Restart

Chapter 2

"Ariel!" Xavier yelled up to me, "Get out here and watch Oliver. Taylor and I are leaving." I sighed and walked out of the music studio to go down the stairs. I walked down the stairs slowly, more slowly than needed.

"Hurry up!" Taylor yelled at me when he saw me walking slowly. I picked up my pace a little, but I still was slow. I glared at Taylor when I got down and he just glared right back. Luckily, I was too mature to stick out my tongue, no matter how tempting it was. "He's in the art studio." Taylor said right before he left.

Xavier turned to give me a hug. "Later, you and I will go to the Walmart down the street and pick a few things up." I nodded and he let me go and left. I watched out the window until the two boys were put of sight. Then I went up to the top floor.

Oliver was sitting on a stool facing a canvas, but I couldn't see what was on it. He was holding a palette in his right hand and he was putting delicate strokes on the canvas. He was concentrating so intently that he jumped when I knocked on the door frame to let him know that I was there.

"Wanna see what I'm working on?" Oliver asked excitedly. I nodded and he picked up the canvas and turned it so I could see.

The picture was of someone that I didn't recognize, but I could tell who it was by looking at it. She was beautiful, and she looked almost exactly like Taylor and Oliver. She had their color (black) hair and Oliver's chocolate skin. Taylor had a skin tone that was much lighter, but he was still tan. He had gotten his father's skin tone. They all had the same nose too. It was obvious who she was. She was their mother.

The two boys had a different father, but they had the same mother and that was her. The boys had straight black hair much unlike the platinum blonde wavy hair that Xavier and I had.

"It's my mom." Oliver said quietly and looked to me eagerly to see my reaction. I smiled at him and he smiled back. The rest of the time went by quickly. I watched him paint a picture of me (while I posed) and he listened to me play the piano and then I played the acoustic guitar while Oliver sang along.

I was playing Beethoven when Xavier and Taylor got back. Oliver was painting something in his art studio, so I was playing loudly enough so he would be able to hear too. I was playing so loudly that I didn't hear when the boys got home. I also didn't hear when Taylor walked in and stood behind me listening to what I was playing.

He put a hand on my shoulder after I was done, but I shrugged it off quickly, not wanting to give him the wrong impression.He took a step back right away, obviously disappointed. I looked up at him, but he immediately diverted his eyes when I looked up at him.

"Let's get out of here and go to the store." Xavier called from the doorway. I happily jumped up to join Xavier right away. We walked to the store a few blocks down the street, past the woods. Something had happeded to the store that it didn't have anything that in a past world would have been expensive but was now obsolete. There were still some clothes, but we still used the old family's clothes a lot because the clothes did not solve any problems with Oliver's clothes because the only people that lived by us had taken all of the clothes that were close to Oliver's size for their youngest.

There were three boys and a girl living there. They were all siblings. The girl was Xavier's age and the two were friends. I could tell that at some time, they would become more than friends, but that wasn't for sure. Her name was Mae. The middle boy was 18 and he was really tall. He was about six feet and I was only about five and a half feet. He was handsome, though, with striking green eyes and dirty blonde hair. His name was Elliott. The youngest, Jeremy, was eleven and he was friends with Oliver. He was Oliver's best friend and they played together all the time.