‹ Prequel: Promise Me The Stars
Status: This story is on hold right now as i'm in the process of editing the prequel Promise Me The Stars. Check it out for better chapters!
Rocks Painted Gold
Ya Done Goofed.
The trio sat on the floor eating noodles from the mismatched bowls they had found in the cupboards. Laughing and talking as the hours ticked by slowly. The stories they told were random and came out of nowhere. Some about Byte City, some involving the pictures scattered on the floor, others were stories from Kylie's days on the street.
"I'm really glad you guys came." Forest said. He didn't think they knew how much it meant to him that they were there with him.
"Yeah me too." Shadow said. Kylie nodded her mouth full of noodles.
The room fell silent again after Shadow sighed and lay back on the floor, his back popping audibly which he groaned at.
"Should get that checked out man." Forest joked.
"Doctors and I don’t mix.” Shadow stated, waving his hand around.
Kylie set her bowl down and looked at Shadow for a moment before bending down to whisper something in his ear.
"He might get pissed." Shadow stated, folding his arms behind him and closing his eyes.
"But I think we should." Kylie said.
"What are you guys talking about?" Forest asked, not really concerned about it.
He was feeling more relaxed then he had in awhile and he didn't want anything to ruin it. He didn't know if there was anything really big enough to ruin it. Well he did, he just didn't want to think about those things at the moment.
"Well..." Kylie trailed off and looked at Shadow. He sighed and sat up, scratching his head and yawning before going on.
"Before we went to the airport and stuff we stopped by your dad’s house." Shadow said.
Forest stared at him and waited for him to continue, when he didn't Forest sighed.
"And?" he asked.
"Well..." Kylie said, once again, "We fought a bit and she spit on Shadow's shirt and called you insane so I...punchedherreallyhardintheface." Kylie said in a rush.
Forest stared at her and his eyebrows fell together in confusion. Shadow groaned and rubbed his forehead.
"Kylie punched your sister in the face. Like really hard, I heard some crunching noise. Probably broke her nose. Never been prouder honestly, but yeah..." Shadow had a grin on his face as he looked at Kylie
"So...you went to my sister’s house, fought with her, and ended up having Kylie punch her in the face?" Forest asked as he tried to piece it all together.
"Yes." Kylie said as Shadow nodded.
And then the most unexpected thing happened. Forest started laughing; he fell back on the floor and stared at the white ceiling as tears blurred his vision.
"What...did my dad do?" Forest asked trying to control himself but it wasn’t working too well.
"He wasn't there I don't think." Shadow said looking at Kylie with his eyebrow raised.
"I really shouldn't be laughing this hard," Forest said swiping at his eyes, "But I can't help it. You did what I’ve wanted to do for so long. It's horrible I know but all I can say is thank you."
"Okay, that was unexpected. But you're welcome Forest." Kylie smiled and gave him a thumbs up, which then made Shadow let out a laugh.
They all looked up when they heard a door slam and Forest knew it was Uncle, or it was some insane thief that walks into people's houses.
"Sorry I’m late!" Uncle sang, before stepping into the doorway.
They all stared for a moment before Shadow was the first to speak.
"What the fuck?"
Hazel sat next to the front door holding her nose as blood seeped out of it. She was too shocked and scared to call out to her dad or uncles that were all gathered in the backyard. Plus music was blaring too loud so they probably wouldn’t hear her, the same reason they hadn’t heard her yelling at that girl and guy that stood on her doorstep moments before.
She finally pushed herself off the floor, leaving a bloody handprint on the shining hard wood floor. She ignored it, knowing the cleaning lady that came every other day would get to it sometime. Plus she didn’t even know how to clean up blood from a floor so why should she learn now?
Hazel made her way up to the bathroom and locked the door behind her, leaving more bloody fingerprints on the doorknob, another thing the cleaning lady could take care of. She carefully took her hands off her nose and nearly fainted.
Her nose seemed to be slightly crooked, a sign that it was broken, and blood was everywhere. She couldn’t stand it anymore.
She took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs, “DADDY!”
The music stopped abruptly and she heard pounding footsteps downstairs as she turned from the mirror, her hands going back up to her broken nose.
“Hazel?” Someone was pounding on the door and Hazel stood and unlocked it.
Opening the door she faced her father and Matt. She noticed people off to the left including her other uncles and aunts.
“What happened?” Zacky asked, rushing forward and putting his hands up to hers.
“She punched me…” Hazel whispered, her eyes starting to water.
