And When He Is Here // hayes grier

Chapter 34

↠Hayes

I stepped out my front door and looked over a new addition added to the for sale sign.

Sold.

I got up the courage to see if they needed any help packing. I haven't talked to anyone in that family in over week. When I got over there the front door was already open. I knocked on the open door anyway to tell them I was coming in. "Hi sweetie, she's up in her room." Jean smiled. I took note of that and walked up the spiral staircase for the last time. I made my way down the hallway that used to have many pictures in frames hanging on the light green walls. When I finally appeared in B's room I saw her taking down her picture wall and making two separate piles on the desk she's written at so many times.

"Uh... hey" I said awkwardly leaning against her door frame. I've done this so many times and it kills me to know I'll be doing it for the last time.

She whipped around and found me. She looked shocked and I can imagine why. "Hey" she smiled, "I was just taking down this masterpiece." She put air quotes around masterpiece but I wasn't sure why.

"Oh come on, you used to love your picture wall. You've spent months making this and every time you got a new picture you couldn't wait to put it up here." She sighed and looked back at it.

"Well, it appears that this is a timeline."

"Yeah you spent days trying to get the time right and you said that one day it would-" I stopped and realized something.

"It would what?" she asked.

"You said that one day it would be useful and that all the work you put on it would pay off." I smiled. Knowing she was right.

"My mind knows what I'm doing..." she mumbled.

"What?"

She whipped back towards me, "oh uh nothing. It's just something Dylan used to tell me."

I smiled at bit, "I know, you used to say it all the time."

"Really?"

I stepped closer to her so we were about a foot away from each other. So bad I wanted to wrap her in my arms and tell her it'd be okay. That she'll remember it all again one day. That everything can go back to the way it was. "Yeah. All the time. Every time you would do something that you didn't understand that's what you would say. That your mind knows but you don't." I smiled thinking of it, she did too. "But let's use this to our advantage."

She looked at the wall from side to side, "What do you mean?"

"Well you've always said this would come in handy. So, now let's make it come in handy. These all have dates on them. And they're all in order. The only part you've taken down so far is from when you where about 7 and 8. We still have everything that's close to recent. So let's see what you remember and what you don't and maybe if we can jog your memory a little bit." I was getting my hopes up but didn't know what I'd get in return. B looked hesitant on the idea but she gave in.

We were in her room for hours looking at old pictures and taking them down at the same time sense that was the last thing she had to pack up.

We looked at the pictures from when we've hung out, our pool days, going to an indoor trampoline place, going to each other's lacrosse games, times we spent on the lake, the color run we did, when I did her make up and she did mine. I even took a picture of when I came into her room and scared her one time. It made in onto her wall and I felt honored.

For our 8 month anniversary I took a picture each month and put them together in a collage. I pulled the tape off the wall and studied the picture. I looked and how happy B was in all the pictures. "Whatcha lookin' at?"