Pink {H.S.}

Chapter Eight

I lay in bed that night, thinking about how much I had enjoyed that afternoon. We had played the question game for a while longer as we sat in the cozy shop. I found out that we both shared a love for corny jokes and the Broadway musical “Wicked.”I also found out that she hated bananas and –for whatever possible reason- liked “Downtown Abby”. She was also obsessed with a show called “Doctor Who”, which I had never seen before. And that was how it was decided that our second date would be spent at her house watching that show.

“Daddy?” I was pulled from my thoughts as a small voice called out from my bedroom door. I sat up to see Jase there, his blond hair a mess and his right hand tightly holding a bear.

“Yeah baby?” I ask, every terrible scenario that had could have happened running through my head. “Are you hurt? Do you need help?” I throw the covers off of myself, crossing the room in three steps and instantly picking him up, checking for any hurt spots.

“No daddy. I had a bad dream.” He says, to which I blow out a sigh of relief. I mean, of course it’s terrible that he had a nightmare, but it was a million times better than what had been running through my head. I kept him in my arms and crossed back over to the bed, setting him down before sitting on the edge beside him.

“Do you wanna tell Daddy about it?”

He nods, his hair bouncing. “It was about Mummy. Mummy was back, but it wasn’t her. She talked funny, and she looked really sad. It made me sad to see her like that Daddy.” I wrap my arms around the small child, kissing the top of his head.

“Do you want to sleep in Daddy’s bed?” I ask, to which he nods in reply. I lay down on the bed, pulling the covers on top of us as he crawls in beside me.

In a matter of minutes, I hear Jase’s breathing even out, and I begin to drift off to sleep too, looking forward to the oncoming sleep, something that I had been deprived of lately.

*~*~*~*

In the morning, I wake up before Jase, which is a rare luxury, and so I decide to make the most of it by heading to the kitchen, and turning on the stove to make pancakes. I’ve just finished mixing the batter when I hear my phone go off in the next room, and so I set the bowl on the counter. I pick up the phone on the fourth ring, and hear a relieved sigh when I do.

“Were you afraid I wasn’t going to answer?” I ask, amused as I know it’s Delilah from the ringtone. The minute I had gotten home from our date last night, I had changed it to the noise of the TARDIS materializing. I had no idea what it meant, however I knew that it was from Doctor Who, and so I used that so that I would know it was her calling.

“Well I wasn’t sure. I was worried that it’d go to voicemail and I’d have to leave a message, which I’m absolutely horrible at.” Her feminine voice says from the other end, cheery as ever. I cradle the phone between my ear and shoulder as I walk back to the kitchen, pouring part of the mix into the pan and sitting on a chair near the stove.

“Well you really didn’t need to worry. I would never miss a chance to talk to you.” I say, hoping right away that that didn’t come off as clingy.

“Likewise. I just called because I realized that yesterday, we planned our next date, but we never set a day.”

“How about next Saturday? Jase’s grandparents are dying to see him next weekend anyway, so I could drop him off with them in the morning and we could spend the day together.”

“Yeah, that sounds great!” Her smile is audible through the phone as she agrees

I flip over the half cooked pancake as I think of what to say next. “So how’s work?” I settle on finally, hating that I couldn’t think of anything better to say.

I hear her giggle on the other end of the line before she replies. “Fine. How’s your writing? Can I expect any new books soon?”

“Well, I’ve been working on one that’s supposed to be finished within the week, but I’m not sure when that’ll be out.”

“What’s this one about? A daring adventure? A romantic comedy?” She guesses, taking gasps between every one.

“No it’s uh, it’s a book of short stories.”

“About?”

“About. About Amanda.” I force the words out, willing myself not to cry. I still think about her. A lot. And it still hurts me, every single time. Really, it was torture writing the book, but I needed a way to get all the thoughts in my head organized, and that was the best way.

“Oh.” She answers simply from the other end of the phone. “How’s it been coming along?”

“It’s uh, it’s kind of been hard to write honestly. It’s like, I want to write it, but I feel like if I finish it, then that’s it. That’s the end, and I’ll really be letting Amanda go forever. Like if I finish it, I’ll be finished with all my memories of her.” My voice cracks at the end of what I’m saying, and I use my free hand to rub the tears out of my eyes. “Sorry it’s just, it’s still hard to talk about, you know? Even after all this time.” I didn’t know why I was telling her about all of this, I just felt like if I didn’t talk to someone about it soon, I’d burst.

“It’s fine, it’s really fine. I went through the same thing a few years ago. Kind of. It was with my brother, but you get the point.”

“Oh Delilah, I’m so sorry! I never realized.”

‘It’s fine, how could you have? I don’t like to talk about it. It makes it eaiser.”

“I admire how strong you are about this. I hope I’m like you one day.”

“How long ago was it?” she asks, her voice dripping curiosity.

“About a year ago now.” I say, swallowing hard.

“Well Harry, I promise you one thing. It will get better, and I will help you. You just need to trust me, one hundred percent.”

*~*~*~*

Sorry that this has taken me so long to write, but I had absoultly no motivation to do it and have been super busy with school as I got behind for reasons and have had to work really hard to catch back up and have had no free time whatsoever. Anyway, I'm back with this chapter, but am warning that I'm still behind and so don't expect an update soon. Thank you so much to whoevers stayed with me this long, I love you all to the moon and back.

Edited: 30/7