Kapittel 6

TRIGGER WARNING

The following content contains depictions of depression, gore, and violence, which some readers may find disturbing.

Reader discretion is advised.

Vanessa

Not once did I know the definition of peace. Sure, I did know its denotative meaning, but I never once experienced something that I could call as peaceful. Little did I know that peace was something I had years ago that I didn't treasure, and I unknowingly lost it.

Had I known that I was in actual peace before, I could have treasured it wholeheartedly and relished it until it lasted. Now, I was left dry, having only remnants of my remaining peace and wrecking turmoil.

I was left all painful, crippled, and aching after the accident.

I knew letting dad die was unforgivable, and I deserved a lifelong punishment, but it wouldn't be selfish and ask for some slight ease, right? Even just for a little while. Just like right now.

I was in the complete dimness. I didn't know whether I was standing or lying down, but it was like I was floating in an unseen vacuum. I could care less about it, though. It was neither warm nor cold, and my senses were all dull and relaxed. I could breathe fine, and there was only nothing but pure emptiness in my mind. It was just mindless leisure.

Whatever that was behind this, I didn't care. I was in tranquility, in peace. It had been long since I felt this kind of calmness invigorating in me. I wanted this sensation to last, even just a bit.

"Vanessa." I gasped when I suddenly heard someone's familiar voice for my name in the cold darkness. I tried to look around. However, there was nothing but blindness surrounding me. I couldn't see where the voice came from.

"Vanessa," the familiar voice called again, loud and clear enough that it finally came into my mind who owned it.

"Dad?" I tried to say, but it seemed that I could not find myself opening my mouth. That voice just now, it belonged to dad. It had to. I knew it for certain. But I wanted to make sure that it really was him.

I looked all over the darkness and saw someone's familiar silhouette shaded in pure white light in one direction. It was dazzlingly bright, but it wasn't bright enough to engulf the area's darkness or hurt my eyes. It seemed to appear to be walking somewhere ahead as what seemed like its arms and legs arms swung back and forth. But what fascinated me was that it wore the shape of someone I had known for a long time. I knew someone who owned that stout figure. It belonged to someone I love and tragically lost.

"I want you to remember that I love you, Vanessa, sweetheart," my heart skipped a beat when he told me those words. It really was dad!

"Dad, it's you, right?" My heart swelled. I didn't know when I came to my senses, but I felt myself getting up from whatever I was in and running over to his silhouette's direction. I wanted to run to him. I wanted to reach him, to touch him, to hug him. Oh, how I wanted to engulf my arms around him and cry how much I missed him.

"Please tell your mom and your brother that I love them so much," his voice continued, and he began to get farther that it seemed impossible to reach him. No!

"Where are you going? Please take me with you!" I shouted and ran faster. Please don't go, dad!

"Always keep in mind that the three of you are my life," he continued to say in a voice of lower volume, and his figure had gone increasingly distant that it had gone smaller. But I must keep up with him. I must increase my pace while shouting for him to stop and wait for me.

At some point, his shining silhouette stopped, and I took advantage of it by accelerating my speed. I drew closer and closer to his dazzling stature that we were finally at arm's length. I was there. I was finally near. I was close to touching dad again. Oh God, even a second's worth of hug could already send me into euphoria. Once, I reached a hand to touch him, expecting to feel his warmth, but I gasped when I felt that I slipped through him and suddenly entered into the darkness again, feeling that I was falling. My throat felt stiff out of impending surprise, letting myself fall to another pit of obscurity.

The scene gradually began to change, and I almost lost my mind when everything around me had wholly manifested. I was here. I was here again. In the same place. The same scenery. The same weather. The same face. I was facing dad's dead facade again.

I wanted to scream, but I could no longer feel my throat. My stomach churned, and the bile in my liver rose to my throat, giving me the want to vomit. Everything around me felt like it was spinning. Dad's face was deadly pale, his neck purplish. There was viscous, red blood spilling from his head, saturating his hair and making it sticky. One of his eyes was hanging out of its socket, and the other was crushed. His nose was broken and of a blueish hue. His tongue stuck out of his mouth, which had lost its front teeth.

