SUFI (Song Used For Inspiration): 'Headlock' By Imogen Heap

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I had to be honest, Natalie was very pretty, I mean, which man would not be mesmerized by her fierce light blue eyes, auburn reddish hair, full cheeks, and slim lips? I don't know whom, but whoever didn't was apparently blind. The only physical flaw I see in her was a small little scar she had on her forehead, which looked like she got it when she was much younger. Natalie purses her lips, but she slowly shakes my hand, smiling kindly at me, "It's a pleasure meeting you...?"

"Remmi, her name is Remmi." Robert says, smiling at both of us. I smile at both of them, and look away awkwardly. No, I couldn't be jealous, he had a girlfriend, I had my own life, I can't possibly be so selfish and think about myself all the time.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Remmi." Natalie says, a small smile appearing on her lips, making me notice that she has dimples as well.

"The pleasure is all mine." I reply quietly, giving Natalie a few uncertain glances.

"Yoooo! What up?" Mat says, coming out of nowhere apparently and leaning on the table, "Oh, hi Natalie."

"Hi Mat." Natalie says, smiling at him. I look at Mat in disbelief. He knew about Natalie's existence, and never bothered to inform me. The thought of that infuriated me.

"Can you, excuse Mat and I for a moment?" I ask, not wanting to know the answer to the question and grabbing Mat by his arm, bringing him to the other corner of the bakery.

"Ow! What was that for!" Mat asks in a harsh whisper, a small drop of spit landing on my cheek.

"Ew," I whisper, wiping the drool from my cheek and glaring at him, "How come you never told me Rob had a girlfriend?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you'd be interested in knowing something like that." Mat answers in a harsh whisper, glaring back at me.

"How would I not be interested? He was my best friend and I should have the right of knowing what is going on in his life." I argue.

"Well, if you were actually his best friend, then you wouldn't have left him!" Mat exclaims. I look at him in silence. That shut me up completely, and I felt like disintegrating right at the spot once I realized everyone there stared right at me. Rob gave me a weird glance, and Natalie looked at me, confused. I bite my lip, closing my eyes and hoping that I wouldn't burst into tears.

"Sure, that may be true," I say quietly, looking at Mat, who looked at me in an apologetic way, "But that means NOTHING." And with that, I go out of the bakery, and walk out. I wasn't running or speed walking, I was just normally making my way down the street, and entered the alley, leaning against the rough brick wall. I close my eyes and breathe slowly, calming down my ragged breathing.

"Remmi? Is that really you?" A familiar, soft voice asks. I open my eyes, a few tears falling down my cheeks in the process, and turn my head. I see a familiar family face, and I sigh in defeat. It was my aunt. Of course she saw me.

"Yes, it's me." I say, my voice cracking. She didn't change at all. She still had her golden yellow hair, long nose, pale skin, a few wrinkles, and warm green eyes. Aunt Mara, I always called her Aunt Mara, even though her name was Marigold, which she hated. I don't see why she hated that name, Marigold. I thought it was gorgeous, but I never questioned her.

"Did that boy back there bother you?" Aunt Mara asks, a small look of concern on her face.

"No, he didn't, he was right." I say with a bit of guilt.

"He was right, about what?" Aunt Mara asks, confused.

"About, about everything." I say, letting out a small chuckle which sounded more like a gurgle. I could tell she didn't comprehend what I just said, but I didn't care.

She gave out a small sigh, "Remmi, Remmi, Remmi, look at how much you've changed," she began, getting a small strand of my brunette hair in her thin fingers, "You were just a teenager when you left, now look at you, a full grown woman."

I smile, "I don't think of myself as a 'grown woman'."

"Well then you'll have to get used to it." She says, giving me a look of sympathy. She let go of my hair, which fell back against the rest of my hair, and looked out into the street, "I was thinking, about your relatives and how they'd react if they knew you were here."

My eyes widen, "You wouldn't, you wouldn't tell them!"

"I wouldn't, but I can't keep promises." Aunt Mara says softly. I gulp, I knew it was a bad idea entering that bakery, but I just had to go in it, didn't I?

"If you tell them, I-I swear. . ." I began, my voice full of uncertainty.

"What do you swear? What is wrong with me telling your family that you are back after moving out without a word!" Aunt Mara exclaims, "Everyone was devastated Remmi! Devastated! They all thought you might have been kidnapped o-or worse!"

"SHUT UP! Ok?! Will you just shut up!" I shout, covering my ears with my hands. I didn't want to hear about that. I wanted her to be quiet, but I knew she wouldn't. It's for the best, she would say. But I thought of it as a threat, for the worst. Aunt Mara looks at me in a sad, disappointed way.

She sighs, "I'll leave you alone now. You can go back to the bakery, if you want. I won't bother you there."

I sniff and look down at the pebble-filled alley, "Why would I want to go back to the place that I ran away from?"

"Remmi, you already have." Aunt Mara says. I look at her, but she was already gone. I sigh and get some of my hair from off of my face. I felt my dry tears on my cheeks, but I just casually rubbed off the wet tears. I move out into the street, and make my way back to the bakery. I hesitantly look at the door, and I enter it.

