by Ivy Rose
“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. Anyway, I better go. I don’t want to be late for class. See you at lunch?”
“Sure.”
Chapter 13
The morning seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. I didn’t have a chance to think about Adrian all morning, but as soon as I stepped into the cafeteria, I knew he was there. I could feel him watching me and I had to fight the urge to spin around and look for him. Determined, I tried to focus on the people in front of me in line, even though their conversation was boring me to death.
Luckily, Lexi had already spotted me and called out as soon as I put some food on my plate. I moved across the cafeteria and gratefully sank down in a seat across from her. “Thanks.”
“You looked out of place.”
“I’m trying to avoid him for the rest of the day.”
“I hear you, loud and clear. Can I just say something though? His eyes were glued to you the whole way over here.” Lexi chuckled. “I told you he’s into you. Why don’t you two stop pretending and do something about it?”
“Do what?” Mia asked, putting her tray down on the table as she sat down in the empty seat next to me. I hadn’t even noticed her. I gave Lexi a look. This was a private conversation between Lexi and I for now.
“Nothing important, just some school stuff,” Lexi replied. “How about you? Do you have something fun to share with us?”
Mia wrinkled her nose. “No, and do you know what? I’m sooo bored with everything. Can we do something, just the four of us?”
“What do you want to do?” I asked and moved my food around on my plate. The cafeteria food wasn’t the best, but that wasn’t the main reason I couldn’t eat. The awareness of Adrian made my belly too preoccupied doing somersaults to devour the disgusting cafeteria food.
“I don’t know, just something.”
“Isn’t your distance call to Will exciting enough for you?” Lexi teased.
Mia laughed. “Maybe not, no. But seriously, we should do something together. Before we know it, we will have graduated, and we’ll all be separated.”
I looked at Mia and Lexi. “Do you know what? You’re right. We should do something together. Any ideas?”
“Guess it depends on what we’re after. Where’s Jasmine by the way?” Lexi looked at Mia.
“She’s in the library. She needed to finish an assignment.”
I nodded. “So, what do we want to do? Do we want to go away for a weekend?”
“Yes, that would be fun! Should we jump on the train and go to the big city?” Mia replied excitedly.
Lexi looked at us. “I don’t know. I mean that’s quite a long way to go just for a couple of nights…”
“You’re right. Well, why don’t we sleep on it then?” I suggested.
Jasmine showed up and joined us at the table. “What are you guys talking about?”
“We want to go away somewhere, just the four of us. What do you think?” Mia asked.
“I think I absolutely LOVE the idea,” she said and clapped her hands.
“We just don’t know where yet,” I added.
“What about my parents’ holiday house? It’s about two, maybe three hours away. We could have the whole house to ourselves. It’s right outside town. There’s even a cinema and a few restaurants we could visit. The house is by a lake, with no neighbours. We could go for nice walks, then jump in the jacuzzi and even use the sauna if we like,” Jasmine suggested with excitement.
Lexi looked at us with a smile. “Sounds great!”
“Okay, I’ll talk to my parents tonight. They rent it out, so I’m not sure when it’s available. Any particular weekend?”
“As soon as possible! But not the weekend we have the autumn party,” Mia said.
I looked at the girls. “What autumn party?”
“The one the school hosts every year before the holidays. You better come, Aurora. We’re all in the autumn party committee and you could join us if you want? We could use an extra hand,” Jasmine said.
“Not this time. Mum and I have a lot to do at home at the moment. But I’ll be at the party, I promise.”
“Okay. Well, I’ll sort it out with our holiday house tonight with my parents and give you all a text.”
“I can’t wait. This is going to be so much fun,” Lexi replied.
As we finished our lunch, I knew that Adrian had left the cafeteria. That intense feeling that consumed me wasn’t there anymore, and I couldn’t help but feel a sting of disappointment. Was that how you felt when you had a crush on someone? I had no idea how chemistry worked. What I did know was, it was definitely there.
I didn’t see Adrian or Julian for the rest of the day, and in a way, I was quite relieved. One encounter was enough for me for one day. Lexi had training after school, and I decided to go home and distract myself with homework again. As I drove along the narrow road up to the house, I saw Mr Peters mowing our lawn. I beeped as I passed, and he turned and waved back to me. Even though they worked here, I hardly saw them. I pulled over and got out of the car.
“Mr Peters.” I waved and walked towards him. “Do you need a hand with anything?”
“Aurora.” Mr Peters smiled. “No, I’m about to finish. How are you? Did you have a good day at school?”
I nodded. “Yep, it was good.” An image of Adrian flashed by, and I shook my head lightly. Why did I have to think about him, like, every second? “My friends and I are talking about going away for a weekend.”
“Really? Is your friend Lexi one of them?”
“Yes of course. She’s my best friend around here.”
Mr Peters smiled. “Good. Lexi is a great girl.”
“You know her family, right?”
He nodded. “I know them very well – her parents and her grandparents.”
“Are they in Angel Falls too?”
“No, they live about an hour from here.”
