Journey to the Past

“What do you do…” Dad asked us. Okay… so, well… basically… it was 2:58 in the morning. Dad woke Vinnie up and he brought him into my room, which thus woke Lily and I up. It wasn’t a fun time. We now sat in my bed, cuddled and hugging our legs to our chests like small children. I was exhausted. I could tell we all were. I rested my head on Vinnie’s shoulder and his head was on mine. Lily was tired. I’m pretty sure she woke up and fell asleep every five minutes as dad paced back and forth across the room.

“Get on with it, old man,” I said. Vinnie and Lily smirked softly.

“Okay,” Dad said, grabbing the chair in my room and sitting on it with his legs on either side, his front facing the back of the chair and he rested his arms on the top of the chair. “I think Scout likes me. What do you do when an ex likes you?” He asked.

“Okay,” I said, sitting up straight and smiling at him. “One; WHY Are you asking me? Two. You don’t know if she likes you, right? So don’t stress about it too much! Three… it’s not like you weren’t ever in this situation before.” Vinnie laughed and Lily stifled one.

“This is serious,” He said. “And, like, you—” his arm moved up and down towards me.

“You just gestured at all of me,” I said.

“Can you not be a smart ass like your mom…” He begged. “This SUCKS,” he growled. I smirked and took a pillow and hit myself in the face with it. I was SOOO tired. “Like…”

“Dad if you like her back then do whatever you want. I have no control over that.” I said. “Case closed, go fuck her now and marry her and I’m going to bed.” Dad’s eyes widened at me and his mouth dropped to the floor as I crawled over Vinnie and got back in the friggen covers. I put the pillow under my head and turned away from dad.

I honestly thought they’d have sex or something while we were at school. I can’t believe they’ve had such a platonic relationship for so long. This is absolutely ludicrous. I mean, sure, it’d be rad if dad stayed single forever because he’s in love with mom still but she’s… you know… dead… and there’s nothing that can really change that right now… and Dad’s lonely via significant other.

“Case closed,” I heard Vinnie say. “Good ni—morning, actually… later…” I felt his fingers tuck my hair behind my ear as he kissed my temple. I smiled softly and felt him get off the bed and walk out. Lily jumped down.

“But—”

“Shut up,” I told him. “Act your age. You’re an adult, dad, not seventeen years old—as much as band life seems to keep you immature, it’s over and done with and you have to move on and start taking control in whatever you need or want in life. Night, dad.”

I’m pretty sure I said something kinda rad.

---

“We’re moving too fast,” I said. Vinnie smiled. “Don’t you think?”

“No,” he whispered. “Not at all. Just… I’ll take care of you… don’t you worry about a thing, Andrea…” he pressed his lips to mine and pulled away from me for a bit. I bit lip and looked into his eyes that were barely visible underneath his hair. They had that magical spark in them… that I loved… and it made me trust him so much... right here… right now…

He took my hand in his and we walked down the stairs to breakfast. :D

“You guys are too funny,” Lily said, catching up behind us. “When do ya want me outta here?” She asked.

“Neverrrr,” I said, letting go of Vinnie’s hand and hugging Lily. She hugged me back and we linked arms as we skipped to the dining room, leaving Vinnie staring off at us as we left him behind. Breakfast was on the table when we got there and dad and Scout were (weirdly) sitting at opposite ends of the table. I took my seat by dad and turned my head slowly to look at him.

“Pussy,” I muttered.

“Vinnie!” Dad yelled when he entered. “Stop teaching her words that aren’t nice.” I looked up and Vinnie stood, baffled at Dad.

“I teach her these things. Doesn’t mean she has to use them. Like my trig teacher’s teaching us about cosine and tangent and whatever. Doesn’t mean I’m gunna use it in life.”

“That was a good one,” I said softly.

“Wasn’t it?” Vinnie asked, smiling as he sat down across from me. “I just thought of it and I said it.”

“What is it with children these days?” Dad asked.

“Ask Scout,” I said.

“Shh, she can hear you,” Dad warned. I was about to eat my waffles but that did it, and I just let my fork clank back onto the plate. Really, dude? Screw it, dude. Who gives a shit? I sighed and looked at Lily who was smirking and shaking her head.

“Dude,” Vinnie said. “Just go sit with her. She’s lonely over there.”

“I liked you better when you weren’t dating my daughter and when you were like seven,” Dad told him.

