Chapter Eighty Four
When I woke up, my head was laying on Willow’s lap. She was carefully removing the beads from my hair, one by one.
“You’ve got some serious patience my Willow. If the bead removal process had been left up to me, I would’ve been looking for the closest pair of scissors…” I muttered and still felt sleepy.
“That wouldn’t be advisable – not a pretty look for you…” Willow replied and continued to remove beads.
“I want to know…”
“I already ‘know’ what you want to know Ember. Mind if I ask why ‘knowing it’ is so important to you though…”
“It’s super important because I want Tray to be happy and have some kind of shot at having a normal existence because he’s never had that…I didn’t realize how lonely it’s been for him until you came back into his life…you know…I stink at reading people…I thought Eli was asking you out that night at the mall…I’ve wasted hours of irretrievable time distracting him from inviting you to dinner again until I could figure out if there was something more between you and my brother…so is there something more…” I asked in one huge run-on sentence.
My mind was wandering from topic to topic, but it was beyond my control.
“You’ve been trying to get Eli to avoid me! Sweetie, I’ve gotta give you some female education fast before Eli hurts himself. That boy’s done everything BUT pay any consideration to me or anyone else, other than you since the moment I met him at Sears…” she replied and then laughed so hard she had to stop removing beads because she was tugging at my hair.
“I repeat Willow – I stink at reading people…even now that I know he likes me, I still can’t think of any signs or subtle clues I missed…hmmm…” I told her as my mind drifted around inside the knowledge of my obvious flaw.
“I shudder to think about how much longer he would’ve struggled uselessly to get your undivided attention if you truly believe his approach has been subtle up to this point. It’s been about as understated as fireworks on the Fourth of July and skywriting. I wonder why Krista didn’t pick up on it.”
“Probably because I told her Eli wanted you and she was working in cahoots with me. Oh my goodness, my social inadequacies and mental limitations are starting to rub off on her. Please, we’ve got to warn her!” I exclaimed and felt an immediate urgency to call her.
I was only partially joking because Krista was my eyes and ears. If she lost her ability to see something like Eli wanting to date ME – what else had she missed??
“You’re not socially inadequate. You’re just innocent and you’ve been sheltered by your brother every second of your life. Krista is extraordinarily perceptive as a general rule. So let’s chalk up her inability to see it as her either being focused on what you asked her to do for you or her ‘resident status inside Greg-world’ or her party planning…”
“I sure hope you’re right…”
My thoughts started to drift again. But Willow needed to remove the beads from the other side of my head. So she had to gently reposition it.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten my question…” I told her when I returned from my mental wandering.
“You might forget some things from time to time, but your questions rarely make the cut…”
“So I wanna know what you and Tray have together…or you can tell me it’s none of my business.”
“What, and risk yours and Krista’s blundering attempts to foil another guy’s imagined interest in me?? I wouldn’t want you to waste any more time, groping around in the dark trying to discover the truth. I’ll talk about this with you, but I have conditions,” Willow said and waited for my reply.
“Anything…”
“I’ll tell you, but then it stays between us. No sharing with Tray or Krista – it’s ours alone. I’ll only answer those things that I feel you should know right now. Deal?”
“MMhhmmm…”
“No Ember, you have to repeat the deal so I know you understand it or we can always wait until later…”
“I agree to keep what we say between just us – minus if Tray’s runnin’ around inside my mind, but that doesn’t count. Plus, you’ll only answer questions that you feel are my business…”
“I didn’t say ‘your business’ – I said ‘things you should know right now’. You’re still young and some things need to wait until you’re more mature to be discovered. That’s what I meant…”
“Why does everyone think I’m too young? Tray doesn’t think I’m young…I pay our bills…” I stated as my mind took off down yet another rabbit hole.
“Who else thinks you’re too young?” Willow inquired, curiously.
“I’ll answer if you give me the same deal I’m giving you. Between us and only what I believe you’re mature enough to hear…” I countered and snickered.
“Deal – stays between us and you’ll tell me what you’re ready to tell me,” she vowed.
