Waiting For You

Chapter Twenty-eight

"Souls tend to go back to who feels like home".

~N. R. Heart

Alex

Two days after Aurora's birthday was Hunter and mine's fifth-month anniversary. Sadly, due to the fact that we had been skipping school rather often, we couldn't skip today.

"So, my place?" Hunter asked me during a break, while we were planning our evening.

"Yeah?" I replied not sure about it myself. Normally, we planned on doing something more interesting on our anniversaries, but not this time. "Sure, around five in the afternoon?"

I heard him hum in my mind agreeing and my attention snapped back to my friends. Or rather Don, who had been telling me something.

"... so are you in?" Don was asking me.

"Yeah, totally," I answered, having no clue what he was talking about.

"Great, then we'll meet at my place around ten this Friday. We thought about doing something small, so not many people will be there," he went on to say.

This Friday? Right, this Friday was his and Beth's one-year anniversary! They had been thinking about throwing a small party for it. Had they finally agreed to do this?

"Something small like...?" I dragged out, watching as he was searching for Beth in the crowd.

"It will be us, you, Vicky, Matt and a couple more friends. Not over twenty people," Don said as we reached our friends.

"Great, I'll be there," I assured him.

Even though Hunter and I had agreed on nothing special, I felt the need to do something for him. Having him cry in my arms the other day had taken its toll on me, despite the fact that I didn't show it. So, I was currently going through our buffet in the hallway. I was sure we had them somewhere here.

"Mom!" I called out to her, who was cooking in the kitchen, "Mom, do you remember where we put our chalk?"

"Chalk? It must be somewhere here in the kitchen," she replied, over the sound of water boiling. Rising up, I went to the kitchen to find her. With her foot, she tapped the last drawer near the oven. "In here".

"What are you cooking?" I asked her opening up the drawer and going through all the things, trying to find the chalk.

"Roasted duck with pasta," she replied as she threw the pasta in the water. "What do you need the chalk for?"

"Oh, nothing important... Don is planning this get-together Friday night and he wanted it," I said dismissively.

"So, you're not free Friday night? It's the christening of Savannah's daughter," she replied.

"Yeah, I won't make it," I said.

"Well, we will be out of town with Chris for it. But we'll return Saturday afternoon, so we can go to church Sunday morning," she said and turned to look at me. Having found the colorful chalk, I went and climbed onto the kitchen counter next to her. "Will you come with us to church?" she asked while pushing back a strand of hair that was falling on my eyes.

"Yeah, about that..." I began, scratching the back of my head, "if I tell you something, can you promise you won't get angry with me?" I asked, searching for her gaze. She shed me a sweet smile, urging me to go on.

"I promise I won't get angry," she said and placed a hand on my cheek.

"I have kind of, eh... lost my faith". Her smile began to fade and she let out a deep breath.