“OH MY GOD!” I yelled. “This is too much,” I looked at the other end of the table. “Scout,” I said. She looked up. “You look lonely. Sit nearer to us!” I told her, motioning her over. She smiled and shrugged, taking her plate and cup and utensils and setting her shit next to Vinnie.

This is just unacceptable.

“The dog was gunna sit there,” I said.

“What dog?” Dad and Scout said simultaneously.

“My imaginary dog, silly!” I said. Dad was glaring at me. Seriously. He needs to mature a bit right now. “You should sit on Vinnie’s other side—you know. Next to daddykinz.” I said. Right then, dad was drinking his coffee and he did a spit take.

“What did you just call me?” He asked.

“Daddykinz!” I said. Lily and Vinnie burst out laughing.

Dad stared at me, his mouth a bit open and he looked a bit pissed. “And you’re the one who’s telling me to grow up? The fucking nerve—sorry.”

“Okay,” I said. “If you can swear, I can swear. I’ll just apologize after. Pussy.”

“Don’t call me that,”

“At least I’m not afraid to call Scout over unlike you, pussy,” I know. I was treating dad like a friend, not my dad, but until he literally matures and kind of acts like a dad then I’m not backing down. Vinnie and Lily couldn’t control their laughter. Scout was even giggling.

“I will clutch you—” dad threatened, but I stopped him.

“Is that any way to speak to your daughter, pussy?”

And dad wanted to die.

---

So, the funny thing is that Dad told us to ah, what was it? “GTFO” of the house and so we did. Lily called her mom and told her we would take her home when we were done with her. It was funny, her mom’s reaction. “What are ya gunna do with her?!” and we were like “Ohhh nothing.”

“So,” I said. “Where were the parties held?” I asked.

“Come again?” Vinnie asked.

“Christmas parties,” I specified. “Where were they held?” Vinnie stopped walking and Lily kept walking until she realized we had stopped. We were by that park where we met Jared.

“Why do you want to know?” He asked.

I bit my lip. “I want to go,” I said honestly.

“You mad?!” He asked. “Why would you ever want to go there? It’s supposedly haunted now.”

I scoffed. “Oh please, like our friends and family are haunting the place. If they were, what would they do to us? Nothing. They love us.” Vinnie’s eyes rolled from beneath his hair and I narrowed mine. “I’m serious. I just want to go see what it looks like now.”

“Okay. Fine. It’s not that far from here, actually.” Vinnie looked uneasy but he took my hand as we kept walking. “LILY, HOLD MY OTHER HAND!” He yelled. We laughed and she did so. My heart was beating a bit faster… knowing that we were going to the place that ruined my memory and life for a good decade. I think I can handle it.

So on we walked for a really long time, talking animatedly about random things we could because if we kept too quiet, I think we’d grow even more nervous than we already were. I definitely knew the way, though, because I had walked from that place to fucking Ohio on my own. I know where to go. To me, it wasn’t even that far.

We came around a corner of a road and it was all dirt. I looked down at it and then back up. Wooden houses and small cabins were scattered around us. Cabin. Vinnie’s hand tightened around mine as we kept walking towards the place… until we came up on our left a roadway that led up to a huge hall. My eyes widened at the place

The whole thing looked very abandoned, eerie and destroyed. Some parts of the building from where we were standing looked broken as fuck and discolored. The front door was hanging off its hinges. The windows were broken. I cringed at the sight of dry blood. I broke free from Vinnie’s hold and walked towards the building. I couldn’t believe it.

This place… wasn’t everyone literally here dead? Just under my feet… my stomach twisted at that thought. I walked off to the left and looked at this side of the building. I felt Vinnie come over to my side and I stared at this… little wall thing… Vinnie walked up to this wall on this side of the hall and opened it with difficulty. A bit of dust escaped as it opened. There was some dried up blood on the other side of the little wall that he just opened up.

“The secret door you led us out of,” I said. He nodded. I pointed to the dried up blood. “Where’s that from?”

“When I let you out…” he whispered. “One of Nate’s guys came at me and just bashed me on the head a few times… not enough to kill me, at least… but… yeah.”

I remembered, now, the second that we came outside thanks to Vinnie’s help, the door closed and I heard a thud behind it. It was scary because I thought Vinnie had gotten hurt. He did, I guess. I shook my head and sighed, looking around some more, only to see the shed that was all too familiar. The shed that Alex and I had escaped in. I then looked down at where I was standing and a tear escaped from my right eye, sliding down my cheek.

