Even if we forget the faces of some people, we’ll never be able to forget the memories of them carved in our souls.
I’d usually find myself waking up because Blake would somehow manage to stir me while waking up to leave for work.
But not today.
Today, I got woken up by my little brother.
“Kay! Kay! Kay!” I heard his screaming voice so close to me that I was sure my earbuds broke. That little Satan’s spawn.
“Wake up, wake up!” Oh, just wait till I’m up. I’m going to fry you for breakfast. Now, you’re probably going to say that this is nothing at all, but let’s face reality: a six-year-old kid is using his tiny little fists to slap me awake—yes, slap me with fists—and he had no feeling of his strength whatsoever. So, reality check: it hurt like hell.
“I’m up! I’m up!” I lazily said as I opened my eyes. The light stung me so hard that I almost got blinded. Reality was rough and terrible, especially on the lazy—I mean, on people preferring peace and rest instead of action, like me. Ayden was so unlike me. He probably had the energy to run a marathon around the entire city while I couldn’t even run one around the house.
Cruel reality, I told you so.
“What do you want, you little hero?” I asked him as he showed me his toothy smile, and I noticed that one of his front teeth was missing.
“Aunty Mel said to bake you up. And look, my tooth is gone!” he exclaimed happily. Wait, bake me up? Oh, he probably meant wake. He was so cute for not being able to pronounce some words properly. But wait. Was it because of the missing tooth? Since it was in a front tooth, it was probably going to affect his speech a lot, and for how long? Weeks?
I missed Ayden and was quite surprised when I finally saw him but toothless. Mel’s kindergarten was organizing a nature trip to some kind of children recreation center, so both he and Amy went there for a week. Melissa stayed with them because not all the parents agreed to let their children go, and they needed someone to take care of that group.
And Melissa was apparently the most trustworthy one.
“Oh, did it hurt? What happened?” I asked him warily after I remembered that he was just a child.
“Nope!” He popped the p and gave me his childish grin. “I bas eatin’ an apple, and it bell down!” he exclaimed. “I’m a hero. Be don’t cry! And eben if be cry, it not like it gonna brow baster.” He was too cute for his own good, and I couldn’t stay mad at him. But his knowledge was indeed terrifying sometimes. However, it made me relieved to know that he wouldn’t be a problem when left alone with other kids.
“Aww, that’s my little brother!” I said, sitting up and hugging him. It was just a matter of seconds before he started his protesting.
“I’m not bittle! I’m a big boy!”
“Sure, sure.” I nodded jokingly as I let go of him. It was then that I noticed that the place next to me was cold, meaning that Blake left long ago. He surely polished his skills to successfully untangle himself, leave the bed, take a shower then change clothes, and leave the room without waking me up. Or I just became a heavier sleeper?
“A tooth bairy lebt me a coin,” he then said. I guessed that it was Mel’s doing. Ayden was a huge fan of magic and heroes, and this was probably very important to him. He surely considered it as a proof of their existence. Mom and Dad used to tell me this story as well, and I almost broke down when a kid in my first grade told me that there was no Tooth Fairy. I blamed it on him for not being a good kid when the truth was that parents often used that story to make their children take care of their teeth.
I sighed. It surely brought back old memories.
“That’s because you were taking good care of your tooth. Remember, you have to wash them every day and make sure they are clean and healthy so that you can get more coins from the tooth fairy, okay?” I asked, and he excitedly nodded his head.
“Aye, aye!” was his reply as he stormed outside before coming to a sudden halt and turning around.
“Mel said to hurry,” he threw me a last warning before disappearing through the doors, and I chuckled. He would grow into a nice man one day, and until then, he was always going to be my little brother.
I got up, and my eyes caught something white on the nightstand. It was a phone, and I took it in my hands. It wasn’t Blake’s. He had a black Sony Ericsson. So I got pretty interested in the little thing. Pressing the power button, I saw an unmistakable photo of Blake in the background and a “slide to unlock” sign. I unlocked it only to come face to face with a photo of Blake and me when we went on a date a few nights ago at the amusement park. We barely had some time for ourselves because girls were jumping and squealing at the sight of the handsome guy I call my fiancé, and I wanted to snap at them but instead hid from them in the Haunted House.
But it was funny, nonetheless, especially because we were running and laughing the whole time and we enjoyed working at the Haunted House.
Suddenly, the phone started ringing, and I saw Blake’s name on the screen. I wanted to laugh so hard at the coincidence of the situation. He called me right after I woke up, but then it hit me: Should I even answer this? I stared at it for a few seconds. That phone must’ve been his other phone because of the photos. I decided to answer to the call.
“Good morning, munchkin.” I heard his voice on the other side of the line.
“Good morning, Blake. How are you?” I tried to sound polite, and he only chuckled.
“Could have been better if I were next to you, but never mind that now. As you noticed this phone and the photos inside of it, it’s yours now. I’ll need you to have it next to you all the time to call you. By the way, you’ll go with my mom and Mel shopping now, so use my credit card for it. It’s in the first drawer of your night stand. Is it all clear?” he said, and I nodded, rolling my eyes. That was so like Blake. Then I remembered that he couldn’t see me.
