Chapter21-Frozen In Time
November 20th, 2012

 It’s a few days later. 7th Anthem were given a week off from everything. This gave Andrew and Alyson the opportunity to go to Boston. Alyson wanted to tell her parents in person. She felt like she needed to confront her fears. At least she had Andrew by her side.

 Sometime after they booked a hotel room, they got a car rental, and drove to the Beacon Hill neighborhood. Alyson tried to concentrate with driving, but she was taken in the scenery. She, an Andrew, hadn’t been in this part of Boston in years. To them, it was like the area hadn’t changed much, but it did. Yet, even with the new businesses around the area, all the leaves on the trees were gone. Winter was obviously coming.

 When they arrived at her house, she sat in the car, trying to breathe slowly and calmly. Andrew noticed, so he gently rubbed her neck, and said, “You can do this, Aly. Besides, I’ll be right beside you. I’ll defend you, okay?”

 Alyson nodded her head. Andrew kissed her cheek. Then they got out of the car. As they walked up the steps, she squeezed his hand tightly. He squeezed back, and gave her a reassuring smile. She then rang the doorbell. They waited for about a minute. No answer. Then she knocked. After another minute. Once again, no answer.

 Andrew told her, “They’re probably working at Harvard right now.”

 Alyson said, “Yeah…”

 Then she stepped off the “welcome” mat underneath their feet. She got Andrew to step off also. She picked up the mat. She saw a spare key. She picked it up, and opened the door with it. 

 Andrew was amazed by this, so he asked, “How did you know about this?”

 She replied, “For as long as I can remember, my parents always had a spare key hidden underneath the welcome mat. They did this in case Melissa and I came back from school, and we need to get in. Or if our parents locked themselves, the key was there for us.”

 Andrew a small smile, and went inside the house with her. She closed the door behind them, and locked it. She told him, “I don’t think you’ve ever been inside of my house before.”

 “No, I wasn’t. If I was, I would’ve remembered.”

 He then took in the interior. It was classy yet conservative. She noticed what he was doing, so she told him, “My parents have a thing for class. But all of this was done on a budget.”

 He turned to face her, and gave a smile. She told him, “You’re full of smiles. I like that.”

 Andrew looked away, and blushed slightly. She took his hand, and said, “Want to see my room?”

 Andrew smirked, and said, “You sound like a rebellious teenager.”

 Alyson also smirked, and said, “I haven’t been home since I was a teenager. What do you expect?”

 “Good point,” he said while giving a small laugh.

 So Alyson led him by hand to her room on the third floor of her house. She saw the door to her room was wide open. They both walked in. She was shocked by what she saw. 

 Her room was a normal sized bedroom. About the same size as her room back in the 7A condo. Except her closet wasn’t a walk-in. Her wall had posters of her favorite bands and singers from the early 2000s. There were posters of Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Aaron Carter, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, S Club 8, The A-Teens, and only one poster of a Christian band: Jump5. Her wall was the very definition of a 2000s teenager who just got out of the 90s.

 Her bedspread was pink with flowers. Her desk (that was by a window) was clean, with a blue spiral notebook and a pencil on it. One the notebook, it a word written with large letters, “HISTORY.” She saw in her bookshelf several books and a bunch of CDs. There were even a few cassette tapes.

 She looked at the books. They were mostly Christian-oriented books, including a pink-covered teen Bible. She looked at the CDs. She saw she had a mixture of Christian and secular music, from Christian girl group ZOEgirl to mainstream Hilary Duff. She also had a Spice Girls cassette tape.

 She went into her closet, and saw she still had some clothes in there. There a few t-shirts, pink miniskirts, and a pair of jeans. She took most of her clothes when UTurn got signed. Over time, her style had changed.

 Andrew was taking in the room. He saw how well-preserved the room was. It was like her parents were expecting her to come back home. He saw the old S Club 8 poster, and saw teenaged Brandon. Andrew smiled, remembering how she was a huge fan of them.

 Then he told her as she was looking at her old clothes, “Your parents care about you, Aly. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have persevered your room.”

 She turned to face him, and said, “I can see that. I’m touched that they kept my room the same after all these years. I put up all those posters of those non-Christian popstars just to piss them off. I liked their music, and I wanted to let them know that.”

 Andrew sat down on the bed, and asked, “And now?”