I thought of the conversation I’d tried to have with Mum a couple of weeks ago, when I’d questioned why I couldn’t remember Lexi or her family from when I was younger. I realised that this was a perfect opportunity to try and get some answers. If there were any answers to be found, Mr Peters seemed to know the Dawsons very well.
“Lexi and I were actually just talking about how weird it is that we can’t remember each other from when we were younger. Quite odd, don’t you think?”
Mr Peters looked at me without a word, like he was deliberating how to proceed with the conversation. “Well…” he started. “It was a long time ago… You were both little.”
“I wasn’t that little,” I interrupted him. “I remember so many other things from here, people I’ve met, but I have no memory of Lexi at all.”
“Well…” Mr Peters looked at me. It was like he was trying to choose his words carefully. “I don’t know what to say. Maybe you should talk to your mum about it?” he suggested kindly.
“Okay, maybe I will.”
Was I looking to find something that wasn’t even there? I mean, what did I think I would find out? That someone had erased my memory? It almost made me laugh. What was up with me and all these weird theories?
“Well, my dear Aurora, I’m going to finish this before it gets dark, but if you go inside, you’ll find my wife’s famous cinnamon buns in the kitchen. She was baking today.”
“Really? I love those! I’ll go inside then. See you later, Mr Peters.”
“See you later, Aurora.”
As soon as I opened the front door, the smell of cinnamon moved my feet automatically towards the kitchen. Maybe Mrs Peters had some more information about the Dawsons? I still had no idea what I was really looking for. It was more of a hunch or a feeling. Except for Mum’s phone call I’d overheard the first night here. That was definitely real. Could it be related somehow?
“Hi, Mrs Peters.” I strolled into the kitchen, my mouth watering.
“Hi, Aurora, you’re home early. I’m just about to finish up in here.”
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“It smells delicious.”
“Would you like to try one with a cup of tea?” she asked.
“Only if you join me.” I smiled.
I made us some tea, while Mrs Peters took out her last batch from the oven.
“How’s school, Aurora? I’ve hardly seen you lately.”
“I know, I’ve been kind of busy.”
“School is all right though?”
“Yep, it’s all good.”
“What about your friends?”
“I have Lexi, Mia and Jasmine who I’m close too. I actually really like it here in Angel Falls. It’s different, obviously, but in a good way.”
“That’s good to hear.” Mrs Peters smiled. “We are so glad that you and Helena are back here with us.”
“But there’s something that’s really been bothering me lately.” I looked at her.
“And what is that, Aurora?”
“Neither Lexi nor I can remember each other. Don’t you think that’s a little bit weird, when I can remember everything else so clearly?”
I studied Mrs Peters, who diverted her eyes to the cup of tea she was holding in her hand. Just like Mr Peters, she seemed to be looking for the right words.
“Well, you were little—”
“Yes, I know that. But why do I remember everything with my grandparents, the details of the library, and other things that happened before I moved away?”
“Well, memory can be very selective. We can’t always choose what we remember, even if we would like to.”
“I guess you’re right,” I said and took a bite of my bun. Well, maybe she was right? I mean, maybe it really was that simple?
After finishing our tea, I helped her with the cleaning before she left the manor for the day. I grabbed another cinnamon bun that she had left out on the kitchen bench, sat down and waited for Mum to get home.
Later, after Mum and I had finished dinner, a text message came through from Jasmine. Her parents were happy to lend their house to us for the upcoming weekend, and she wondered if I would be able to come. I replied a quick ‘yes’ before I looked at Mum.
“I’m going away this weekend, with the girls.”
“Oh?” Mum said, loading the dishes into our dishwasher.
“Yes, if that’s okay with you?”
“Sure, I still have some work to do before I’m up to date with everything. And who are the girls you’re referring to?”
“Lexi, Mia and Jasmine. It’s Jasmine’s parents’ holiday house by some lake.”
“Do you know where it is?”
“I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s not more than a three-hour drive away. Is that okay?”
“Of course, it is. I’m glad you’ve made some friends that you like to spend time with.”
“Speaking of friends—” I started but was interrupted by Mum’s phone ringing.
“Sorry, Aurora, I have to take this.”
I nodded and reached for my phone again. I needed to cancel my movie night with Julian. A date with him was not going to happen, not right now anyway. I sent him a text, telling him I was going away and wouldn’t be able to make it to the movies after all. I had a feeling he would be quick to reply to try and set another day, but after several minutes, I still hadn’t heard anything back from him.
“Are you expecting a phone call?”
I jumped slightly in my seat. I hadn’t heard Mum come back into the kitchen.
“No, not really. I was just thinking…about stuff.” I smiled, putting my phone down. “What about you? Is everything all right?”
“Yes, everything is fine. You know I feel really guilty that I’m always working—”
“Mum, stop,” I interrupted. “We’ve been over this. I knew that it was going to be a lot of work in the beginning, and I’m fine with that. Really, please, don’t feel bad.”
“Things will get easier, I promise. It’s just a lot to deal with right now.”
“I know and like I said, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, okay?”
She sat down next to me and gave me a hug.
“I love you, sweetheart.”
