It had to be a dream, it couldn’t possibly be real. I gripped the phone in my hand, refusing to let it go. For a long moment, I just stared at the screen, unsure of what I should do next. My heart was pounding in my temples and could feel the tears sliding down my chin. What was I supposed to do now? I couldn’t call him, it was far too late for that, and even if I did, what was I going to say? Oh Matrix are you still with your girl, because I swore you came to my house one night to tell me you had broken up? The thought of all the deceit, set off an angry hatred, burning deep within me. I threw the phone on the bed, where it landed neatly into one of the folds away from my sight. Good, I thought to myself, I didn’t want to look at it anymore.

Just like an overwhelming wave of nausea, I felt my stomach turnover with guilt and disgust. I was horrified. What in the world had possessed me to do what I did?! I had slept with Matrix and I did it for all the wrong reasons. I allowed someone else’s smugness to overpower my good judgement, and I hopped right into bed with him, and now, it looked as if I had nothing to show for it. Suddenly my silent tears shifted into sorrowful sobs. How could he do this to me!? How could I do this to myself!? My mind was in a mini game of ping pong. Just about the time I started to feel sorry for myself, a little voice would chime in with a small glimmer of hope that Tulip was lying. It wouldn’t really be above her to start drama, but would she really go out of her way to call me in the middle of the night, for absolutely no reason? That seemed a bit much even for her.

I cleaned up my nose a bit, basically just rubbed the back of my hand across my face, and then took a seat at my desk. I needed to talk to someone, I only hoped that someone, anyone, would be online. It was a stretch seeing it was close 3:3o in the morning, but there was no possible way I was going to sleep now, so it was worth an honest shot. I opened my laptop and pressed the power key. The few seconds it took for my system to boot up felt like an eternity. My heart was still pounding, only a little less violently, now that the shaking had subsided, and that was good thing. Logging into my messenger program, I waited for my friend list to pop up. There she was, or at least it said she was still on. The one person I really wanted to talk to, Cerese.

I sent out a message and then waited as patiently as I could for her to reply. It took less than two seconds. Of course the first thing she wanted to know, was why in the world I was still up. If I had been in better spirits, I probably would have asked her the same thing. Instead, I started to cry again, tears dripping as I typed out a small summary of what had happened. After it was finally ready to send, I held my hand over the enter key for several seconds. I hated having to admit to what I had done, especially to her. She was such a good wholesome girl and I was pretty sure after I sent the message, her whole perception of me was about to change, but my options were kind of on the slim side, so I finally pressed my finger against the offending key. There was a long pause, followed by some amazingly colorful words directed at Matrix. I couldn’t believe it. She was angry all right, but none of it was directed at me, like I had imagined it would. There were many things I did not consider in my haste to get in contact with anyone who would listen. One of those being, Cerese was extremely good friends with Matrix’s girlfriends cousin. Who also went to our school. Well to make a long story short, within 10 minutes there was a four way conversation going between, Cerese, Frost, Cherry and myself. Thankfully to keep my humiliation to a dull roar, the only person I had to communicate with was Cerese. We played relay for about a half an hour, and by the end, it was clear that A: yes Matrix was still with Cherry and B: Cherry was one irate little berry. The shaking started in again. I told Cerese I needed to see her, badly. She invited me come over, so I closed my computer and headed downstairs. I knew couldn’t just take the car, I would have to ask mom and dad first. I went down stairs and headed to the back of the property to Mom and Dad’s private little house.

Carefully opening my parents door, I stepped inside. Every light in the room was out and the darkness was only making it harder to do, what I had come to do. Attempting to do everything in my power to keep my labored breathing from giving away just how horribly upset I was, I inhaled a full deep breath, in hopes it would steady my voice.

“Mom?” It didn’t work. My voice wavered like laundry on the clothesline in the twizzlerbrook wind.

Mom started to stir, the lights were still off as she called out to me from the safe confines of her covers. “Baby? What’s wrong?”

I shut my eyes and squeezed them tight. Another deep breath and… “Mom I want to go to Cereses.”

“Why love? It’s 4 in the morning.”

“I know.” My voice faltered again. It seemed like, the harder I tried to stay in control, the faster I was spinning out of it.

Mom pushed herself upright. “Baby? Why are you crying?”

I had no idea what I was going to say. Why was I crying? It was more like, why wasn’t I crying? I had messed up on so many levels. I was ashamed and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about what I had done. I placed my hand to the side of my head, wishing I could hide behind it. “I just really need to see her right now.” I explained, my voice still an utter mess.

“Can’t you go in the morning?”

“No. I need her now.”

“Sweetheart you are way too upset to be driving. What’s the matter?”

My lip started tremble and yet again I was sobbing, I apologetically brought my eyes up to meet her gaze. I had never been so embarrassed in my entire life. Before I had a chance to answer there was another voice coming from the other side of the bed.

“Whats wrong?” My father asked.

“I don’t know, she is having a hard time telling me.”

This was just getting worse, now dad was getting out of bed as well. Finally I came out with it. “Mom, Tulip just called me and… and Matrix is still with his girlfriend!!” I wailed.

“Okay… and you are this upset just because he still has a girlfriend? Are you sure there something else?” She inquired, prying deeper.

I hung my head, I didn’t even have to speak the words. She already knew.

“Oh love.”

I threw my arms around her and sobbed violently into her shoulder. “I’m sorry!” I cried. “I shouldn’t have done it!”

“It’s okay love. It’s okay.” She replied back, her voice, soft and low as she stroked my hair.

Both of my parents held onto me that early morning, both set of arms, holding onto what was left of their daughter. I had never felt like such a let down in my life. Of course at the time, all I could imagine was their disappointment, it was hard to feel anything else. In reality the only thing they were actually upset about, was the fact that I was hurting so deeply. But you try explaining that to a teenage girl, who just had her heart ripped out of her chest by someone she thought she loved.

I fell asleep between them that night, something I had not done since I was a small girl. It was just what I needed, it was safe and warm and just enough to allow me to finally drift off into a dreamless rest. Once I had finally succumb to sleep , most of the pain dissipated, at least for a temporary moment in time. There was no doubt it would be back when I woke, but a few hours I was able to rest without hurt.

The early afternoon sun, drifted through the shades, blanketing my eyelids with its warmth. I blinked a few times trying to let the light in slowly and then looked around the room. For a brief unconscious millisecond, I’d forgotten where I had fallen asleep, as well had forgotten the previous night and all of it’s transgressions. Then it all crashed down again, like a clap of thunder across my mind. The hurt, the betrayal, it was back with a vengeance.

For the third time in a very short span, I found myself crying. My bruised heart ached with disappointment. It felt as if my insides were trying to escape through my chest, it hurt almost as bad as it had on the front steps of great ancestors home… almost. That had been far worse, but at least with that, I had been fairly sure it would all subside, this felt like it would last forever. My heart had been broken and it was now up to me sit it out and hopefully gather up what remained. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring down at the carpet, letting each tear drip off the tip of my nose. It had been my own fault, I knew that, but that didn’t make it anymore merciful . It actually made it harder, and knowing I could have avoided it all, if I had only listened to my heart and not let my childish pride step in the way, made me want to hide under my parents covers, never to be seen again.

It was almost 2:30 in the afternoon, before I was able to push myself off my parents bed. Hunger was finally getting the better of me, so I sheepishly emerged from the guest house with an invisible weight bearing down on both my shoulders. I had zero energy to spare and each step was more of a drag shuffle across the lawn. It took everything I had to make it through the back yard and up to the sliding glass door. Grabbing hold of the long slider handle and set my forehead against the cool glass. After a moment of trying to gather up another reserve of energy, I slid the glass open and went inside to the kitchen.

I was not expecting what I found there. The entire family minus my mother and father were standing in the kitchen talking in quiet, hushed yet surprisingly heated tones. I stepped right up to the door jam where I froze. Everyone stopped what they were doing to turn in my direction, all four faces drawn in different forms of malcontent. I knew immediately that they all knew. Everyone held their silence as I entered the kitchen and made my way to the refrigerator. I lifted a box of cereal from above the fridge and then grabbed my bowl from the sink. I could feel all the eyes on me, while pulling an opened bottle of milk from the fridge. I had hoped they would go away, but no one budged, not even after I had poured the milk and placed the bottle back on the shelf.

In fact there was no movement, not even a sound, until I set my bowl down at the table for my oddly late breakfast. Before I could even swallow my first spoonful, everyone had crowded around my chair. Now all they could do was speak. Unfortunately it was all at the same time, making in incredibly hard to decipher.

“Oh Sweetheart. Are you alright.”

“That jerk! Just wait until I see him at school…”

“I have a better idea, and I’m not even waiting for school.”

“Boys, just relax. This is Wisteria’s problem, she will deal with it in her own time. Love if you need to talk, I’m here.”

I wanted to drown in my bowl. Somehow things were only getting more and more embarrassing as the time tracked on, as unbelievable as it sounds, I know. I shifted in my seat, hoping that a different position would make what was happening a bit more comfortable. Obviously that wasn’t going to work and I had all but lost my appetite. I pushed the bowl across the table a few inches before standing from my chair. “I think I’m done here.” I muttered to myself, before exiting the room.

Praying that no one would follow, I headed through the front hall towards the stairs. If I could just make it to my room, I would be safe. Thankfully I was alone as I headed to the second floor. I only had the small stretch through the upstairs hall and I was home free. I made it without indecent and shut myself inside.

I gripped the handle and slowly closed the door. Great, now everyone in the house knew I was a hussy. Now everyone can be equally as disappointed. Hooray! Dreamer walked over by my feet and rubbed up against my leg to greet me. “Hey cutie.” I smiled, picking him up and hugging him close. He purred deeply into my ear as I stroked his bristly fur. “You still love me right buddy?”

He let out a small meow and I took it as an immediate, you bet Wisty! At least someone was still on my side, withholding judgement and ridicule. I could only imagine what would happen when school started back again. I shuddered to think, or at least I thought I was shuddering, but it wasn’t me at all, it was my phone.  I retrieved it from my pocket to find a text message had come in.

I had to check twice after my eyes adjusted to the name. It was Matrix. What could he possibly want. “I know what you”re… was call I could read. I was going to have to open it fully to get the rest. Against my better judgement, I hit the see more button.

“I know what you’re doing, but it didn’t work. Cherry and I are still together. I told her everything and she forgave me. The truth will set you free. -M”

I glared at the screen. Why that little… no word seemed appropriate, or nasty enough to describe him. I wanted chuck my phone right at his head, but settled for slamming it down hard on my desk.

How could anyone possibly be that awful! I could feel all the hurt that had been resting in heart, slowly trickle away as the anger flowed in. I was no longer sad about losing him, all I wanted to do was scream in his face and tell him what a big jerk he was. How could I be so stupid! To think anything that he had said had been meaningful. It was all lies and I ate it up like  it had been the most heartfelt confession since Romeo to Juliet. Idiot! If I never saw him again, it would be far too soon. Unfortunately when you go to school together, it’s kind of impossible, but I was determined to see him as less as I possibly could.

I couldn’t tell you, if  he decided not to show his face around, or if someone actually asked him not to come back, but either way Matrix no longer frequented our hangout spot and no one seemed to miss him. It was the closest thing we had to a normal semblance and even that didn’t last very long. The dynamic, even with only one missing member, had shifted everything. There was a new seat order, and even a couple new faces.

Of course, some things stay the same, but only after they’ve shifted into a new form. Sandy was no longer locking lips with Requiem all the time. Now she had my brother, in fact my brothers presence eventually lost us another member of group. Requiem couldn’t hang, and even though they were polite enough to keep the mushiness at bay while he was around, he too soon disappeared, only to pop up once in a while when he needed something from his sister. It seemed my little slip up had 0n going effects, or maybe times were just changing. Nothing stays the same forever afterall.

At least I still had my BFF. I never would have survived without her.

And we still had our own little group with Tapestry, Cerese and I. Only difference now was most of the time we had a car to walk to, instead of down the road. There were still days when I couldn’t get the car, and after poor Cerese’s car had caught fire, we often found ourselves walking the same old beaten path, only now the conversation was a bit more balanced now that Tapestry and I were actually a friendship type basis. Slowly life started to get back to normal, but there was a part of me, a part that couldn’t get past it all.

It wasn’t Matrix, I wanted nothing to do with that lying, cheating, berryhole. This was more of an internal problem. The realization that maybe I wasn’t good enough for girlfriend material. I was the fat friend, and who would want that? I had pushed it off for years, I had even gotten to a point where I thought I had pushed all my weight insecurities to the back of my mind for good. Unfortunately a soul crushing betrayal can be just enough to open an old wound. I found myself obsessed with my scale, as well as my mirror. I had decided if I ‘d hoped for any chance to be happy, I was going to have to finally get serious about losing  my extra weight.

It was going to be a long road ahead.

Perhaps it should have been my first clue, that things were not as perfect as first perceived, when Matrix, quickly got up, got dressed, and headed downstairs to watch TV after we had finished. I was a little bit surprised, but since I was definitely no expert when it came to this sort of thing and only had movies and books to go on. How did I know what was supposed to happen next? I didn’t, so I threw on my clothes and met him downstairs.

I had already let anger cloud my judgment, what would it hurt to add a little pride and shame to the mix. I had a horrible feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. This was all wrong. I just made a huge mistake. The moment the thoughts floated through my mind, I pushed them away. No I was not about to admit that I just messed up. Instead I tried a different tactic. Maybe if I brought it up, we could talk about it. That much I did know about relationships, or at least real relationships? Ughhh the feeling was back again. I stood near the couch, trying to decide the best way to proceed.

“Hey.”

“Oh hey cutie.”

“What are you doing all the way down here?”

“Oh, my show was about to start. Couldn’t miss it. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing… I just thought, you know, we would cuddle for a bit.”

“Ya, I don’t like that.”

“Oh…”

Matrix realizing that he may have to do a bit of damage control, slid the remote off the couch and motioned for me sit. “We can cuddle here. Come sit with me.” I foolishly obliged. Something had seriously shorted in my brain or something, because I was eating everything he fed me, and only this tiny little part, probably my last surviving voice of reason, was able to knock any sense into me. Sadly the voice was far to small to hear at the point. I settled myself in close to him. His arm slid around me, and my voice of reason completely vanished. See this wasn’t so bad.

He even flipped the TV off for a bit so we could talk. I felt my nerves start to settle. See it was all just a misunderstanding. Everything was fine. It was nice to feel loved and appreciated, and it had been a long time since I had felt either without the worry of other things. Most important of those, was my weight, he told me I was beautiful and for once I actually believed it. We stayed together on the couch for about an hour, until I looked at the clock and saw I had 7 minutes to get my butt back home.

We said our goodbyes on the porch. My sense of dread had washed away completely. It felt amazing in his arms, I felt like I had won a prize! One of the most popular guys in school and he wanted me. Hah! it felt pretty amazing. If only Tulip knew about this little gem of information.

