I punched her arm lightly.
"Shut up, you two," I grumbled, but my words weren't out of hate. I felt happy inside and for the first time in my entire life, I felt complete.
With a smile, I dug into my purse and whipped out a wad of dollar bills.
"Here you go," I said cheerfully and handed Marisol the money, but she didn't take it. Instead, she laughed and pushed the money back to me.
"I was just kidding, ya know," she grinned and gave me a thumbs-up. "The important part is that you're with him. That's all that counts."
"She's right," Chloe agreed. "We're really glad that things worked out between you two."
Why hadn’t I noticed it before? Why was I so blind? Invisible tears clouded my eyes and I smiled without making it look fake or restrained.
I never noticed before but Marisol and Chloe were the two best friends I could ask for.
I smiled too.
"Yeah," I laughed. "Betting is for newbs."
~*~
Life would have been much easier if there was no such thing as 'bad guys'. But then again, dreams like that would never happen.
I was in too good of a mood to deal with Allison. But I bumped into her as I was walking down the hallway to my locker. She had her clipboard clutched tightly to her chest and was walking straight forward without even looking up to acknowledge that I was walking towards her.
If I hadn't moved out of the way on the last second, we would have encountered the same situation as last time.
"Hey!" I called after her, annoyed that she didn't stop to say sorry for almost running into someone. Allison's shoulders went rigid and she turned to face me so quickly that it looked like she was being chased by a ghost.
When she saw that it was just me, her trademark smirk appeared on her face.
"Oh, why hello Milady," she said sarcastically, emphasizing the word 'Milady'. "I didn't see you there."
I snorted. "Right. Watch where you're going next time, Lady of the Newspaper."
At the mention on 'newspaper', Allison's face paled and she looked scared for a moment, but she quickly recovered and replaced her shock with a witty retort, "Well, at least the truth is out."
"You mean, the theoretical truth," I corrected her. Allison gave me a glare and I glared back. We stood there in the hallway staring each other down.
I wasn't about to back down. My life was finally going somewhere. No way was she going to take that away.
Silence drifted between us. None of us said a word. I could see that Allison was straining really hard to not say a snappy comment. If I wasn't straining as well, I would have snorted and laughed.
"Fine! I give up!" Allison suddenly broke off the concentration and flung her arms up. "You win. Just stop making my life miserable."
"Well, excuse me, but you were the one making my life horrible," I snapped back, but somewhere within me, a huge burden was lifted from winning.
Giving me one last glare, Allison made a huge show of turning on her heel and sashayed away.
"Oh, and by the way," I called after her. "It's not 'Milady', it's 'Queen Eleanor of Harken High'."
I watched Allison screeched to a stop and her whole body stiffened. I could tell that she debated about whether turning around to engage in another battle with me or just moving on. She chose to clear her throat and walked away as fast as possible.
I grinned. Now that was one less pest to worry about.
~*~
"Hey, did you call Samuel yet?" Marisol inquired as the last bell rang to signal that school was finally over.
"For what?" I asked quizzingly. I had horrible memory so I had no idea what she was talking about.
"To invite him to our next volleyball game, of course," Marisol stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Not yet," I answered.
"Are you going to?"
"No duh, genius."
We walked out the doors to Harken High and for the first time, I appreciated the fact that I was even in this school. It was the only reason why I met Samuel. If it weren't for this school, who knew what would have happened in my future.
Samuel was waiting for me at the base of the stairs like always. Marisol gave me a hug and a wink to Samuel before jogging away.
"It's getting a tad bit warmer these days," Samuel observed as we walked to my house.
"Yup," I agreed. "It seemed like Christmas just yesterday."
Samuel laughed. "I never get bored of your jokes."
I smiled. "And I bet you never will."
It didn't even feel like such a long time had passed since I first met Samuel. It felt like as if I could turn around right now and see the past behind me.
"Your neighborhood is so quiet," Samuel said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"That's because people rarely come out from their house," I told him. I was actually glad that my neighborhood was calm. It felt better that way. If it were loud, I thought I might go crazy due to all the sounds.
I opened the door to my house and we stepped in.
"Welcome home, honey!" Bailey called from somewhere in the kitchen. Bailey was home for once? That was a surprise.
I led Samuel into the kitchen where we saw Bailey taking the newly baked cookies out from the oven.
She turned around and set the platter down on the counter.
"Oh, hey there Eleanor," Bailey smiled and slipped off her oven gloves. She saw Samuel and her face brightened.
"And hello to you too, sweetie!" she chirped and gave him a big smile. "What's your name? I never got it caught it before."