“Love you too, Mum.” I paused. “Now, I want to talk about Lexi with you.”
“Oh?” She shifted in her seat. “How come?”
“I still don’t understand why I can’t remember her.”
“Aurora, I think you have misunderstood the whole situation. You two really didn’t spend that much time together. It’s not strange at all that you can’t remember her. Just be grateful that you have each other now.”
“But I got the impression that we did spent a lot of time together.”
Mum shook her head. “No, not really.”
“I just find it weird that Lexi said she had spent a lot of time here, but she can’t remember any of it.” I was grasping at straws a bit here.
“Maybe she misunderstood what Sarah and David told her, because she didn’t. I mean, not really. It was more when you were babies. Then we moved overseas.” Mum put a teacup in front of me.
“Oh, I see. You’re probably right,” I said and grabbed my cup of tea, unsatisfied.
I didn’t correct her about the fact that it wasn’t Lexi’s parents who told her about our connection. I remember clearly what Lexi told me the first night we’d met. She told me that she used to come to our house a lot, and that we had played together. Babies don’t play together, which means we must have been older. And it wasn’t her parents who had told her, she was the one who found pictures of us, but they disappeared before she had a chance to ask her parents about them.
What I didn’t understand, though, was why they would hide something like that from us, then encourage us to get together again when we were older? Something definitely wasn’t adding up.
Chapter 14
Between school, planning for our weekend away, and studying for two exams, the week flew by. I’d managed to avoid Adrian the whole week, but I had plenty of opportunities to feel his presence. I’d tried to stay away from him, just to give myself some breathing room, and I luckily hadn’t had any surprises. It was like he was keeping his distance too. What did he want from me? It was so hard to keep up.
Julian and his class were away on a field trip and I didn’t hear from him until Thursday about me cancelling on him. He didn’t ask why, but asked for a raincheck with a smiley face, and I replied with a ‘maybe’. I figured that if I could manage to get over Adrian, someone like Julian could be fun to go out with.
When Friday finally arrived, I hurried home after school to get everything ready for my weekend away. Mum had left me a note and some extra money on the table, and I sent her a quick text to thank her, before I went upstairs to pack my bag. I was so excited for this weekend. I had never gone away with friends like this before and even though this was all new territory for me, I welcomed it with open arms.
An hour later, I was safely tucked away in the back seat with Mia in Lexi’s car. Jasmine was our DJ in the passenger seat. We didn’t get far before the sun set for the day, denying me any more opportunities to admire the autumn landscape outside my car window. After almost two and a half hours’ drive in the dark, we finally made it to the little town of Lovika Creek. We stopped there for dinner, before we arrived at Jasmine’s holiday house later in the evening. It was a big timber house by a small lake, with no other houses around as far as the eye could see.
“Mum had the cleaners come in today to stock up our fridge and turn the lamps on. It should be nice and warm in there.”
We grabbed our bags and followed Jasmine towards the house. It was so quiet, and except for the little lamps in the windows, the moon was the only light we had to navigate our unfamiliar surroundings. You could tell we were surrounded by wilderness; I could smell the wet forest as we walked towards the house. For some people it might have been scary to think that we were out here all by ourselves in the wilderness, but for me it was healing.
“Come in, girls.” Jasmine turned the main light
s on and showed us in. “Welcome to the lake house.”
The two-storey timber home was just as cosy as it looked from the outside. There were four bedrooms upstairs, so we all had our own. The bottom floor had a massive living room with big couches and a fireplace in the middle. There were panoramic windows facing the lake where I assumed you had a beautiful view in daylight.
We all put our pyjamas on, grabbed a blanket and sat down by the fireplace with a big bowl of chips and ten different kinds of dips to share.
“This is so nice. I’m glad we’re doing this,” Lexi said and grabbed a handful of chips.
“Me too. I’ll finally get to ask you what’s going on with Luca. Are you two a couple or what?” Mia asked excitedly.
Lexi laughed and looked at each of us. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess so. I didn’t expect it though, that’s for sure.”
“Do you like him?”
I think that was the first time I’d ever seen Lexi blush.
“Yes, I do.” She smiled.
I tried to look and feel as enthusiastic about it as everyone else in the room, but the truth was, I knew how I felt about Luca and I couldn’t see my feelings changing any time soon.
We spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing and playing cards. It wasn’t until after midnight that we decided to go to sleep. My room had the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in, and it didn’t take long until I was fast asleep.
I was the first one to wake up the next morning. I quietly padded down the stairs, put my shoes on and went outside. It was a beautiful morning. I could smell the damp autumn weather in the air. The forest surrounding the house and the tranquil lake were covered by a morning mist. It looked so peaceful that I decided to take a little walk before the girls woke up. I had no problem with walking in the forest alone. In fact, despite having real friends now, I still needed to spend some time on my own, with my own thoughts. As I was walking, I wondered if I’d always felt this peaceful in nature, like I somehow belonged? It was hard to tell, as I had been brought up in a big city. It surprised me a little that I’d immediately felt so connected to nature from the moment we moved back here.
