The Tangent Lines

Chapter 25 - It's the memories of you and her

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There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.'
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.

—Dalai Lama XIV

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Chapter 25 - It's the memories of you and her

Elliot's POV

There were a lot of things I loved about autumn. The leaves start to turn yellow, red, and brown and fall gently to the ground. The weather turns a lot cooler, a perfect one to have pumpkin spiced latte and enjoy the scenery. In this season, every leaves are flowers. Their beauty never fail to amaze me.

It's the second week of November, and I missed La Toussaint day last week. La Toussaint or All Saints' Day is a public holiday in France, it's dedicated for families to honor their dead relatives by attending mass or visiting graves with a bouquet of chrysanthemums. I personally never liked chrysanthemums, it reminded me to people's tears and grief. I felt guilty to my grandma and Camille, my first crush who died four years ago. I used to visit them on that day, but this year, I was stuck in the lake house with my friends.

Their deaths were why I started to dislike autumn. The weather, which I first admired, became cold, grey, miserable one. I started to hate the lovely warm colors that decorated the streets. I started to hate apple pie that I used to happily bake in the kitchen. They all brought back sorrow and grief, and the memories that came flooding. Grandma was the one who inspired me to keep cooking. She'd always bake apple pie and Kevin would always eat my portion. That damn pie brings a lot of memories to me...

Granny's and Camille's death always haunt me. Although I had known her for only two weeks, it felt like forever. Since then, I tried hard not to like anyone. I was better off alone.

Then four years after it happened, things change. I move to United States, my dad's birthplace and childhood home. Dad and mom enjoy travelling so much. They met in India, the land of exotic spices and extraordinary culture. And thus, like every cliché love stories, they have their happily ever after marriage. My family moved to France long before Kevin and I were born, because the Stratford hotels were expanding and someone needed to organize the Europe region. My uncle Patrick, the CEO, insisted to stay in US. And since my dad and mom itched to stay abroad, they spent their lives in France.

Well, until dad resigned and he decided that mom and him should complete their bucket list: a long second honeymoon they've been dreaming, travelling the world.

Since Kevin replaces him to be the chief of Europe region, and he won't be able to babysit me — that's what mom said, she insisted me to move to United States, to live with my uncle's family, which includes my despicable cousin whose cold demeanor always annoys me.

At first, I was really devastated to just escape from my family. To escape my parents who always disagreed my passion for culinary. They believed that I was supposed to be critical in thinking strategies like Kevin or Tyler who has now taken an internship at the hotel, a practice to gain more experience to succeed his father in the future. But something tells me I'm not going to regret my move here. Although authentic French cuisine and its finest wines keep calling me to come back, I don't. Instead, I stay and battle with the odds.

I guess it was the magic of my new friends here. Back in France, I only had one best friends. Everyone wanted to be my friends only because of my status, money, or even my physique. It was easy to differ which one is real or fake.

So all in all, my life has become a lot better in this country.

But never I thought that I would learn to love autumn again. That the thought of baking apple pie would cross my mind, a ritual that I never skipped before they passed away. There, my reason was simple. It is this girl, the blue-eyed girl who was simply excited just because of autumn. Your guess is right, she's Chelsea, the girl who enthusiastically described autumn as her favorite season. She even highlighted September 21st on her planner as the beginning of the season and said apple pie is one of her comfort food. How could she like such cruel season?