From Grief We grew (Only On Wattpad)

Chapter 22 Hayden

I bob my head to the music as Bea and I sing along to Baby by Justin Bieber. At the back, Hope blabbers the lyrics while Ava claps her hands and chuckles.

"Baby, baby, baby oooh

Like baby, baby, baby nooo

Like baby, baby, baby oooh

I thought you'd always be mine"

   As we drive through our neighbourhood, I find a familiar white Benz parked by my house. I stop the car and help Hope outside. Bea carries Ava, and we walk up to the front porch. I knock on the door and my dad opens it. We walk inside to find Teagan sitting on the couch. Hope immediately runs into her arms as she makes her way to us. She carries her on her waist and kisses her.

   "Hey Bea," she says and Bea waves at her.

   "I need to talk to you," she says, looking at me.

   "Yeah, lemme just book a cab for Bea," I tell her.

   "Already booked one, son," My dad informs from behind.

   I look at Bea and see this weird expression on her face. She looks at Teagan and back at me. Is that jealousy? She finds me looking and smiles. "I'll leave when the cab comes. Thanks for today, I had fun," She says. I tell her I did too. She tries giving me a hug with Ava in her hand, but she's only able to put one arm around me and Ava starts crying. She pulls away and coaxes the child as I frown. When did she become a hugger? I look at Teagan, and she gestures for me to go outside. I walk outside with her to her car. She opens it and pulls out a skateboard from inside. I take it and examine the painting on it. I could easily tell that it was done by my brother. It has a blue background and a big cherry blossom tree on it. Only half the tree is painted horizontally. Behind the tree, there are tiny buildings. Beside the tree, the word LIVE is written letter under letter.

   "Fiona gave this to me," she says.

   "Who?"

   She goes on to tell me about what happened at the rink and after. I eventually recall who this Fiona is. My brother dated her, but they broke up because he started catching feelings for Teagan.

   I mentally try to picture the dry dam since I remember going there  with them once. "How did she find you?" I ask.

   "She's the one that showed Zayden that place apparently."

   "So the dam is one of the locations?" She nods.

   Right then, Bea walks out, and I look at her. She waves at both of us as she smiles. The smile she flashes at me is more of a wide, bright smile, but to Teagan, it is one of those wide, unreal ones. Or maybe I'm imagining? I'm proven right by Teagan's comment once Bea leaves. "Wow, your girlfriend hates me."

   "You think so?" I ask looking at her.

   "I mean she didn't look pleased to see me," she comments with a giggle.

   I don't say anything. I just play back what happened and my mind goes what the hell?

   "Anyways let's check the map," she says while she grabs the box and pulls out the map. I look at it over her shoulder. She points at number five and says, "that's where we went." I examine it, and I point at number six. Then I take envelope six and read the instructions. "Oh flip, I went here last week. It's a karaoke bar," I tell her.

   "Did you get anything?"

   "No. I had no clue."

   She hums. "So we finished 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. We need to visit 4." She looks at me like she's waiting for me to say something. I go ahead and apologize, "I'm sorry I didn't call you about this for like two weeks. I've just been hanging with Bea a lot." She chuckles and pokes my cheeks. "It's okay huckleberry." I smile hearing her use my old nickname.

   "Can we go tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock? I'll pick up."

   She yawns and bobs her head, "Okie dokie. Good night. I'm gonna head home now. " She hugs me and I inhale my brother's shampoo from her hair. I smile and give her a tight hug before pulling away. She jogs to her car, waves at me and gets in.

   I go to my room and call Bea. "Hey Hayden," she whispers as soon as she picks up.

   "Why are you whispering?" I whisper.

   "Ava is sleeping. Why are you whispering? "

   "I don't know. " I hear her chuckle. "So I called to tell you I won't be home tomorrow. I'm going out with Teagan," I tell her.

   "Oh..." her response makes me frown. "Teagan is only my best friend," I say, knowing she needs to hear it.

   "Okay," she whispers.

   "I will not hurt you, Bea Dawson."

   "Okay."

   "Good night, my beautiful maiden," I whisper, making her chuckle.

   "Good night, Prince Charming."

****

I'm about to turn right when I see Bea walking on the other side of the road. I stop the car and run after her. "Bea!" She turns around with a huge smile on her face. I grin as I look at her, and she blushes. "You look nerdish," she comments and I adjust my brother's glasses as we chuckle. Her emerald eyes glitter in the sun, and it reminds me of the forest, my brother, of all the things I love. Her skin sparkles in the sunlight and I notice freckles on her cheeks like a consolation of stars. Beautiful I think to myself. I wanna kiss her lips, but I'm scared she'll slap me so I kiss her cheeks. After the kiss that night, we kinda just never acknowledged it after that although it gave way for us to flirt now and then. But I still never popped the question because I'm scared she'll push me away.

    "See you later, alligator," I yell as I get in the car. Her laughter fills the street as I drive away. I look at her through the mirror and see her watching me, smiling from cheek to cheek.

   I stop at Teagan's house and see her standing by her car. "Leave your car in. We are taking mine," she yells. So I park the car in front of the garage and grab the box. I join her in her car taking the driver's seat. She gives me directions and I find myself driving back to the woods. I stop the car a few miles away from our last spot at Teagan's command. "Follow the part with gnomes and rocks," she reads from the card. We get down and look around. She taps me and points to our left. There is a wooden gnome, and it has a hand pointing to the forest. We walk up to it and find a trail of rocks. Then I spot another gnome pointing to the right. We follow the gnomes, and we come to a big circle mapped with little rocks. We look at the big net laid out and exchange glances. There is a sign that says Two at a time. An extra toddler is allowed. If the net is not there, kindly wait. Teagan and I share looks once again.

   "What is this?" She asks.

   "I don't know. Let's find out," I say, showing her my hand. She takes it and together we step on the net, but nothing happens. I walk to the centre and suddenly the net closes like it just caught an animal and pulls us up to a branch. Teagan yelps and grabs onto me. I wrap my arms around her, and we just hang there in the air. "Now what?" I ask

   "I can't move," she grumbles, trying to move her legs that are tangled with mine. I look around trying to find something, but all I see are trees. Then I see it, two metal ropes. One is attached to the net and goes low into the forest. The other one comes from high above. I try to move, so I can see where the higher one is ending. "What the hell?" Teagan mutters. I notice the rope attached below us. I look up and see a guy coming from the higher wire. He is strapped to a vest that's hooked onto the rope. I move and fall on Teagan, so I can watch him. He climbs the tree and grabs a hook from his pocket. He hooks the net onto the rope above us. Then he removes the hook that holds up the rope from the lever that pulled us up.

   "Have fun!" He yells and pushes us. Teagan and I scream as we go gliding down the rope. We go over the river, and then we crash onto a mattress. The mattress isn't on the floor but strapped to the tree, ensuring we don't crash on the hardwood. The old guy comes sliding and jumps off the rope before he can bump into me. He chuckles as he opens the hook, and we fall to the dirt.

   "A little clumsy, ey," he says and laughs hysterically.