"Samuel Rose, ma'am," Samuel answered and returned the smile. "It’s pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, don't be so formal with me," Bailey joked and came around the counter to stand in front of us.
"I believe you haven't introduced us yet?" Bailey raised an eyebrow at me.
"This is Samuel, my tutor-" I pointed at Samuel "and this is Bailey, my mom-" I pointed at Bailey.
“I’m so glad that you have a tutor these days,” Bailey blew a piece of her hair out of her face. “Now you can actually do work instead of shutting yourself in your room all day and play on your phone."
"I'm just going on Facebook!" I defended myself.
"Which you do even though nothing new happened," Bailey pointed out. I pouted.
Smiling in victory over our little mother-to-daughter argument, Bailey asked, "Are you two hungry? You can have some of the cookies fresh out of the oven."
"Don't eat them," I warned Samuel. "Bailey's cookies are poisonous."
"But that was last time! It was my first time baking cookies!" Bailey whined.
"Yeah, but who mistakes baking soda with baby powder?"
"Don't worry," Bailey reassured Samuel as she handed him a plate. "I didn't put even a speck of baby powder in the mix this time."
We carried our plates upstairs after thanking Bailey for the cookies.
"Sorry about my mom," I apologized with a sly smile. "She seems weird but is a good person."
"Nah, she seems cool," Samuel said.
"Let's go into my room this time," I suggested as we stopped at the end of the hallway where my room was located. I opened the door and we stepped inside.
Now that I thought about it, Samuel had shown me his room, but I had never shown him mine. I thought that his was pretty cool with all the faded posters on the wall and a twin sized bed pulled to the very edge of the room, right underneath the window, but I was not sure how he would think of mine.
Would he like it or think that I was too much of a snob?
As soon as Samuel entered, his mouth fell open.
"W-Wow," he stuttered. "I knew that your room would look cool but this is beyond my wildest imagination."
So that meant he liked it so far, right?
"Thanks," I said and pointed to my desk that I had just cleared the other night. "You can set the plates there and your backpack next to my bed."
Samuel placed down his plate and shrugg
ed off his backpack. I let him wander around as I walked over to the window and drew back the curtains to let a stream of light shine in.
"This place is amazing," Samuel said in awe. "Truly amazing."
"You think?" I asked as I plopped down on the bed.
"Yup," Samuel nodded seriously. "It's been forever since I last been in a normal house..."
I didn't venture further into the topic. I knew what he meant and didn't want to broaden the fact any greater than it already was.
"Let's start then, shall we?" I asked, trying to lighten the sudden dark mood. Samuel's smile returned and he nodded.
"Yeah," he agreed. "We have a lot to do today."
Time flew by way too quick. Before I knew it, it was dark and our tutoring session was over.
As Samuel was packing, I worked up the nerve to ask him the question, "Can you come to my volleyball game again? It's this Saturday."
Samuel put the last book in his bag and he stood up.
"Of course I can!" he said. "And this time, I promise to come on time."
I smiled and stood up as well.
"Pinky promise?" I asked and held out my finger. Samuel grinned and hooked our pinkies together.
"I pinky promise to come."
CHAPTER 17: Across a Million Galaxies
Sometimes, things happen and there was no way we can stop it from happening. Promises were meant to be made and broken, but even though I understood that, I still couldn't help feeling depressed like a sack of potatoes was weighting down upon my shoulders.
Moments where you felt alive and almost as if you were in Heaven didn't last long. Tragedy passed slowly in reality, but moved quickly for me.
In fact, it moved so quick, I only half believed my ears.
It was finally Saturday, the day I had been waiting forever to come. The week dragged by slowly as if taunting me. When it was finally the day of the volleyball game, my heart skipped a beat.
I was in the middle of pulling my hair into a high ponytail. Marisol had called me just a while ago to tell me that she would be coming to pick Chloe and me up.
I was so excited to see Samuel in the crowd, cheering and screaming that I got lost in my imagination and didn't hear my phone ring multiple times. It wasn't until it stopped and rang again that I finally noticed someone was calling me.
Thinking that it was Marisol calling me to tell me that she was stuck in traffic, I picked up without bothering to check the dialer ID and said, "Hello?"
There was silence on the other end for a moment.
"Hello? Anyone there?" I asked again.
"Um... Hi, Eleanor," a deep voice rang out. My breath hitched in my throat. This voice was committed to my memory. It was Samuel.
For a split second, I was literally jumping up and down from happiness that Samuel called me. But then reality hit me and I began to wonder why he was calling me.
He couldn't be quitting on me and said that he couldn't come to the game, right?
"Oh, hey Samuel," I greeted back as casually as I could. Please don't say it. "What's up?"
