This Is How You Remind Me

After the amazing dinner I had offered to help Adrienne with the dishes, an offer she took me up on.

"So, do you like it here so far?" she asked me. "I mean, I know it's only your first day and all, and you still haven't met Tre` or Mike yet, but what do you think?" she said, as if they were over at the house daily.

"Yeah, I really do. I'm glad that this is the family that took me in," I told her quietly, probably saying a little too much.

"Yeah? Well, I'm glad that this family was able to take you in," she smiled at me as she handed me a plate to dry slightly and then put on the drying rack. "You seem like a sweet kid, Carmella."

I could feel the heat rise up and surround my cheek bones. "Thanks, Adrienne."

"So, I know it's your first day here and all and you're probably very overwhelmed with all the junk that Billie's been trying to fit in your head, but that room of yours isn't very…personalized. So I was thinking, maybe after this we could take a trip down to the store to get some paint or something? Or do you want to give it a day or two to think about the colors you want?"

I didn't really need the time to think about the color scheme that I wanted because, let's face it, when you share a room, you tend to spend a lot of time thinking about how you would decorate the room if it were your own. "Um, yeah, that'd be cool. And no, I think I pretty much know how I want it."

"Alright, well, last pan here. Tell you what, you go ahead and wash this, and I'll go let Billie know that we're heading out to the store. Give me a minute and I'll be right back."

I replied with a quiet 'okay' and watched her leave, the door swinging shut behind her.

I quickly dipped the pot into the soapy water, scrubbing it roughly, dried it off a little bit with the rag, and set it on the top of the other drying dishes. Shoving the dish rag back over the rack that it was to dry on and unstopping the sink, I rushed out of the kitchen to put my checkered Vans on.

Minutes later, Adrienne and I were back in the BMW, driving down the nearest highway, on our way to the store.

"So, what are some of the colors you were thinking of?" Adrienne asked me, trying to create conversation.

"I was just thinking purples and greens, maybe," I told her. "Like, two walls purple and two walls green. If that's okay."

Adrienne let out a laugh, "Of course it's okay, Carmella. You don't have to ask; we offered to let you paint it however you wanted."

By this point, we had pulled up to the store and were walking up to the entrance. As soon as we entered, Adrienne gravitated towards the three rows of paint colors. I hadn't known that amount of colors existed.

"Hey, will you be fine to find your own paint colors? Billie told me to choose a new paint color for the computer room. Apparently, the kids didn't pick a good enough color," Adrienne sighed. "Whatever that means. Crazy man, my husband is."

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I told her while laughing, slightly overwhelmed by the shelves of paint colors.

I moved over towards the 'cool colors', as they were listed above. I started looking over by the purples first, thinking that maybe it would be easiest to match a green to purple instead of vice versa. Just as I picked out the perfect color, I heard a voice.

"Do you need any help?" I whirled around to find out who was talking to me.

I looked to find a guy, around my age, standing there, his short rich, brown hair hanging down slightly. His brown eyes resembled that of a puppy dog, sparkling under the light. He stood about 5'8" or so, his Converse not affecting his height in the least. He even made the blue jeans and ugly, orange-shirted uniform work.

"Um…" I paused, feeling like an idiot. "No, I think I'm good."

DUMBass!

"Okay, just holler if you need any help," the guy smiled. "The name's Austin."

And before I could respond, he was gone.

I found the perfect purple color, and, with luck, ended up finding an almost lime green to match the purple. Just as I had grabbed the green paint swatch, Adrienne walked up to me, "Did you find the colors you wanted?"

"Yeah, I think so," I smiled at her.

After we had asked to get several cans of paint of each color, we headed back out to the car, hoping to be home before the clock struck nine.
Luckily for us, the house was in view at about quarter to.

Walking inside, I slipped my shoes off and started walking forward, really only planning on going up to my room. Thankfully, Adrienne had tried to strike up a conversation, "So, do you think we could maybe go to Target tomorrow or something to go get the comforter and curtains instead of today? I'm kind of tired right now for some reason."

"Oh, yeah! That'd be no problem. Thank you so much for taking me to get paint and allowing me to paint the walls," I told her sincerely.

"Oh, you're so welcome," Adrienne countered. "Didn't you ever get to paint the walls when you lived with Lorraine and the girls?"

"No, I never really got that chance. The three of us shared a room so we all had to come to an agreement on the color. Basically, it ended up being painted a light blue type of color," I informed her.

"Oh, well, now you get to paint it how you want!" Adrienne smiled. "So, I suppose I could help you paint it tomorrow after we go shopping or something?" she looked at me for confirmation, or so it seemed.

"That'd be nice," I responded awkwardly. I wasn't sure what to say to her.
I really wasn't sure how to address her, either. I mean, sure, she said call her Adrienne, but isn't that a little weird to call someone who's supposedly your mom by their true name?

"Well, I'm slightly exhausted at the moment. I'm pretty sure that the boys are upstairs. Do you want to go join them and maybe watch a movie?" Adrienne showed her bright white teeth yet again with a smile. "Chances are, though, that it'll be Monster's Inc."

This family sure smiles and laughs a lot. I think I'm going to like it here.

"That's fine," I told her as I followed her up the stairs to the second floor.

"Hey girls," Billie Joe greeted us as we entered the living room. "Did you guys find everything you needed?"

Adrienne headed over and took a seat next to him while I sat in the recliner diagonal from the couch.

"Yeah, I found a green that would look good in the computer room," Adrienne answered him with a smile as he wrapped his arm around her.

"How about you, Carmella? Did you find what you were looking for?" he stole his eyes away from his wife to look at me with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks," I said bashfully.

I'm still getting used to the idea of being considered as part of this family. It's a weird concept that one day you're just handed off into another family and have new parents.