It wasn’t exactly what I had said, but it was close enough.
“I don’t know if it’s ‘a who’ or ‘a what’ – whatever ‘it’ is or might be – it thinks I’m too young for something. It annoys me greatly because I don’t feel young or immature. It seems as though I’m destined to remain a naïve child in the thoughts and minds of everyone and everything around me…”
“What’s this ‘something’ you’re too young for?”
“Your guesses are as good as mine. It’s like when you wake up from a vivid, realistic dream and the details are fuzzy around the edges. As soon as your eyes pop open though, the dream disappears – kind of like that…”
“Well, I don’t think you’re naïve or a child – that’s not what I meant. Lemme clarify what I stated. I didn’t mean to imply that I felt you were too young to understand – you’re not. I believe in honesty and keeping promises. So I will be honest with you until the point that I would be breaking a promise to Tray by telling you. I would never betray him or you for that matter,” Willow informed me.
“I know you wouldn’t…”
“Tray and I have been in love for a long time – probably since we were kids. You don’t think about those things when you’re sneaking around a fairground after closing, trying to find some buried treasure with your best friend. We’d spend every minute together when we were both in the same location. Since we usually had other people listening in, we learned to talk in our own language. We also created a code system, so we could leave messages for each other to find after we’d skipped on to the next town.
“The first time I ever saw you, I thought Tray had brought me a baby doll as a gift. I demanded that he ‘hand me my baby right this instant’ and he did it. You looked at me with your mother’s hauntingly gorgeous eyes. I didn’t realize how important that gesture was until the next day. Various people asked to hold you and he flatly refused. I was the only person he ever allowed to even touch you. He carried you around like you were a part of him. You realize that I never saw you take a single step until you walked into Aunt Celeste’s house…” Willow told me and started laughing at the irony.
I waited for her to finish her moment of hilarity and didn’t interrupt her. I wanted her to keep talking and I was scared my mind would roam to another topic if I opened my mouth.
“Ember, I love your brother with all my heart and that fact will never change…” Willow offered after she stopped laughing.
“So marry each other and live happily ever after...I need your female assistance, obviously and Tray listens to you…” I interrupted her.
I had managed to work their whole future out in my mind. So I blurted out my plan because I didn’t want to risk forgetting. I smiled in satisfaction – Ember, you are the stuff…
“Slow down, Sweetie! Your brother is complicated and committed relationships are even more challenging. He has to do things in his own time and he has very valid reasons for doing them just that way. I’m content to have found you both again
and be back inside his world. Sometimes we forget that the times in between – what we desire and when we get what we desire – hold many happy moments and treasured memories. Enjoy all your moments Ember because once you get what you want, those times are gone forever.”
“I’ve never thought about that…I can’t imagine how many panic attacks Tray went through in order to allow Krista and Elizabeth to give me that party…would you promise me something please…”
“Depends…what promise would you like me to give you…”
“The next time Krista plans anything remotely close to surprising me – tell me about it! I’d like to grow old with my brother at my side and it appears my best friend is challenging the fates to take him away via a stroke…”
“I can keep that promise to you, but your party certainly was a blast. The whole ‘half naked little girl’s coming out party outfit’ was priceless. Tray fared much better than I thought he would with the whole chaotic event. He and I even wrote out the invitations and had them printed to make sure his list of party rules was included. Oh yeah, that reminds me, would anyone want to play a practical joke on you or Krista?”
“Maybe…you know how catty girls can be sometimes…why do you ask?”
“Well, the crowd yelled “surprise” tonight and continued to make a noisy commotion. It was shocking to us because we didn’t plan on that as a contingency. The rules were very specific and we expected the crowd to react differently. So Tray and I just thought maybe you’d have some idea about who might have been behind it…” Willow requested and waited quietly for my reply.
“I’d rather not name any names…” I answered and thought about how Tray lifted Eli over his head in anger.
“They’d be perfectly safe – promise. We’re only curious and I swear your brother won’t say or do anything to anyone. You’d just be offering an educated guess at this juncture anyway, right?” Willow inquired as if she had just read my mind.
