Forever Mine

Chapter 1.

A warm hand grips my shoulder, shaking lightly. "Hope." the calming voice of my grandmother says. "Hope wake up." She shakes my shoulder a bit harder. I peel my eyes open and stretch. "Good nap?" She asks opening the trunk grabbing my bags. I chuckle.

"As good of a nap I can get being in the front seat of a clown car." I joke nudging her slightly. "Just kidding, actually it was some of the best sleep I've gotten since.." I divert my eyes, trailing off. "Anyways how long was I out?" I ask. She quietly wakes my sister before opening the trunk, grabbing our belongings.

"The whole ride actually. I was a bit surprised I know you almost never nap." She grabs a few bags and heads for the front door. Before my grandmother takes the first stair the door swings open revealing Duke. I watch silently as he takes the bags from her and kisses her forehead before retreating back through the entrance.

Destiny follows my gaze and smiles. "Cute right? I'm glad Gammy found someone that can make her happy." Her smile fades and she looks at her feet clearly think of our parents. I grab her and pull her in a tight hug. Her muscles relax and she lets out a deep breath. "We're gonna be okay right?" She asks pulling away slightly. I nod reassuringly even though I have no clue if my answer will be true. After a few second I let out a light chuckle I had been holding in. "Are you laughing at me?" Destiny asks swatting my arm.

"No of course not." I say bursting into a fit of laughter. Her hand connect with my shoulder once more, but I continue laughing. I shake my head, controlling myself. "Gammy?" I ask beginning to laugh again. She rolls her eyes and grabs a box.

"What's so funny about calling her Gammy? That's her name isn't it?" She huffs.

"Whoa. Major attitude. We haven't called her that since we were like seven, but I was just joking lighten up." I say lightly nudging her shoulder. She rolls her eyes but chuckles.

I take a deep breath. This is gonna be rough. Destiny is a year and a half older than me, but the death of our parents had made her loose her admirable maturity. Grandma and Duke head back outside to grab the rest of things. "Destiny and I got most of them, but there's still only a few boxes." I say as I pass them.

"Okay sweetie. You know where to go." Duke says as I turn. It bothers me that he assumes I know my way having been here two other times. It bothers me even more that he assumes correctly. I stand in awe of the grand staircase in the foyer. Had it gotten bigger in the past four years or was it just me?

"Hope?" Destiny calls from her room. I follow her voice to her room. Nothing has changed, the same comforter still lays neatly on the bed. My sister turns and looks at me, worry filling her eyes. I immediately see what is upsetting her. Sitting on the windowsill of her room is the doll that belonged to my mother. The same doll that was the star of all her childhood stories we used to hear. The curled auburn hair and the pink lace dress looks exactly as she had described it years ago. A tear slips and falls slowly down my cheek. I swipe it away before Destiny catches it. I swiftly walk over and grab it. Not paying attention I run into Duke on my way to get rid of the doll.

"What's this?" He asks his accent thicker than I remember. His eyes fall as he takes the doll from behind my jacket. With his eyes closed he looks very youthful. "Uh.." he starts but is cut off by my grandma.

"What are you doing with that doll?" She snaps ripping it from dukes fingers looking back and forth between us both. She hugs it tightly to her chest and smells the dolls wig. I look at Duke and we both cringe. She exhales and loosens her hold on the doll. "This." she takes another deep breath. "Was your mothers" she explains and I nod pretending to absorb the information as if it was new. "Were you going to destroy it?" she asks on the verge of tears. I violently shake my head. Her eyes are a mix of sorrow and something else. Anger? She pulls me out of thought and motions for me to explain.

I gesture to Destiny's hunched body on the bed. "She saw the doll and got upset. She ins't the same since everything happened. She has still only made a small amount of progress. It triggered something in her, and I was just trying not to loose her again like we did before." My voice dies down as I look back up. Her eyes have changed slightly. Regret clouds them hopefully from the way she just reacted.

"I'm sorry, It's just." Duke puts his arms around her and squeezes lightly. "This is the last thing I have of your mother's besides you two of course." she says quietly. "I don't ever want to loose her. Never again." She says hugging the doll once more. I smile at her and walk back into my sister's room. She has taken off her converse and placed them next to the door like she used to. I smile and grab the suitcase from the foot of her bed. Inside is filled with the same sweaters and jeans. I neatly hang them in the closet and begin putting her books away.

"Stop." Destiny's quiet voice says. "I'll put those away. I'll put the rest of it away too. Go work on your room and stop worrying about me. You're starting to get worry lines." She says traces her finger across a crease in my forehead before taking the two books from my hands and pushing me out the door. As soon as the lock clicks I feel the weight being lifted off my chest.

I smile brightly as I walk to my room. The smile is quickly wiped away when I see the boxes and suitcases that I have yet to put away. I groan and look at my phone. 6:13. I spend all my time making sure my older sister is okay I forget about myself.  I open my closet and start putting all my clothes away. I'm halfway through my second suitcase when my phone begins playing Sweet But Psycho. I grab my phone and launch myself onto my new bed simultaneously screaming. Clara face appears and the sound of her screams fills the room. I turn the volume down and smile.

"OH MY GOD!" she screams. "Wait you look different. I haven't seen you in like ten hours and you look like a totally different person. What did you do with my best friend?" We both start laughing. Her dinosaur laugh makes us both laugh even harder. There is only one person that can make me laugh hard enough to snort and that is Clara. "Haha, there's that gross snorting." I roll my eyes and flip her off.

"So how has Seaside been without me?" I ask trying to hide my being homesick. I miss how every time I closed my eyes my nostrils were swarmed with the scent of salt water.

"Don't start. It's already hard enough and I don't need you to start crying." she laughs.

"Why you don't wanna cry with me?" I pout before bursting in a fit of laughter again.

"No, well yes. Forget about it. Now are you scared?"

I know exactly what she's asking. She isn't asking about my new school or the people. She's asking about my sister. I nod. "It'll be fine though. Surprisingly I'm already seeing some change in her. Although I think having my grandma being around isn't gonna help much." I shrug.

She can sense how it makes me uncomfortable thinking about it. "What about Colson? Have you seen him yet?" she asks wiggling her eyebrows. I roll my eyes and gag.

"Ugh no, thank god."

"What I though you liked him." she sings. " Hope and Colson sitting in a tree." she starts.

"Shut up Clara." I say laughing.

"Okay okay, but seriously you never did finish telling me. All you said was that he was your old neighbor and you were like in love, but something happened and then you moved here." She says leaning closer to the phone. I shake my head.

"That's it." I chuckle. "Honestly, and I wasn't in love. It was just a small crush, but I heard he's really changed."

"Do you believe it?" she asks.

He couldn't possibly have changed. He has to be the same Colson that he was when I left. The rumors of his arrests and getting kicked out of multiple schools can't be true. I won't let it be true. "No." I finally say. She changes the subject and talks about how popular I have to be, and other high school cliques. After a while I fall asleep on FaceTime with her. Even asleep I can hear her calling my name trying to wake me up.