Wonderland

❄B68❄ Scrapbook

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Brayden's POV

Scrapbook

January 3

When I had to leave the next day, Heather started crying. She couldn't understand why I had to go, even though Mr. Forde had told her many times that I had to go back home so I could get ready for school again.

"I'll call you everyday," I promised her, my heart breaking. It killed me to have to leave her.

"Heather, hon..." Mrs. Forde touched Heather's arm gently. She stood a few inches shorter than Heather. She had orange hair and green eyes that always seemed to conceal something. "You wanna make cookies together?"

"Cookies?" Heather asked, wiping her cheeks dry with the hem of her sweater.

"Yes. Let's make...what cookies should we make?"

"Sugar cookies?"

"Sugar cookies it is!" Kathy enthused. And just like that, Heather forgot about me. She eagerly followed her stepmother into the kitchen, leaving Mr. Forde and I standing in the living room.

Mr. Forde, noticing the pained expression on my face, said, "Her memory doesn't last for more than a few seconds, sometimes."

"Why did this have to happen her?" I croaked. What if I came back the next time to find her having completely forgotten about me?

"Brayden, she won't forget about you," Mr. Forde said, as if reading my mind. "She loves you too much to do that."

I pushed back the rising tears in my eyes and took the handle of my suitcase in my hand. I hadn't packed much—just a spare change of clothes, really. "I'm going to try my best to visit her during spring break."

"She'll be here." Mr. Forde smiled at me and opened the door.

"I know she will," I answered back, before I stepped out into the daylight to catch my plane ride home.

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Even though Heather and I were miles away from each other, I kept my promise and called her everyday. Sometimes, she'll hang up on me when I'm in the middle of talking because she forgets why she's holding a phone in the first place—but I'm always patient with her, and I don't mind one bit repeating myself.

Heather may have changed mentally and emotionally, but to me, she was still the same girl I fell in love with months ago.

When classes started, I found myself buried under a lot of homework and pressure, but I pulled through. While Kane and I sort of drifted apart, thanks to our different interests, Tyler and I became really close friends, studying together when it came to our science and math classes. I also made new friends, too, in my computer science classes: Nina, Charlie, and Hector.

Nina, who was a year older than me, asked me out halfway through winter quarter, but I rejected her because, even though I never voiced Heather and mine's relationship status, it was a given we were together.

Fortunately, Nina, unlike Berkeley, took the rejection well and we continued on with our friendship as if nothing happened. She's finishing her last quarter of pre-requisite courses before applying for admission into the computer science program, like Hector. Charlie, on the other hand, was already in the department like I was.

Ever since what happened to my sister, I've been contacting her regularly, just to make sure she hasn't run into any trouble yet—or ever. She and Watson broke up at least twice in the span of three months, but when spring break rolled around, and I returned home, she and him were just as "in love" as ever.