I was humming all the way home, tapping the steering wheel. I guess I was so engrossed in what I was doing, I hadn’t even noticed who was walking up the road as I drove past. I pulled into the drive, but my favorite song was only half finished, so sat in the car listening until it was over. Interestingly enough this was just enough time for Tapestry to appear over the hill. I closed the car door, and looked up to see him waving as he came up the sidewalk.

“Hi!” I waved back with a smile.

“Tap! What a surprise. What are you doing here?”

“Hey Wisteria! I just came by to see you.”

“Oh, well perfect timing. I just got home.”

“Ya, I saw you drive by. Listen I brought some stuff for you. Some things you might be interested in.” He stated patting a notebook he held at his hip.

I turned my head to the side to try and read the cover, but it was just an ordinary note pad. “What is it?”

“Well…” Tap was getting nervous now. “I know we decided to go a different direction with our report, but I sort of did a lot of interesting research on the side, and I found some things you might be interested in.”

“Oh…” I jingled my keys. “Come on in.”

We went inside and took a seat on the couch. After getting settled, I switched on the lamp and he handed the note pad over.

“I hope you can read it. My handwriting is a bit sloppy.”

I flipped through a couple pages. “No this is fine.”

“Good. First though, before you start reading…” I closed the book. “Yes?”

“How much do you know… about your ancestors?”

“Well.” I rested the book in my lap. “I know that my great grandfather, was in love with my great grandmother, and they were both married to other people.”

“Did you know, that she had four other children?”

“Yes.” I pointed to the painting directly above my head. “She kinda stuck out like a sore thumb.”

“Ever wonder why she was chosen to be heir. I mean, she was the illegitimate child. Kind of strange it would be her wouldn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

Tapestry nodded and patted the book. “Okay, open it.”

I started to read. There was all kinds of information, though most of it was all over the place, it was pretty easy to get the main idea. Life for my grandmother was nothing but easy after the birth of her love child. She had the community to deal with, she had her husband to deal with, not the mention the feelings she still shared for the man, who helped to cause all the trouble. There was even a couple of printouts of photos. One in particular caught my eye. A large brown house with a man and woman standing outside. The man was dressed all in purple and the woman was a beautiful creature, with a stunning pink main of hair. Her eyes were so crystal clear they seemed to jump right off of the paper.

“This was him.” I stated, pointing at the page. That was when my eyes focused in on their surroundings. “That house. That was their house?”

“Yes they lived right next door to your family.”

I almost dropped the book on the floor. “That’s the house!”

“What house?”

“I was at that house. I knew, I knew it! We have to go back.”

“We?”

I started to plan. “You busy tomorrow?”

“No…”

“Well tell your mom we are going out.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes. You.”

I probably could have gone alone, but adventures are far more fun when you have a partner in crime right? Not only that, he had a lot of information sitting up there in his head, it might just come in handy. Also I had come to really enjoy us hanging out, he was a good friend, honest and true, it would have seemed wrong not to bring him along. Besides, from the previous times we had hung out, it was obvious that he didn’t get out much…

We drove out to Sugar Valley, and my decision to bring Tap along paid off almost the second we drove into town. I started to pull into the heart of the city when I realized I was lost. I knew it was up a hill, but there were more hills than I remembered. With his help though we found our way to the large brown house. Stepping out of the car, I looked to the left. The information said our old house was there, but the only thing was an empty lot. Guess it had been torn down years ago. We walked up the steps and the same feelings as before, started to wash over me. I rang the doorbell, but there was no answer.

“Maybe, no one is home.”

I looked in the window, there was furniture, so someone did actually live there. “I think you’re right.”

“I just want to have a look around.”

“Okay. Just be careful.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Again I started right for the fountain that sat in the garden. Something about it had me drawn to it, like a moth to light. I stepped closer and just like the last time, I could feel the pain, a heavy feeling in my heart. “Something happened here. I just know it.” I reached out to touch the warm marble. You would think I would have learned my lesson from the last time, but if my latest actions were any indication, I wasn’t always the most logical being. The moment I touched the surface of the fountain, voices started ring out all around me.

The voices! They bombarded my head. Sobbing, screaming, begging, oh the pain! It hurt, and significantly more than the last time. I tried to scream but there was nothing. My voice no longer sounded like my own. I was crying, I could feel the tears, but there was far too much in my head to to keep any of it straight. A distant voice tried to cut through. “Lace? Are you alright?” I tried to reply. Still nothing. The voices crashed down upon me again.

“Please, let’s just run away together!”

“Lace. I’m so sorry. Please will you ever forgive me.”

“I love you!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Finally my voice was able to pierce the chatter. I clutched the sides of my head as I let out a blood curdling scream. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Lace! Omb! Lace! What is wrong. Lace. Talk to me!!!! We need help! Help!! Someone! Help us!”

It was all too much. Everything around me started to spin out of control. I tried to steady myself, but before I had a chance everything went black. I’m pretty sure Tap tried to catch me, but I was a bit too much for him to support and I hit the ground with a thud.

The next thing I remember is Tap trying to wake me up. His voice was riddled with panic, I could feel him patting my cheek “Lace! Wisteria? Wake up. Please. Wake up.”

My eyes blinked a few times, and the blinding sun bore deep into my retinas. “Ughhhh” Was always I was able to manage. “What happened?” I asked as Tapestry helped to my feet. “You passed out. Are you alright?”

I had no idea if I was alright, I wasn’t even sure what happening now that I was awake again. The voices were still echoing quietly in my head, and all I seemed to be able do was stare blankly at Tapestry’s sweater lapel. That’s when the sadness hit, it felt like I had been dumped, gone home found my cat had been hit by a car, and my parents had gotten a divorce. Needless to say it was a heart-wrenching feeling. Tap touched my shoulder again. “Lace are you alright? You look as if you are about-”

I looked up to gaze into his eyes. The tears were perched at the corner of my lids. My lip began to tremble and threw myself into his arms.

I didn’t know what to say. I just cried. Cried and cried.

“I want to go home now.”

I didn’t say anything the whole drive home. I was still in pain. Unlike the last time, it didn’t go away. I could still feel it, burning a hole in my chest. I looked over to the passenger seat a few times to find Tapestry staring back at me. The look of concern on his face, made it even harder to hide the horrible feelings I was now harboring. I started in the direction of his home and he touched my arm. “No. Just go home. I’ll walk.”

A puzzled look nestled into my brow. “I can drive you home. I’m fine.”

“No you are not and I want to make sure you get home safely. Please. I’ll walk home.”

“Alright.” I was in no mood to argue, so I turned the car at the next street and drove us both back to my house. When we got to the house, Tapestry helped me up to my room. “This really isn’t necessary. I will be fine.”

“You do realize you passed out back there?”

“Yes.”

“Okay… just get some rest. You need it.”

“Yes. Dad.” I teased. It was a playful tease though. It was in actuality an incredibly sweet gesture.

“If you need anything. You can call me. Okay?”

“Yup.”

My head hit the pillow and I was pulled into a deep sleep. I never even heard him leave. It was a nice sleep, apparently a really nice sleep, because at some point I got up and put on pajamas even though I don’t ever remember doing it.

It wasn’t until 3 am when my phone rang, that I even realized I was back at home. I had missed dinner, and for some strange reason no one had come to get me for it. Maybe they had, I sure didn’t remember it though. I picked up my phone and tried to read who it was coming in. It was a number I didn’t recognize, but for some odd reason I picked it up anyways.

“Hello?”

“Wisteria?”

“Yes?”

“It’s Tuilp.”

“Tulip? What? Why are you calling me? It’s like 3 am.”

“I know! I’m sorry. It’s just… well I just now got home from the fair, and I saw. Wisteria I saw Matrix and his girlfriend, and they are definitely not broken up.”

“What?”

————–

Berry note: Yes, I am fully aware her clothes and hair change… >_< I had a couple technical difficulties and that was one of the results of it all. So my apologies. Let’s just pretend it is all the same lol… thanks! ♥

Our first date was rather intimate. Matrix had invited me over for a movie date, but when I got there, I was greeted by a pair of strong arms, that immediately wrapped themselves around me. I was a bit shocked to say the least, but soon melted into his embrace. It was a passionate infusion that I could feel from the tip top of my head all the way down to my toes. I didn’t ask questions, I didn’t even hesitate. I had been secretly hoping something would happen, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect it so suddenly. A few brief moments and I was hooked.

Our second date was similar, only this time we went out to a movie. After leaving the theater, instead of going straight home, we headed out to the edge of town, parked his jeep for a little alone time. I had a hard time staying in control around him, it was a crazy desire unlike anything I had ever felt before. There was touching and and holding and kissing, and I was loving every second of it. A voice in the back of my head, kept trying to tell me it was all too fast, but for some reason I didn’t care in slightest. Everything outside those windows, were of no consequence to me.

It was something I had been deprived of feeling for far too long. The feelings of love, acceptance and longing. Someone wanted me and the best part, I wanted them in return. There was no fighting with parents over who was right or who was wrong. There was no fighting at all. Only kisses and cuddles and lots of them. Since I had gotten my drivers licence I had a little bit more freedom. I was able to visit anyone that I wanted as long as I let my parents knew where I was going. Though I may have left out a small tiny detail that Matrix’s mother worked the graveyard shift, which left us to our own devices until my curfew at 10pm.

I wasn’t always the driver, I just somehow had a bit more freedom, not a lot, but it felt like a whole lot more with the extracurricular activities we were getting into. After our movie date, Matrix dropped me off at the house, walked me to the door and kissed me goodnight. I couldn’t help but feel that things were finally going my way.

Everything I did just seemed more awesome. Even brushing my teeth, I had a little happy rhythm that I brushed to. Getting those teeth clean never felt so good. I started to wonder, was this what it felt like? Was I falling in love?

Before I had a chance to think about it further, my phone started its recently familiar alert. My heart began to pound, and I started to grin. A grin that grew when I saw Matrix’s name pop up on the screen.

“Had a great time tonight. Hope we can chat in the am. Love ya~ M.”

I quickly started to reply back. My fingers flying across the buttons.

“Can’t wait! Lol  ♥”

Circumstances out of my control caused my chat with Matrix to happen a lot later in the the day. The sun had almost completely settled beyond the horizon before I ever had a chance to sit down. I gave frantic looks to the clock all day, but there are just some things you can’t get out of and they almost always involved my mother. She needed my help and since the boys weren’t interested in the finer things, like redecorating, it was up to the only other girl, with a care for interior design to help out. Grandma liked to help as well, but due to her lack of vision, it was more funny than helpful. “Oh my yes, that looks amazing! Perfection. Nope. It doesn’t need another thing.”

Finally, I was done. I raced to my room, after grabbing a snack. An apple… and the plopped down at my computer. Thankfully he was still there.

L@ce0fW1st:Oh wow! So sorry that took so long.

InTehMatrix: It’s alright cutie. Just got her not too long ago. Missed you.

L@ce0fW1st: Missed you too! Ughh my mom was being a beast today.

InTehMatrix: They do that. Hey so I have been thinking…
InTehMatrix: About us.

My heart started to race again. Everything little thing we did together, had that effect on me.

L@ce0fW1st: Oh?

InTehMatrix: I think you and I really have something. Something special.

L@ce0fW1st: I think that too 

InTehMatrix: Well I was thinking, maybe you and I could take our relationship further.

I looked around the room like I had to hide my screen from invisible eyes. Even though there was absolutely no one around. My cheeks were hot and pink. I stared at the blinking line on my screen. Did he mean what I think he meant. My fingers grazed the keys, but I pulled them back abruptly.

InTehMatrix: Are you still there?

L@ceofW1st: I’m here.

InTehMatrix: So what do you think?

L@ceofW1st: I’m not sure.

InTehMatrix: I want to be with you, and I think it would bring us closer together. I love being with you. You are amazing. I want to show you just how much.

Oh sweet berry. I wasn’t even religious I found myself saying those words. I was two seconds away from fanning myself. Whoa this was so hot, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready for that. He and I had been together and it was amazing, but that… That was a huge step.

InTehMatrix: Just think about it beautiful. No rush. If you’re not ready, we don’t have to, I just know it will be amazing.

That made me smile. He was just so sweet and understanding. All the time we spent together was out of this world. A part of me wanted to say yes right there, but then there was that part of me, the part that had been ingrained into me from a very young age. Wait till marriage. That was the proper thing to do. But if you loved somebody, was it so wrong to give yourself fully to them?

I didn’t know. Maybe it was a good enough reason, but maybe it wasn’t. Something was holding me back, so there had to be more to it. The thought plagued me for days, and the worst thing about it, there was absolutely no one to talk to about my dilema. I knew I couldn’t bring it up to Cerese, she would say no immediately. And there was no one else I felt close enough to. Well there was my brother of course, but no way was I about to bring up my love life with him. Instead I wandered the house aimlessly, weighing my options. It was hard to concentrate on anything else. The mixture of excitement and nerves, had me on the edge of my proverbial seat, but I needed some insight. With no idea how to get it, I decided to hang around with my closest companions and hopefully absorb what I needed through osmosis. Sound stupid? I was 17! It sounded brilliant to me.

Considering we live right across the hall from one another, it would have been silly to start with anyone else but my brother. When I got to his room though, he was no where to be found. The next sound I heard was down in the kitchen, and somehow I knew it was him, and not Affair. A twin can sense those sort of things. I ran down the stairs and slowed my pace to a walk as I made it to the kitchen doorway. I didn’t want to look too desperate. Seance had just poured a bowl of cereal and was taking a seat at the bar. I swiftly slipped into the seat next to him.

“Hey bro! What’s up.”

Seance never looked up from his bowl. “Breakfast. You?”

“Nothing really. Just… wanted to hang out for a while.”

“Cool.”

“… good cereal?”

“Ya. It’s the same cereal we always have. Are you alright? You seem…weird?”

“No. Just great here. Hey! How is Sandy? It’s been a while since we have seen her.”

“Oh she’s fine. Her and her Parents went on a three week vacation, so she is, you know, out. You sure there is nothing wrong?”

“I’m sure.”

“I think I am gonna go now. You’re being weird. It’s kind of freakin me out.”

With that he picked up his bowl and took it to the sink. I hopped of the stool and went back to my room. “Alright! See you later.”

He just shook his head. “Alright. Maybe later you will tell me what’s the matter.”

Ughhh he knows me too well. Bad idea to start with him.

Cerese was next, of course. She had been pulling double duty with the fam so I had barely seen her over the summer break at all. I made sure however to get a call in at least once a week, so we had a chance to catch up. It was easy for her to get swamped in other things, so it was up to me to send out a little reminder that she was loved and also enforce how amazing she really was. It was definitely a number I knew by heart.

“Hello?”

“Hi is Cerese. There?”

“No sorry she had to go pick up a few things. You can call her on mom’s cell phone though.”

“Oh okay. Thanks.”

Another number I knew by heart.

“Hello?”

“Cerese!”

“Wisteria! My love!”

“Hehehe what are you doing?”