While all the blood and gore looked disgusting that I wanted to puke, I couldn't help but tear up at the same time. To see dad miserable like this crushed my heart. He didn't deserve this. It should have been me in that state. It should have been me!

"Oh God, dad," I croaked internally, "I'm so sorry," I wanted to cry, to let out all of my anguish in just a scream. But I couldn't. It was like my throat was taken away from me that I couldn't let out a single word. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth, resorting to my grief in tears.

"Va...ness...a," a gurgling voice said, and I opened my eyes. I found myself frozen all over again.

Dad's face began twisting and contorting, his tongue began twitching and moving sideways while his mouth leaked more blood, oozing down to his neck. I watched in horror when his facial muscles twitched and began burbling. The sound was horrendous, like something was deeply stuck in his throat. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. My body was immobile.

"Oh... Van...nessa..." he said, "Why did you let me die?"

"Dad!" I shouted for dad, and I found myself opening my eyes. My vision was quite blurry, and I could barely see anything. It rendered me to get into a state of unmerited confusion. Dad? Where was he? Where was I? What was happening?!

I groaned when I felt my head begin to ache. Grabbing my head, I pulled on my scalp when I felt the pain worsen as moments passed. My head felt like there was a myriad of nails being hammered into my cranium. It was excruciatingly painful that I was on the verge of tears. "Stop! Make it stop!" I screamed in agony, beginning to hit my head with my knuckle. My nerves were pulsating, and my teeth were clenched as I whimpered.

It took me a few more moments of crying until my headache subsided, and my vision gradually became clear enough that I realized I was on my bed, panting. All sweaty yet cold. Awake and terrified. I blankly stared at my pallid wrists saturated with fresh tears, resting on my lap covered with my comforter, musing about what just happened.

What was that just earlier? Was it all just a dream? No, that was no dream. That was a nightmare. A horrendous one.

I balled my hands into fists as I slowly recalled what was in that nightmare. The enveloping darkness. The peace. The shining figure. Dad's face. Dad...

"I'm so sorry, dad." I broke down, covering my face to fetch another round of my restless tears. I had moments wherein I'd be happy/distracted enough to forget about him. But it'd always come back to me in unexpected ways, but the most prominent of them all was through haunting dreams.

Ever since he died, I had been restless. I couldn't take a sound sleep since I was haunted by nightmares and couldn't go back to sleep because I became scared of them coming back again. Those horrific ephialtes endlessly flashed the scenes I'd most lovingly forget. The more I tried to ignore them, the more they would repeatedly flash in my mind like a broken cassette tape. It would render me to just lay in bed, hopeless.

I would then begin thinking about little things and matters which led to another and another. In the end, I would find myself still awake while the sun took its breadth of the crisp dawn. I couldn't control my running rumbling thoughts that suddenly went from a tiny matter and would soon turn dark for no reason. Not to mention, my uncontrollable mood that sometimes made me separate logic from my emotions. I had been experiencing them for the past months before my said recovery, and I thought I might go crazy if it went on. But thank the odds, my degrading mental health was getting better compared to how it was before.

Feeling that I wanted to get out of bed, I got on my feet and stretched, letting out my morning yawn. It felt like waking up after long years of hibernation, but with a mix of gloominess and monotony because of the nightmare earlier. Closing my eyes, I raised my head up and blinked them open. The view of the ceiling welcoming my sight made me smile a little, remembering its state when I returned.

The previous owner may have retained some of its design, but it was dull and grey, adorned by cobwebs and dust that I'd scratch my eyes whenever I looked up to look at its boringly lonely, topsy-turvy state. It may have been unused throughout the years. Cleaning it took me almost an hour and cost me to wear some PPE-like stuff such as goggles, fast masks, etc., with a few sniffs and sneezes. Man, cleaning the entire room was tiring and tedious, but I had fun though.

