" He shot me a look. "Archer? I say you go."

"Fall? Fall Owens?" I asked but only one thought was on my mind. A certain blonde and dark coffee-loving boy who I had a decent conversation with and was absent the whole day yesterday. "Wait he's in the Owens' residence?"

He shrugged. "Maybe to work on that project. Either way, get out of the car young lady, and walk there. You need to go out more, your cheeks are getting chubbier."

I glared at him and touched my cheeks. "My cheeks are just fine thank you," Turning away from him, I gazed at the window.

"Alright alright. I was joking, you need to calm down." I felt a nudge on my shoulder. I ignored him and opened the door grabbing my stuff, walking out, and started on my walk towards the gigantic mansion of a house. I know how our house was in the opposite way from it and it would waste gas if I asked for a ride. Besides, walking might do me some good.

I heard a honk behind me as I felt my phone buzz. It was a text from dad.

Have fun honey, don't do anything I wouldn't do.

I was pocketing it when it buzzed again. Another message from dad.

Actually, no, that isn't right.

Don't do something I would do ;)

I let out a breathless laugh as I crossed the street, stringing along the back of people that looked like they were a few years older than me. One man had a small bouquet in his hand close to his chest, smiling as he surveyed it, no doubt it was for someone he loved. And as I continued walking, I thought of my parents celebrating their twenty-fourth anniversary.

It must be nice to feel loved. Genuine, real, and the sparkly kind.

-------------------------------------------------------

How you like that?

Sorry couldn't help myself. Stan Blackpink for clear skin.

Okay so I want this phrase to be a rant comment section. Rant all you want, vent out anything you want to say, just let it all out. And make long messages too, I wanna sip some tea and read things that you really experienced, maybe I could use it as an inspiration for a story or character.

PLEASE DON'T BE A SILENT READER(I learned that from peachdan14 CHECK OUT HER STORY!!!!!!!) Lovely people are still out there in this site and I want to inspire you guys to not be afraid to comment and vote because a tiny act such as that can make an author's day.

And for the people in the back, WRITE YOUR STORY.