Just as I entered, a few eyes fixed themselves on me, but I saw Lily walk up to me, with a look of concern on her face, "Remmi! Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I calmed myself down a bit." I answer, looking at her with assurance.

"Mat feels bad, he says he feels guilty and he wanted to apologize." Lily says, looking at me intently, waiting for my answer.

"Tell him that I accept his apology." I say in the most simple way possible.

"You do?" I hear Mat ask. I look over at him, who had the same apologetic facial expression from before.

"Of course I do." I say, smiling.

"Ok, good, I was starting to feel like an idiot." Mat says, chuckling.

"You already are one, Mat," I say, rolling my eyes. "Don't pretend like you don't know."

"Remmi, what happened?" Rob asks with concern.

"Nothing special, I just . . . I just got upset, that's all." I say, hopefully he doesn't think that I'm lying, even though half of it is kind of true.

"Oh, good, Natalie was concerned." Rob says. Oh really? Was she now?

"Then how come she didn't come here and tell me herself?" I ask, irritated.

"Because she's in the bathroom right now." Rob says, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Oh . . ." I say, biting my bottom lip in embarrassment.

"Well I'm bored, let's go do something else." Lily suggests, eating a donut in the process.

"Like what?" Mat asks, getting a donut from the white bag and eating one as well.

"What about the park? I mean, I haven't gone there for a long time, and I want to know if it's still there." I say, hoping that Matt wouldn't retort something mean.

"Why not? But let's wait for Natalie, I don't want to bail on her." Rob says. That comment made me roll my eyes.

Then, Natalie came out from the bathroom, and Robert told her where we were going, and she agreed, but I swore that I could see a bit of reluctance in her eyes. We then got out of the bakery, and we made our way down the cold streets and we walked to a small little square in the middle of the tall city buildings. A park was there, at least, that's what I could see. Some of it was rusty, but other things were polished, but I could still tell that they were old. I sigh, feeling nostalgic for a moment, but I grin like an idiot and run towards the swings. I got on them, and start swinging, using my legs to keep myself balanced.

"Hey! Remmi! Look at me! I'm a little kid again!" Lily exclaims, giggling and sliding down the slide. I smile and laugh. It has been a long while since I went to the park, and I felt like I was a little kid again as well.

"You guys are having too much fun you know! You look like idiots." Mat says, laughing. I could tell he was joking.

"And we're proud!" Lily says, making her way down the bars of the monkey bars.

I look around the park, trying to look for Rob, but once I find him, I frown. I see him and Natalie sitting at a bench, their heads against each other and whispering in each other's ear. I suddenly lost the will of swinging, and the swing slowly swings, until it finally stops. I couldn't believe how miserable I felt at that moment. I see Lily walk up to me with a large smile on her face, but once she sees my frown, she looks at me, confused.

"Is everything ok?" She asks, sitting on a swing next to me and begins to swing.

"Yeah, it's just, the nostalgia, ya know?" I say, giving her a small smile, but then I frown again.

"Come on, you don't have to be so depressed about it." Mat says, coming closer to us and getting on the other swing, looking at Lily and I.

"I know but, I haven't been here in a while." I say, glancing over at Rob and Natalie once in a while.

"I haven't either, and I'm not depressed about it." Lily says, swinging farther and farther up. She was right, she wasn't depressed about it, but here I was, feeling nostalgic. But the problem was, it wasn't the park I was depressed over.

"I guess you're both right." I say, looking down at my camera and tapping it with my fingernail.

"Guys, wait here!" Lily exclaims, literally jumping off of the swing while it was in the air, landing on her feet, and running over to a random cart. Matt and I look at each other in confusion, but we look at Lily, who was talking to a cart vendor. Once Lily stops talking, she turns around with a bouquet of flowers in her hands, but they were not just flowers, but roses. They were all beautiful, but one of them caught my attention. It was dark red, and it just looked gorgeous.

"Pick one!" Lily says eagerly once she was close to us.

"Damn, they're all pretty." Mat says, looking at the flowers.

"Yeah, they're beautiful." I say. Without hesitation, my hand reaches for the dark red rose, and I got ahold of the stem. I got it out of the bouquet, slowly and carefully, and I examined it, my other hand touching the stem as well. But, all of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain on that hand's finger, and it quickly releases the stem.

"Ow." I mutter. I look at the finger, and crimson red liquid was falling from it. It was bleeding. I look at the stem and I realize that the stem had thorns on it.

"Ooooooh! you pricked your finger!" Mat says in a mocking way.

"I know I did, idiot." I say, sucking on my finger, tasting the warm blood.

"Ooh! They say that if you prick your finger on a dark red rose, then you'll have bad luck!" Lily says with exaggeration.

I roll my eyes, "It's just a superstition. Oh! Look at how scared I am!"

We all laugh, but I keep looking at the rose, admiring it's beauty. Hopefully, the superstition wasn't true,

Or else my life would be a living hell.

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-Author's Note-

I updated with a large chapter as usual.

The nostalgia slowly rolls in, since I haven't been in a park for months T^T

Anyway! I hope you enjoyed this chapter (⌒▽⌒)

Don't forget to vote (^o^)/

And I'll see you in the next update!

❤Much Love!❤