I sat back on my bed to open the curtains. As soon as I set aside the fabrics casting the darkness in my room, I grinned. The view outside the window showed my ideal sight of a lazy, friable morn. The sun wasn't fully up yet, covered by fluffy clouds formed in a stratus deck. The skies were still dark and blue, and there was a light smoke of fog surrounding the area. What a way to set up the mood for some early jog or a cup of coffee and witness the dawn turn into the morning, especially since it was cold right now.

I looked at the clock resting on the nightstand and learned it was still around 4 AM, nearing 5. What an excellent time to take a morning jog and take some things off my mind. Hurriedly, crawled to the other side of the bed, pulled out my fuzzy slippers from the bed, and wore them on. Gosh. As soon as I placed my feet on the thick sliders, I instantly felt warm. I hadn't noticed that I got cold.

I almost shrieked over to the bathroom when I saw my reflection in the mirror attached to the wall. I took a few steps to the sink and leaned towards the reflective whatchamacallit. My blonde locks looked like a bird's nest, my hair strands were going all over different places, and the split ends were parading. My face was as pale as a bloodless cadaver, and what made it look homelier was the dark bags under my eyes and the slight redness of my sclera. My nose was also red, and there was a transparent liquid leaking out of my right nostril. In conclusion, I looked horrible.

Seeing how hideous I looked, I instantly grabbed the towel hanging on the towel rack and prepared myself for my first early morning jog in Scarsendale. I first discovered my love for it when my pals in Washington invited me for a jog at 4 o'clock in the morning. Harley was the one who'd jog the fastest. Second to him were Seandhe and Nikki, and the ones behind them were always Katherine, Jason, and I. Though, Kath was the most active during warm-ups and stretches since she enjoyed stretching from her yoga lessons. She always gave us good suggestions on how to stretch effectively. Jason was the most resourceful and always brought an extra bottle of water, sometimes a portable thermos of warm milk that we could always use to drink post cool down. Now recalling how I did my morning jogs back in Washington made me feel nostalgic and remember those idiots again. My lovable idiots.

A smile ran across my cheeks as I remembered my friends while I washed my face. After that, I brushed my teeth, placed some tinted sunscreen on my face and concealer for my eyebags, then tied my hair into a ponytail. I soon left the bathroom and dressed in my sports bra underneath my track jacket, jogging tights, sneakers, and smartwatch. I checked myself at the vanity mirror one last time before rushing down the pantry with careful steps since my room was found beside mom and Zach's bedroom. I was afraid of waking them up if I walked with my footsteps thumping loudly.

I walked down the pantry to get a glass of water and some aspirin since my head was still aching before inspecting the fridge, where I found that it was half-empty. Probably because mom prepared a lot for the dinner the other night. I should hit the grocery and grab some stuff for breakfast when I return home since I was sure mom would race for ingredients once she woke up.

I went back to my room to grab my pack and stuffed in a few bucks, my cards, and the likes before going outside, where I did a few stretches and warm-ups. I needed to ensure that I won't hurt a muscle when I return, or mom would freak out.

The cool breeze blew past me, making me shiver a bit as I stretched an arm. The sun was slowly making it on top of the sky, and the fog was starting to dissipate. I could see that a few of our neighbors were also awake at this hour. An old woman came out of one house while holding a cup of coffee that's earthly scent was invading my nostrils, enchanting me. Another neighbor, a man in his 40s, also came out and began watering her plants with a hose. I closed my eyes and relished in nature's goodness.

"Oh my, Vanessa. It's been a long time, girlie!" a voice chirped. I opened my eyes and looked in the direction where the voice seemed to come from.

"Oh, Mrs. Harbinger," I said, a broad smile running across my face.

She was one of our closest neighbors here in town. An old woman in her prime and her husband, Mr. Harbinger, were sweethearts in the neighborhood since they gave all the kids around some love. I remembered back then when we'd deliberately enter their house, and she would have us make cookies and pastries with her while Mr. Harbinger would take the others out to grab some fruits in their backyard to make juice. We'd all end up parking in their house during brunch with the food we made with them. Her kids had their own respective families and moved out of state 5 years ago.