“Ughh it’s been the day from… well it’s been rough. I wish I could talk but I have like 100 more things to do before our paper route.”

“Oh, well no problem. I will call you later then.”

“I can’t wait! I miss you.”

“Miss you too.”

Man, my options were growing thin. Sandy was out of town, so that really left only two people. I thought about calling Viola, but she and I never really hung out together with out the group, so that only left Harmony.

“Hellooooooo this be the Harmony~!”

“Hey Harmony! It’s Wisteria.”

“OH!! Wist! Hey girl! How are you?”

“I’m good!” A white lie. “Hey I was wondering if you were up for some company for a little while?”

“OMB! Of course! Come on over!”

“Really? Great. I will be over in a few.”

“Sweet! We’’ll see you then!”

“We?”

*click*

After getting the keys from mom, I had most of the afternoon to visit with Harmony. No one in town lived very far away, so getting to her house took all of 10 minutes. When she answered the door, she was still in her pajamas, slippers and all.

“Wisty!!! Come in! Come in! Tulip and I were about to watch a movie.”

I stopped right at the door jam. “Tulip Mint? Mindaro?”

“Ya!”

“What’s she doing here?”

“Oh well you know, after we had that evil research project she and I have been hanging out a lot.”

“Oh.”

Tulip Mint Mindaro was one of the most popular girls in school. She was known for causing unneeded drama where ever she went and this was someone I didn’t really want to get involved with, but by this point, turning around and saying,”no I have to go”, would have been way too obvious. She was known as new money. She hit her popularity when we made the switch to high school, it was like a total transformation from Jr. High. She was a nobody just like the rest of us back then. After opting out of choir and getting herself on the track team, her cool factor started to rise exponentially. Only to gain more in stature when she ditched the frames and braces, and started to tap into mommy and daddy’s funds to get her the most adorable clothes ever. Yup new money. Old money was that rare breed who had been popular for day one. Tulip definitely did not fall under this category, and from they looks of it, Harmony was now heading down the same path. Great…

Harmony took the far seat, which only left me with the middle. I flashed a smile to Tulip and took a seat.

“Oh hey Wisteria! How are you?”

I adjusted a bit on the cushion. “I’m fine. Yourself.”

“I’m good. We were just about to watch Sugar-less.”

“Oh.” I smiled. “I love that movie.”

“Right! Ah it’s soooo cute!”

Tulip picked up the remote and flipped on the movie. I thought it would be a chance to sit in awkward silence, but apparently that was not the way this movie was going to work. The moment it started to play, they started chattering even more than before.

What made it worse was I was in the middle, so they were both looking over me to talk. Every once in a while one would reach across to slap the others arm, while adding a “Shut up!“

Oh ya this was fun… I made it about half and I decided to take a little break. I stood from the couch and headed out of the living room. “Gonna grab some water. I will… be right back.”

“There are bottles in the fridge!” Harmony called after me.

I nodded and kept on walking.

My eyes scanned the shelves for the water bottles. Another high pitched laugh rang out, coming from the vicinity of the living and I seriously considered grabbing the already opened bottle of nectar on the third shelf. I knew better though, so when I finally caught sight of the six bottles of water on the bottom shelf, I nabbed one and closed the door. I almost jumped out of my skin when I came face to face with Requiem.

“Wah! Requiem! I didn’t see you there.”

“Sorry. Hey Wisteria can I ask you something.”

“Sure.”

“It’s about Sandy.”

“I started twist the top of my water bottle but stopped at the sound of her name. “Oh no no. I’m not getting in the middle of this again.”

“No no! It’s not that, I just wanted to ask how she is doing. I haven’t seen her since we got out of school. I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

My mind drifted off to the countless time she had been at my house, laughing and flirting with my brother. She was more than fine, she was probably better than she had been in a long time, but I could tell from the look on his face, that was definitely not what he was wanting to hear.

“You know she and her parents are on that vacation, so I haven’t seen her much. She seemed to be doing alright the last time I talked to her though.”

Requiem let out a deep sigh of relief. “Oh good, I have been worried she was still broken up after we split.”

It took everything I had to stifle the huge laugh sitting at the bottom of my belly. “No, I think she is managing. She is a strong girl.”

“Ya.”

A voice rang out from the living room again. This time it was Harmony. “Wisty! We are going to my room! Meet you up there! Requiem! Stop harassing my friends! No she will not go out with you!”

Requiem’s eyes widened. “Dude! Sis! Just shut your hole please!”

I giggled. “I better go.”

“Alright! Tell Sandy I said hi!”

When I got up to Harmony’s room, Tulip had already made herself at home on the bottom bunk, Harmony was perched on the edge of the bed, and they were both still deep in what ever discussion they had started downstairs. Something about one of the girls at school and how ridiculous she looked in her knock off designer jeans. I wanted to raise my hand and asked to be excused to Requiems room. Even our awkward conversation over his ex was more interesting than this garbage. The chance to act on my part came too late, because the next topic of conversation was directed right at me.

“So Wisty. Do you have a boyfriend?”

I had no where to sit, so I just stood next to the bed. I looked at her for a moment. No she was actually talking to me. “I do.”

“Oh! Who is it?! Anyone I know?”

Harmony chimed in. “Ya. Who is this mystery boy?”

“I could feel a smile starting to spread across my face. “Matrix.”

“Harmony bounced on her bed. “Shut up! When did this happen!

“A few weeks ago.”

Tulip cocked her head to the side. “I thought he had a girlfriend.”

“They broke up,” I replied flatly.

“Oh that’s so weird. I never would have ever pictured you two together.”

“What that’s supposed to mean?”

“Oh well you know, he is like super popular and you, well you’re just Wisteria.”

I started to grind my teeth.

“I didn’t think you would be his type…”

I glared down at her. If only she knew, not only was I his type. He and I were this close to taking our relationship to a higher level. I couldn’t help but scowl, I knew if I didn’t get out of there quick I was about to do something I would regret. “I should probably get going.”

Harmony, unlike Tulip picked up on my abrupt departure. “Oh okay Wisty. Drive safe.”

“Ya.” I slammed the door behind me.

I started driving for home. How rude! Ughhh! Who did she think she was, and why wouldn’t I be his type? Was she referring to my weight? Was I not cool enough? What the berry did she mean! I was angry, and it was probably for all the wrong reasons, but I turned the car around anyways and drove out to Matrix’s house. I’’ll show them.

I practically jumped him at the door. A little too over enthusiastic but he definitely wasn’t complaining. “Hey baby. What are you doing here?”

“Came to see you.” I smiled kissing him again.

“Well come in.”

I grabbed his hand. “Matrix?”

“Ya?”

“I have been thinking about our talk. And… I’m ready.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

A small smile grew across his lips, as he took my hands and led me inside.

His room was dark, full of an ambient sense of mystery. It seemed much different than the other times I had been there. I stood near the door and watched, as Matrix moved a few things in the room and cleared off his bed. I was nervous. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. Oh man this was really about to go down. Matrix looked to me as he settled down onto the bed, and then patted the comforter beside him. “It’s alright. I’m here to take care of you.”

His voice had taken on a smooth inviting tone. It really was helping to settled my nerves. I walked across his room and settled in beside him. He scooted closer, and took my hands in his. I looked down at our hands that were now resting comfortably in my lap. “I’ve never done this before.” I admitted, my voice coming out much softer than I anticipated.

“I know. You don’t have to worry. I’m here. It’s just you and me right now.”

I smiled and took in a deep breath. “Right. Just us.”

“You know I love you right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. That’s all you need to know.”

“Now… come here.”

We left the world outside his door that sleepy afternoon. Wrapped in each others arms he taught me what it felt like to be loved, deeper than I had ever been loved before. Our passion caused my entire body to shutter under it’s pure weight. It may have not been the right choice, but it was mine, and I gave myself to him, in all of my entirety.

“I love you Matrix.”

“Good afternoon class.” Mrs. Menthe smiled, sounding even more chipper than usual. It was her normal tone, but with about an extra pound of sugar sprinkled on top, which meant only one thing. She had something planned for us. Something we probably weren’t going to like. “As you know, we are coming to the end of term. Which means it is time for your final projects.”

The entire class groaned in unison, papers and books causing all kinds of a ruckus. “I know. I know. You were hoping I had forgotten, but unfortunately for you, I didn’t. Now, would any one like to volunteer to help me pass out your packets?”

The class sat in a collective silence, myself included. As much as I liked to help, I hated walking around the class while everyone else stared at me. It never failed, that I would trip over absolutely nothing, or knock a pencil or something worse off someones desk. I looked around the room, and everyone seemed to be doing the same thing. Looking at some speck on the celling or investigating that one suddenly interesting page of their text book for the 30th time.

“Okay. I guess I will pass them out myself.” She growled, opening the flap on her bag and rummaging through until finally locating her stack of papers. Walking around the class, licking her fingers to ensure sure they were separated, she passed out a packet to everyone in the room. I slid the paper closer to me and skimmed the top of the page. “Please do not open the packets just yet.” I slid the packet towards the front of the table again. I did however catch the “10 page report and oral presentation” before doing so and felt my stomach immediately turn inside out.

“Now before you freak out on me, let me tell you, this will be a group project. You have been assigned into groups of three, you will be presenting together as a team, but all three will be submitting their own reports. I have in the past given you the option to choose your groups, this how ever will not be one of those times. The class groaned even louder, but Mrs. Menthe chose ignore it. “Heart if you would please read off those teams.”

“Sure.” Heart scrolled a bit with the mouse, squinting slightly at the screen. “Alright. Group one. Your topic is Twizzlerbrook, and your team will consist of, Ferra Essence, Seance Chiffon and Penny Delight.

“Looks like it’s me and you buddy.” Ferra grinned.

“And me!” Penny called from across the room.

“Yes, and you.” Ferra added.

I looked over to Seance, I think his mind was still on the 10 page report, because he hadn’t said word and that definitely was not my brother. Ferra poked him. “Dude. Wake up.”

“Whuuu?” He finally mumbled.

“Looks like you, me and Penny will be digging up the Twizzlerbrook dirt.”

“Oh. great.”

“Are you even with us today?”

Their conversation continued on, as the second group was announced. “Group two. Your topic is Sugar Valley. Your team is, Matrix Shiloh, Tapestry Prim and Wisteria Chiffon.” I felt my heart drop. I shot a forlorn look to Cerese, she looked just as disappointed. “Better luck next time.” Cerese moaned.

“Ya.”

Matrix shot a gaze to Tapestry. “Well this should be interesting…”

I shook my head in agreement. He could say that again.

“Group three. Your topic is Fondant Fields, and your team is Frost Fizzle, Jellop Drizzle, Rhapsody Twistycone.”

Jellop leaned in a little too close to Rhapsody. “Did you hear that! You and I get to work together on this one! My dreams are finally coming true. Can you feel it Rhap? Can you feel the love?”

Rhapsody closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep, fake snores and all.

“I totally think she feels it.” Frost teased.

“What ever. She will come around eventually.”

“Uh huh. You keep telling yourself that Jell.”

“Which leaves our last group, the Briocheport group. Shark Calypso, J. Jelly. and Cerese Cloudburst.” Shark gave a wide toothy smile. “Looks like I got all the smart ones.” He gloated. “This project is in the bag.”

Penny clapped in agreement. “Ya! Wait, what? You don’t think I’m smart?”

“Oh Penny, I don’t think, I know.”

I involuntarily cringed. That boy had no tact whatsoever.

“Wonderful. Thank you Heart.” Mrs. Menthe beamed. “Now that the groups have been assigned, we can discuss how this will go. As stated before. you have been assigned a city of semi local origin. The reason for this being, you are going to have a find a way to get to your designated to city, to study at their local library. The archives here at the school will not be thorough enough, and you will need to find a topic, something that you feel is not common knowledge. Perhaps an urban legend, or some other type of native folklore. You are going to have dig deep on this one. Now seeing that most of you drive, I do not see the distance as a problem.”

Tapestry whispered to Matrix. “I think you’re gonna have to drive, unless we want my parents to do it.”

Matrix whispered back. “Ya, no. I think we are good.”

Scribbling on the outer edge of my paper,I did my best to listen to the rest of the instructions as well as our after school plans. “I think we should have a meeting at the buzz. See when would be best for all of us.” I shook my head from the front row. “Alright. See you both then.”

So after school, we all piled in Matrix’s car and headed over to the Buzz. We figured since we were going to be spending the next month together anyways, we might as well get use to the idea. I offered to buy our first round of drinks, while we discussed a little bit better, how we were going to work everything out.

“Okay. So we have a few options to start with.” Tapestry stated opening his note pad. He kept squinting at the paper, but when either of asked about it, he said he was fine. “We could go with an urban legend, or maybe once we get there, we can find something a bit more juicy.

“I think we should hold off on deciding until we get all of our information…” I paused, poor Tap was struggling again. “There is probably something really good just waiting for us. Tap are you sure you are alright?”

“Yes. I’m fine. The lighting in here is just making it a bit difficult to read.”

“Would you like me to do the recording?”

“No. I got it. Now, what date works best for you Matrix? It will probably be easier to work around your schedule, since you are driving and all.”

Matrix didn’t even have to think about it. “Saturday.”

“Alright. Does Saturday work for you Wisteria?”

“Fine with me.”

“Great. Then Saturday it is.” Tapestry scribbled something down in his notes, but it was so sloppy I could hard read it from across the table.

We spent the rest of the afternoon discussing what we could. There really wasn’t much we could talk about really, until after our trip to Sugar Valley, so the conversation started to veer a little bit more into the daily dramas of Huckleberry High. Surprisingly for as quiet as he was, Tapestry was quite up to do date on the goings ons about the campus. Even more so than Matrix and seeing that he was on the football team, I was kind of surprised by that also. Our conversation lead us outside, where Tapestry and I were about to take off on our walk home. We hadn’t even made it two steps when Matrix called after us.

“Hey, do you guys want a ride?”

We both thought about it for a second and then started in the direction of Matrix’s car. “Sure thanks!”

“No problem.” He smiled.

That next Saturday I was up and out of the house waiting for Matrix and Tap. at 6:30 Am… I looked around the yard, how was the sun even out yet!? I could feel my eyes drooping, threatening to slam shut. Ughhhh was it even possible for the sun to be so bright, so early. I let out a horribly loud yawn, which caused a couple birds in the near by bushes to flutter away. “Woops, sorry guys.” I yawned again.

I stood on the porch for a good fifteen minutes, and still there was no sign of Matrix or his car. I walked a couple of times out to the street to see if I could see them coming up the hill, since there is only one way to my house, but the street was completely dead. I could still be sleeping right now, I thought to myself.

Suddenly my pocket started to vibrate. I was pretty sure it was him, so I pulled my phone from my pocket, rubbed my eyes, and read the screen.

On R way. B there soon.

I slid the phone back into my pocket, all I could do at that point was wait, so I sat myself on the porch swing and watched for his car to come into the drive. They must have been like a block a way, because no sooner had I sat down, his car pulled up. They both looked as chipper as I felt. Tapestry opened the passenger door and hopped out. “Morning Wisteria.” He grinned sleepily, offering me the front. “Morning.” I smiled back, sliding into the now vacant seat.

