Page 41 of The Afterthought

Me: When did you write this?

Grey: I was wondering when you would find that.

Grey: I stopped in to check on your mom pretty often after you left town. Part of me was secretly hoping that you would come back.

Me: If you told me that back then, I probably would have.

Grey: I found the ticket stubs one day when I was checking on her. That was always our place. I never knew you kept all of the stubs and wrote things on the back of them.

Me: I wanted to make sure I remembered.

Grey: I found the one that you wrote ‘I love you’ on, and I borrowed it so that I could get a mockup of your handwriting. I wanted you with me, always, even if I couldn't have you. I had my guy tattoo it over my chest so that you would be forever my heart, just like I used to tell you. I wrote it on there before I put it back.

Me: Grey... what if you ended up with someone else?

Grey: There's never been anyone else, little shadow.

Me: But you didn't come after me. You could have come after me. You could have told me to come back.

Grey: I know. I'm sorry for letting you go, but it’s what I thought I had to do at the time. I’ll prove how sorry I am.

Me: I need to think about all of this.

Grey: Think all you want, but I’m not giving up this time. You’re mine, Avalynn.

I drop my phone on my desk, trying to figure out how to process this little conversation. I want to shut him out, but I can't. It's becoming very apparent that things between the two of us are getting more complicated than I anticipated they would when I came back to town.

I hear the front door shut, and it pulls me back to what I'm supposed to be doing—getting ready for the movies. I peek my head out of my bedroom door just in time to see Chloe. It looks like she's been crying again, so I step out into the hallway.

"Hey, what's going on? Are you okay?"

"Matt was being sus. I just lost my mom. I can't lose him too," she chokes out, sobs threatening to break free again.

"You're going to have to help me out a little bit here. What does sus mean?"

"Ughhh, you can't be serious, Ava." She lets out a little giggle between the tears.

I pull her in for a hug. Normally, she would push me away, but to my surprise, she accepts it and hugs me back.

"Do you want to cancel the movies tonight? We can stay in, go get a few tubs of ice cream, and binge the Twilight movies."

"Those movies are terrible." She wipes her eyes and looks at me. "You would really want to watch those instead of going to the drive-in?"

"I just want to spend some time with you. It doesn’t matter where we go or what we watch," I tell her, and she smiles while pushing me away.

"Go get ready. We have a movie to see."

I laugh and head back into my bedroom to throw on something comfortable but cute. I decide to wear a pair of black fishnet tights and a short black skirt. This is my usual style combo, so why change things up now? I grab a long-sleeved tight black shirt and slip that on, throwing on a black and white checkered crop top over it.

Once satisfied with my clothing choice, I grab my phone off of my desk and pop across the hall to Chloe's room. Her style is the opposite of mine. She’s wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a pink crop top. If she didn't resemble my dad, I would doubt whether or not we were actually related.

"Are you putting on any makeup or doing your hair?" she asks while reaching into her backpack to pull out a pink makeup bag.

"Should I?" I didn't plan to do anything special with my hair today, but I suppose I could put forth some sort of effort and curl it.

"You don't always have to make yourself look good for other people, Ava. Sometimes it's nice to just do it for yourself."

I take a moment to absorb her words, and she's right. I do feel much better about myself when I take the time to do my hair and makeup. She’s so young, but she can be so wise every now and then. Shaking my head, I step into the bathroom to plug in the curling iron. Chloe comes in a few seconds later.

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