Always Be Forever

Chapter 37: Jasmine

2087, BCE, November 1

Ding-dong!

I hear the doorbell ring. It must be Alex. He said that he needed to speak with me. I hope everything is okay with him and the rest of the family. He had said that he ticked off Hector, so I wonder what could've happened. "Alex, come on in," I tell him after opening the door. "James isn't here?" Alex had asked once I closed the door and he was inside the house. "He's at work," I tell him. I have now recovered from the jail incident, and I no longer need a wheelchair to get around the house. To be honest, I liked it better when I was in the wheelchair, cause I could be a lazy potato, but that's never a good excuse to use it. "You can put your coat on the sofa," I had told him after opening the French doors that led to the living room. It is on the right side of the foyer as I look towards the front door, but on the left as someone walks in. The sofa is covered with white upholstery leather and is facing the piano that is on the other wall. There are two chairs in front of the piano facing the sofa, but the loveseat closest to the window has the same colour of the sofa, and the other one has more of a bluish-grey and matches the ottoman. Setting his coat on the armrest of the sofa, he walks into the dining room, which then flows into the small kitchen. As Alex is sitting down in the chair closest to the living room - our table seats six people - I enter the kitchen to grab myself a cup of hot milk. "Do you want anything to drink?" I ask Alex as I put my milk in the microwave. "I'm good," he tells me as he runs his hand through his brown hair, and then reaches to take off his glasses. Setting down the glasses, he pinches the top of his nose as his eyes crinkle up and tears slowly start to fall. Grabbing my milk from the microwave, I hear a quiet sniffle, followed by a long sigh. "Jasmine, I messed up," Alex had let out with his voice slowly cracking. Heading straight towards him, I put my glass of milk on the table and hugged Alex standing up, resting his head against my chest as he had started crying. Man, something bad must have happened.

"What happened?" I had asked him, as I pulled up the chair closest to the opening to the kitchen, with my hand still on his shoulder. "I had Chris over last night, and this morning Hector told me that I can never have her over again and that I can't see her," he had told me. "What's so wrong about that?" I had asked him. I've known Hector for a long time to know that he has his reasons for saying things like that. "Chris is my sister, and Hector doesn't know that. He probably doesn't know that he got Chris's mother pregnant," he had told me. It was about time for him to know the truth. He knows too much, I may as well tell him the truth. "I don't know what's real or not," he added when he was finished. "It's about time you knew the truth," I had told Alex as I wrapped my hands around my mug. "I was a friend of Francesca's, Chris's mother, throughout high school. When your parents were dating, it was by long-distance. Your father was back in Belgium while Ellie was here. Hector didn't say anything about coming over here, because he wanted to surprise Ellie. So when he saw Francesca, he thought that she was Ellie. It had been two years since they last saw each other so it was an easy mistake, but it was the wrong mistake. He had raped her multiple times, constantly thinking that this was Ellie, but it wasn't. Since he raped her multiple times, he got her pregnant with twins: Amy and Chris. James and I were the only ones that Francesca had told. After that she went to a different school, your school," I had told him. I wanted to stop there. Talking about this brings back memories I don't want to think about.

"My school?" Alex had asked, as I had seen him rubbing his nose. "Back in my time, your school had a program for women who were pregnant. Francesca went there for grade 11 and 12. I was back at St. Christina's with Ellie," I had told him. I needed to stop, because the memories had come flooding back, and I didn't want this to happen. The last time I had felt this way I wasn't able to control myself. "You okay?" Alex had asked me. I didn't realize that I was crying. "Yeah. Sorry, it brings back memories that I had tried to put away in the back of my mind," I had told him as I tried drying my tears with my hand. "I should go," Alex had commented. "Stay," I had told him, grabbing his hand, keeping it on the table. "I just got to go use the bathroom," I had told him before getting up and going to the master ensuite. I head past the kitchen, turn to my right and walk down the hall to the master bedroom. It's right at the end of the hall. Opening the door, I close the door behind me. My dresser is right beside the door on the left side, with the wall on the right side. There is a sliding door that opens up there that leads to the bathroom. Entering, I look back to where my bed is, and then turn around and close the door. Grabbing a hand towel, I wet it with hot water from the tap, and I run the towel down my face. Looking back at the mirror, I notice a glimpse of someone else in the mirror instead of me. The person looked like Cashmere. She had short brown hair, glasses on, a white dress, with a snake wrapped around her neck. Taking an empty glass that was beside the sink, I fill it up with tap water and throw it on the mirror. The mirror becomes wet, but Cashmere isn't going away.