Forehead Kisses (ONGOING)

Part Fourteen

     I sat in the table. Everyone was eating, even Victoria. She's sitting next to me now, looking down at her covered thighs. I can feel her smiling beside me because I can't stop smiling myself. I'm home and Victoria's awake for almost a month. I didn't really care if anyone never informed me but at least she's here beside me. I looked at everybody's face one by one, taking a mental picture of them. 

     Tommy had the most tremendous transformation so far. He's my cousin. Timothy Damont, Uncle Jack's son. Uncle Jack owns a plantation and a ranch somewhere in Texas. I forgot where. His wife, Lily, works in a call center. She comes home at dinner. Todd, on the other hand, is Victoria's fiancee. He's sitting on Victoria's left side while I sit on her right. He's in charge of feeding her. They always made a cute couple. Victoria always had mom's blue eyes. Todd has green. I always think about what their child would look like. Would it have blue eyes? Green? Bluish green? Or is it Greenish blue? Todd's golden hair? Or Victoria's dark brown? Todd's slightly brown skin? Or Victoria's fair tone?

     Victoria would always wonder the same way when it was me and Scott. But there wasn't much to ponder upon. We both had ordinary brown eyes, brown hair, fair skin color... she would always tease me saying something like "Would it be Elizabeth's ugly face? Or Scott's beautiful and clean face? Elizabeth's annoying attitude? Or Scott's calm and cool demeanor? Elizabeth's messed up boyish personality? Or the awesome Scott's organized style? I wonder..."

     Me and Scott. That was us. Different. But we fell in love with each other anyway... until he got the cancer and stopped his treatment. Getting treatments just prolonged death, he said. Either way, he'd still die. He promised to keep fighting 'til his last breath. He promised. He promised and he broke it. I wanted him to fight but he gave up. I never wanted him to lose hope, that he could survive this, for him, for me, for us. But he just shut me out. He said he'll never leave me when I had no one because I literally had no one. Victoria went back to college and Joshua got deranged and the rest of the family never knew me as well as Scott did. 

     But he just gave up. Just like that.

     I often find myself adoring Granma and Granpa. Granma was a cancer patient back in their early days but Granpa never left her like I never left Scott. Granma was at the verge of losing hope but he was always there. "To be her strength, to be her motivation, and to love me for a little longer of course," he said once. And here they are. Wearing their golden wedding rings. Had kids and grandkids. Living a happily ever after. This... right here... could've been us.

     Once I finished breakfast, I went to unpack in my room. Retty woke up at exactly noon and went out to tour herself around the neighborhood. Dinner came and I just finished unpacking. Trudging down the stairs, I noticed it was quiet. Too quiet. Everyone was a the dining room then, I guess. When I got there, I was ambushed by everyone with a birthday song. Everybody was clapping and singing and Victoria was there, holding a red velvet cake topped with one candle. She kept smiling at me until the song was done.

     "What are you standing there for? Come and blow your candle!" Aunt Annie said with delight. But I stood in place, letting all of this sink to me. "You didn't forget your birthday, didn't you?" she asked, approaching me. I shook my head. "How could I ever forget my birthday?"

     I just did.

    Everyone started to dig in when someone started knocking the door. Tommy went to get it. Moments later, Tommy joined us back in the table, smiling. "Hey, Liz." Retty waved, amplifying her smile to a point where I get weirded out. So she was the one at the door.

      "What are you up to?" I narrowed my eyes on her. 

     "Nothing." She took her seat. "By the way, I borrowed your three-footed camera stand."

     "You mean my tripod."

     "Yeah, that." she said, scooping some spaghetti. "I didn't know how to fold it back so I left it there... by the door...  with your boyfriend."

     Boyfriend?