“Wow. This is so interesting.” Tapestry remarked, thumbing through the pages of Sugar Valley Diary V:27.

”Seems there is a lot of stuff in here about your family Wisteria. Well I assume it is your family. The Chiffon name has a lot of history here.”

“Perfect!” Matrix clapped his hands together. “Then it’s settled.”

“Whoa whoa whoa. I am so not okay with this.” I shook my head in disgust.

“What why? We could get information so much easier.”

“Ya but it’s my family… It’s personal.”

“She’s right.” My head whipped around to Tapestry.

“I am?”

“Ya. The more I read. It seems this Chantilly Lace Chiffon. She got herself into a bit of trouble. Well actually a lot of trouble…”

“What?” I pulled the book from Tapestry’s hands. “Let me see that.”

I skimmed through the pages, there was indeed a lot about my great great great great, well you get the idea, grandmother.

“The darling of Sugar Valley’s rein came to an abrupt end, when her alleged affair with another affluent member of the community came to light. Merlot Pinto Noir had always been known as a bit of a playboy, but everyone had assumed he had changed his ways after his seemingly happy marriage to his wife Fairy Floss. The rumors only swirled more, as Merlot’s obsession with Lacey grew. Unconfirmed sources had alleged he had even built a shrine in her honor. This was proved later to be false, no shrine was ever discovered, and the two inevitably went their separate ways.”

I closed the book. “I can’t read any more of this.”

Tapestry nodded in a slow and understanding motion, as he slid another book off the stack. The print was much smaller in this one and poor Tap was starting to squint at the pages again. “Ugh hold on one second.” He groaned. Pulling a case from his pocket, he opened it to reveal a rather new looking pair of glasses. He slid them on his face and I squeaked. “You got glasses!

“Ya…doctors say I need them for reading.”

“Well they look very nice on you. They make you look quite distinguished.”

“Thanks.” He started to skim again. “This might be something we can all agree on. Four teenagers claimed to have found a girl who fell from the sky.”

Matrix quirked an eyebrow. “Say what?”

Well it seems very similar to story I use to read as a kid, but I had no idea it was based on actual events.

“Oh ya.” Matrix cupped his fingers to his chin. “I think I remember that story.”

“Me too.” I added. “There was an evil troll who kidnapped her. Right?”

“Yes! Only here it says, he was a scientist.”

“An evil scientist.” Matrix teased, adding an eerie oooo to his voice.

“Well, I don’t think a non evil one would have kidnapped her right?” I grinned.

“So do you think there is enough information on it for us to use it?”

“Definitely. There is like five different tellings in this book alone. We could discuss all the different variations, maybe interview a few townies, to see how the story has evolved over the years.

I sat back in disbelief. “Wow Tap you are really smart!.”

“Thank you.”

“Ya dude. This is cool. So what do you want me to do?”

“Well… *ring ring* Oh hang on a second.” Tapestry’s phone started to ring, so he got up from his chair and walked just a bit a way from us.

“Hello?”

“Mom?”

“I told you already. I am in Sugar Valley with my my study group.”

“Yes I did.”

“No, I’m not back-sassing you. I told you.”

“Mom!” Completely embarrassed, Tap lowered his voice even more, but I was still able to catch most of it.

“Please don’t.”

“Soon.”

“Mom.”

*sigh* “Fine. Ya. Alright.”

Tap walked back to his chair, mortification furrowed into his eyebrows. “So.” He laughed nervously. “That was my Mom… Apparently she doesn’t remember our talk last night about this… and she is on her way to come and get…me.”

“Oh no. Are you in trouble?”

“No. I just have to wait here.”

“Tough break dude.”

“Ya.”

The three of us sat in silence after that. Poor Tapestry was completely mortified, and I felt so bad, I didn’t know what else to say really. About an hour later, Tapestry got another call from his mother, this time she was waiting outside. Tapestry stood from his chair. “I’m really sorry about this guys.”

“No problem.”

“I think we got some good information anyways.”

“Ya… well see you guys at school.”

“Bye.”
“Later.”

After Tap had gone, Matrix and I turned to each other. “Now what do we do?”

“Why don’t we drive around town for a bit, I have never been here before, or if I have, it has been a really long time.”

“Ya, alright. Sounds good.”

The sun was warm as we made our way to Matrix’s car, warm but comfortable. Much warmer than Twizzlerbrook. Of course being an ocean side town, it was no surprise really. We started to cruise through the small streets, adorable little beach town buildings stretching as far as the eye could see. “I definitely could live in a place like this.” I smiled, watching a small stretch of houses zoom pass my window. We started up the hill at the center of town. The houses were getting much larger and much older as we traveled further up.

We came around the bend, and a large brown house came into view. I threw my hands on the dash.

“Stop the car!”

“What right here?”

“Yes!” I pressed more urgency into my tone. “Please. Right here.”

“Alright.” Matrix, slowed the car to a stop, and I opened the door and hopped out. Not sure what else he should do, Matrix stepped out as well. I heard his car door shut, as I ran across the empty street. The house was huge, deep golden brown hues. Unlike anything I had ever seen before, except I could have sworn I had.

“Do you know the people who live here or something?” He asked, catching up to me.

I tilted my head a little to left, hoping a different angle might offer me a better perspective on why I had wanted him to stop in the first place. “No…At least I don’t think so.” I muttered under my breath. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about the house seemed so familiar.

“Nice place.”

“It is.” I replied stepping further into the yard. “I’m sorry this will only be a minute.”

“Explain to me again, why we are here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, well that’s good. Glad to know we are traipsing through someones bushes for nothing.”

I shot him an apologetic glare. Everything about the place felt like home. Only how could it, when I had never seen the place before in my life. The bushes sprinkled through the garden, the ivy climbing up the walls. I knew this place. But how?

I walked closer. There in the far corner of the yard was a waterfall sculpture. For some reason, I started walking right towards it. The sound of trickling water continuing to grow in volume as I made my approach. With each step I took, I could feel a squeeze on my heart, yet for some reason, I pushed myself to keep moving in closer. I wanted to yell out. I have seen this before! But I knew I had not. Standing next to the large statue, I placed one hand upon it’s now, warmed by the suns, surface. The moment my fingertips grazed the marble, I felt a stabbing pain in my heart. My knees started to buckle and I held on to the edge for dear life.

“Okay… I am starting to get a little freaked out here.” Matrix called out across the yard. “Can we go please, before you pass out, or someone calls the cops?”

“Right. I think we should… definitely go.” Once I had estsblished my footing again, I jogged across the yard to meet up with Matrix and then we both headed to his car. Sitting once again into the passenger seat, Matrix hopped in the drivers side. Before turning on the ignition, he shifted in his seat to look at me. “You alright?”

“Huh?”

“Back there, it looked like something happened.”

“Oh.” I nodded. “Yes. I’m fine.”

But I wasn’t fine. In fact I was far from fine, something happened to me that day, and even hours later, when we were sitting at a lovely outside diner on Peppermint Pier, I could still feel it. It was like I dug right into a nerve I didn’t even know was there. It hurt. A horrible awful hurt in my heart, and not the “oh wow I think I am having a heart attack” kind of hurt, emotional…hurt. I didn’t have much to say after that. My mind was a vortex of incomplete fragments, I kept having thoughts, thoughts that I could have sworn were not my own. I looked over to the ocean, splashing up on the sandy beach, suddenly I wanted to be as from away from the water as possible.

“You sure you aren’t hungry?” Matrix asked with a huge bite of hot dog still in his mouth. “This is really good.”

I looked at the bun and sneered without realizing it. “No. Thanks. I had a big breakfast.”

“You sure. It’s been hours. Let me buy you one.”

“No. Thank you.”

“You shouldn’t worry so much you know.”

“I don’t worry.”

“I think you do. And you shouldn’t. You are very pretty.”

Now that caught my attention, I felt my cheeks flush. “You think I’m pretty?”

“Sure I do. Because you are.”

“Wow. I don’t know what to say. Your girlfriend probably wouldn’t care to hear that.”

“Oh, she knows I have friends who are girls, I can’t help it if they are attractive.”

I giggled. “I guess we all have our burdens to bear.”

Whether I wanted to admit it or not though, I was getting hungry, but for some reason, I wasn’t ready to leave just yet, and hanging out with Matrix was a lot more fun than I was imagining it would be. My stomach though, was about to turn inside out. “We should probably head back soon.”

“Sure. No problem. Whenever you are ready.”

My tummy gurgled again extra loudly. “Yup definitely ready.”

We conversed comfortably all the way back into town, until we pulled up to my house. Suddenly things got really awkward and quiet. “Well thanks for taking us today.”

“Sure. Anytime… I had fun. “

“Me too.”

“Have a good evening.” I opened the car door, and got out. I was just about to close it, when Matrix started to say something else. “Wist?”

“Ya?” I leaned over the frame.

“We should hang out again. I had a great time with you.”

“Oh, well. I don’t know. Your girlfriend probably wouldn’t like that.”

“Just as friends.”

“Right. I figured that much.”

“Well maybe, I will call ya later?”

“Alright.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” I closed the door. That was weird…

Thankfully the effects from what ever I did on that strangers lawn that day, started to dissipate after only a few days. I would have freaked if I had to feel that frenzy all the time, it was quite a relief to find it was only temporary. Things all over the place began to normalize. Our project was going well. Tapestry managed to get it through his mothers head, that he would be in and out for several weeks and he never had to go through that embarrassment again. Matrix did call a couple of times just to chat, and we started talking regularly online, about project work as well non school stuff. We were becoming pretty close friends, which was fine by me, I loved having a large group of compatriots.

It seemed I was getting a lot closer with Sandy as well. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say Sandy and Seance were becoming closer, I was just the given excuse, when it came to telling her parents where she would be staying the night. It honestly didn’t bother me. She was a lot of fun to hang with, even if I was the third wheel.

“Dude. Are you even trying?!”

“You’re cheating!”

“No, you just suck.”

“Oh burn! She got you good Seance.”

“Shut up Af!”

Three controllers, plus four people, meant one person was always sitting out, namely me. Again I didn’t care, Affair got too out of hand when he didn’t get to play, so I much preferred to sit and watch. Of course I did however have to put my two cents in every once in a while. “I am gonna have to agree with Sandy one this one Se. That was just… sad.”

“Oh ya! You wanna show me how its done?” Seance asked handing me the controller.

“No.” *ding dong* “No I think I prefer to watch you get your butt kicked.”

“Wisteria dear!” Mom called from the front door. “It’s for you!”

I hopped from the couch. “Coming!”

Boy was I shocked to see Matrix on the other side. “Matrix?”

The look on his face, told me this was not good visit. “What wrong?”

He shook his head. “She dumped me.”

“What?” I closed the door behind me, closing out a loud “BUUUUUurn” as I did so. “Why?”

“I don’t know. She said it wasn’t working any more.” His voice started break up. “I thought she and I were going to be together forever.”

“She… how could she. I asked her to give us another chance, but she said no. Why would she do that? Why?” He dropped his face into his hands. I don’t think he was actually crying, but he was pretty darn close to it.

“Oh Matrix… I’m so sorry.” I placed a hand on his arm to try and comfort him, but I knew there wasn’t much I could do, I knew where he was, all too well.

“Would you like to come in?” I could make us something to drink. Coffee maybe?”

“No. I should probably go.”

“Okay.”

Before I had a chance to say another word, he pulled me into a hug. “Thank you for listening. Could you do me a big favor though, could you not tell anyone about this? I don’t think I am ready to talk about it with everyone just yet. I just needed to talk to someone, and you, well I trust you, a lot.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you. You are a true friend.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Goodnight Wist.”

“Goodnight Matrix.”

I went back inside. Strange days only getting stranger, I thought to myself, as I took my seat on the couch again. “Who was that?” Sandy asked.

“Huh? Oh it was Matrix.”

“Oh? What the berry did he want?”

“Oh you know this project is going to be death of us all.”

“Oh right. I forgot about that.”

Whew nice save. After that the conversation floated back to Seance’s inability to keep his health bar filled and I seemed to be in the clear, only thing was, I couldn’t help but wonder, why on earth did Matrix come all the way out to see me, when he could have just called me on the phone…

A lot of things can happen in a short amount of time, so it was safe to say that a lot more can happen if the time line is expanded, even if only by a little bit. One long year had passed since that Berrymas eve. The changing seasons had come and gone another cycle more, and I found myself alone on a cold January morning. Life was a funny and fickle friend. Just about the time I thought I had a hold on it, things would shift in a total different direction, and it felt like I had to start all over from scratch. I truly hated it and resented it. As an overemotional being, it wasn’t hard for me to tap into what I was feeling, but at the same time I hated to feel like I walked around all the time whining or moping. That just wasn’t who I was, I much preferred to be happy, and to make others happy.

But there are some people in this world who won’t care what you want, or what their son wants. No, there is a chance you will come across someone who only worries about themselves, or what other might think. Bubble never received my gift from that night, or any other night. In fact we only saw each other once more after that and it wasn’t something I cared to relive again. After a “to school and back” restriction and a new “not being able to take his truck anywhere but church” rule, Bubble caved under the pressure.

The next dance, was nothing like the first. A cold empty hallway and a couple of casual glances, let me know that things between us were over. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t crushed, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. His parents obviously thought I was a threat. I couldn’t help but be frustrated, when I thought about the fact that they never even gave me a chance. I was good person, I put my heart and soul into almost everything that I did, but I guess the fact that I didn’t share the right beliefs was enough. I didn’t have the heart to throw the box away, so there it sat,lurking in the dark shadows at the far corner beneath my desk.

It almost seemed like an ironic blessing that I found Dreamer only weeks before our inevitable break up. Perhaps I knew it was all too good to be true. Happy endings were only a part of the fictional magic that was regaled to me every night through my fathers bed time stories. I was only fooling myself if I was to believe that sort of thing happened in real life, and the Bubble thing was only my poignant reminder of the fact. I was no pessimist though, I knew love would find me one day, it just wasn’t going to take the shape of knight in shining armor. Dreamer though, Dreamer was probably the closest thing to my knight, he was always there for me, completely in tune with my moods. When ever I was feeling down, it wouldn’t be too long before a sweet bob-tailed ball of love was in my lap, purring his little heart away.

As cruel as life can be, it also has the ability to be just as kind. Berrymas eve was a huge night for Taffy in a completely different light. I think after all the hardship she had endured in her short life, it was only fair that things finally started to turn around. Just like the rest of the family, my uncle Chessie and Uncle Mulberry fell in love with her instantly. None of us wanted to send her back to the home after that night, and thankfully when we did, it was only for a very short time.

My uncles started the paperwork straight away, and by the time Valentines day rolled around. Taffy was able to spend it with a loving family, something she had never done before. I couldn’t get over how she fit right in with them.