“Who punched you?” Matt asked.
Hazel started crying and let her dad remove her hands from her nose.
“The girl that came to the door, She said she was here for Forest, no as Forest, and then…we yelled and she just punched me!” Hazel wailed.
“We need to take her to the hospital.” Zacky said cringing at the state her daughter’s nose was in.
“Val, get ice and meet us at the car.” Matt stated, slipping past Zacky as Hazel covered her nose again and began crying.
“Shhh, it’s going to be okay.” Zacky wrapped her in a hug and took the towel Matt handed to him.
“Here, try and stop the bleeding.” he said, pulling back to give her the dampened cloth. He kept his arm wrapped around her as Zacky lead Hazel down to the car so they could make the trek quickly to the hospital.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hazel sniffed and looked at her nose in the mirror, there was a little bump that would forever be there from the broken bone and she felt hate brewing in her chest at the girl that had punched her. If she ever saw her again she was going to beat the girl to a bloody pulp and she didn’t care who saw.
“Hey sweetie.” Hazel looked up at Val standing in the doorway and pouted.
“I’m ugly now.” she cried and ran her finger over the bump, grimacing as light pain shot through her head.
Other then the bump, she was sporting one and a half black eyes and her nose was red and bulged out slightly.
“Honey you got punched, you’re not ugly you’re injured.” Val said, stepping into the girl’s bedroom.
She hadn’t been in Hazel’s room for a long time it seemed, one of the once purple walls was painted black with chalkboard paint and random scribbles were all over it. Her large bed had been pushed to the corner by the bay window that spilled light into the room. But thick curtains were pulled over half the window, leaving it dimmed on one side of the room.
“I’m going to kill that girl.” Val heard Hazel grumble to herself.
“Stooping down to their level isn’t the answer Hazel.”
“But Val, the girl punched me and ruined my face.” Hazel whined, stomping her foot on the ground like a child.
Val sighed and shook her head, about to open her mouth to say something but Matt called her from downstairs.
“I’ll see you later honey.” Val said.
“Bye,” Hazel mumbled, not bothering to look away from the mirror.
She sighed and turned away, needing some fresh air in her lungs and the memories of earlier today to leave her mind. So she slipped a pair of white flats on her feet and headed for the front door. Her steps faltered on the stairs when she heard her dad and uncles talking in the living room below.
“…I mean that girl came for Forest. There must have been a good reason she punched Hazel. I mean lately she‘s really been…” she heard Brian trail off.
“A bitch.” Val finished for him. Hazel’s eyes widened and her heart filled with hurt.
Is that what they all thought about her? She wasn’t intentionally being a bitch, she just…well she didn’t know why she was.
“Didn’t she say something the other day about Forest going back to Colorado for their uncle? I didn’t even know she had a biological uncle until then.” Matt said.
“He was asking her to go back and help deal with their mother’s things. Because the uncle was living there but he’s moving or something.” Jimmy commented.
“How do you know Jimmy?” Zacky asked.
“DON’T QUESTION ME!” Jimmy boomed, making Hazel wince.
“Okayyy,” Johnny said, “Anyway, so why didn’t she go? I know they’re fighting but it’s their mother’s things. I thought she’d at least want to be there.”
“Oh my god.” Hazel perked up when she heard Brian’s wife, Michelle, say that.
“What?” Nearly everyone asked.
“I know why that girl punched Hazel,” she stated, “I was coming to get the other bottle of mustard and I heard Hazel talking at the front door. I just thought it was one of her friends or something so I let it go but I heard the girl saying something about needing support and going somewhere alone…I think she was talking about Forest going to Colorado alone.”
“He’s going alone?” Zacky asked.
“Zacky I don’t know. That’s what the girl was saying though so I guess he is.” Michelle stated.
“That’s so sad.” Val said quietly, so quietly Hazel barely heard it.
“Can’t we do something for him? We could talk Hazel into going or..."
"But that doesn't mean she'll be nice to him. And Forest doesn't need any shit right now." Matt said.
Hazel could just see how he looked, with his arms crossed and his face down turned as he thought about whatever he was thinking about. She also couldn't believe that her uncles and aunts and even her own father were saying that she was a bitch. Was she really that bad of a person to Forest? She couldn't believe it.
"I know what we can do!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"We're not going on some Russian mission Jimmy." Johnny said.