"You have grown into a fine young woman!" the old woman complimented. She was still jolly as ever with her plump physique, tanned skin that always reminded me of the Earth, her curly hair that was equally divided into grey and twilight color, bright eyes, and her broad smile that I depicted to be contagious. She always carried this infectious jovial energy that'd never fail to flip a bad day into a good one, along with her words of wisdom.

"Thank you, miss ma'am. You still look healthy and could kick butts," I joked, and we both laughed. I remembered the time when there were teenagers who tried to make fun of us since we were still small kids, and she was the one who gave them a taste of their own medicine. She was always protective and had this kind of warm mother bear attitude, though she'd also chide if you were the one in the wrong. "Where's Mr. Harbinger?" I asked. I'd never miss a day seeing them together. They were the true definition of soulmates.

"Oh, you know that old coot," her face soured, and her tone seemed irritated, "He's obsessed with watching over his watermelons," she continued, and I almost cackled. Mr. Harbinger was a retired agriculture professor and biologist and was always fond of growing fruits and vegetables. Especially his watermelons since they were quite challenging to grow. He'd watch over them most of the time when the vines started fruiting, which would irritate Mrs. Harbinger sometimes since he'd hang out outdoors all day long.

"Forget about him!" she waved her hand and came over for a hug. Immediately I responded by walking over to her with arms wide. We enveloped each other in a tight bear hug. "This old woman is so happy to see you again!" she said, gently giggling and patting my back. I said likewise and hugged her tighter, indulging in her warmth. "Where's your mother?" she asked when we pulled away.

"Asleep. Since we just moved back yesterday. So she's pretty tired." I shrugged, looking back at our house. I knew she'd be wondering about that since mom was the person she'd always see first thing in the morning. "I happened to wake up early, so I decided to get out for some morning jog."

"Oh, I see!" she exclaimed, surprised that she jumped on her spot. "Then this momma ain't disturbing you no more. I need to go and buy some teas anyway," she said and began walking away, and I waved her goodbye.

"I'll visit you sometime later, Mrs. Harbinger!" I said with a smile plastered on my lips. I hadn't noticed that I actually miss that sweet nana. Well, I guess it was probably because I grew up without grandparents, mom and dad's parents both died in their prime, and they had been dead for a long time before I was born. Mr. and Mrs. Harbinger had been my grandparental figures since time immemorial.

"I'll look forward to that!" she replied and waved before finally turning her back and walking away. I watched her go farther and farther until I could no longer see her before proceeding to do my stretches and finally starting to jog.

"Hey, look at that!"

"What?"

"It's Vanessa!"

"Vanessa who?"

"You dumbass, Vanessa! Don't you remember her?"

"Ow! Don't smack me! And I don't recall knowing any Vanessa, chica loca!"

"Vanessa Hathorne! Our neighbor from years ago, remember? The one who moved in our final year of middle school!"

I kept my head down as I jogged through the streets, overhearing a few people my age talking about me. They looked achingly familiar to me as well, though. Their brunette hair that I could see from my peripheral vision was knocking something in my memory that their names were at the tip of my tongue.

"Oh her? Hello, Vanessa!"

I looked in their direction, and I finally remembered who they were. It was Valeria and Victorino. They were a cheerful bunch and were one of my frequent playmates in the town playground when we were little. Though, unlike typical siblings, they would agree on anything. Especially if one had an idea on making dirty shenanigans on the kids they hated. Which was why it was always favorable to be on their side.

"Vanessa, how's it going?"

"You guys moved back?"

"It's good to see you again!"

"Try stopping by next time! We have things to catch up on!"

"Thanks. It's good to see you guys again too!" I replied, waving as I jogged away from their front year. There was time for a proper conversation, after all. I let out a sigh of euphoria when I thought I actually didn't just miss Mrs. Harbinger but also this town. It was full of amiable people.

It had been three days since we moved back to Scarsendale. We haven't gotten in touch with our former neighbors since we were pretty busy tending everything in the house, starting from general cleaning down to organizing the furniture. Clouds of dust were scattered off the ceiling, molds were brushed off the bathroom, paintings were hanged, sneezes and coughs were shared, the weeds in the garden were sheared, and debates if the bookshelf should be on the left side or right side of the lounge were made. It was exhausting, especially the debate part, but it was fun.