"Oh, nothing much," he replied, but I caught a hint of nervousness in his voice. "Um, I was calling to tell you..."
"Tell me what?"
Samuel drew in a sharp breath.
"I... I might not be able to make it to the game today."
For a second, I thought I heard wrong. Or maybe this was all just a bad dream and I just had to wake up. When I did, the sun would be shining like it always was and the rainbow outside my window would glisten brightly. Then Samuel would call to confirm that he would be coming to my game.
"Sorry?" I was sure I didn't hear that right.
"I can't come today," Samuel repeated, his voice slightly cracking at the end.
"Why?"
I was not sure why I was still remaining strong instead of breaking a puddle of tears by now. The past me would have had a tantrum, but the new me seemed to stay calm.
"It's a long story," Samuel whispered softly and I almost didn't hear him.
"What happened?" I asked and started to get worried. "Is your mom okay?"
"Yeah," Samuel answered, but he sounded tired.
"The twins?"
"They're all fine. It's just... something else happened."
What else could happen?
"What then?" I asked and even before Samuel answered, the answer echoed throughout my mind. He didn't have to say it. I knew, I understood.
"They found my dad."
A heavy silence draped over us as we let the sentence sink in. I could tell that Samuel didn't believe what he just said as much as I did. Samuel's breaths came out raged as if he was on the verge to either scream out in rage or just shatter and cry.
"What do you mean?"
It took me a moment to realize that I was the one who broke the silence. My voice came out so even and calm that I almost didn't recognize it as mine.
Samuel sighed on the other side. "I'm not clear on the whole story, but... all I know for sure is that my dad is standing downstairs, right in the living room."
My world seemed to turn upside down. This was happening too quickly for my mind to catch up.
"Where did they find him?" I asked.
It took a moment for Samuel to answer. "France."
Sometimes, I really didn't understand life. Or maybe today was meant to be a horrible day and I didn't realize that in the morning until now.
"I'm sorry, Eleanor," Samuel said softly. "I just... I think I might need some time to think and get used to the fact that my dad is finally back."
I swallowed. Hard.
"Wait, where are you-"
"I'll talk to you later then," Samuel said. "It's almost time for your game. Good luck and remember to win."
"Wait, Samuel-!"
There was a click and the line went dead. A moment later, static replaced Samuel's voice. I lowered my phone and stared at it.
I was still in a daze and couldn't wrap my head around the news yet.
I held up my hand and stared hard at my pinky.
But you promised...
~*~
I didn't even think as I marched out the door and jumped into my car. It had been forever since I last drove because I always carpooled with Marisol, but that wasn't the problem right now.
I started the engine and pulled out the driveway right as Marisol pulled up.
I rolled down my window and called to her, "Emergency! Go without me!"
"What happened?!" she asked, sounding a little alarmed because I only drove when something really bad happened.
"Samuel!" was all I needed to say and Marisol immediately got the point.
"You go on!" she yelled to me over the roar of our engines. "I'll explain to Coach Wayne!"
"Thanks!" I yelled back as I drove away. I tried my best not to go over the speed limit but it proved to be some difficult as my worry for Samuel grew by the second.
He was going through the return of his long lost dad alone. He felt confused and angry at the same time. He needed a shoulder to lean on. I needed to be there for him. I needed to be his shoulder.
I pulled into Samuel's neighborhood, but I drove past his house. I already knew he wouldn't be inside. He was somewhere else. Somewhere that was quiet where he would be alone to sort out his thoughts.
The lake that Samuel took me to, the one where we shared our first kiss, came into view. I turned off my car and practically flew out of it.
I jogged the entire way and kept an eye out for something with a mop of brown hair. Soon, I found a brown spot among the green.
I raced down the little hill leading to the lake to Samuel's small form, curled up on the ground. When I reached him, I noticed that he was staring out into space, his eyes far away and unmoving.
"Samuel?" I said cautiously. Samuel jerked and turned around to face me with alarm in his eyes. When he saw it was just me, his face became solemn again and he looked away.
"Hey," I pouted. "A 'hello' would be nice."
&
nbsp; "Why are you here?" Samuel asked, ignoring my weak attempt at a greeting joke. "You're going to be late for your game."
I shrugged and sat down beside him and curled up my legs and hugged them to my chest.
"Because you didn't seem okay and needed some friendship," I replied simply and looked out at the water with him.
For a moment, silence overcame us. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the sadness in Samuel's eyes and the lingering tiredness on his face. His cheeks were hollow and his brown hair seemed wilder than usual.
"You know, I still haven't seen him yet," Samuel said suddenly.