Tangled Strings

Chapter 17

I purposely brought Ashley to the woods because it would be more quiet, peaceful and alone. But the expression on her face was priceless. She was so scared, frightened as if at any time a tiger would come and eat her alive.

"In the woods!!" I said in a heavy voice and saw her cringe at that.

"Don't worry, I'll be here to protect you." I said winking and put my arm around her shoulder which she swatted away quite quickly. We walked into the woods and Ashley held on to my hand for her dear life. Not that I mind.

"If I die here, Bryan, I swear I'm gonna haunt you the rest of your life." she said taking out her phone and entering her code name on the website page. After a while a location popped up on her screen.

As we started following the path according to the map on the GPS, I said, "Hey, can you sing 'My Church' again? I love to hear your unaware, unconscious and carefree voice."

"You mean my croaky-like-a-frog voice, right?"

"Actually, yes. I was just putting it in a gentlemanly way." For this I got a slap on my upper arm and I laughed.

"I'll sing only if you sing along with me!"

"Sure."

"Can I get a hallelujah? Can I get an Amen?" she started and motioned me to go on.

"Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya, as I play the highway FM." I continued.

"I find my soul revival—"

"Singing every single verse." I completed.

"Yeah, I guess that's My Church!" We both ended the chorus laughing like maniacs. At least we both can tolerate our out-of-tune, croaky voices! We walked a little further and there we found our first geocache container. A blue box with 'Official Geocache' printed on it. We opened it and Ashley filled in the date and signed it off with her code name. She didn't take the item present there.

"I guess, I don't want to lose any sentimental item here." she said, looking at the beautiful anklet placed inside the box.

"It's okay. Let's move on."

On the way to our next cache, Ashley popped up the question of how I was doing after The Divorce. God, I wanted to tell her. I wanted to tell her everything, from my sleepless nights to my distracted mind, from my self-conscious attitude to their unconscious comments. I wanted to tell her everything and I did. I told her how much my Mother loved that man, I told her how much he meant to my mom and how easily he cut loose all the perfectly tied ends. I told her everything I'd been keeping inside me. I told her how it broke me seeing my mom like this, how Meghan and I had pledged never to see that man again who made our mother suffer so much.

She gave me that kind of sideways glance that I melted right into her extraordinarily grey eyes. I could neither sense pity nor sympathy. All I saw in those grey clouds was a mixture of hope and respect. Those soft eyes spoke everything, she didn't need to say anything. She was hopeful that I'd overcome this and she respected me for all that I've gone through alone till now. Telling her everything felt so natural and easy, I didn't have to give it a second thought. She felt like my safe haven. I didn't need to go anywhere else.

"What about you, Bryan? You told me what your Mom feels, what she's going through, what you feel seeing her. But what about you? How do you feel about this whole thing?"

I kept quiet. She knew she had tugged the string closest to my heart. But she wanted me to let it out. She wanted me to unburden myself.

I remember when I was seven and I wanted a swing in our yard. I insisted and cried and insisted to buy a swing set for me, Father bought me that swing. We both used to play in the yard and after sometime he would swing me. He used to be so nice and caring, he loved us. Then, when I was nine and I didn't want to go for summer camp, Dad told all the reasons why I shouldn't stay at home. And I had the best time there. Then when I was twelve, Dad took me to his club and taught me shooting and archery there. I was a quick learner and grasped all the tiny details I was told about each type of gun and each style to swing a bow and arrow. I loved him for doing all that. Deep down I still love him but the hurt and anger has overpowered that little speck of love I had for my father. Mom doesn't want us to lose our father. She wants us to love him like before. But she doesn't understand, it takes time. A lot of time, to think, comprehend and act. It's not that simple. Till today, I didn't even know I loved my father even now, Ashley helped me recognize it. I was grateful to her for that. God, I loved her so much. So damn much. She's always been there like an angel, watching over me, helping me, pushing me when I needed it. And I loved her for that.

We had reached another one of our geocaches. Ashley hastily filled the logbook with the date and signed it off with the code name. I hadn't realised I had tears in my eyes till now. I took a deep breath, trying to absorb all the wetness. Ashley reached for my hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. I looked at her and saw her eyes had welled up too. I pulled her in for a hug. I really needed it. It was really warm and comforting. I closed my eyes and tried to steady my breathing while Ashley rubbed my back slowly and comfortingly. When I pulled back, she had a lovely smile on her face, which I too reciprocated.

"Ready to move on?" she asked.

"Yeah. I am." I replied and we moved ahead on our paths.

"How is Edward?" I asked her, the sudden thought in my mind forming a question on its own.

"He's been doing great. Today was a surprise day for me because he disclosed his plan of leaving smoking, drugs, alcohol and going back to how he was before."

"I'm so happy to hear this, Ash. That's so good! I mean, I always knew Edward would come around. But, you have to be there for him. It's not easy leaving drugs and all, it depresses a person, you always need to be there to help him and control him. It's not easy. For him. And for you."

"What should I do?"

"I think you reduce the intake. Drugs, of course, need to stop instantly, but allow him to drink alcohol when he really needs to, and smoke a little to ease away his tension. Or else he'll find means to get what he wants."

"Yeah I get that. Thanks."

"Thanks! That's an alien word to me! Not sure what it means, though!"

She chuckled in her melodious kind of way, that no one else could copy. How do you even make that sound?

"Dude, you're totally whipped!" my conscience told me.

"Yeah, bruh, I know!"I replied back to it.

As we reached the fourth geocache, it was getting dark. I checked my watch, about ten minutes to eight. We were walking in comfortable silence, hopping over twigs and skipping muddy pools. I saw a squirrel rush past me and climb to the top of a tree with its nut. We kept walking and walking, while it kept growing darker and darker.

"I think we should get going." I suggested.

"Yeah, me too."

"Come on, let's leave the game here. The last thing I want to do here is fight a wolf." I joked.

I dropped Ashley home at about half past eight while I reached home ten minutes later. I ate dinner and shared my fun with Mom and Meghan, making something up to entertain them. I was so freaking tired that I just changed into my lowers groggily and retired to bed. Half-asleep, I picked up my phone and sent a text to Ashley.

Me: Had a great time. ;)

Ashley: Me too, Bryan. Me too. :) Goodnight, Bry.

Me: You too, Ash. You too. ;)

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A/N Hi! *hides in a corner before anyone yells*

I know I had to update earlier, but when I returned from Kolkata, I had a load of work to do 'cause I had missed my classes... Soooo, I didn't get the time to upload a chapter...

And when the vacations started I had to go for Umrah (if anyone knows what that is)... Actually, it's one of the two religious trips that Muslims go for to Saudi Arabia... So I was out of the country for 27 days, to be exact... And all my projects were incomplete, well I hadn't even started working on them... Soo.. You know I got a lot late... I'm sorry...

So that was my sob story... I'm sorry if I bored you out... But I'm sure the chapter wouldn't have... If you liked it, vote for it and comment anything you want!!

PS- Dedication to the writer of A Note A Day... Seriously I love Teddy, he can be so so sooo cute!! Why can't these boys exist in real life, it's so depressing! -_-

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Love,
Anshara.❤