18: i choose this, i choose you.
they say for each one, there’s another,
another soul, another body longing for you. For yours.
And searching and finding isn’t the hard part, its what follows.
TWO YEARS AGO
Their legs brushed against the soft grasses, moist by the drizzle of rain, drizzles that had reflected the dark moon on the ground.
Amy remembered taking off her coat, it was a halloween night and ditching the umbrella, she had planned to meet Sally that day, which she did and though only partially drunk, she could recognize when she was walked up to.
A simple tap which followed her next word. “Hi”
“Hey” Amy replied, Sally’s face that had struck her memory like they had met before. They both shook off the discomfort as they took their hands, one thing straight people didn’t dare to do. To be brave.
This sinuous connection they took to their advantage as they walked along the shrubs and down the colorful lights and the dark alleys. In both their hands as they talked.
Talked about having to navigate the terrifying minds of boys and themselves, talked about the future and how even Amy had wanted to be fashion designer. Talked about both their parents and how Sally was thrown into the foster system at age eight. How she ended up in her present parent’s home.
And all the terrible luck before that.
They talked like they’d known each other. Like best friends on a sleepover and to them, time had suspended. The whole world had.
What was time?
Until somehow they ended up under a tree, a tree which such little branches and leaves that the rain still managed to soak them. They didn’t care about that too. Sally shivered though and it was when Amy lent her her coat, that they were close enough to each other.
To see each other, Sally had seen the fear in hr eyes and it struck hr why Amy took her this far, away from the halloween party and under this goddamn tree in the middle of nowhere.
Amy didn’t want to be seen. With another girl at least. “You dont know?” Sally backed off.
She had blonde hair, though Amy knew that from the pictures. Streamlined eyes and pointed nose. She had a dark dot as an earring and you could easily guess her style.
She was almost like Amy. With colorful themes and eye color and a dark lip gloss. She had a ring on a pair of boots to match her crop top-
-a bad decision for the weather that day.
“Is this just a phase?”
“trying to see if those feelings were real. if you might be different?” Sally asked her and she remained quiet to Sally’s dismay.
“You know i would say i was surprised when you called and said you wanted to meet out of the blues. I thought maybe you were willing to give this a try? but im not for the phase-“
“Im not a test for your sexuality and your figuring out stage. I wanted something and you d-“
Immediately silencing her was the touch of Amy’s lips against hers. She had jerked forward, giving in the warmth of her lips. Sally was shocked was an understatement but she didn’t care till she stopped.
Amy chuckled till she picked up something, some familiar scent that had brought back a memory and she instinctively knew where she had known Sally before. From school.
And that scared her more than the fact that she had seen some boys peeking from the low shrubs around the trees. “Im sorry” She got up immediately, taking her bag and leaving the coat. “What’s that? Im sorry but you kissed me and you’re off?” Sally stood, shrugging her shoulders.
“Im sure it was a bunch of pervert neighborhood boys. They probably cant see us, its dark” Sally continued.
“You know was it before or after you knew i was in Clastwood High that you decided to come for me?” Amy began to yell.
She had become defensive. That was her strategy. That whenever anyone got to close, she’d raise those walls. “What?” Sally asked softly as Amy wore on her shoes properly.
“You’re just knowing we attend the same school. And here. was wondering why you never brought it up. Six years-“ Sally yelled.
“Six years since elementary, ive been behind you in class and at lunch, in the bus. Six fucking years and you never noticed me”
“Just fucking loose my number” Sally walked off first, dumping her coat in the rain as Amy stood back, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. She sighed as she watched her walk away and the night was over-
-before it even started.
~
A week had passed and no reply had driven guilt into Amy. She would stare at her meetme conversations for hours, waiting fora thing-
-and never realizing at the slightest that it was done. Even though she had been wrong.
Because a day after the first week, a picture had been in circulation, of two girls in the rain, under a particular tree and sharing a kiss.
And one girl was sure to be Sally Regenade, and the other, they could’ve only guess from the back hair to have been Amy.
Amy was distorted, horrified particularly at if this ever got out, her friends, her parents, her reputation would be shambles because not one person she knew was kind to such thing.
School was resuming the following week and she knew she had to come up with something and something fast. So she chose the easiest-
-to lie.
After all the only they had was a hair color, they couldn’t even had seen the dress because only a few halloween lights reflected.
When she got to school, news had spread like a wild fire which she continually denied in the blink of an eye, that is before she saw her.
Sally.
Sally didn’t deny anything which drove fear in Amy’s heart, knowing that she had enough to ruin her. But Sally didn’t.
And to this day, we’d never know why. They did talk though and Amy realized how such a horrible shed been. Sally hoped so.
“Please, i would leave but don’t ever let it get out. I did feel something that night and im still a long way from figuring out myself that i dont want to ruin those chances-“
“i’m sorry for everything. For lying and for ever you knowing me”
Amy did leave, not because anything got out, but because her parent’s might have sensed something was off. They had known their daughter too well and they didn’t want to risk her getting to close to that particular Sally.
They knew how much she wanted to be a designer, so that they gave her as a gift. To study in Rennè, Paris•
And after which she conclude her final year in high school, she would go one of the most elaborate fashion schools in the world, that they had hoped would take her mind of Sally.
But unsurprisingly, she never did.
Instead she met someone in that final year that reminded her so much of her. Zachary Dempsey. She had sensed he had some kind of darkness that she somehow linked.
And he got too close and for the first time, she didn’t react. She also found it very easy to fall for him but wondered why she never did.
Not because he was fat or he had a dead brother, not because he was weird or he had a nickname that mocked his entire identity.
Because she didn’t care about all that. She knew he had fallen for her and she helped him out of it. To fall for another she couldn’t see.
Irene. Katharina Stones.
She couldn’t see but only believed when she was faced with the truth. That she was real.
NOW
And she looked up from the text she was about to write to Sally. She had gotten her new number from her best friend, Jeffrey.
And after two years, she was actually willing to make amends. To finally embrace the person she was in Rennè.
The person that didn’t shit about the world and what they thought of her. The person that was quick to cut off everyone and be fucking happy-
-the latter which had been hard for her these days because of knowing what Zach had done. And knowing he might not be safe.
She felt choked in despair and fear at her unresponded message she left him. She had deserved some light. Craved some happiness.
And she wasn’t scared to text her again. Sally.
hey.
But something else had managed to catch her attention. The terrifying sound of the news.
“just in, the deputy sheriff had released word saying the daughter of Michael Stones, the man that was reported killed and burned alive has been traced and already located”
“katharina Stones had reportedly gotten missing the same day her father was killed and it is unbeknown whether pr not she has been held in captivity over the past month-“
Amy had turned up the volume with the remote just in time for the reporter’s next words-
“or whether this teenager had a hand in her father’s gruesome murder-“
And that was it.
To be continued...
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publish date:
2023-12-01 23:05:09