If you saw the three of them together, you never would have guessed she wasn’t born into their little family. Personalty wise they were three peas in a pod. Living only a mile down the road meant we got to hang out more as well. Taffy had already found her way into my heart that night, I was so grateful that I wouldn’t have to lose her. She was definitely my favorite Berrymas gift.

There are a lot of things we may sometimes take for granted, and kiss goodnight, a good morning hug, or maybe just the sound of laughter ringing through the house, emanating just outside your bedroom door. Little things that our sweet Taffy was finally having the chance to experience. She couldn’t have found a better home, and knowing that I had just a little bit do with it, filled me a satisfaction unlike all of my other good deeds combined.

“Goodnight Angel.”

“Goodnight… Dad.”

Seeing her so happy, made it a lot easier to go through what I had been dealt. Bubble and I obviously weren’t meant to be, and I knew it. I decided after that, to just leave relationships alone for a while. School was enough worry, I didn’t need to add a boyfriend to the mix. It took a lot of effrort to be the support network in our group of eight very different friends. It never failed that someone was coming to me for some sort of advice, or help and although I loved it, it was a tad exhausting, and that was without any sort of outside factors. Yup, I was not meant for a boyfriend, I had a much higher calling.

I loved my niche in life, no one in our group would have ever been able to fill it quite like me. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way, it was just a common fact that out of all of us, I had the most patience, as well as the keen ability to actually listen. Great for them right? Not so much for me, of course I did have Cerese and Seance, they would always listen, but it would have been nice, just once, if I could unload on someone else for a change, sadly that was not the things worked around our little corner.

The cheerful sounds of everyone chatting managed to fill my ears, even over the moderately loud music booming from the main room. A little quieter than most days though, we were down three people that day. Viola was off buying some sort of congratulatory nick knack for our science teacher, who had just announced the arrival of his first baby girl, during third period that day. Cerese was at home in bed with a cast on her right leg that ran all the way up to her thigh. A battle of wits with a vehicle in the parking lot and funny that, Cerese lost… And then Rhapsody… well no one knew exactly where Requiem was, not even Harmony his sister.

I set myself next to Matrix in the only vacant seat and then proceeded to play catch up. A fun game of “lets see if I can figure out what the heck is going on”. Luckily it was a rather easy topic that day, so it took me little to no time to hop right in.

“I think I am going to ask Cinnamon to the dance. He seems really sweet and suuuuuper funny!” Harmony giggled to Matrix. Matrix who didn’t seem to have an opinion on the subject what so ever continued to watch the football match on the large television screen across the way. Unfazed by his lack of interest, she pushed on. “How about you Rixy? You gonna take your girly girl?” Harmony’s voiced tinkled with excitement.

Matrix finally turned to look Harmony’s direction, the expression on his face, highlighting just how annoyed he was by the current topic. I couldn’t help but giggle as I took in another sip of my tea.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” He growled. “ I already said I would go to hers, and that is already getting expensive enough, so honestly, I am not even gonna bring it up and maybe she won’t hear about it.

“Awww! I was hoping to meet her this time.”

“Ya, I don’t think that is gonna happen this time sorry.”

Winter formal was almost upon us and everyone was clambering about what they were planning to do for the evening. Everyone except for me… and Tapestry. I had no plans, I had already gone to one formal with the girls and once was enough. It’s easy to pretend it was the best night ever, and that going with a guy would have been not nearly as cool, but that only lasted until the first slow dance, when you either shuffled off to the corner to sip on punch, or drag one of the other girls to the floor and mock the whole thing. Been there, done that, so this time I was planning on just staying home. Tapestry might have had plans, but it was hard for any of us tell, most of the time he was so engrossed in his computer screen, he never dropped a word in edgewise. Even worse now that Requiem was no where to be found.

“What about you Sandy? Did Rhapsody ask you yet?” I inquired taking another sip of my herbal yumminess.

“Not yet, but I think we will discuss it over dinner tonight.” Sandy grinned.

“No way! Rhapsody gets to come over and not me!” This was news to Harmony and apparently the lack of invitation was distressing to say the least. “I never get to go anywhere.” She pouted, folding her arms over her chest.

“Well, it was kind of a special dinner, and besides we are having salmon, you hate fish.”

“Yuck. Never mind…”

The discussion ended abruptly when a message came in on Sandy’s bPhone. It was an apology text from Rhapsody. Seems he wasn’t going to make it to their little dinner party. Sandy dropped the phone back into her purse. “Well Harm, would you like to come over for some mashed potatoes and gravy?”

From there we gathered all of our things and headed for the front exit. Tapestry packed his things and walked over by me, obviously ready for our walk home. It had always been a part of our daily routine but with one small difference. No Cerese to act as a buffer. The boy barely talked under our normal circumstances, I could only imagine the awkwardness I was about to endure.

Color me surprised when just outside the exit, Tapestry placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Wisteria? Can I ask you something?” I was more than a little shocked that he even knew my name in all honesty, but that was my cue, so I went straight to it. “Of course. What’s up Tap?”

“I need your advice on something. Actually I need your help with something.”

“Oh? Well I can try. What’s on your mind?”

“Well it has to do with the formal.” My heart started to race, oh no, was he going to ask me to the dance? I swallowed hard. “Uh huh.”

“Do you know Honeydew? She works here at the buzz?”

I thought about it for a minute. “I think so, does she have green hair?”

“Ya!”

I nodded. “Yup, I know her.”

“Well she kinda asked me to the dance, and I don’t know what to say.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled.

“Is that funny?” Tapestry’s cheeks flushed an adorable shade of pink.

“No! I’m sorry, I just thought you were trying to ask me to the dance.”

“OHHHH! Hahaha! No, no way, I would never do that.” He laughed again.

Ouch… Not that I liked him like that, but the fact that I wasn’t even an option kind of stung. Of course compared to Honeydew hotpants I was like the troll under the sugarblossom bridge. I forced another laugh. “Hah! Of course you wouldn’t.”

“Oh man, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry Wisteria.” He shook his head. “That came out all wrong.”

“It’s fine.” I rubbed my hands together and did my best to get the topic back on track. “So do you like this Honeydew?”

“Well, she seems really nice and she smells good.”

“Well that is a start.” I giggled.

“I just don’t have any sort of experience with this sort of thing, that’s why I thought I would ask you. Since your never busy, I thought you would be the best person to ask.”

Double ouch, what the heck was that supposed to mean? This kid knew just how to push all the wrong buttons. I forced a larger smile. “I guess so.”

“I did it again didn’t I?”

I patted his shoulder. “Lets… just start walking shall we?”

“Alright.”

We started our trek towards Tapestry’s house. The quiet walk I was expecting turned out to be anything but. We were only a block from the Buzz when it finally dawned on him, what he had said. “I didn’t mean to offend you, I hope I didn’t hut your feelings.”

I gave him a sideways glance. “No, I’m fine. I take it you haven’t talked to many girls.”

“Only Cerese and now you.”

“Ah I see. Well the first thing you should remember is, girls like to feel special. Try not insult her, she probably won’t like that. ”

“Ya, probably not.”

“Tell you what. Why don’t you take my number and we can discuss this a little more. I can’t promise that I will make it over before the dance, but if you have any questions you can call me okay?”

“That works. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

“One other question?”

“Sure.”

“What should I wear?”

I had a feeling there was going to be a lot of calls coming my way very shortly….

“Hello?”

“Hi Wisteria?”

“Yes. This is she.”

“It’s Tapestry.”

“Oh hey Tap! Whats’ up?”

“So I said yes… Now what do I do?”

“Great! Are you going to pick her up?”

“Yes. No. I mean, yes and no.”

“You’re losing me here.”

“Well my mom is going to drive us.”

“Oh. Well that works.”

“Ya, is that wrong?”

“Not exactly. Did she seem okay with the idea.”

“She seemed fine.”

“Then you should be good.”

“Great! So what do you think I should wear again?

There were quite a few more phone calls just like that, all the way up to the actual day of the formal. In fact the last was only like an hour before he and his mother were about to leave to go pick Honeydew up. By this time I had his number in my phone, so I was fully aware of who was waiting on the other line.

“Yello!”

“Hey Wisteria.”

“Hi Tap. Ready for the big night?”

“I- Uh I think so.”

“What’s wrong.”

“This is like a date isn’t it?”

“Sort of. I mean most likely she thinks it is.”

“Oh man.”

“What?”

“What if she wants a goodnight kiss?”

“Sweety I don’t think you have anything to worry about with your mom in the car.”

“Oh. Right. I forgot about that.”

“Just go and have a good time. Try not to stress.”

“Okay, I will.”

“You ready now.”

“Yes…yes.”

“Okay then good luck! Bye bye.”

“Wisteria wait!”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“No problem! Now you go have fun!”

I hung up the phone and shook my head. What a goof…

Well the night went swimmingly. They both looked amazing and they even managed to finish the night without one incident. Tap managed to keep his mouth in check and Honeydew managed to toe the line and not scare him off. All in all it was another job well done. If only all of my pleas for help were handled with such ease.

But as luck would have it, they were not. My next challenge would prove to be much much harder than Tap and his cutey little friend who happened to be a girl. His label for her… not mine.

Anyways, it was an early Saturday, I was busy keeping my hands occupied as well as keeping my stomach distracted. It was a lot easier to do when I was doing something artistic or creative. That particular morning I was happily sketching away at the drafting table when the doorbell rang.

*DING DONG*

Silence.

I looked around the room, no one was heading for the door, so I dropped my pencil. “I got it!”

The doorbell rang again, and again. “I’m coming! Just a second please!” I quickened my pace the last few steps and pulled the door open.

Before I even had a chance to register who was standing on the other side, a blur of magenta flew straight at me. Sandy dove her tear-streaked face, smudgey mascara and all right into my shoulder.

“Oh Wist!!!! WAHHHHHHHHH”

My eyes shot open wide. I had never seen Sandy dressed down before, not even the few times I had stayed the night at her house. She started to sob, unintelligible. “whhuuuu mhhuuu giiii waahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!.”

“Whoa whoa, slow down there. What’s wrong love?”

Again she tried to speak but if it was words she was speaking, it was news to me. I took hold of her shoulders. “Sweety you gotta slow down, I can’t understand you.” I explained again.
This time it was full fledged sobs, no words. “Okay. Come with me.” I started to lead her to my room, she definitely needed to sit down.”

Mom called out from the kitchen. “Sweet berry what is going on in there?!”

“It’s okay mom! Sandy is having a bit of crisis. We’re going to my room!”

I carefully guided my sobbing mess of a friend all the way to my room. She didn’t let up the whole time we were walking. Her cries were so heartbroken, I could feel my own heart clench every time she stopped to take a ragged breath. I shut the door behind us and gestured for her to sit.

Finally she was able to at least stop long enough to speak.

“Oh Wisteria, I don’t know what to do.”

“What happened?”

Her bottom lip began to quiver, and her next revelation came out in one long string. “IthinkRequiemisboredwithmeandisgonnabreakupwithmeeeeeeee wahhhhhhhhhh.” And she started in again.

It took me a second to compute it all, but once it had, I will admit I was a tiny bit shocked. Requiem had been infatuated with Sandy for years, I always thought it would be the other way around.

“Oh, I’ sure he isn’t bored.”

“Yes- he- is! He- hasn’t- called- me-in- two-weeks wahhhhhhhhhhh.”

“I’m sure there is a reason.”

“Ya. He hates me. *sniff sniff*”

“I doubt that he hates you. Have you tried calling him?”

*sniff* “Yes. He just picks up and then hangs up! Buhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

“Oh….”

*Sniff sniff* “Will you call him please?”

“You want me to call him?”

“Please.”

“But why? What in the world would I say?”

“Ask him why he is ignoring me? Ask him to call me?”

“Gosh Sandy, I don’t know…”

“Please please please.”

Ughhhh I had a horrible time saying no to anyone, and her broken hearted face, solidified the fact, that this was not to be my first time to try it. I picked my phone up from the desk. *sigh* “What’s his number?”

After getting his number, I dialed my phone. “I can’t believe I am doing this.” The second the phone started to ring, Sandy started sobbing again. And the award for best actress in a drama goes to Sandy Hazel…

The phone rang seven times. I held my hand over the mouth piece. “He’s not picking up.”

“Hello?” Spoke too soon…

“Uh hi. Requiem?”

“Ya?”

“Heeeeeey! It’s Wisteria.”

“Oh. Hi Wisteria. Did Sandy put you up to this?”

I wanted to say no, but it was hard to ignore the wailing cries from behind me.

“She may have had something to do with this, yes.”

“Well tell her that I don’t want to talk to her right now. She is being way too clingy and I need a little space.”

“Oh, I see.”

“What?” Sandy whined.

“He says… that he is just reeeeeeally busy. He will call you in a few days.”

“Tell her to stop dragging you into this.” Requiem added.

“And he says he misses you very much.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Okay then. Bye bye.”

“Wisteri-” *click*

I hung up the phone and attempted to console my friend once again. The sobbing had subsided drastically, but she was still sniffling and breathing funny.

“Why don’t you lay down for a little while.” I offered leading her over to my bed. “I will go get us something to drink? Okay?”

“Okay.” *sniff* “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. You rest up.”

“I will.”

When I stepped out of my room, I almost ran face first into my womb-mate (hah! get it).

“She alright.”

“Yes. She is going to be fine.”

“Doesn’t sound good. Her and Requiem.”

I shot him an evil glare. “Se how long have you been out here eavesdropping?”

“What? Me? I don’t eavesdrop.”

“Well what would you call it then?.”

“Listening intently.”

“…”

“I know just the thing to cheer her up.”

“I seriously doubt that…”

“Will you just let me try. I can’t do any worse than you.”

“Excuse me? I don’t know what more I could have done. I called him for crying out loud!”

“Shhhh she is going to hear you.”

I threw my hands in the air, with exasperation. “Fine. Try. I’m gonna go get us something to drink.” I knew full well he would be kicked out before I returned anyways.

I watched carefully as he sat down next to her on the bed, and then with a smirk I headed downstairs to the kitchen. “I know just the thing to cheer her up.” I mocked coming down the stairs. “Ughhhhh. Idiot.”

I don’t know what happened in there, but the sounds coming from my room, were much more pleasant than when I had left. There was laughing from both parties. I stopped at the door, with both teas in my hand. I couldn’t believe it.

“So then he was like, that’s not hat, it’s my tupe.!!”

“OMB! Now way!!”

“I know right!”

Huh… looks like my brother was less of an idiot than I thought.”

“Mom! Hurry hurry! We got things to do!” I called up the stairs after my mother, who was in her own way, preparing for our early morning excursion. My mother was never one for waking up early, even when I was little I could remember her storming into the room half asleep, trying to open her eyes wide enough to see what was actually happening. Usually it was something trivial, like my brother, stealing my blanket off my bed, or Affair hijacking one of my bears for his hostage set up. There was definitely a lot going on in the early mornings in Chiffon house, it just happened to be that none of them were my mother.

