The Then

36.

I walked back in, shut the front door and leaned on it with the biggest grin on my face. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the hair tie from my hair as I walked to the kitchen to tell my mom that I’m going out. When I reached there, I find dad and Hailey with her.

“Um, I’m going out soon” I said as I massaged my scalp.

“Where?” mom asks, looking up at me.

“To a movie with Joshua...and John”…he did say ‘we’.

Wait a minute!

“Will you be having lunch?”

Does ‘we’ mean what I think it does?

 “Ali?” mom calls.

“Huh?”

“I was asking, if you will be having lunch with us?” Dad asked.

“Oh…no…I’m leaving now…should be back after the movie”

Alexandra’s going to be there…Should I back out now?

“Ali?” mom calls out louder.

“Huh?” I ask again, looking at the both of them.

“What are you so distracted about?”

“Nothing?”

Mom crooked her head sideways and looked at me for a second, “I was telling you to invite them over for Thanksgiving”

“Ok” I mumble and leave not missing the confused glance between both my parents.

As I walk up the stairs, I tried to ponder over what to do.

So do I go with them and get weird again around Alexandra or bail and miss out on quality time with Joshua and John?

Decisions…Decisions…

The one time I decide to be over zealous, I miss out on vital information! The biggest problem was that I like Alexandra. She’s actually a really sweet girl. Oh well! I might as well stop being silly.

I take a quick shower and go through my cupboard for something decent enough to wear during winter. I instantly regret not taking shopping with mom more seriously. Finally, I chose a white eyelet dress and a denim jacket. I brush through my hair roughly pulling my hair up into a high pony tail with my fingers but it wouldn’t work unless I put on a lot of bobby pins again, so I just left it as it is. Before I left my room, I stuff some cash into the pocket of my jacket and then walk over to my parent’s room, go through mom’s accessories inventory and finally settle on a white hair band that used to be mine a long time ago, leaving my bangs out to cover my eyebrow. I tell my parents I’m leaving, zip up my only knee high boots and walked to Joshua’s house.

As I rang their door bell, I half expected it to be Alexandra opening the door but instead it was just Joshua and I instantly felt relieved and happy to see him.

“Hi!” I said and waved.

He smiled widely but then placed his index finger on his lips. That’s when I noticed he was talking on a cordless phone. He leads me in and practically whispers into the phone. When I heard his dad’s voice booming through their generally empty house, I figured what all the whispering was about. As we walk past the living room, I see him having some kind of serious video conference with someone on the laptop. Joshua placed a hand on my back and nods for me to walk ahead.

I heard him say ‘Grandma’ into the phone and then something to do with lunch.

He leads me to his room where I see John sleeping adorably on Josh’s bed and it oddly felt like being at home, like they were family…in spite of the creepy skeleton. I stopped at the bookshelf trying to see if he has the book that I almost got for him the other day while Joshua wrapped up his phone call.