How I Missed You.

Isabella

I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted James to come see my oral presentation, which would already be embarrassing in front of my entire English class. My face was sure to go bright red when I realise the person I’m talking about is sitting underneath the open window listening to everything I say. But despite all this, I said yes. What a stupid thing to do.

I wiped my shoes on my front door mat and waited for James to do the same before going inside and closing the door. “So what now?” James asked, plopping down on the couch. Sharon had just called us saying that she and my mum were going to the supermarket. They had big plans for lunch.

“I dunno,” I responded, I hadn’t really thought about today’s activities anymore than saying I’d take James to see my school. I didn’t counter in the fact that there wasn’t much to see. “I suppose I could show you around the rest of town,” I shrugged.

“But we just got back,” James whined and I laughed at his childishness.

“Fine,” what do you want to do?”

“Hmm...” he was silent for a moment, his eyebrows scrunched together in deep thought, “Got any good movies?”

I waved my hand towards the little bookcase in the corner of the room next to out T.V, “There’s other stuff up in my room.”

James jumped up, dragging his feet across the carpet and settled himself in front of the bookcase. He pulled open the doors and spread them as far as they could go, sticking his head in the dark space crowded by our videos and DVD’s.

“Need a torch?” I giggled.

“Nah,” he replied, reaching in and pushing various things aside. I couldn’t see past his shoulders so I didn’t know what he was looking for until he found it and pushed his way out, almost knocking his head off.

He was holding a video, his hand covered the title but I could instantly recognize the cover. It was one of our favourites, ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ Every time we use to watch it we’d pretend to be the characters and act out the scenes, using mattresses to slide down in our attempts to reenact Alice’s trip into ‘Wonderland.’ Of course the tradition died when I moved away and took the only copy we shared between us. James had ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame.’

“Do you remember?” he asked and I nodded with a small smile. I went to sit on the couch and he tossed me the T.V remote, while putting Alice in the VCR. He jumped on the couch, making the whole thing wobble and I warned him that breaking the furniture would not impress our mothers’. They’d probably never leave us alone again.

“I bags being Alice,” I called, before the opening credits started.

“Fine, then I’ll be the Queen,” James said, putting on a superior expression.

“I’ll be the Cheshire cat, because I’m the best at turning invisible,” I joked.

“And I’ll be the Mad Hatter, because my madness makes you want to turn invisible.”

We called names out like this until all the characters were taken (I realised that over time we hadn’t forgotten who liked playing who) and the movie finally started.

I hadn’t watched it in years, I hadn’t watched any video in years, but I found that I still remembered the lines, like never forgetting how to ride a bike.