Can you Remember? #Wattys2016

Chapter 40: I Forgive You

"So are you ever going to talk about what happened last night?" Jadan asked me as we played a card game on the blow up mattress in Secret Spot. I had called her over as soon as I had gotten here with angry tears flowing down my face, and she's been here since. She stayed all night giving her mom some lame excuse that her unfocused mind bought, and she skipped school today to keep me company as I had away from the world.

"What is there to talk about? I told you what happened when I called you over," I told her shaking my head unsatisfied. My cards were complete shit, and I was never going to win against her.

"Not exactly," she says throwing her cards down in triumph meaning that she won yet again. "All you said when you called was that you and your parents got in an argument and that they wanted to ground you which inspired your runaway."

"No need to get sarcastic with me," I say handing her my cards so that she could shuffle the deck again.

"I just wanted to get all of the juicy details out of you. You know that that's how I am and all that," she says shuffling the cards and dealing them out again accordingly.

"Let's just say that they're up to their old tricks again," I tell her rolling my eyes taking another sip of my orange Kool-Aid that we made last night.

"You need me and the gang to go over there and knock some sense into them again or something?" she asks rolling up her sleeve and pretending to flex her guns.

"I'll keep that in mind for the future," I say laughing before her phone vibrates with an incoming text. She checks her phone causing a frown to cross her features.

"What's wrong with your face?" I ask her poling her cheek causing her to smile briefly before it reverts back and she lets out a groan.

"Nothing really. My mom just wants me to come back home and babysit my bratty little brother," she says rolling off of the mattress and slinging her overnight bag over her shoulder. "So I'll see you later then. Remember what we talked about though alright?"

"Aye Captain!" I say saluting her as she leaves. The thing she's talking about it to make amends with Aunt Heather since it has been a month since we last talked. I think she's right though because I've missed talking to her, and I wouldn't have kept going to Dr. Lori if we kept in touch. Maybe this puzzle would be easier to figure out if she were by my side helping me. No use regretting it now, but at least I can change it now.

"Hello," Aunt Heather says as soon as she answers her phone. I know she didn't look at her phone before answering because she would've greeted me like she normally does.

"Aunt Heather?" I ask not really sure what to start off saying to her since it has been so long.

"Kade?" she questions, "Is it really you calling? I didn't know when you'd call me again since you're mad at me."

"Yeah I know. Um about that, can we meet somewhere and talk?" I asked her timidly not sure of her feelings towards me as I yelled at her and ran out of the frozen yogurt place.

"Sure if you want to. You want to meet me at the park in the idle of town and sit at the swings like we used to?" she asked as I heard her grab her car keys off of a countertop in her apartment.

"That would be great. I'll see you in about ten minutes then," I tell her starting to put some of my things back into my two bags.

"See you soon then!" she says ending the call sounding extremely happy.

I went about putting things back into my bags to bring them with me when I go to meet Aunt Heather. Grabbing my phone and plugging in my ear buds, I used the bathroom quickly before leaving Secret Spot behind. Being without a car sometimes sucks when I need to go somewhere, but I luckily have music to block out my sense of time so that I don't feel the burden of not having a car.

Soon enough without even realizing it, I was at the park and walking to the swing set on the other side of the park. Aunt Heather was already there sitting on a swing looking around as she kicked her legs back and forth. When she saw me though, she stopped her movements and waved at me as she gave me a warm smile.

"How are you doing?" she asks as soon as I take a seat on the swing next to her.

"As good as I can be given the circumstances; and you?" I ask in return kicking up some dirt with my feet looking down.

"Guess we're in the same boat then," she says nodding and looking away also. An awkward silence settles over us as if we no longer know how to talk to each other. It stays this way for a few minutes before she decides to break the silence. "So anything interesting happen lately?"

"You can say that," I admit looking up and meeting her eyes, "I got a few small memories back, went on a date with Sage, started going to a therapist, oh and I also ran away from home, but life's like that I suppose."

"Wait what? You got a- wait, YOU RAN AWAY?" she sputters out in shock and raising her voice at the end after I dumped this on her.

"Yeah," I say sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment, "I got into an argument with my parents because they can't seem to get it through their thick skulls that I'm not some broken toy that can't be fixed."

"They're still going on about that? I heard that they were doing that to you, but I thought they would've gotten over that by now," Aunt Heather says a bit surprised with her eyebrows raised. I wonder where she heard that from, but I rather think about that later.

"Of course they are. You know how they are. Mom's the one who made me go see a therapist, but the only reason I keep going is because I don't have you to talk to. If I did, then maybe everything that seems confusing right now wouldn't be. Everything always makes sense when you're around," I say all in a rush almost blurring all of my words together making it almost impossible to tell the words apart. Aunt Heather just sits there for a moment taking in all the information.

"I'm sorry!" we both shout out at the same time.

"You go first," we say again at the same time pointing at each other. We take a moment to laugh at how silly we were being before we calmed down to talk.

"Really Kade, I'm super sorry. You being mad at me is all my fault. If I would've waited to tell you all of that instead of saying it so soon after coming out of the hospital, then you wouldn't have freaked out on me," she spills to me with tears coming into her eyes.

"No, I'm sorry. It's my fault. I asked you to tell me all of that junk, yet I still got mad at you. You were only doing what I asked. All I did was over react," I tell her with tears spilling from my eyes. She pulls me into a tight hug so that we can cry on each other's shoulders. We stay that way for awhile just letting the air around us ruffle our hair and listen to the swings creak as the wind blew by them.

"Hey Aunt Heather," I say with my voice muffled by her shoulders, "I forgive you. I don't think I was really mad at you though."

"I don't think you were either," she says breaking apart our hug and wiping away her tears.

"Everything is so confusing right now. I just don't know what to do or how to feel," I say with my tears still flowing even after I wipe them away.

"I can't imagine how you must feel right now," she says moving my hair away from my face. "So if you ran away from home, where are you staying then?"

"I stayed with Jadan last night," I tell her not necessarily lying to her since I did stay with Jadan.

"Well, would you like to stay with me at my place?" she asked helping me stand up and taking one of my bags.

"Sure."

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Author's Note: Can You Remember? finally reached 1k views!!! (party cannon goes off throwing confetti everywhere) We did it! Can we get to 1.5k? If you haven't checked my bio, you should because it has projects that I'm working on posting soon if you are curios for what's next once this ends. As always, I love you all! XOXO!

~jnicoleb1234 out!