Déja Vu

Twelve

"Charlotte!" He yells as we exit the car, arms wide open as if he's hugging the soft breeze dancing around us. It's sunny today, more like shiny. That type of weather where the sun doesn't burn, and there is this sight of wind that kisses our skins from time to time. I let out a small giggle under my breath as I shut the car door behind me. He hasn't been here in four years, so I thought it would be great to invite him to join us on our "trip" back home. I myself haven't been back here in what seems like two long months. It takes over three hours to go from Wilmington to Charlotte, four if we take in consideration the time we spend in Laurinburg either eating or doing absolutely nothing. And personally, I'm not a brave driver kind of girl, I can only drive from home to college or like anywhere within city limits, other than that no never. So for me to visit home, I have to rely on Sam and his hectic schedule. Or sometimes when he's actually free, Olivia isn't. Some other times when both of them are free, I am not then the cycle goes on and on. We've been planning this visit for what seems like a good two weeks and arranging all three, actually four that now Adam joined, of our schedules to fit in with this date. We settled with three of us completely freeing ourselves but Sam being the procrastinator he is has still got some assignment to finish due Monday, so he'll be working on it here. Maybe he can get some help from Mrs. Hope, Nick's mother. He'll be staying at our house anyway. Sam's family is originally from New York but were living in Charlotte for some time during his high school years due to some conflict in his father's work. That's when he met Olivia. Now his parents moved back to New York so every time we come around, he stays with us in our guest room that no one uses except him actually.

"Now does it feel like you're actually back home?" I ask him as I grab my backpack from the trunk of the car. We thought maybe him being in his hometown will make it strike him that he is back. He turns around to face me with a smile fixed to his face "Not quite." He says "But close."

"I got your bag, temporary roommate." Sam yells from our front porch. Adam is sharing the guest room with him for the three days we're spending here. Yes, Olivia and Sam do live together but dad made it a rule that as long as both of them are under his roof, they should be at least a meter away from each other. She finds it a little illogical, I find it wholesome.

We informed our parents that Adam is coming too since his parents sold their house when they moved. As expected, it took me a good fifteen minutes to remind my father of him but he finally did. And my mum...my mum called me later at night to fish for details. I didn't have time to tell her when he came, wasn't sure she'd remember him anyways. He only came over about two times and my mum didn't interact much with him. Plus, all she ever knew about him that not everyone did was the fact that I liked him. She said that she's fine with him being around only if I'm able to separate my past life with him with my current one where I'm dating another guy.

Funny joke, ma.

Our front door flies open revealing two almost identical ladies, my mum and Maya. Same short brown hair, same hazel eyes, same height. The only visible difference is the youth radiating from my little sister that time has stolen from my mum. Maya runs down the few stairs and totally rejects Sam's opened arms as she runs towards me and Olivia, wrapping her arms around both our necks. It doesn't take Naomi less than a minute to run up and join our hug, still ignoring Sam and his extended arms. We are four, yet we manage to hug each other at the same time. We pull away but Maya rests her head on my shoulder, solo hugging me. We group hug but she needs her alone time sometimes, the baby of the family.

"I miss having both of you at home." Naomi says playfully punching Olivia's shoulder "It's like we've been divided into two teams."

"And I do miss when both my arms were one team." Sam shouts over, still making the 'ready for a hug' posture. We all ignore him "Don't make a big deal of it." Olivia tells her "You'll be moving out next year as well and this castaway will be home alone." She refers to Maya who pulls away from me to glare at Olivia "Thanks for the reminder." I laugh as I jog towards my mum, pushing Sam out of my way as I wrap her in the tightest hug ever. Her coconut shampoo flew me back to my childhood days when she used to apply the same shampoo for me. Her fingers were silk smooth as she passed them through my hair while I played with my dolls in the shower. Or when she would seat me between her lap as she brushes my hair that would actually give her a hard time because of how curly it was, still is, but at least no body worries about brushing it anymore except me. I pull away from her to see the brightest smile on her face as she brushes a strand of hair from over my face "I haven't seen this face in person in what seems like ages." She says with her low soft voice "Pretty ironic since I made that."