 She said, “I had to do what I had to do. I needed to become my own person. I didn’t want to be clone of them and Melissa. You see these Christian books here? That was me, trying to please them. But did I read them? Only the bible. That was the only Christian related book I read.”

 “Do you still consider yourself Christian?”

 She sat down next to him, and said, “Yes…I just don’t practice it anymore. I still believe in God and Jesus and pretty much everything else…but I’m nowhere near like my parents.

 “Not to belittle you in any way, but compared to my parents, I’m marrying a man who’s not Christian or Jewish. You grew up in a liberal home. You’re bisexual. We slept together.”

 Andrew thought for a moment, and asked, “Didn’t you tell me your parents were from Orthodox families in New York?”

 Alyson replied, “My dad was from a Reform family, while my mom was from an Orthodox family.”

 “Do you know why they converted to Christianity?”

 “Not really. They never told us.”

 Andrew then kissed her cheek, and got up from the bed. He looked at her old clothes. He asked, “Do these clothes still fit you?”

 Alyson laughed, and said, “Most likely. My body didn’t change that much. I just got hips, and slightly bigger boobs.”

 He smirked, and said, “Yeah, because you got yourself implants.”

 She playfully smacked him, and grabbed a pair of jeans and a top. She took off her leather jacket, black pants, and a pink long-sleeved top. Then she told Andrew, “Close the door in case my parents get back.”

 Andrew went over to the door, and closed it. Then he said, “So I guess I’m getting a private fashion show.”

 Alyson laughed, and said, “You’re so perverted.”

 He walked over to her, and hugged her from behind. He lightly kissed her shoulder. Then he said, “I’m only like this for you.”

 Alyson smirked, and asked, “So do you want your fashion show or what?”

 He let go off her as he laughed. She put on her pink t-shirt and her flared jeans. She said, “These clothes actually fit me.”

 Andrew smiled, and said, “You look cute. Why did you leave your clothes here?”

 She shrugged, and said, “I guess I wanted a few of my clothes here. I think I’ll stay in these for a while.”

 She then eyed her desk. She opened a drawer. She saw photos of her and Bailey, her and Justin, and her and Andrew. They all looked like they were twelve. 

 Andrew saw her hold the photos. He walked up to her, and asked, “When were those photos taken?”

 She replied, “They kind of look like they’re from my Bat Mitzvah. Look at my hair. I was trying to look like Lizzie McGuire.”

 In the photos, her hair was long and brown. Her hair was crimped, and had two mini-buns on either side of her head. And she had a few mini-braids.

 He laughed, and asked, “You saw Lizzie McGuire as your fashion icon? I thought it was Britney Spears.”

 “She was! I apparently thought this was a cool look.”

 Andrew picked a photo of him and her. They were standing together, shoulder-to-shoulder. Both had big, toothy grins. Then he said, “We were so innocent back then.”

 She asked him, “Do you want to go back to that?”

 “Not really. I’m fine where I am today.”

 Then Alyson thought for a moment. She soon got on the floor, and pulled out boxes from under her bed. Andrew watched her, so he asked, “What are you doing?”

 She replied, “I just remembered that I had old homework assignments. If I remember correctly, I had boxes from the elementary school years. I remember getting rid of the middle and high school assignments.”

 “Why did you keep the homework from when we in elementary school?”

 She asked, “Don’t you remember how in elementary school, we had to write stories and draw pictures?”

 Andrew thought for a moment, and said, “That’s true. But if I remember correctly, drawing pictures ended in fourth grade. Creative writing went into our high school years.”

 Alyson smiled, and saw a box that had a piece of paper taped onto the lid. On the paper it said, “FIRST GRADE. 1995-1996.” She put the box on the bed. She opened it, and saw what was in there. Andrew looked through the box with her. 

 He picked up a yearbook, and looked through it. Alyson saw him smiling, so she asked, “See anything interesting?”

 He showed her the class photo, and their headshots. In the photos, they were giving their biggest grins while showing gaps in their mouths. She smiled, and said, “Aawww! You looked so adorable! Your hair was brown back then. Even your eyes were bigger and bluer.”

 He laughed, and said, “I think my hair turned to black a few years after the headshot was taken. And my eyes are still very much big and blue.”