It was one of my most memorable times since I got to spend a lot of time with mom after the accident. Ever since that day, I felt that the sacred thread that connected mom and I had cultivated for years was cut down. I spent the prior months moping and physically recovering. Mom exhausted herself with tending the papers, dad's funeral, and the aftermath of the disaster while she was mourning his death and spent sleepless nights taking care of my younger brother.

We did have our usual mother-daughter conversation when I was discharged. We cried together and comforted each other. But even though I couldn't see it, there seemed to be an invisible wall that was separating us both from one another, like something was drifting us apart. Was mom distancing herself from me? Maybe it was just my plain imagination and useless gut feeling. But if it were true, and she was distancing herself from me, I couldn't blame her.

After all, the accident wouldn't have happened if I hadn't stopped dad from driving the motorcycle and followed what he told me, then he would still be alive. It was my fault that the accident happened. It was preventable, but I enabled it to happen. That's right, mom should hate me. I let her husband die. I let her only love begone from this world when I had the chance to stop it. If only I hadn't taken off that helmet—

As the sharp, ice-like air passed through me, I huffed a ragged breath while trotting my feet mindlessly. I could feel my heart thumping loudly beneath my chest as my lingering bleak thoughts were broken off when I noticed I passed by something familiar. I halted my tracks on a nearby tree and marveled at the sight before me.

It was the park where I used to play as a kid.

I looked around and noticed that there were some people in the park as well. Old couples and fur parents taking their fur babies taking themselves out for a morning walk, healthcare workers were resting on the benches, they seemed to have just ended their night shift, and there were other people out for jogging like me as well.

It was still early in the morning, but a handful of people were already around. I hadn't seen the park this crowded before. It looked quite surreal. The place was usually quiet and only got crowded when it was around 8 AM since it was the time that kids started going out and playing, and their moms or babysitters would watch them from afar.

But I couldn't blame the change. The place was a wonder full of lush greenery and was usually the chilliest place to hang out, even on a sunny day, since it was surrounded by a few trees. It was also awe-inspiring with the beautiful flowers and shrubs that invited a few pollinators like butterflies and bees and the likes.

Stepping out of my spot, I began to jog to the park. I did a couple of laps around the whole place before making a pit stop back at the playground. Emptying my mind by looking around and admiring the newness brought into the area while sprinting my feet at a slow pace. A couple of fellow joggers passed by and expressed their salutations. All I could do was reply with a nod as a return to the friendly exchange. It was pretty refreshing to see that the people were quite amiable. Though it seemed slow, it felt like something heavy was gotten off my chest, and I could breathe a lot better than I previously did.

When I got around the playground one more time, I decided to take a short break by sitting on the benches. I took out my aqua flask and drank a mouthful of water before staring at the playing field, my gaze softening as myriad pictures of memories flashed into my mind. It was this park. This was the place I had my fondest childhood memories.

It changed quite a bit though. There were now new items and structures like the spring ride, geodome climbers, tether ball, viper swings, and a wooden outdoor playground that was built around an old tree. The old swing set and seesaw seemed to be changed to a new one. It was probably because it was risky to keep them even though they were getting old and rusty, especially the seesaw since it was already rusty back in my younger days, their replacements were surprisingly refreshing since they were made out of carved wood. What only remained unchanged was the sandbox, the slide, and the merry-go-round. The trees surrounding it grew a lot bigger and their branches became more extended, but they seemed to be regularly trimmed down. There were also new kinds of flowers and shrubs planted everywhere.

It was an earthly playscape, a site that closed the border of nature and modernity.

I heard the mayor's wife cherished this place since this was the place where they first met and fell in love, that was why he constantly placed close attention to it when it came to renovating it, making sure that even though there were new things added here and there, its essence was still the same as before.

Ah, looking at this place makes me remember things like it was just yesterday. I raised my head up to look at the sky and closed my eyes when the slight slush of cool early morning breeze brushed past me, pushing my hair strands on my shoulders backward and making it sway slightly in the air. I felt revived, and it was amazing. I opened my eyes again and looked at the structures.

