Rose's Journal

Chapter 23: The Return

Reggie was walking the streets of Santa Clarita. He had just left his dad's house and was deciding whether or not he wanted to go back to the studio. He wasn't emotionally ready to have the discussions he needed to have, but he missed them like crazy, even though it had only been 24 hours. He missed the way he felt at home in the Molina's house. He missed the way Julie would always check up on him. He even missed Alex's sarcastic one-liners. But the person he missed most of all was Luke, but he was also the reason that Reggie was debating whether he should go back or not. He wasn't ready to face Luke's rejection. He couldn't possibly love me back, right? Reggie thought to himself. Or at least even if he did, you ruined it by kissing him when you were all upset. Reggie looked up and saw a familiar car parked outside of a seamstress's shop along the avenue. He went to look inside, and he saw Flynn. He ran into the nearest store and snatched a piece of paper and a pencil from the counter. He wrote, "Flynn! It's Reggie. We need to talk," across the paper. He held it up to the back windshield hoping she'd notice. But she was trapped in some kind of daze, Reggie noticed. So, he started banging on the back windshield. She looked through the mirror and jumped when she saw Reggie's note. Yet, she smiled when she read it. Reggie smiled too. She was happy to see him.

Flynn motioned for Reggie to come into the car. She was still a little shaken up, but she was relieved to find that Reggie was okay. She saw the piece of paper move from the back windshield to the backseat of the car.

"Reggie, where the hell have you been? We've been worried sick!"

Flynn saw the paper and a pencil move before they both disappeared suddenly. "What the-," Flynn muttered under her breath before Carrie got back in the car with the costumes.

"Well okay now that that's been taken care of, we can head back," Carrie said. She looked to see Flynn looking in the backseat again. "Hello? HELLOOOOO!" Carrie said, waving her hand in Flynn's face.

Flynn jumped slightly, "Yeah sorry. Hey. So are the costumes good?"

"Yes they're great, they always are. But more importantly why were you just staring at the backseat like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you just saw a gremlin sitting there."

"No, everything's fine. I think we should get going. You know. Miss the post-work traffic."

"Okay yeah sure," Carrie said softly, sounding disappointed. She was hoping they were going to do something after, although she wouldn't admit it to her. She even had places planned to suggest. But she assumed that Flynn just didn't want to spend time with her anymore. What did I do wrong? Carrie thought to herself.

The car ride home was silent aside from the music. The quiet was awkward and tense, filling the atmosphere that was so light before. Flynn couldn't stop thinking about Reggie. She didn't know why he was there, or even if she'd ever see him again. Did she do something to chase him away? Carrie couldn't stop thinking about what she could have done to piss Flynn off. Typically, she would get mad at Flynn for ignoring her, but that would be an admission of how she felt. That she actually cared about her, and maybe even liked her in a non-platonic way. Flynn didn't even notice Carrie's frustrated face because she was so worried about Reggie. This was just another thing on a long list of things she needed to fix now, but she hoped this one would be easier than some of the others. The thirty minutes felt longer than the 45 they had spent to get there. Flynn pulled the car up to Carrie's house and parked it, and Carrie got out quickly, not even saying goodbye or thank you. Rude, Flynn thought to herself. She still had no idea why Carrie was acting like that, but she didn't have time to think about that. She needed to get home to figure out what to do about Reggie.