Carnations for Emily

Chapter 10: Returned Home (part 3)

When Emily had came back home for the autumn festival, she had ran to the store to get some crafty things for her and her mother.
Though on her way to the store she had bumped into a guy she had never met before. About her age maybe a year or two older. He looked like he hadn't been sleeping well.
The guy had bags underneath his ocean blue eyes, and his hair was the oddest style she had ever seen.
It was black around the top of his head but the ends of it were red as a rose.
Very strange.
Yet he seemed cute to her in some odd way.
Emily shook her head.
"I need to focus, mother asked me to grab art supplies as well as baking stuff too."
Emily's mom, Valerie, was an artsy kind of woman.
She spent a lot of her time creating all kinds of art. Sketches, paintings, even crafts.
It's something Emily sorta got from her.
Along with her artistic ability Emily also knew how to cook. Though her mom didn't teach her.
Her next door neighbor, Jill's mom, Hellen did.
Valerie and Hellen talked a lot, especially after Hellen's husband left her.
While she had Jill for company, Hellen did want a friend she could talk to too and Valerie was always there for support.
Emily thought about her own father then as she looked around the store for supplies.
She couldn't imagine her dad leaving them.
Though her mom and dad did fight every now and then it was never anything serious.
The two loved each other very much, and secretly Emily wished for a love like that some day...

"Ah! Focus!" Emily's face had turned red as she daydreamed of the future.
When she found all the items she needed, she paid then left the store heading back home.
As she walked through the autumn leaves, her mind wandered back to that boy she bumped into earlier.
"He somehow felt familiar..." Emily thought to herself.
Then her mind raced to the dreams she had been having.
"Could they be connected...?
No.
The boy in my dreams had black hair, and looked so happy.
This boy looked borderline depressed and his hair was more red than black."
Emily does feel like the boy she's been trying to learn about is here in her hometown though.
Somewhere.
Hopefully she'll find him before going back to Seattle in the next week.

"I'm home!" Emily proclaimed.
Her house was warm not just by the heater, but also with the love that filled the it.
That love always warmed her soul.
"Welcome back sweetheart, I hope the store wasn't too much trouble." Emily's dad, John, gave her a warm smile, and was sitting at the dining table reading the local newspaper.
"Where's mom?" Emily asked.
"Well, she's in her studio again.
Working on an art piece for the holidays." John had said.
Emily nodded to her father and walked up the stairs of her home and down the hall to the room on the left.
This room was big and spacious, full of art supplies and had a beautiful view.
This was Valerie's art studio she and Emily's father made when they moved here many years ago.
Emily could see her mother standing in front of the window.
She was clearly thinking to herself and trying to come up with a picture to paint.
"Mother, I'm back." Emily chimed.
"Ah, welcome back honey." Valerie was beautiful.
Emily got most of her looks from her.
Her auburn hair, fair skin, and warm smile.
Her eyes she got from her father.
"I've got all the things you asked for." Emily sat down a bag of art supplies for Valerie to sift through.
"Thanks dear." Valerie rubbed Emily's head.
"Oh and the baking supplies are down stairs." Emily said.
"Great!
We'll get to baking soon enough.
...just need to come up with a picture for the holidays..."
Valerie was a wonderful artist, but often had artist block.
Which for her was frustrating.
Emily always worried when that happened, for her mother would have fits and sometimes lay around doing nothing.
She worries that her mother's artist block would sometimes cause depression for her.
"Um, why don't we got make something to eat for now and you can come back to it later." Emily attempted to get Valerie away from the studio.
"Sure Em, why not." Valerie agreed.

Later on there was flour and bits of dough everywhere in the kitchen, but after a while Valerie and Emily together finally baked some delicious sweets for the holidays.
"I'm gonna go wash up and get ready to stay in." Emily said.
...
When Emily stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself, her mind wandered back and forth between the boy in her dreams
and the guy she met today.
Emily knows the boy in her dreams, Jack.
Yet the guy she met didn't seem like him.
So why did he feel so familiar!?
Emily shook her head again in frustration.
"Hmph." She puffed out her rosy red cheeks and trudged her way to her room.
Her bedroom had aquamarine walls with black polka dots.
Her mom painted her room for her, to this day she still likes the look.
Emily put on a pair of short shorts and a yellow tank top then laid down in her big soft bed.
"Jack...
I want to see you again...
I want to know you.
Remember you..." Emily began to shed tears.
To her there's a hole in her heart as well as her memory.