Mom’s here. Right under me. I looked at the shed again and ran up to it, going inside it and looking around. Dried blood here, too. Looking at the floor, I saw the trap door and opened it up. The ladder was there… and right around the middle of the ladder, it was discolored… with some blood.

That’s where Alex was.

The tears escaped even more now. I climbed down the ladder and hopped down, looking around. That was the corner I was freaking out in with Alex… and then Dad came and saved us… and then I was thrown somewhere… and then I woke up.

I sat in the middle of the floor and stared at nothing. I really don’t know how long I was there for. It felt like a long time, though. I guess I just let it all settle in… it was all very depressing. I felt cold, suddenly, like a chill came over me. Almost like a wind. That reminded me of how cold it was on that night. It’s not like there’s windows down here… so I wondered where the chill came from.

“Sister,” I heard. Are you kidding me?! My eyes widened. “Why’re you here? Seriously… do you WANT to be sad?”

“No…”

“Then you should go,”

And so I did, going up the ladder and out of the shed. Lily was sitting under a tree, looking around casually. I smiled softly at her. She waved. I mouthed “Where’s Vinnie?” at her and she shrugged. I shrugged, too, and walked off to go find him, only to see that he was lying on the grass behind the building, looking at the sky.

“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Mom and Dad are, ya know, chillin’ out under me.” I sighed sadly and remembered his parents. They were fucking adorable. Uncle Chris was always up for a fun time and making us laugh nonstop and Aunt Ally would like to sing to us and watch movies with us and make us food and take us to places. And they were cute together.

“We should go,” I told him. He nodded sadly and sat up, letting out a huge breath. He stood up and I took his hands, bringing him closer to me and kissing him. He kissed me back, then proceeded to kiss my forehead and cheek and jaw and lips again. It made me giggle because he was being funny. “Come on, jerk face.” I told him. We walked off to Lily, who was happy now to go, and we set off to the mall.

We kind of raged around like mall rats and bought only a few things. We had lunch and then decided to go back home after taking Lily home. When we arrived home, I handed Vinnie my bags (okay, so maybe it wasn’t just a few things…) and I wrenched the door open. “FATHER! WE’RE HOME!” I yelled. “AND I HATE EVERYTHING.” Vinnie smirked behind me. We ran to the living room and but the TV on already. Vinnie ran to get some chips or something. I ended up following him because I like to see him. He chuckled at how I ran over to him. I jumped up and down in excitement when he grabbed some marshmallows. I grabbed a can of whipped cream. We had everything we needed. We walked out of the kitchen and stopped at the stairs when Dad came down it.

“Hi,” he said sarcastically. “Why are you here?” He asked.

“That’s rich, no, ‘Hi, honey! How was your day? I missed you, offspring.’” He laughed. “Did you shower? Your hair’s everywhere. I feel like I need to fix it.”

“Of course you feel like you need to fix it,” dad said. I smiled and Scout came down the stairs.

“You guys hungry?” She asked. “What’d you guys do? I hope you had fun.”

“I know I did,” I heard Dad whisper. I looked at Scout. She was smoothing out her hair. I looked back at dad. My eyes widened and I screamed. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” and ran away into the living room. “YOU GUYS ARE GROSS.”

“How old are you?” Vinnie asked me, laughing uncontrollably.

“I’m twelve,” I told him, my voice sounding like I was gunna cry. “Oh my GOD. He’s over mom.”

“Oh,” He said. “Oh…”

I lay myself down on the floor and but my hands over my chest. “Leave me alone to die.”

“Stop being dramatic and watch some TV. It’s human nature. Oh, look! True Blood.”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!” I groaned. Why does my boyfriend hate me? Oh yeah. Because he’s also my best friend, and we all know that best friends are the masters of trolling. He laughed.

“Now you can visualize how your dad and Scout were just a bit ago before we interrupted.”

“Oh my god shut up.” I begged. “I hate my life so much.”

“Didn’t we tell him to practically go have sex with her?”

“NO WE DIDN’T!” I was in absolute agony. Oh my god. Someone kill me. My phone rang and I answered it. “WHAT?!” I yelled.

“Hi?” Lily sounded scared. I sighed.

“Sorry. I’m dying.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! That’s horrible. But when you stop dying, do you think you can come over tomorrow? Just to hang. Some others are gunna be there, too, but you need to meet people, ya know.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Cool! Good luck dying.”

“AHHHH!” I yelled, hanging up.
Second worst day ever.

Misinterpret
Verb. to interpret, exlpain, or understand incorrectly