“Perfectly clear. Will you come home at usual?” I asked with a bit of disappointment in my voice. Why did he have to work so much?
I heard him chuckle on the other side. “No, I’ll come around five today. I gotta go now. Love you,” he said, and I replied instantly, “Love you too.” And with that, we ended the call. I almost laughed at myself as to how fast I replied to him. Was I becoming crazy in love for him?
By the time I came downstairs, Melissa had managed to throw a sandwich in my mouth, comb my hair, and put mascara on my eyes in less than two minutes. She dragged me outside to the car where Blake’s mother waited. Of course, it all happened so fast that I didn’t have enough time to grasp the situation and protest about what she did.
It was only when I entered the car I noticed that Ayden had joined us as well. That tricky little monster. They probably planned everything from waking me up to going shopping.
As we were driving to the place where we were about to get almost all our necessities for my wedding, I found out that since Ayden was the only guy who can go with us, he was the one they chose to pick my dress. After all, no matter how young he was, he was a man. And they supposedly have the best taste. Or so Ayden said, but we all knew that he came only because Melissa said that he could try cakes and pick the best one.
Blake couldn’t come, working and all. Plus, it was considered bad luck for the groom to see his bride in her dress before the wedding. Stupid traditions. Who came up with that idea, anyway?
I wanted to hit my head. I was already becoming mad at traditions. Was it normal for that to happen when you fall in love? You become angry and jealous at everything that’s keeping the one you love away from you? It’s a blissful irritation one could not get rid of.
“Kaley, we need to go for rings first. Blake said that he already chose them and wanted to surprise you on the day of the wedding, but he said that you’ll have to give them measures for your finger, if that’s okay.” Melissa interrupted my thoughts, and I nodded. It’s not like I really cared about the shape of the ring. The mere thought that it was tying me to Blake was more than enough for me to happily carry it.
After a few hours of shopping when I wanted nothing more than to kill Melissa and Grace, we decided to stop at the Starbucks to grab something to eat—well, me and Melissa. Grace said that she had to leave because of some business at home I didn’t quite catch, but Melissa seemed to understand it all, so I let it go. She also took Ayden with her since he was getting tired and sleepy and Blake’s house was on her way, so I agreed with her. Melissa said that we were probably going to visit another place or two after we were done with the food, so I thought that it would’ve been better for Ayden to rest. And looking at the time, it was around five, and Ayden always went to bed early.
That explains why he had so much energy in mornings.
“That was the best shopping I had in years. I can’t wait to see Blake’s face once he sees you in that dress,” she said dreamingly as I munched on my French fries. I could already imagine myself walking toward Blake in it and then tripping, causing him to die out of laughter. Yeah, I couldn’t wait to see that either.
“That was definitely the worst time of my life. I’m begging you, don’t make me go there again.” I groaned in response. I will never understand why girls loved shops so much. It’s basically hours and hours of meaningless walking to collect one hundredth of the clothing they picked. And my legs hurt to make it worse. Moreover, I was woken up rather early—by Ayden, mind you—and immediately forced to look around for dress.
“Oh, shoo! It was worth it. You looked like a goddess. Just wait till we’re completely done with your hair and makeup.” She grinned, and for a second, I could swear that she was the one getting married, not me.
“Oh, dear God, what did I get myself into?” I wondered out loud.
I was definitely never getting married again. Then I frowned. My thoughts seemed to shift from one place to another rather quickly, and it was becoming troublesome. Hormones, I blame it all on my hormones.
I moved my gaze around the café before I saw a blond guy looking at us with a huge grin plastered on his face. He wasn’t really bad looking, but he gave out that dangerous vibe that made me run over hills just to be as far as possible from him. He was dressed in plain clothes, nothing that would make him stand out. I couldn’t catch the color of his eyes well, but they were light. And as good-looking as he was, he was nothing compared to Blake. My desperation to meet him reached a completely new level. I needed to get married as soon as possible before I went crazy and started to stalk him even to his work. Now, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. I wanted to see what kind of environment he worked in.
I only grinned back at the guy, which took him off guard, and just as I thought that he was about to leave us alone, he suddenly started walking toward us. I frowned, hoping that he wouldn’t believe how I was leading him on.
“What’s the matter, Kay?” Mel asked me before following my gaze to the blond guy striding our way, and her features froze. It was my first time seeing that reaction from Melissa, so I immediately knew that something wasn’t right. I started to think that the grin he once had when our eyes met wasn’t actually directed at me but at Melissa. At him having found Melissa, that is.
She knew him.
“Hello, Melissa,” he greeted once he got close to us, his voice similar to that of Blake, of a person in control. “Long time no see, isn’t it? I see you haven’t changed much, honey,” he said and smiled, one that I could see from miles away being fake.
I didn’t really pay attention to the way Melissa’s expression changed from shocked to scared and then to angry until she spoke the next words that made my breath stop.
“Why? Didn’t you get even more despicable since the last time we saw each other…Ethan?”
The man before my eyes is the one responsible for breaking my best friend once, her ex-husband.
The moment he entered my life, everything changed. Back then, I didn’t think much because what were the odds of my future going wrong because of a single person I didn’t know?
Yet I should’ve known better because had I noticed the first traces of trouble back then, my life wouldn’t have ended up being a disaster.