That slide. It was a structure made of sturdy wooden boards on the bottom and a wooden playhouse attached on top of it, like a second floor. The house had a size that about 5 children could fit in, it had a long slide, a climber, and a ladder. We had arguments if it was really a slide or just generally a playhouse, but I prefer to label it as a slide since the thing was pretty long. Once I had taken my first round of sliding down, I would go back up and slide down repeatedly like I was addicted to it. My speed would accelerate with every round I slid down. I'd also sometimes bring a blanket whenever I came to play, so I could place it in the house to take some nappies with Angie and Angel and my other playmates.

My eyes averted to the merry-go-round. It was a fun ride, but it was my worst childhood nightmare. Sure it had been a dreamy, fun, and glee-crammed fete if it was pushed moderately. However, it would become the worst ride since some boys liked it fast and thrust it around, especially if it was Victorino since he liked it turning around so fast. Good thing, there were the twins who would offer me their hand and never let me go until the unstoppable whirl ended. We'd also end up nauseous and dizzy and too weak to stand up, some kids would end up puking which would cause their moms to panic. It'd take us a few minutes to recover and go back to playing. That was why whenever Valeria and Victorino or any of those boys who liked pushing it speedily were around, I'd tend to avoid playing in the merry-go-round. But there were always times I was unfortunate and got caught with them.

But the merry-go-around was one an instigator why I met a couple of friends who I would probably speak to, let alone see again given that the twins were around 4 years older than me and were frequently busy with school, so they weren't around playing with me most of the time and whenever it was merry-go-hell time, the other kids got my back and I got theirs too.

One of them was Aurora, who only spoke Spanish. I previously thought I could confidently speak Spanish with her just because I watched Dora. I used to do that to Valeria and Victorino as well, but I only got laughed at, which I deserved. Despite the language barrier, she and I had understood each other and enjoyably played games without any conflict, on my end that was.

Another was a boy, whose name I couldn't remember. He rarely went outside since he was bullied in their previous town and got afraid of interacting with other kids other than his siblings. Thankfully, most of us were friendly and invited him to play with us a lot so he gradually learned to open up with us and started playing frequently. I remembered him quite a lot since I loved his mom who occasionally gave us popsicles, her way of thanking us for taking out her kid, probably.

I shook my head and brushed my eyes on the sandbox, my favorite of them all. I loved playing with the sand and making sandcastles with my castle-shaped sand bucket.

There was a group of high school students who would occasionally come to the playground after school and make different structures with us other than sandcastles, one of them was an aspiring architect. He made complex building structures like the Twin Towers and Taj Mahal. They stopped visiting after they graduated, the last news I heard about them was pretty much heartwarming, they got their respective jobs and the architect-aspiring student became an Architectural Manager. Good for them.

A faint giggle tickled my stomach when I recollected that someone proposed to me while we were playing in the sand. I didn't fully understand what marriage was back then, only knowing it as being a concept of binding two people together for a long time with an oath, and when he asked me to promise him marriage when we grew up, I wholeheartedly accepted it since I wanted to be by his side for a long time because I had this little childish crush on him. Of all the boys I had played with, he was the one who always stuck with me.

I ran my hands through my hair, shaking my head. A sigh escaped from my lips. I was being reminded of him again. I then shook my head and tapped on the bench's arm before going back to jogging, trying to empty my thoughts again since a certain someone from my past was attempting to enter my mind. I didn't want to be reminded of his name, it would lead me to remember his entirety. I didn't want to hark back with the crumbling, unspoken sorrow that I badly desired to be just wishful thinking after all the recent happenings. I was trying to avoid that sorrow. But it seemed my sins were too heavy for the judgment scale to carry that it haunted me with such, as a form of punishment.

Half an hour passed since I did the exercise, and I decided to take a cool down in the open meadow. The sun was completely out that it was starting to feel warm and prickly, the soft rays of the sunlight struck all things bright and beautiful, the fog had gone like it was never there in the first place, and the people were starting to populate the park. Several kids were invading the playground as well. I popped my cheek on my final stretch and walked in the direction heading to a nearby store not far from here unless it was closed down.