Finally she emerged from the top of the stairs, and I excitedly watched and waited as her feet slowly made their way down the long flight of steps. She took them extra slow, a small pause between each step as her weight shifted from one side to the other. I was far too excited about the coming day to even care that she was traveling at a snails pace.

“Merry Berrymas eve day!” I beamed. Mom took one step on the carpet and shot a look across the space between us.

“Merry Berrymas eve love.”

My favorite day of the year was almost upon us. You are probably wondering why Berrymas would be favorite day, seeing that I didn’t even believe in Berry. Well, it’s a good a question, I will admit, but my answer was a simple one. I loved what Berrymas stood for. It was a time to be with the ones you love, and share a feeling of warmth and light with all those around you. It pretty much felt like my philosophy brought to life and for one special day, everyone celebrated the same feelings of well wishes. That particular year, was an extra special one. I had something extra special to prepare for.

That was the year I finally convinced my parents that I was ready to join the “I’ll be home for Berrymas” program. It took about three years of me begging and pleading before they decided that I was ready. Of course we could have joined the program many years before that, with them as the main sponsor, but they wanted to ensure that I was responsible enough to handle it on my own. The program started about the time I was 10 years old. I had heard about it from my grandmother, since it was a sister program to the “Shadow” program she had been involved with since she was a teenager. This program though was slightly different from the “Shadow” program, since it did not deal with those with disabilities. No, this program was designed with one idea in mind. Each child from the local foster homes and the orphanages, would be welcomed into a sponsors home for Berrymas. It wasn’t a permanent situation, but it was a way for them to celebrate Berrymas with a family who cared and to experience that special feeling of being with others. Everyone deserves to feel that on Berrymas, and for the first time, I was going to get to help!

It took almost three months before we received the approval letter. Which just so happen to be three days before Berrymas. This left little to no time for us to pick out the gifts we were going to buy for our guest. Our schedules conflicted all week, so it wasn’t until Berrymas eve did Mom and I finally have time to get the shopping done.

“Do you think she would like toys? or clothing?” I asked my mother, sliding one hanger at a time searching through the dwindled selection of Berrymas sweaters.

“I’m sure she will love whatever you decide on dear.”

I finally came to the conclusion that she needed both. I had narrowed my selection to two different sweaters. They were both cute, but I wanted to make sure it was perfect. I held one up and then the other. “What do you think?” Do you think she likes llamas, or do you think she would prefer the reindeer?”

I could tell my mom wasn’t going to be much help, if it had been up to her, she would have grabbed the first extra small she could find and that would have been that. Not me though, I was a bit of perfectionist in that way. I squinted deeply at the knitted fabrics in each of my hands. “Purple or lavender. Purple or lavender.”

Mom, who was getting slightly annoyed, took both from my hands. “How about both?”

I smiled back at her. “Great.”

We picked up a few other things while we were there. A new doll for our guest and I also snagged a little something for our other Berrymas eve guest Bubble.

By the time we had finished all of our shopping, it was getting close to lunch time. I had enjoyed an extra large bowl of cereal back the house, so I wasn’t really that hungry, but Mom was definitely feeling it. The grumpier she got the hungrier I knew she was. We stopped in at her favorite little place “The sweet sidecar diner”. The food was far too rich for me, but she loved it.

She ordered her Philly steak sandwich and we both took a seat. I swear the moment we sat down, my stomach started to rumble. The aroma wafting out of the diner was almost unreal. My mouth started to water and twice I seriously considered ordering something. After mom inquired twice, I resolutely shook my head. “No I had a big breakfast. I’m good.”

All that fat and grease, I knew exactly where it would go, if I even thought about eating something off that plaque. Hungry and annoyed, I tried my best to keep my mind off my growling tummy. I had already decided that I was going to allow myself the pleasure of enjoying some cookies this year, so there was no possible way to add anything else to the menu. I leaned over the side of the table and pulled the large bag into my lap, sliding the sweaters from the bag, I gave them both a once over. “I think she will really like these. The fabric is just beautiful.” Moms mouth, was so full of food, all she could manage was a nod as she let out a muffled. “Muhuh.” I forced a smile as she continued to chew and chew. It was like a living nightmare. Now I was the one who was ready to go home.

But we weren’t ready get back home just yet, we had one more stop to make. The most important stop of them all.

Once we had filled out the rest of the needed paperwork, we officially had little Taffy in our care. She was incredibly shy, and from the moment she and I said hello, I found her clinging to me. I felt so bad, she was so nervous and scared. It was obvious she had wanted to be a part of the program, but her little nerves were determined to make it as hard as possible for her. Once we arrived home, mom took the bags upstairs. “I have some wrapping to do, why don’t you show our guest around.”

We both watched as mom went upstairs and then I turned my attention to Taffy. I was just about to say something when I heard the clanging of pans in the kitchen. “Oh sugar shells!”

I gave her a wink. “Let’s go see what grandma is up to.”

Taffy gave me a timid nod and taking hold my hand, I led her down the hall to kitchen.

“Grandma?”

“Yes dear?”

“This is Taffy. Taffy say hello, she can’t see you, so you will have to let her hear your voice.”

Taffy looked up at me her eyes wide with worry. “It’s alright. I promise.”

She nodded. “H-hello.”

My grandmother who had no trouble at all expressing how she felt, beamed with joy, still mixing away in her bowl, she smiled, looking in the general direction of our voices. “Hello there! You must be…”

I patted her shoulder and smiled again. “Tell her your name.” I whispered.

“T-taffy. Ma’am.”

“Oh goodness me. Don’t you dare think about calling me Ma’am little Taffy. You can call me Tranquil or Grandma if you like.”

Taffy smiled. “Tranquil. That’s starts with T just like Taffy.” Her voice gathering more and more confidence.

“It sure does little angel!” Taffy’s face stretched into full fledged smile.

I leaned in again. “I knew you would like her.”

I took hold of Taffy’s hand. “Come on! Let’s see who else we can find!”

We wandered through the house, stopping at each room, seeing who we could find. Oddly no one was around. Well the boys had taken over each of the upstairs bathrooms and mom was busy in her room, wrapping up all of the gifts we had just purchased. We happened to stop in the hallways upstairs, when Taffy looked out the back window. “What’s that?” She asked, pointing to the building outback. I looked out the window. “That is the martial arts room.”

“Neat! Can we see it?”

“Sure!”

I grabbed the key from the board on the way down and then we headed out sliding glass door. To my surprise the door was unlocked. I slowly pushed the door open, and we both stepped inside. There in the back corner were my cousins.

“So then I crawled across the lawn and I bit his leg, like RAWR RAWR!”

“Then what happened?!”

“He screamed of course. Yelled something about rabies.”

“Rabies? You actually bit him?”

“Sure I did! Put a hole in his pants.”

“HAHAHAHA No way!!! Oh my Berry you are so weird!”

“He was the weird one. I told him three times to stop looking at me.”

“She’s not going to bite us, is she?”

I shook my head. “No, but what do you say we get out of here.” Neither of us hesitated as we backtracked out of the room. I quietly shut the door behind us.

“That was weird.”

“I know.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Lets go back in.” We started to walk back towards the house when the most brilliant idea struck me. “Oh I know where we need to go next! Follow me!”

We sounded like a heard of elephants traipsing up the stairs. “Where we going!” She questioned excitedly.

“My room! I have surprise”

We stopped right outside my door and I held my finger to my mouth. “Now.” I whispered. “We have to be kind of quiet, we don’t want to startle him.”

Taffy’s eyes lit up. “Okay. “ She grinned, her freckles seemed to dance across her little cheeks. I swung the door open and the moment she caught sight of Dreamer she let out a muted squeal. “Kitty! Oh you have a kitty!”

“Yup!”

“That’s dreamer.”

“Can I hold him?”

“Of course you can!”

I scooped Dreamer off the bed and gently held him out for her to take. She was just as gentle as she wrapped her still gloved hands around him. “Hello Dreamer! My name is Taffy.” They were absolutely adorable together. Taffy looked so happy, I only wished it was something we could have done on a more permanent basis. Sadly I knew that wasn’t possible, so I had to do what I could to make the time we did have, the best night ever.

“You have a nice room. My room is isn’t really mine. I share it with four other girls.”

“Thank you. My, five girls? That must be quite cramped.”

“It’s pretty small. There are two bunk beds and one single bed. I sleep on the top bunk with Angel. Well, she sleeps on the bottom bunk and I sleep up top.”

“Ah i see.”

“But I really like your room. It’s so pretty. One day I will have a room like this.”

‘I bet you will!”

“I like your sweater too. It’s like a real Berrymas sweater. Ive never had one myself.” Taffy’s voice started to trail off.

I soon realized my choice of gift could not have been more perfect. I steepled my hands together. “I think there is something else you and I need to go and do.”

“Can we bring Dreamer?”

“Let’s leave him here for now and we will come back and get him in a little while.”

“Okay!”

This time we sounded like a heard of elephants heading down the stairs.

I ran straight for the large tree that now sat in the middle of our living room. There were packages sitting all round its ruffled skirt. A few new packages adorned the spots that had been empty only a day before, and I assumed that they had to be from our latest shopping outing. I knelt down and looked through all of packages, checking each tag till I found one with Taffy’s name on it. I could tell from the size it wasn’t the doll, so I snatched it up quickly.

“Now.” I smiled throwing the package behind my back. “This was actually for tomorrow morning, but I think under these circumstances, we should open it now.” I presented the box, and Taffy’s eyes lit up a second time, only much much brighter than they had before. “Merry Berrymas Taffy!”

At first she just held it in her hands. Looking it over a few times, she shook it to see if it made a sound, of course clothing doesn’t make much sound, so all she heard was a shlump as the contents shifted to the other end of the box. “Go ahead. You can open it.”

This time Taffy ripped the bow from the top and tore into the paper. Opening the box, she pulled one of the sweaters from inside. “Oh wow!” She squealed. “A sweater! A Berrymas sweater! It’s so pretty! Thank you!!”

“You’re welcome. You should try it on! Use that bathroom, right over there!”

Taffy lugged the sweater into the downstairs bathroom and I waited patiently at the door. Couldn’t hardly wait to see her in it.

“I love it!!!” She squeaked.

Ah it fit her perfectly, she was probably happiest little berry I had ever seen! That excited feeling started to get to me. I was slightly addicted to making people happy, and that moment when it all sinks in had hit. It felt amazing!

One she was in her sweater, her confidence was soaring through the roof! She asked me if I could cut her hair, which I couldn’t. Believe it or not that was in the agreement. No alterations of any sort to hair. She was kind of bummed when I had to break it to her, but then I had another idea. “I can’t cut it, but I can fix it up if you would like.”

“Yes please”

I really didn’t do much, but the end result was just so cute! I tied little ribbons around a couple buns I had made. She looked absolutely adorable.

The time started to pass really quickly. Every time I looked at the clock, it was getting closer and closer to the time that Bubble was to be arriving. My heart would flutter every time I watched the hands of the clock as it ticked down. Before too long, I had to start on my cookies or they wouldn’t be done nearly in time. I instructed Taffy to head back upstairs to grab Dreamer, so they could sit and hang out while I mixed up my world famous dough.

“Do you think Dreamer likes cookies?” Taffy asked.

“I don’t know. He might. I don’t think he has ever had one.”

“I bet he does. Can we give him one?”

“We can break off a little piece, I’m sure that will be alright.”

“He can have a piece of mine.”

“That’s very sweet of you.” Again her sweet little face lit up with a proud smile.

Once we had the cookies in the oven, I heard some commotion in the living room. The boys had finally decided to materialize and make them selves at home on the couch with their latest obsession Call of Decadence. Well Taffy had already met everyone in the house, I had to introduce her to the boys.

“Oh you are so not going to win!”

“Watch me.”

“Boys. This our guest Taffy.”

Neither of the boys looked up from the screen but they did manage a “Hey Taffy” and a “Merry Berrymas”, and it was definitely more than I was expecting, so I was quite pleased with the both of them. We stood and watched them play till my timer went off and then we hurried back to the kitchen.

Another hour passed, and before I knew it, we were all upstairs singing carols with grandma and grandpa. The clock on the wall was now well passed the time, that I was expecting Bubble and I couldn’t concentrate at all on my singing. Ten minutes passes and then twenty, we were well into a third round of “All around the Berrymas tree” when I heard the phone ring.

I ran to the nearest phone, which happened to be in my grandmothers room, and I yanked the phone from the cradle pulling it to my ear. “Merry Berrymas! Wisteria speaking.”

The line was quiet for several moments, almost long enough that I hung it back up. “Hello?” I finally ventured.

Then came a reply. “Wisteria?” The voice was low and seemed to hitch ever so slightly. It took a moment for it all to register, but when it did, my blood ran cold. It was Bubble, but his voice was off, almost as if he was hurt.

“Bubble? Is every thing alright? Are you hurt? What’s the matter?” I started to panic, but did my best to cover it up.

Sadly, I was doing just as good of job as he was. “Wisteria, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it.” His voice hitched again, and this time I was sure there was definitely something wrong.

“It’s alright.” My words were slow and deliberate.

“I can’t talk long, but I had to call you… Wisteria there is something I have to tell you.”

“Sure.”

“My…My parents. They don’t want me to see you anymore.”

I gripped the phone, but no words would come out.

“They don’t want me seeing a non member. That’s why I couldn’t come over. It’s not fair! I don’t want to break up with you! I really like you Wisteria.”

“I like you too…” Disappointment seeped into my entire being.

“They said I can’t see you anymore, but I don’t care! I am going to do it anyways! They can’t force me to do this! I won’t! I just won’t.”

One tear slid down my cheek.

“I’m so sorry. I wish I could see you right now. I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too.”

“Oh no…I- I gotta go. Merry Berrymas Wisteria.”

“Merry Berrymas…”

I couldn’t seem to be able to let the phone go. I held it to my ear long after the click and the dial tone drone. it wasn’t until Taffy was standing just a few feet away, that I finally snapped out of it. “Wisteria… ar- are you okay?” I dropped the phone back in it’s cradle. “Yeah.” I muttered.

Before I had a chance to say anything, she wrapped her tiny arms around my neck and pulled me into a hug. “Thank you.” She cried. “This has been the best day of my life. You are my angel. I didn’t believe they existed till I met you.” Her words were so pure, I could feel the tears beginning well up in my eyes. My emotions didn’t know where to turn, I was devastated over Bubble, but the happiness I was feeling for Taffy, had me stretched in every possible direction. I squeezed her tighter.

“I love you Wisteria.”

“I love you too honey.”

“Merry Berrymas.”

“Merry Berrymas.”

————————————————-

Well guys, this is the last update of the year. Merry Christmas to you all!! See you in 2012!!!!!!

