Once Upon An Us (Completed)

Chapter twenty nine

It had been long since I visited our old neighborhood, mom and I had moved in with my uncle and Damien weeks ago and now today was making it a month since we left, left behind all our past and pains, it was meant to be a new start for us — mom and I, we were going to forget all the pain, Toby, dad, Casper — everything. But here I was back to the beginning.

As I knocked on the old brown door I wondered if Mrs. Jones still lived here — Casper’s mom. What if she had wanted to escape it all too? But when the door opened to me a familiar set of weary eyes I knew she hadn’t. The dark circles under her eyes said a lot, she didn’t look well at all, the once vibrant Mrs. Jones now looked tired, face wrinkled and unkempt. It was like she suffered the effect even more than all of us.

“Paige” she seemed shocked to see me, I was even shocked to be here but here I was, standing in front of her — ready to listen, ready to forgive, ready to heal.

“Can I come in?” I asked politely, and she nodded leading me in. the house was in a better state than her, it was still tidy and like how I remembered but now it was just empty, no life, no joy.

“I never expected to see you here again, would you like a cup of coffee?” she asked but I declined — politely, the doctor had mentioned that in my current state coffee wasn’t good for me — caffeine in general, but it wasn’t like I came here to have tea and biscuit.

“How is Casper doing?” I felt unworthy to ask this question because it had all been my fault but I still had to ask it anyway.

“He is alive, but he isn’t, he just stares blankly at nothing, he hasn’t said a word since then, he doesn’t even look at me” Mrs. Jones wept and I felt so bad for her, no matter what Casper was her son.

“His dad and I knew he wasn’t stable, knew he was having problems, but we just ignored it, we wanted to pretend like nothing was wrong and turned a blind eye to it, we never knew with each year he was just getting worst and worst. The psychologist said he had formed an ego of himself, a different personality, a mask he wanted to be, it was his way of handling the issue, perfect grades, perfect everything but a broken soul and when you broke his heart it was like that perfect world had shattered, the mask was off” she paused, trying to catch her breath, trying to hold back the tears.

“I'm so sorry Paige, I'm sorry for what he did to you, he didn’t mean to, we had created a beast, and we had forgotten to cage it from the world, we let it out and it hurt you” Mrs. Jones continued, and then she went on her knees, my eyes bulged out, I didn’t want her to. I couldn’t bear to see her like that I tried my best to raise her on her feet, but she just kept on begging me

“…please help my son” and it broke my heart. I got home much sadder than I expected, I had already made up my mind to visit Casper the next day, I really felt so bad for Mrs. Jones, yes Casper took me by force, out of my own will, but he was sick and resenting him wouldn’t take me anywhere.

***
Today was the day Brandon and I had been waiting for, Ella and Damien had kind of been kicking things off a bit they weren't a couple or anything but I wanted them to be.

So Brandon and I invited them for our camping trip, we thought it would be Nice like a double date and I didn't want to be the only one screaming at the sight of every bug at least Ella would scream with me.

“So your uncle lets you drive his car?” Brandon was talking to Damien, he was in the front seat with him, while Ella and I were at the back.

Ella had been giving me this funny dreamy eyes I'm sure it had something to do with Damien it was nice to see her all cute up for a boy, plus Damien was a really great guy.