Faded Memories

Chapter 20

The sky was luminous amber, casting down onto all the buildings around me, as if I had suddenly entered a sand storm. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders tighter, the breeze not being forgiving as the temperature continued to drop. My mind was blank, my eyes trained on the faint horizon that I could see in the far distance, two tall buildings standing proud either side of the faint sun that I could see slowly rising.

Sleep was non-existent in my life tonight. If it's not for the explicit memories that were filling my nightmares, the constant ringing of my phone was the other thing haunting my every minute. I had blocked so many numbers, each one a blank call once answered, but they just persisted. If I didn't need my phone for Leo, I would have thrown it in the ocean by now. The moment Alice arrived home from her trip, I was getting rid of it. I was going out of my mind.

My skin was near blue when Leo had awoken, coming out onto their back yard to tell me that he was hungry and that I looked crazy to him sitting out here, alone. There was nothing more peaceful than nature, and I had definitely learnt to appreciate it more over the years. This earth was beautiful, and not enough people were appreciative of it.

I trapsed after Leo inside, locking the outer door as he perched himself on the counter before informing me where his favourite cereal was so that I could make it for him. I'm pretty sure he was old enough to do this himself, Jamie had been doing it himself for years - but then again, I could never be sure whether that was because he wanted to or whether he was forced to grow up too early. I wonder whether his new parents got his cereal for him now, I wonder if they knew his favourite was cornflakes - because that was dad's favourite, too.

"Amelia, you're doing that face again." Leo pointed out, before opening the drawer below him with his feet and trying to grab a spoon out with his toes. I grabbed a spoon for him, shutting the drawer so that his toes didn't infect all the other cutlery in the house - I'm sure Alice would be pretty disgusted if she found out.

"What face?" I frowned towards him as I grabbed the milk, pouring it over his weird looking chocolate cereal and handing it over to him. I couldn't stomach food this morning, a lack of sleep definitely killed the appetite.

"The one where you look sad." Leo spooned a mouthful of cereal into his mouth, resting the bowl on his legs as he sat cross legged now on the counter. I hoisted myself up next to him, nudging my shoulder against his in a playful manner. I didn't want him to think that I was sad, what kind of babysitter just comes around and mopes?

"I'm not buddy, don't worry," I glanced at him, pulling a goofy face which made him laugh. "Once you've eaten that you better get ready for football, we don't wanna be late."

Leo was running around the pitch like a headless chicken, my eye constantly losing him as I desperately tried to focus my attention on him - acting in the role of his guardian today meant I was going to cheer him on like I was his actual guardian. I had to calm myself down when one of the children from the other team tackled Leo, sending him tumbling straight to the ground - remember they're only children, Amelia. He was just like his brother though, and got straight back up with more determination than before he was knocked over.

The match had finished before it had even started, the thrill of it all making it feel as though time had fast-forwarded an hour. Leo was beaming as he ran over to me, chattering away about the moments of the match that I had undoubtedly been screaming his name for just moments before. I grabbed his bag off of the floor, adding more dirt stains to it than were previously there, before Leo said goodbye to his friends and we had begun to leave.

"Excuse me!" A voice shouted in our direction, causing my head to spin around to see who required our attention. "Are you looking after Leo here today?"