Chances of That

Blast from the Past

The sun woke me up the next morning and the sound of the radio in the kitchen made me incredibly happy. Stating "It's due to be the hottest day of the year so far. So crack out those shorts ladies!"

I threw my covers off of the bed and jumped over to my curtains. I whipped them open and just looked at the sun with a giant smile on my face. This is gonna be a good day!

"Yo babessssss!" I shout down the phone, "Let's hit the mall!"

"I'm dressed and ready so I'll be at yours in 10!" She exclaimed and hung up on me.

I shoot up off my bed, threw on a cute white summer dress with white dolly shoes, grabbed my little handbag, keys, phone and money and ran downstairs, with the intent of eating breakfast, but finding my kitchen filled with the Harrison family.

"Oh Sophie! I'm so glad you're down, and dressed so beautifully, the boys are here to spend the day." I look past my mum who's standing in the kitchen doorway and see Josh, Ava ... and Peter, all standing around my kitchen.

Peter seems to just be staring at me with his mouth open, but not in a 'omg you're so hot' kind of way, more in a 'omg, what have you done!' kind of way.

"Erm ... Do I have to? I mean I'm supposed to be going out with Olive today."

My mum simply laughs and says "You can still go out! Just take the boys with you!" Then she picks up her mug of tea and guides Ava into the lounge.

Josh is just leaning against the side board with a smug, dirty boy smile on his face, "Hey babe, how's it going?" He makes his way over to me and wraps his arms around my waist.

My eyes shift to Peter, he looks hurt for about 2 seconds flat and then his face went back to the emotionless expression I saw the first day he arrived.

I push Josh off me tenderly at first, until i realise he isn't letting go for love nor money.

"Josh?" I keep pushing him away with one hand, "Josh?!" I use both my hands, pushing him away with all the force I can muster while he continues to tighten his grip around me. "Josh, can you let go.. LET GO!" And then he's gone and I fall to the floor right on my butt, to find Josh pinned up against the fridge door by none other than Peter.

"Wasn't enough that you stole her from me all these years I was away, but now you try and do it right in front of my face! Every time I came down to stay you told me she was on holiday, or she was on a school trip, or visiting her family! This couldn't have been the case for every single time I came down here. You just wanted her all to yourself like you always have." He dropped Josh onto the floor, turned around, picked me up using my hands and walked me outside to the tree between our houses.

He climbed up it instantly. Finding the correct groves to put his hands into, pulling himself up effortlessly, and then sitting right in the middle of the trunk.

"Come on." He said, barely even looking at me.

"No, I can't. I'm going out in a minute and I don't want to get my dress dirty." I say trying to make his eyes look at me.

A feeling of deja vu hits me hard.

He must feel it too because he gives out a slight laugh, looks up at the sky and says "Come on Soph, you're not 8 any more, you're mum's not going to kill you if you get a little bit dirty."

I turn around and look up and down the road, for any signs of Olive so that I could make a break for it from this awkward situation.

I absentmindedly reach into my purse and take out my father's penny, flip it in the air and watch it fall to the floor.

Heads.

Climb the tree it is.

So I hitch up my skirt, kick off my dolly shoes and climb that tree like a pro.

Once up the tree I sit right next to him, like I did all those years ago.

"So what were you talking about in the kitchen with Josh?" I put on a deep manly voice pretending to be him "You just want her to yourself. What was that all about?" He smiles and lets out a little chuckle.

"I don't know man, he got me mad. Plus, you must know he's always been like stupidly in love with you, ever since we were little kids. Like that time he threw me in the pool at your 8th birthday party! It was because I was hugging you saying Happy Birthday and he got jealous."

I look at him shocked! "Are you kidding me?" Pete laughs and shakes his head.

"No, I'm serious! He's had the biggest crush on you since we were little! Which is why I was so surprised when you dumped him the other day. I would've thought he'd treat you like an absolute princess." His tone dropped towards the end of this sentence.

"Well, Lord knows he didn't."

Peter finally looked at me when I said this. And once he looked into my green eyes, it seemed he couldn't look away.

"You haven't changed one bit, you know that?" He smiles and I have a flashback of the little, skinny kid that loved me so much.

"Surely that's a bad thing!" I say trying to lighten the mood that has suddenly turned very serious.

"No, it's a great thing." He says still smiling.

"Well, you've changed alot you know, like you have a motorbike and muscles ... stuff." Peter's looking at me so intently that I can't even finish the train of thought that I was voicing.

His head leans in closer to mine, and I find myself leaning in towards him too.

"What's going on here?" A girly very Olive-like voice sounds through the tree.

I panic and find myself falling through the air and right onto my back on the green between our houses.