 “Based on your headshot, no one would believe this sweet little boy was a bully.”

 Andrew bit his lip, and said, “You know what they say, ‘looks can be deceiving.’”

 Then Alyson looked at her headshot. She made a face at the photo, and said, “I can’t believe my hair was a big, frizzy mess back then. And look at my glasses!”

 Andrew laughed, and said, “You were, what? 7? Anyway, it wasn’t like you cared a lot about your appearance back then.”

 “True. Now you and I are sexy beasts.”

 He smirked, and kissed her cheek. “That we are.”

 Alyson then looked through the box until she saw something that caught her eye. It looked like a homemade picture book. The title said, “The Monster.” The cover had a crudely-drawn green, somewhat deformed monster.

 Andrew saw the cover, and asked, “What is that?”

 Alyson replied, “I don’t know. Some story I wrote back in first grade.”

 She sat down, and opened the book. She saw more drawings. She read the words she wrote. She saw the drawings were of herself, Bailey, and their first grade teacher. Then she saw the green monster. She was, at first, not sure who the thing was. But when she saw that she wrote the thing was a bully, she recognized who it was: Andrew. 

 Andrew noticed her somewhat surprised expression. So he sat next to her, and looked at what she saw. When he read that line, he bit his lip. He knew she wrote about him, and drew him as an ugly-looking monster.

 When Alyson reached the end of the book, she became visibly upset. Andrew took the book from her, and saw what it was that made her upset. It said in the book that she beat him up, and he disappeared.

 Alyson saw Andrew reading what she wrote, and said, “I’m sorry I wrote that. I’m sorry for that to happen.”

 Andrew gave her a hug, and told her, “Aly, it was just a story. You didn’t make me disappear. You didn’t even beat me up with a book.”

 “But I drew you as a monster.”

 “Aly, I was a monster back then. I terrified you and everyone.”

 She hugged him tighter, and said, “But I wrote in there that I hated you. I indirectly hurt you.”

 Andrew felt his heart melting as he hugged her tightly. He knew this story was written back in first grade. Almost twenty years ago. But there was a small part of him that was hurt. He knew he was horrible back then, but seeing that story made him feel guilty for the things he did.

 He told her as his voice cracked with emotion, “Aly…I’m sorry…for everything I did back then.”

 Then they pulled away. He continued, “I get why you wrote that. I get why you drew me as that…thing. I was bullying you. You didn’t see me as a cute kid. You saw me as monster.”

 Alyson said as she caressed his face, “I obviously wrote this before I gave you that toy elephant. Before I saw you were actually a scared yet sweet boy. I…I judged you without getting to know the real you. I always did that to you.”

 He held her hand that was on his face, and said, “But with time, you saw who I really was. You eventually stopped judging me. You know everything about me now. I held nothing back from you.”

 Then he moved her hand to his chest, and said with a smile, “But the moment we met was the moment we became soulmates. If we had known that back then, I wouldn’t have bullied you. I would’ve would been much nicer to you. But regardless of our pasts, we ended up together. Now we’re getting married. I’m marrying the woman that I have always loved.”

 Alyson smiled, and said, “But we were too young to realize we were destined to be together. Still, I’m glad I’m marrying the man that I love so much. I wouldn’t give you up. You mean so much to me.”

 Andrew took the book, and put it back in the plastic box. He said, “As for that book, that was in the past. That was when we pushed each other away. I was bullying you, while you were hating me. You had every right to hate me back then. But then we changed. I still remember that one day, about as old as that book, you called me your friend. I remember hugging you. I didn’t deserve to be your friend, but you wanted to. 

 “Now, here we are. We went from being enemies, to friends, to dating, to sleeping together, and now we’re on our way to getting married. As much as that past have caused so much pain in our lives, we have to try to move forward. We must look to the future as husband and wife, not as a monster and a victim.”

 Alyson smiled, and kissed his lips. Andrew kissed her back. Then she asked, “Want to take a nap as we wait for our parents to arrive?”

 He laughed, and asked, “Wouldn’t we get in trouble?”

 She smirked, “Why not?”

 So Andrew put the box on the floor. Then the two got under her blanket. They were fully clothed. Alyson told him, “I love you, Andrew.”

 He said, “I love you too, Aly.”

 The two shared a kiss again, and soon fell asleep in each other’s arms.