Foxton's Fate

Chapter 2-Wren

It's the third time I've stood up this week. Probably a record. Which doesn't make it any better to know that all three times I've been waiting for the same guy, Chase Mathews. The linebacker of Dover High and also still presumably my boyfriend, though I don't know how much he is when he's stood me up three times in a row. It was stupid to think that this time would be any different. Mom always used to say I wore my heart on my sleeve, forgave easily, and was open-minded. In her eyes, I had an easy-going hippie soul but now I see myself as an easy girl, who is too trusting, hopes too much, and forgives the wrong people, especially Chase.

Knowing Chase, I'll get a text in a couple of hours from now and he'll come up with some stupid excuse and send a half-hearted apology in which I'll forgive him, and then we'll send flirty texts to each other all night. Which will result in me being exhausted in the morning and him thinking that everything's fine. Then he'll act like my boyfriend and show me off in front of his friends before we arrange for another date in which he'll stand me up and the cycle will repeat. Except I'm sick of the cycle and his half-asked apologies I think his charm is wearing off on me and I think I might be the first girl at Dover to say that but it's true.

So instead, I get into my Jeep and drive away, knowing that this will probably be the last time I come back. Since not only am I driving away from Sal's Diner but also Chase. This means I need a good song for my Coming-of-Age playlist, which is composed of all of the songs that have played in the background of important moments. Even if I don't like the songs themselves, they're still in the soundtrack of my life whether I like it or not. I've never shared this playlist with anyone before partly because I know he'd think it was stupid and partly because in this mash-up of cheesy pop songs and classic rock lies a part of me that I only know.

Thankfully though Fleetwood Mac starts to play, and I smile to myself as Go Your Way spills out of the speakers because at this moment, everything is perfect. As I pull into my driveway, before heading into the small cottage that's the only home I've ever known. Even though it's not perfect, at least it's home. My best and worst moments have happened in this white wood cottage with a pale-yellow door, supposed to look like a beach house but in Dover, the closest thing we have is Dover Point, good for surfing when it gets waves but not that white sand beach everyone dreams of instead it looks like the cliffs are falling into the ocean. It's beautiful and probably the reason my parents wanted to move here in the first place, so that dad could work on his photography and mom could work on her painting but now it's just dad and his new wife Mellissa.

Mellissa isn't like mom, for starters she doesn't wear flowy bell bottoms and dangling earrings instead she wears blouses and skinny jeans. She doesn't smell like herbs and weed, instead, she smells like a fancy mall kind of perfume. Her name isn't Spirit instead it's Mellissa, but at least she bothered to stick around which I can't say the same for mom.

So, when I head to Mellissa's there sitting on the couch and reading a book, Agatha Christie is not one of those self-help books mom used to read but they never seemed to help. "Hey, you're home early," Mellissa tells me with a smile, and I nod. "Yeah, Chase was busy," I tell her, and she nods as if understanding. "Maybe he'll be free tomorrow?" Mellissa asks in that helpful, yet arrogant way and I nod. "Maybe," I tell her and that's about as far as our conversations go.

So, I head upstairs before collapsing onto my bed, the comfort of the sheets seems to absorb me as I rest my head on my pillow willing for sleep to come. Since even though it's the same room, I've always been in I feel like the feeling of home is gone.