Since it was fully morning, and I was pretty sure that mom was close to waking up so I hurriedly picked out the things I needed to buy and threw them in the cart. I only needed the stuff good for breakfast. I pulled out a box of pancake mix, two loaves of bread, honey, whipped cream, bacon, a carton of eggs, some fresh milk, and Gerber for Zach. I was in such a hurry that I was already running toward the counter as soon as I finished checking and double-checking if I got everything. I wanted mom to wake up with breakfast already made.

I found myself closer to the queue of customers lining the counter, and I ran faster than the speed of light. Someone might come and steal the latest spot!

"Oh!" I gasped in surprise when my cart crashed with someone else's. Someone came first on the spot before I could. I looked at the cart for a good second before brushing my gaze up, only to meet a guy's familiar face.

"Oh, it's you," his chummy voice said, hinting with a mix of amusement. He held these pair of bright brown eyes and smiling lips that brewed mischief. I remained to stare at his face, all speechless until it ticked in me why I found him familiar. It was the guy who was with the dog days earlier!

"It's you!" I exclaimed, pointing an index finger at him, my entire system assailed by shock.

"Yup, it's me," he pointed at himself as well and laughed. "Please tell me you haven't hit any animals lately," he jokingly added which made me pout for a bit, which was weird since I wasn't the type to chummy with strangers. Maybe because he had this amicable, reliable big brother-like aura.

"I told you, I was a bit occupied at that time," I replied, trying to act like I was completely unfazed. "It won't happen again."

"Right, right. Calm down." A peal of laughter escaped from his lips again. "Anyways, you should go first," he then said, tilting his head to the queue that just started to move.

"No, it's okay. You got in the spot first," I refused, raising a hand.

"I'm good," he retorted, the same mischievous smile plastered on his lips, then added: "And it looks like you're in a hurry anyway." He looked at me from head to toe, then to my cart. That was when I realized that I was helplessly sweating. It was probably because I was rushing. Gosh, how embarrassing!

"Don't mind if I do then," I replied, and released a small smile. I walked past him and set myself behind the elderly person who had only a carton of orange juice in their cart.

"So, you're new here?" he asked behind me, starting a conversation. "It's my first time seeing you around."

I turned to face him for a retort with a shrug. "I really can't say that. I mean, we used to live here, then we moved back."

"I see." He nodded continuously while looking in the opposite direction, and that was when I noticed that he had a tattoo on the right side of his face extending to his scalp, a wonderfully tatted laurel wreath. It was quite noticeable as his hair was in a messy French crop. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the way it was inked on his skin and how it coalesced in the fade. It looked so... mesmerizing. "Just moved here six months ago. So, technically, I'm the new one between you and me. It's a good place," he complimented then faced me, which pulled me off my mindless reverie.

"You're right. It is." I managed to say with a nod. "Neighbors a great."

"You're right. They are lovely," he said and his smile grew wider. "Got any good places to go around here? I hadn't done a full tour around town even though I've been here for six months."

"Wow, you sound like a hermit."

"I guess you can say that. Humor me?"

We began to talk about random things starting with the nice places around town that I knew, down to the annual events around town like the fair, and Valentine's special in the carnival. The man had quite the jolly personality and made me laugh a few times after a few side comments. It was like time slowed down, and seconds seemed to have become hours and everything around me was invisible.

"Hey, lovebirds. Stop holding the line!" a voice behind him suddenly said, breaking our conversation. I automatically looked behind me, the cash register was now free and the cashier was looking at us with disbelief on his face. Mortified, I hurriedly ran to the counter and placed all the items.

"See you when I see you again," he bid as I paid what was needed to be paid, and received the paper bag filled with my goods. I looked at him with a smile.

"Yeah." I nodded, "See you when I see you," I replied, even though it'd probably be the last time we'd meet again.

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Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my work, future works, and endless frustrations, you can find me on my Wattpad and social media accounts:

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Also, updates come quickly on Anystories. Updates on Wattpad will come a bit slower.