A date? The more I thought about it, the more nervous I got. I had a boyfriend before, I wasn’t new to having a relationship, sure it may have not been the best one, but still it had earned me some life experience. But a date. This was new. I had never really dated before. If I liked someone, I liked them. I had no need to test the waters first to check and make sure. Same with Bubble, I knew I liked him, a lot. I just hoped that this dating thing would convince him that he felt the same. That wasn’t wasn’t what worried me most though, I had a good idea he liked me back, I just didn’t want to blow it. What if I didn’t talk enough and he got bored, or what if I did something to offend him, and he left me just like that kid on the dance floor. My mind as usual was my worst enemy.

“Can I help you with something?” Seance, butted into my internal dialogue, and all my thoughts scattered.

“Huh?”

“I said, do you need something? You been sitting there for like a half an hour staring at that spot on the wall.”

“Oh, No. I was just thinking.” I drummed my fingers nervously on my pants.

Seance paused his game and dropped the controller onto the seat between us. “Yeah right sis. Now spill it, or do I have to use our magic twin powers.”

I laughed. “Fine. I have a…” I paused. Come in Wist! You can get the word out! “Date, with Bubble today. I just don’t want to mess it up. I really like him.”

Seance shook his head. “How would YOU mess it up?”

“I don’t know, what if I do something embarrassing and scare him away.”

“You worry too much.”

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”

Picking up the controller again, Seance started to play. “Just be yourself. He’ll like you that way just fine, and if he doesn’t? Well he is dumb and you can do better.”

“Thanks.” Wow every once in a great while, something would come out of my brothers mouth that really made me appreciate him. This was definitely one of those times. I felt a little better after that. That is until the doorbell rang.

“That’s him!”

“You gonna answer it? Or do you want me to do it?”

“No I got it.”

“I got it!” I yelled across the empty hallway. No one was home besides Seance and Affair. It’s one of those habits that was hard to break.

“Have fun!” Seance cooed before plopping back down onto the sofa.

I stopped just short of the door. Checked my breath and gave a little twirl to my hair, before reaching for the handle. With my hand resting on the knob, I took a breath. “Okay.” I swung the door open.

There of course, was Bubble and his sweet face on the other side of the door. “Hey!” I grinned.

“Hi Wisteria. Hope, I’m not too early. Didn’t take me as long to get here as I thought it would.”

“Nope. It’s fine.” I called back through the door. “Bye!! I’ll be back later!”

“I won’t! And neither will Affair, the house will be empty. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” I quickly slammed the door. “Hah! Alright. Ready?”

“Definitely.”

We hopped in his truck and started to drive, circling a few times around town before he finally admitted. “So I don’t know Twizzlerbrook very well at all, do have any suggestions on where we could go?”

“Oh! Right.” I thought for a moment. “There is a really nice park in the middle of town, we could go there. Just walk around and talk.”

“Sounds perfect.”

Funny enough were only a block away, so it took no time at all to get parked. I started to reach for the door, but Bubble was already running around the front of the truck to open it for me. “After you.”

“Why thank you.”

Our date was amazing. All of the things I was worried about fell to the wayside. There was never an awkward moment of silence, or if their had been, it went unnoticed. He was sweet and as charming as he always was, and I could feel myself getting more and more attached.

How could I not. It was in his nature to be sweet and kind. I was hooked.

“Maybe next time we could go swimming. I think we passed a pool on the way here. Right?”

“Oh no. I mean we did, but I don’t swim.”

“Why not?”
“I don’t go out in public in a suit.” Truth was I didn’t even own a suit by that point. After the last time I had gone shopping for one and left the shop in tears, I vowed to never swim again, but that was a little more information than I was comfortable giving at that time.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed. You’re gorgeous.”

“Oh stop!”

“It’s true!”

“Thank you.”

We started to lean into one another. Maybe it was a kiss, maybe it was, I didn’t know. Unfortunately I never found out, because I heard the tinniest squeaking noise and my whole body recoiled.

“Did you hear that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice down.

“Hear what?”

I turned towards the origination of the noise. This time I heard scraping sound. “There! Did you hear it?”

“I think so.”

I searched around the empty park, the noise was being muffled out by the water-fountain, so it was hard to get a real lock on it. Then my eyes narrowed in on a trashcan.

“I think it was over here! Come on!” I took of into a dead run towards the can. The squeak was definitely getting louder as I came in closer.

“There is something in there!” I exclaimed. Without any hesitation, I lifted off the lid and dove head first into the can. There thankfully was not a lot of gushy stuff so I was able to keep from getting too dirty, but sweetness did it smell nasty.

“Oh man. Are you sure?”

“Yes!” My hands ran across something, small, furry, warm, and definitely alive. I carefully wrapped my hands around it and lifted it out.

My mind could scarcely register what I was seeing. The tiniest little kitten. My heart started to sink at the thought. “Who would do this?” I whimpered. “Who would throw something so small and helpless away?”

“Maybe he fell in?”

I wanted to believe that was possible, but the lid was on the can, there was no way for him to “slip” and then put the lid back on himself. He looked healthy enough, well besides the layers of dirt from who knows what he had gotten himself into.

“Oh Berry! He smells really bad.”

“I know. Poor little guy. Who knows how long he’s been in there. Let’s take him back to my house, so we can clean him up.”

Holding his breath, Bubble nodded and pulled his keys from his pocket. “Alright, but can we roll the window down?”

It took everything I had to keep from throwing up. The little guy reeked, but it wasn’t his fault. I pulled him in close and he buried his little face into my neck. His motor started in and I gave him a few pets. “It’s Okay baby, Wisty’s got you now. Ohhhhh. Who’s a big ol box of purrs?”

We got back to the house and true to his word, Seance and Affair were gone. The house was completely empty. Which was good, because I wasn’t too sure how much they would have liked me dragging in an unknown stray filthy kitten.

Bubble looked around the living room. “Every-one’s gone?”

“Ya. No idea where they went, but they said they would be gone all day.”

“Oh.”

“Let’s use my bathroom upstairs.” Holding the kitten in one hand, I boldly grabbed Bubble’s with my other. We made our way to the top floor, and I led us both down the hallway.

Now I have always heard that cats don’t like water. Not this little guy. Well, if he didn’t he sure put up a good front for me. Filling the sink with warm water, I used some of my natural shampoo to give him good scrub. He never tried to jump out, not once. Bubble was like my assistant, handing me shampoo and then a towel when I needed it. Due to his gentle nature, his bath didn’t take long at all. Before we knew it, I had him bundled in a towel, trying to dry him off and warm him up. His little body trembled for a couple of minutes, before he started in with his motor once again.

Lying him down on my bed, the little bundle of now clean fur curled up into a tiny ball and went straight to sleep. He was the sweetest thing I had ever seen. I ran my finger down his spine and he stretched his arms and legs out in all directions before immediately curling back into his little ball. “Sleep well cutey.”

“So what are you going to do with him now?”

“Keep him I guess.”

“Any idea what you are going to call him.”

“Not sure.”

“I think you should call him Dreamer.”

“Dreamer?”

“Ya, I mean look at him, he probably thinks this is all a dream. He probably has never been treated this nice ever in his life.”

I watched over his sleeping form again. “I like it. Dreamer it is.”

“It’s getting kind of late. I should probably go.” Bubbles voice was laced with disappointment.

“Oh. Alright then.” As was mine.

I started to give him a hug, when I let out a big yawn. “Oh goodness, sorry about that. Guess Dumpster diving was more tiring than I thought.”

“I think it was! Why don’t you lie down, I can walk myself out.”

“You sure?” I yawned again.

“Totally. I’ll call you later. Okay?”

“Okay.

I settled in next to Dreamer and closed my eyes. “Bye Bubble.”

“Bye Wisteria, sleep tight. Dreamer you take good care of her, alright?”

“Meow!”

I heard the door shut, and then everything faded away. Wasn’t sure why I was so tired, but I must have needed it. Dreamer stayed by me the entire time, never making a sound. It wasn’t until I heard the doorbell about an hour later, that I finally started to stir.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I sat at the edge of my bed. Then remembering I was the only one home, I pushed myself up and headed for the door. Careful not to stumble on the stairs, I slowly made my way down to the first floor. To my surprise, I heard my grandmothers voice in the kitchen. “You got that dear?”.

“I got it!”

I pulled open the front door, and to my surprise it was Bubble again, but this time his arms were full of stuff.

“I can’t believe you bought all this!” I looked down at all of the kitten supplies, my eyes were wide with astonishment.

“It wasn’t much really. I just grabbed the cheapest of everything I could find, you might want to get something better, but at least it’s a start.”

I shook my head. “Bubble, I don’t even know what to say.”

“Thank you.”

“Glad to help! I’m sure Dreamer will be happy.”

“Oh are you kidding! He is gonna love it!”

Our hug lasted a little bit longer this time. Leaning my head against his shoulder, I held on onto until he started to pull away. “I really gotta go now, my parents are probably freaking out.”

“Sure. Of course.”

“Would you like to walk me out this time?” He lent out his arm for me to take.

Linking his arm with mine, I opened the front door. “I would.”

We stood out by the edge of his truck for several minutes, just talking about anything to keep the moment going, my heart was racing, and I never wanted it to end. The night sky was so crisp and clear, every star was visible in the sky and it was making the mood all the more romantic.

“I had a really nice time with you today.” He grinned, his tone low and sweet.

“Me too.”

“Maybe we could do it again sometime soon.”

“I would love that.”

“Wisteria?”

“Yes?”

Would you? Would you like to go out with me? Like boyfriend and girlfriend?”

I couldn’t think of anything memorable to say, so I just said “Yes.”

The moment I said yes, he leaned in and gently pressed his lips to mine. It was soft and sweet, and I instantly pressed back into his. I wanted so badly to slide my arms around him and pull him closer, but I never got the chance.

Because he made the first move. Drawing me in, we held on to one another, I could feel every movement, every breath, it was incredible, it had been over a year since I had kissed anyone, and even then it wasn’t like this. I had been wrong before, now I never wanted it to end. The best part was, he held onto me, not even a hesitation, and I never cringed not once, at though of him touching my…fat. I could have said I love you, right then and there, but it wasn’t time. I would leave it for another day.

“Goodnight Wisteria.”

“Goodnight Bubble.”

Once Bubble’s truck was out of sight, I walked back up to the house, still buzzing from our amazing, kiss, I almost failed to notice my grandmother waiting near the door. “Young lady, I think you and I need to talk…”

“I…okay.”

“When were planning on telling us about your little friend upstairs?” My face fell into a confused state which did me absolutely no good, so I added. “I was… going… to talk to you about it tomorrow.”

“I don’t know what your mom is going to think about this.”

“I know.”

“But I will talk to her, and see what we can do.”

I wanted to scream “I love you! Thank you! You are the best grandma ever!” But all I could think was… how is she always the first to know?

“So then what happened?” Viola’s excited state of confusion, was making it exceedingly more difficult for me not to get caught up in the chatter. This was the hottest thing to hit our little rumor mill in days. The moment word got out that I was “talking” to someone, all the girls were a buzz.

Talking… supposedly that is what Bubble and I were doing. I had never even heard of talking till then, but by definition, it was indeed what was happening. Not quite dating and definitely not going out yet, just talking. I had never talked with a boy before. T, let’s call him T, we never talked, we wrote a couple letters back and forth, and within a couple of days we were going out. It was a lot easier to understand the boundaries that way. I’ll be honest, talking confused me.

“Well…” I beamed. “He called me the next day. And since then he called me Monday and Tuesday.” As much as I was trying not to put the cart before the horse, every time I talked about him, it was hard not to smile or control that giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach. He was a lot different than T, in all the right ways, but it was nothing serious yet, so I was trying not to get ahead of myself.

“So what do you know about this guy?” Sandy inquired, her voice was much more demanding and slightly disapproving than Viola.

“Well, he is from Fondant Fields, and he is on their football team.” I added, I knew Sandy would like that last part.

“Oo, an athlete, very nice.” Sandy nodded her head, she was liking this idea a little bit more.

Like a scream cutting through a calm night, Harmony screeched and started to clap her hands. “AND!!!” She squealed. “He works at the Pizza Kingdom! Oh my berry! You know what we should do?! We should go see him!”

All the girls again started to chatter amongst themselves. I could feel the tips of my cheeks as if they were on fire. Not that the idea wasn’t a good one, it just scared the sweet right out of me. I started to weigh in my opinion on the idea, when Harmony piped up again. “Sandy can drive us!” Practically ready to come out of her skin, Harmony was now literally bouncing from one foot to the other.

Sandy was a little less keen on the whole plan. She wasn’t actually supposed to even be driving yet, and the car she had gotten for her birthday, was to take her to school and home, and possibly a friends house. Her folks let her get away with a lot, as long as it was around town, more than my parents would have, but I seriously doubted they wanted her driving 40 minutes to Fondant Fields. I do have to say though, the few times I had ridden with her, for being unlicensed she was a really good driver, which probably played into why she had never been caught.

Sandy thought it about it for a couple of good minutes, tapping her finger to her chin and looking from me to Harmony. Finally a huge smile started to spread across her face, she looked to Viola, “I could get in massive trouble for this, if we get caught, but to see Wisty and this boy? It’s totally worth it.”

My heart fluttered.

“As soon as we finish our drinks. I will have to message my mom and tell her I am going to Viola’s for dinner.” Sandy said, pulling her phone from her pocket, her fingers quickly started to type out her lie.

“You guys gonna order, or what?”

The guy behind the counter was not nearly as excited about our little road trip as we were. He must have waited a good two minutes before finally deciding to ask what exactly we were planning on doing. Staring at us, his eyebrows lifted into an obvious question of “Well?”

“Yes.” Sandy pushed to the front of the group. “Oh yes, we’re up. I got this today guys. Hi, I’ll have a boppity, half caf, skinny cinnamon Latte, no whip. A bitty green tea with one raw sugar, room for cream. Two boppity dipped sugar vanilla honey macchiattos, double cup on those please, and a Bubbletastic green tea…extra hot.”

The cashier, somehow looked less pleased now that we ordered, than he had before. He looked over the items on the register, and read them all back to us. *sigh* “Okay, so that was one, boppity, half caf, skinny cinnamon Latte, no whip. A bitty green tea with one raw sugar, room for cream. Two boppity dipped sugar vanilla honey macchiattos, double cup, and a Bubbletastic green tea…” He paused for a few seconds before adding an un-enthused “extra hot.”

“Yes.”

“No sugar on the green tea? No syrup?”

“No.” I smiled. “Just the tea please.”

“Alright. Will that complete your order? You sure you don’t want me to just throw in the whole fridge while we are at it?” A voice rang out from the back room. “Lichen… we talked about this.” Lichen immediately changed his tone after that, and was noticeably lighter and jovial as he pressed the total key. “15.75 please.” Sandy paid the boy, and a quick five minutes later we had out drinks. Lichen may have been grumpy, but what he lacked in social skills, he made up in efficiency.

“Here you go.” The expression on his face, now matched the flatness in his voice. “Enjoy.”

We hurriedly made our way to the little corner in the back, our usual spot, and urgently started passing our cups around. Any idea how hard it is to drink an extra hot green tea? Lets just say, I may have unintentional blistered the room of my mouth. Should have just gotten a boppity, I thought to myself, as I winced taking another large sip. My excitement, outweighed my concern for the roof of my mouth apparently, because I was able to down the entire cup quite quickly.

