I Hope It Rains Marshmallows ❤

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Meet Matthew Roberts

~Alyssa~

4 years later

“Seth, hurry up will you? Why are you so damn slow?” I yelled out to him, where he was just a tiny spec amongst the big crowd.

Seth hurried to my side, lugging all the luggage behind him. Catching his breath, he replied, shooting me daggers. “Well that’s because I’m old—er.” He then rolled his eyes at me.

“That explains a lot.” I smirked, reaching out to carry a sleepy Jayden up. He immediately dozed off on my shoulder.

“And I would have been much faster if you would have helped me carry some of these luggage.” He pointed out, patting the heap of luggage we had. We were finally moving back to New York after four years.

I sucked in a great intake of air, faking my shocked look. “You’re asking a woman to do all this dirty work for you? I’m utterly completely horrified Seth.” I blinked my eyes innocently at him.

“You’re being such a sexist, Al.” He ruffled my hair, grinning widely. And yes, he calls me Al, his preference, not mine. Nowadays, I hardly hear my actual name being called; it’s either Al or Asher. I’m really certain one of these days someone will shout Alyssa, and I won’t even turn my head to look. I’ll probably forget my name was actually Alyssa.

“And you’ll love me all the same.” I smiled back at him, straightening my hair.

“Yeah right. Don’t you dare make use of my love for you to do your dirty chores. One day, you’ll regret not appreciating my love. When you see all those New York girls fawning over me, I’m absolutely sure you’ll get jealous.” He joked, lifting his nose in the air proudly.

“Ew, no way! You’re like…fifty.” I rolled my eyes at him, cringing up my nose. “What’s more you’re my cousin. I’ll never fall in love with you, dream on.”

“Says the person who’s heads over heels in love with her brother.” He sing-songed, avoiding my glaring eyes.

“I am not in love with Cole!” I widened my eyes in utter bewilderment.

“Uh-huh.” He gave me a flat look. “You’ve been staring at your phone for four years, waiting for him to call. You know he’s never going to call. He’s probably forgotten about you.”

Anger bubbled within me as I quickly retorted back. “He has not! There’s probably…bad signals there.” My voice trailed off, as I bit my lip. Seth was right, I have been waiting for Cole to call for almost every day, but that little bubble of hope has popped and disappeared. Maybe Cole has really forgotten about me, he’s switched phones, and I haven’t even been able to tell him about the car accident my parents got into.

“Mmhm, bad signals in England huh.” Seth deadpanned, raising a cynical eyebrow.

I punched him in the arm. “Shut up. The gates are almost closing. Let’s just get going.”

“Okay, Ms. Grumpy pants, whatever makes you happy.” He pinched my cheeks before heading for the departure hall.

I winced, remembering the times Cole used to call me that. I’ve really missed his voice, and in fact, I’ve really missed him.

~*~*~

“This is the pilot here. We’re landing in New York in five minutes. Please buckle up your seat belts. Temperatures out there are ranging from 25-30 degrees. I hope you had a nice time on America Airlines. We look forward to serving you again.” The shaky voice of the pilot slowly drifted off as the little button indicating ‘buckle seatbelts” lit up.

“Finally.” Seth stifled a yawn, sliding the window up to take in the view of New York.

For the past four years, Seth, Jayden and I had moved to California. Seth agreed with my guidance counselor that I needed to move to a new environment to settle down with a new life, to forget all the tragedies that happened in New York. Until I was “mentally stable” at least. After I learnt about Mrs. Jones’ betrayal to my family, and the deaths of my parents as well as Cole’s departure, I broke down physically and psychologically. I was like a living zombie, and Seth knew he had to do something.