“Yes, nothing definite. In fact, if Tray’s promised not to say or do anything this might end up working to my advantage in our next inevitable debate. See, we stayed involved in this ‘semi-argument’ because I told him I wanted to skip my freshman year of high school. He refused to give into me no matter how many logical reasons I gave him.
“He said he wants me to have a childhood and experience everything possible while I had a chance. I hate the hazing ritual thing that he believes is some rite of passage. So I stayed locked in a losing argument with him this entire school year. Maybe next time I request something he’ll just listen to me and I can win one for a change…” I explained to Willow and she gave me the most unknowable look I have ever witnessed.
She didn’t reply with anything more than shaking her head. Once I figured out that was the only answer I would be getting, I told Willow all about Brylie Flynn, a.k.a. ‘cat-girl’ and our crazy stare down challenge. Then, I provided her with an account of Brylie’s conversation with the other dark clique chick in the girl’s restroom that day back in November. I explained how the dark clique girls were considering doing something themselves to welcome me because the guys refused to do it.
Willow asked me how I had arrived at the term dark clique for their particular group. So I explained to her about the boys wearing black constantly and how it matched their hearts. I didn’t get a chance to tell her about the spaghetti prank because we were interrupted. Tray was in the living room and started to make a monster fuss over something. We both ran down the hallway to see what on earth was wrong.
“Stupid, freakin’ piece of worthless junk…” Tray shouted and had a death grip on a computer monitor.
My brother was smacking it at first. Then, he started shaking it like he was intent on mixing the contents inside.
“Stop – put it down,” Willow yelled and Tray complied.
“What is all this??” I asked as I looked around at the computer and photography equipment that was suddenly a part of our world.
“I swear I’m ready to sling this ridiculous thing into next week. I will NEVER switch careers – and I mean NEVER! I’d be willing to take a forty five year old, rusted engine and make it purr like a Corvette before I’d ever consider doing anything with a computer other than turning it into a toolbox,” he shouted, insanely.
Willow and I struggled against bursting into laughter. I managed to turn the computer on for my brother – after I plugged it into the wall, that is.
I discovered that he had over three hundred pictures taken at my party. I shouted “whoopee” loud enough to make poor Willow jump in fear. I wouldn’t have to rely on my faulty – and in this case, pleasure driven intoxicated mind to remember the night.
Tray walked over to his recliner, content because he didn’t have to fight with the computer anymore. Willow took over and loaded the pictures for me.
I watched the slideshow of all the party guests and everyone looked like they were having a great time. The pictures that were snapped of me were unbelievable. I looked illuminated in most of them and in pure rapture in all of them. The pictures continued to slide across the screen while Willow and I discussed them.
Then, one picture popped up and I gasped in astonishment. Garrett and Emily were smiling and dancing together at my party. The slideshow progressed before I could be sure it was them though. Suddenly, it was my turn to slam my hand against the side of the computer monitor as I tried to make it go backwards.
“Ember, you stop too please…we use the buttons – not smacks to make the computer do what we want it to do…” Willow exclaimed and used the mouse to retrieve the picture I wanted to see again.
“Oh my heavens, that is Garrett and Emily! How did they know about my birthday party??”
Tray was on his feet and standing beside me before I even saw him leave the recliner. He looked carefully at the still picture on the computer screen.
“Are you sure it’s them, Ember??” he asked, urgently.
“Yes – I’m sure, that’s Garrett Austel and Emily something or other…I forget her last name …from our school in Chicago…I wasn’t nearly as close to her, so it’s no big shock that I don’t remember it…” I stated and Tray looked at me like I was pulling his leg.
“You’re 100% positive it’s them???” my brother asked me again.
“Hold on…” I replied because I had a way to prove what I was saying to him.
I ran into my bedroom and they both followed me. I retrieved my hatbox from underneath my bed and searched through the contents until I found their picture together.
“See!” I exclaimed and handed my brother the photograph.
“Yes, you’re right…” Tray agreed and exchanged some sort of weird look with Willow.
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 88