Once we had finished our drinks, all the girls gathered up our things and headed out to Sandy’s car. Harmony bolted out the front door so quickly that she was already bouncing excitedly at the passenger side before I had even made it outside. I opened the back rear door and slid inside, scooting to the middle, to allow for Cerese and Viola to get in on either side. I buckled my seat belt, and was ready to go. Sandy, hopped in the drivers seat, while Harmony hopped in the front passenger side. The moment Harmony’s door slammed shut, she turned to look at Sandy. “Oh, and I have to go home now.” She stated nonchalantly. Every one in the car turned to look at her.

“Dude.” Viola started.

“This was your idea! And now you can’t even go?” Sandy chimed in, obviously annoyed by this new information.

“Sorry!” Harmony whined. “My mom would never let me go that far.”

“Fine.” Sandy grumbled, putting the car in drive. “Let’s get you home first…”

After our small detour, we were on our way to Fondant Fields. 40 minutes is a long drive, when there is something or someone at the other end that you are just dying to see. I watched the cars zoom by my right window, letting my mind wander in order to help pass the time. It worked for a while, but anytime someone started to talk, namely Viola, I would snap back to the present, and back to my knotted up stomach. “Ohh!” Viola giggled, grabbing for her notepad from her bag.. “I have to write this down.” She started jotting down something into her pad, speaking out loud as she did so. “Monday, November 12th. Bubble and Wisty have their second meeting.”

I tilted my head back against the seat behind me. “Is that really necessary?” I groaned.

“Trust me, you will thank me later.”

I wasn’t too sure about that, but we didn’t have anymore time to discuss it further, because the car was pulling to a stop outside Pizza Kingdom. “We’re here!” Sandy called out. She threw the car into park, and I waited patiently for Viola, so I could get out. I gathered my nerves and took the lead, heading up to the steps.

I looked cool, calm, collected, but on the inside, I was about ready to throw up. I wasn’t sure if I would ever out grow these volatile nerves of mine, that was why I continued to push on even though, I was scared sweetless. Fake it till you make was my motto. This time in particular, I was faking it, hard. One step up, then two, then I was there, at the door, the girls huddled behind me, pushing me through the doors. “Let’s go!”

We all stepped through the imitation castle doors, and my heart went thud, as they shut behind us. Oh man, there was no turning back now. “Is that him?” Viola asked with an excited squeak.

“Him?”

“Yeah!” She laughed grabbing my arm and pointing at the register.

“Why yes. Yes it is.”

“Well? Are you going to talk to him or what?”

“Oh Wisty! Just go over there! Look he is coming over! Go go!” Viola nudged me in the direction of Bubble, before all the girls headed for the table in the far corner, leaving me completely defenseless. My heart and my head working at an overexerted pace.

“Wisteria? Hey!” Bubble rushed over by me, and threw his arms around, enveloping me in a hug, that was way more amazing than it looked from the outside. “Hi” I smiled, squeezing him back.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well.” I stammered, my nerves were beginning to get the better of me. “I came to see… you. Hope that’s alright.” I flashed a sheepish grin.

”Of course! I was just about to have my break. Here. Come with me a sec.”

Grabbing hold of my hand, he walked me over to other cashier behind the counter. I looked at our hands intertwined, before looking over at the table, where the girls were about ready to split in two. He gave my hand a small squeeze, before he started to talk to the lady. The woman had the same hair, same complexion, as Bubble, and it didn’t take me more than a second to realize it was his mother. “Mom. This is my friend Wisteria. Gonna take my break now, if that is alright.”

With an expression reminiscent to that of Lichen’s from only a couple hours before, the one corner of one side of her mouth lifted into what, I guess one could categorize as a smile. “Hello, I’m Mrs. Chiclet. It’s nice to meet you Wisteria.”

“Nice to meet you too.” I smiled, but something told me, she was not pleased.

“Fifteen minutes, Bubble, we are down one hand tonight.” She replied shortly, gazing at her watch.

“Yup! Fifteen!” He called out, as we made our way towards the door. “Come with me.”

We stepped out into the cool evening air, and it hit me like a welcome refresher. Didn’t realize how warm it had been inside, till we stepped out. We walked around to the one corner of the building, before sitting down on the bench. I had no idea what to say, so I just gave him another grin, a little less sheepish this time.

“It’s nice to see you out this way. Hah! I was really surprised.”
“I hope you are not in trouble. The girls thought it would be fun, and well I guess I did too.”

“Nah. It’s fine. Never had a visitor before. I like it.” He said with a wink.

My chest squeezed tighter. “Glad, I could make your night then.”

“I only wish we had more time. We are swamped tonight, and the dishwasher called in sick.”

“Oh no.”

“Yeah and we are set up for three different birthday parties, two down, one to go.”

“Wow. You guys are busy.”

‘Yup. But, hey. We should do something together. Maybe, I could come and visit you next time.”

“I’d like that.”

“Great?! How about Saturday?”

“Saturday would be perfect.”

“Alright. I will call you this week then, you know to get your address and stuff.”

“Sounds good!”

Bubble stepped closer. “Wisteria, wo-

“Wisty! Come on!! We gotta go!!”

Wow, what amazingly horrible timing, I thought to myself. “We gotta hurry! Sandy’s mom is going to get suspicious!!”

I nodded, waving my arm in their direction. “Alright… I’ll be right there.” I turned back to Bubble. “Sorry. Guess I better go.”

“Yeah, me too, but I will call you.”

“Can’t wait.”

We hugged one last time, before the girls and I started our way back to the car. It had been short. but I was quite fulfilled by our little rendezvous. The girls were giggling non stop, trying to squeeze as much information out of me as they could.

“So… what happened?”

“We are going to spend the afternoon together on Saturday.”

“Like a date?”

“Date…” I hadn’t even thought about it as a date. Just as an outing. A smile started to spread across my face. “I guess so.”

“She said I can.” For some reason, Cerese’s tone and expression did not match her words.

“Well that’s good right?”

“Yeah, but she said I have to clean the kitchen and the bathrooms.”

“Oh.”

“All of them.”

“Oh…” It was bad, and we both knew it, but dang it all, I had committed to this, and I was bound and determined to make it happen now. “Well we better started then!” I smiled, taking hold of her wrist and dragging her down the hallway.

Living with two boys, I had seen some pretty dirty bathrooms in my day, but living with eight other people, these rooms were absolutely vile. It was hard to imagine, how anyone could bathe in a tub as filthy as the one in their upstairs bathroom. Somehow they managed though, because no one had even attempted to clean up since the last time she and I cleaned the entire up stairs.

I wish I could say, I was over exaggerating. Sadly I wasn’t. The girls were too young, and the boys didn’t care, and with the eldest staying at her boyfriends house most days, it was all up to Cerese, and by extension… me. Like I said before, it was frustrating at times, but once we started working on it together, we could get it all done fairly quickly.

Dynamic duo of domestics! I was the mopper and she was the scrubber and together we could clean just about anything. That particular day was one of the easier days, so with about four hours to spare we were done. It was just enough time for us both to get showered and ready to be picked up by my mom. It was good thing too, because I had totally forgotten my skirt and more church friendly top back at the house.

Grabbing my stuff and changing quicker than I had ever done before, we were on our way to Berry Blessed community center. There were kids running all over the place when we arrived. I had a small moment of cold feet, once I had stepped out of the car. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea i thought to myself. Normally I wasn’t a shy person, but get me around a group of people and I tended to clam up. I was much better with one on one interactions.

“Come on!” Cerese giggled and grabbed arm and pulling me through the glass doors. Ready or not, here we went.

The first thing to catch my eye, was a giant photo in the front hallway.

“Hey! We have this same photo hanging in our front room.”

“Really? This was taken at the re-opening of Peppermint Pier.”

“Yeah, one of my ancestors in there.” I knew full well who my Grandmother Lacey was, and I eyed her carefully in the bottom corner. That was one thing, I had yet to tell Cerese about. Being such a strict Dulcian, the last thing she would ever believe was a man from over 200 years ago sending a letter to my mother about me. Yeah… that would go over real well.

“I bet it is one of those really pretty ones with the white hair.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you are pretty and you have white hair.”

“Hah! You’re funny.”

“I’m not kidding!!! Come on lets go in!”

“Okay.” Couldn’t stall any longer, so we went inside.

To my relief, the lights were dimmed. Which helped to ease my anxiety just a tiny bit. It was kind of hard to discern faces, but that was fine by me, since I didn’t really know anyone besides Cerese anyways. The music was modern, and they even had a DJ. Everyone was about our age or a little older from what I could tell. Like I said, you couldn’t really see faces, but you could see bodies moving all over, dippin and boppin with the music.

It was a lot easier than I had expected to really get into it! One of my favorite songs started to play and I was boppin along with the rest of them. Something about dancing was very liberating to me, especially when people can’t really see what you are doing, or how badly you dance. Didn’t matter though, I was cutting loose, and man did it feel great!

“Brother M says the next song is going to be a slow one! Someone might just ask you to dance.”

Before I had a chance to take off to the ladies room, the song ended and sure enough, a much slower one started to play. Oh boy, I thought to myself. I could feel my heart start to race as one by one people started pairing off. I had just started to head for the chairs that lined the one wall of the room, when I boy started walking right over to me.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Would you care to dance?”

“Sure.” Despite my bodies unwillingness to go along, my mouth foolishly opened and I said yes. Amazingly my heart started to beat even more wildly. He had the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. Taking my hand in his, we lead out to the middle of the floor.

I could hardly believe it. This cute guy, and he asked me. Me! To dance. Carefully we started to make small circles around the dance floor. At first I was too shy to look him directly in the eyes, so I kept looking around the room. Finally, after about a minute he broke the silence.

“So… do you come to these often? I don’t think I have ever seen you before.”

“Ah, nope this was first time.”

“Oh, I see. What stick do you come from?”

“I’m not a member.”

“Oh.” Suddenly his feet stopped abruptly and so did mine. “Could you excuse me for a second.”

“Okay…”

What happened next shocked and horrified me. I knew he wasn’t coming back. I just couldn’t take it in. Did he really just leave me in the middle of the floor, because I wasn’t a member?

The answer to that my friends is yes. Jilted in the middle of dance floor. My eyes darted around the room. Thankfully everyone was so busy watching their feet, or worrying about their sweaty palms, no body had noticed. Not even Cerese, was aware, as I drug myself over to the chairs and plopped myself down.

How embarrassing can you get? The exact reason I didn’t want to go to this stupid thing in the first place. I could feel the tears on the brim of my eyes, which always seemed to happen when I was angry.

To make it worse, I was front and center as he asked another girl to dance. Unbelievable!! I sat their dumbfounded. Like nothing happened, they started to sway with the music. Just like I had never existed. I was so busy wallowing in my own self pity, I didn’t even notice when someone took the seat right next to mine.

“Did that guy just do what I think he did?”

I winced. Like I needed another reminder to what had just happened. “Yup.” I replied curtly.

“Do you know that guy?”

“Nope.” I quipped again.

“Well I do, and he is a big jerk, trust me.”

“Thanks.”

“If you would like… we could dance.”

Ughhh, I wasn’t about to go through all of this a second time, so I just came right out with it.

“Yeah, I’m not a member, you may want to go ask one of those other girls.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it like against the rules or something?”

“No. Is that what happened? You told him you were not a member and he left?”

“Pretty much.”

“Wow. See I told you he was a jerk.”

That got a little smile out of me. I swung my feet playfully under the chair.

“My name is Bubble.”

“Wisteria.”

“Wow.”

“Hmm?”

“That is really pretty.”

“Thank you.”

“So what do you say? You wanna dance.”

After I was sure I wasn’t going to get ditched a second time I agreed. The music had just made its switch to the next track, when we reached the floor. The song was slow and pretty and I could feel my heart starting to kick into over time again.

“Since this is your first time here, I will give you the basics alright?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, first of all, they have rules on how you have to stand.” He stated, carefully grasping my hand in his. “One hand on the shoulder.” He placed my hand on his shoulder. “And one hand on the hip.” His hand slid over my hip. My cheeks flushed, but I did my best to keep my attention on the lesson at hand. “You have to be two inches apart at all times.”

“I think I got it.” For the first time, his face came into some decent lighting, and I caught a glimpse of just how cute he was, which only caused me to blush more furiously.

“Personally it is all a little boring if you ask me.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I don’t see what is wrong with getting a little close to a girl if you really like her. Your just dancing right?”

“Right.” Suddenly he moved in a little closer, pulling me in just about an inch. My heart racing like a freight train, I did my best to keep my cool.

“What do you think they would do if they caught us?” He whispered.

“I don’t know.” My knees were literally starting buckle underneath me.

“They might kick us out. Would you dance with me in the parking lot if they did?”

My smile was so tight across my face, I could hardly speak, so I nodded my head instead. Luckily for us both, we managed to get a way with our bending of the rules for two whole songs. The third song to come on was a bit faster, so all the couples began to break apart once again.

The rest of the evening we spent walking around the center. It wasn’t against the rules as long as we stayed inside the building. We made circle after circle around that main lobby probably a couple dozen times.

He was funny and charming, and the best part he actually liked me. Hadn’t had that since my ex and we all know how well that went. We spent a good two hours just talking and laughing. He was easy to talk to and everyone once in a while we would playfully touch the other. Not in a significant way, just playful, but didn’t stop it from sending shivers all through me. There was something about what we were doing that seemed so naughty, even though we weren’t doing anything at all.

He even waited with Cerese and I outside, until my mom had swung by to pick us up. There was no denying it, I was smitten, and I had a good hunch that he might have been too. But after recent events I wasn’t about to get my hopes up prematurely.

“I had a great time tonight.”

“Me too.”

“Will I see you at the next activity?”

“Yes!” The word eagerly flew from my mouth, and I know Cerese caught it, but kept it to herself. I knew though on the inside she was dying to say “See it was totally fun wasn’t it!”

We chatted together in a little group till my mom pulled up out in the front. My stomach did a little flip flop, because I wasn’t ready to go just yet. Sadly we had to say goodbye, but to my delight, he pulled me in for a hug to do it.

“See you see soon I hope.”

“Me too.” Me too? That was what I went with? Oh well. It got the point across. We hopped in the car, and waved goodbye. Before long he was out of sight, and we were dropping off Cerese at her house. Saturday night was her one night to stay at home. Church in the morning and all. What I didn’t expect was a sticky note on my door, with a message from Cerese when I got back. I pulled the tag from my door and sat down on the bed. It was obviously Seance’s writing, because at the end he added his own little commentary, which he just loved to do.

Bubble called. Wanted to know if he could have your number. You should be getting a call soon. ooooooo! Wisty has a boyfriend. Yuck!

I fell back onto my bed, and clutched the paper in my hand. Feeling something I hadn’t felt for many months I let out a loving sigh. Maybe I did. Maybe I did.