Forever Yours

Chapter 12

Song: Everything Has Changed- Taylor Swift

Day 47

    Hey Amelia, why are you driving this?" Henry asks before looking up to the driver's seat. His voice drops as shock lines his features. "Is that?" He looks to me for confirmation.
    "Hey Henry," Oliver smiles back at him.
    Henry jumps up and reaches in between both of our seats to give Oliver a hug. "You came back," he whispers. "I told her you'd come back." Oliver was like a brother to Henry before everything happened. It worries me that Henry knows we're hanging out now but I can't do much about it and decide to let Henry enjoy it.
    "I know buddy," Olivers whispers back and I'm pretty sure he's crying. Henry pulls back with the biggest smile on his face. He really did know Oliver would always come back and as Oliver looks at me over my brother's shoulder I feel everything fall into place. This is right, for the first time since my parents death I feel as if I'm exactly where I'm meant to be.
    "Hi Evelyn, I'm Oliver. You can call me Ollie though," Evelyn looks confused. I guess she hasn't seen him since she was a baby so she wouldn't remember him.
    "How do you know him?" She asks Henry.
    "He's Amelia's best friend," he answers, still smiling.
    "No, Valerie is Amelia's best friend," she retorts.
    "Well Ollie was Amelia's best friend first," Henry's getting defensive now.
    "They're both my best friends, okay guys?" I try to smooth the situation over.
    "But Ollie's your BEST friend. Valerie hasn't even been around since the funeral Amelia," he has a point but it still kind of stings. I miss her, I really do and I've tried to hang out with her but if I'm not working then she already has plans with her boyfriend. I understand I'm not the best company right now but I feel like maybe she could still put in a bit more effort.
    "You guys wanna go get some ice cream?" Oliver breaks me out of my thoughts. Henry and Evelyn immediately forget about their argument and start talking about what they're going to get. Evelyn's a die hard chocolate fan while Henry tries to get her to branch out. She's not budging though. I admire Oliver's tenacity but I figured he would've given up on that sentiment a long time ago considering they have the same argument every time ice cream is brought into the conversation.
    "Oliver, I don't have very much extra money right now. Why'd you say that?" I try to be discreet and although I'm grateful for the distraction, I'm sort of annoyed he wouldn't think about my situation. Then I remember he doesn't even know my situation.
    "Amelia the quicker you learn that you'll never pay for anything else ever again as long as you're with me, the easier it'll be for everyone involved." I want to kick myself for getting mad at him when I didn't even tell him WHY I have to save money. He has to have started to catch on by now, my inner life is screaming at me to be careful, but the remains of my shattered heart can't be bothered to care when his actions seem to mend something inside of me.
    "Okay, you're right Henry. Ollie is better than Valerie. Ollie buys us ice cream," I hear Evelyn from the backseat. I should have a conversation with Valerie soon. This whole car ride has made me realize that she really has kind of made me feel abandoned lately. Not that it's her fault or anything. I knew as soon as I got that call on my birthday that our relationship would be drastically different.
    I don't want to put the blame completely on her because I've kind of checked out on her these past two months but it's not like I haven't asked her to hang out. She's just always busy. I don't necessarily expect her to drop everything for me but she could at least try to see me every once in a while. It's hard to excuse her actions when I know if the roles were reversed I would've made some kind of effort to drop by a couple times a week.
    I try to rack my brain for something to say to distract myself from my thoughts, not wanting to dwell on them too much right now. I tell Oliver, "You don't have to buy them anything, they definitely don't need it." I don't like the thought of him buying everything, not just for me, but my siblings too. In a way it makes me feel dependent on him and that scares me.
    I barely get the words out before Oliver sighs, "Ams I WANT to get them ice cream and by the looks of it they want ice cream too so just relax a little bit, okay. I promise this doesn't mean anything and I don't expect anything from you. I'm doing this because I WANT to and I want it to make you happy, not stressed so just let me do my thing, okay?" He reaches over and kisses my cheek, I look back to see if the kids noticed but they're both immersed in Henry's phone. My doubts from earlier about depending on him are erased and the tension seems to withdraw from my body with every word he says.
    "Okay, as long as you're sure," I all but whisper back to him.
    He perks up at my acceptance, "I am sure, I'm even surer about you," he smirks.
    "Surer isn't a word," I answer, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.
    "Sure it is," it seems like he enjoys arguing with me. Although I shouldn't be surprised. We argued more often than not when we were kids. It was the kind of arguing you enjoy though, the kind that gives you somewhat of a rush. Apparently, he thinks it's a good idea to rope Henry into our argument because he decides to ask the 6th grader if "surer" is a word.
    "Surer is definitely a word," comes from the backseat, and I deem my brother a traitor.
    Oliver gives me a pointed look and I'm quick to defend myself, "Oh come on he's 12, he has no clue how words even work. He just wants to be on your side. You just offered to buy him ice cream and he's worshiped the ground you walk on since he was old enough to walk."
    "I do too know how words work," I've never heard Henry so offended at a statement before. His defensiveness seems to bring out the boyish part of him that hasn't been around in a while. Or maybe that's Oliver, he seems to bring out the childish side in all of us. He has this aura around him, you just can't help but feel safe around him.
    He's stable. He's the stability and resilience I saw in my dad and the gentleness and patience I saw in my mom. He's the greatest parts of them and I'm more convinced by the day that he was sent to save me. God knew I needed a rock to stand on. One I could trust to not shake in the midst of the storm. And I'm fully convinced that my mom is the one who sent him.
    Call it intuition or insanity or whatever else you want to call it, but my mom was always my biggest supporter. She always knew exactly what I needed, when I needed it. She always held out hope that we would end up together. She was confident that he had always been in love with me and had tried many times to persuade me to contact him again.
    I know my mom sent him and I'm so grateful she did. I'm so grateful for this light in my life after their death. I'm so grateful that I have something that's just mine. Our relationship, however it turns out will always be the highlight of my lifetime.

***
Hey sorry I haven't posted in a while. I just tore my ACL so I've been trying to deal with that the past couple of weeks and haven't felt like writing. I have surgery in about a week so I should have more time to write.
Thank you so much for reading! I appreciate you guys so much! I love you all and hope you enjoy my book so far. ❤️