"Russian missions are what establish society short shit, and that's not even what I was getting at. We could go to Colorado and surprise Forest! I heard Colorado is awesome looking this time of year anyway!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"I don't know Jimmy, what if he gets pissed that a whole shit load of people just show up at his house?" Matt reasoned.
"Oh he'll get pissed for sure, but we'll help him through his time of need and he'll be grateful to us!" Jimmy said, trying to convince them.
"Jimmy..." Zacky started.
"I think it's a good idea." Everyone stopped and looked up at Hazel, who had gone to stand in the doorway of the living room.
"Were you there the whole time?" Johnny asked. Hazel shrugged a frown on her lips from hearing what they had said about her.
"I've taught you so well!" Jimmy yelled jumping up and pulling Hazel into a tight hug. She smiled and hugged her uncle back, thinking about Forest and how he never got hugged after their mother died.
Was he lonely because of that? Was he lacking affection and hurting internally because no one had shown him that they loved him for simply being him? As she thought about all these things she realized just how horrible she had been to him, to everyone. She didn't think about anyone but herself, she didn't care about anyone but herself and her immediate family for so long. And now she knew she had done wrong. She done goofed, and she done goofed badly.
Hazel couldn't breathe and tears stung her eyes as Jimmy pulled away from the tight hug.
"Hazel?" Zacky asked, standing up from his seat as he witnessed tears running down her cheeks. She covered her face, not wanting anyone to see her face.
"I've been so horrible to everyone, Forest especially. I didn't think of anyone else but myself and i'm just realizing it. I've really betrayed my mother and she probably hates me because of it. And I want to go to Colorado and be with my brother and uncle while we take care of my mom's things like I should have in the first place." Hazel wiped her eyes and looked at her smiling father before he wrapped her in a hug.
"Admitting you were wrong is the first step to making it all better." Zacky said.
"So...does that mean we should pack for Colorado?" Jimmy asked from behind them. Hazel laughed and pulled away from her father, gazing at her uncle as he balanced his slender frame onto the arm of the couch.
"Why can't you sit like a normal person Jimmy?" Johnny asked.
"BITCH!! I'm not normal!" Jimmy screamed, before running out of the room.
There was a crashing sound from the hallway, "I'm okay!" Jimmy yelled.
Hazel smiled and shook her head, her family was everything to her, and she wasn't so sure sharing it with Forest would kill her.
"I'm really glad you guys came." Forest said. He didn't think they knew how much it meant to him that they were there with him.
"Yeah me too." Shadow said. Kylie nodded her mouth full of noodles.
The room fell silent again after Shadow sighed and lay back on the floor, his back popping audibly which he groaned at.
"Should get that checked out man." Forest joked.
"Doctors and I don’t mix.” Shadow stated, waving his hand around.
Kylie set her bowl down and looked at Shadow for a moment before bending down to whisper something in his ear.
"He might get pissed." Shadow stated, folding his arms behind him and closing his eyes.
"But I think we should." Kylie said.
"What are you guys talking about?" Forest asked, not really concerned about it.
He was feeling more relaxed then he had in awhile and he didn't want anything to ruin it. He didn't know if there was anything really big enough to ruin it. Well he did, he just didn't want to think about those things at the moment.
"Well..." Kylie trailed off and looked at Shadow. He sighed and sat up, scratching his head and yawning before going on.
"Before we went to the airport and stuff we stopped by your dad’s house." Shadow said.
Forest stared at him and waited for him to continue, when he didn't Forest sighed.
"And?" he asked.
"Well..." Kylie said, once again, "We fought a bit and she spit on Shadow's shirt and called you insane so I...punchedherreallyhardintheface." Kylie said in a rush.
Forest stared at her and his eyebrows fell together in confusion. Shadow groaned and rubbed his forehead.
"Kylie punched your sister in the face. Like really hard, I heard some crunching noise. Probably broke her nose. Never been prouder honestly, but yeah..." Shadow had a grin on his face as he looked at Kylie
"So...you went to my sister’s house, fought with her, and ended up having Kylie punch her in the face?" Forest asked as he tried to piece it all together.
"Yes." Kylie said as Shadow nodded.
And then the most unexpected thing happened. Forest started laughing; he fell back on the floor and stared at the white ceiling as tears blurred his vision.
"What...did my dad do?" Forest asked trying to control himself but it wasn’t working too well.
"He wasn't there I don't think." Shadow said looking at Kylie with his eyebrow raised.
"I really shouldn't be laughing this hard," Forest said swiping at his eyes, "But I can't help it. You did what I’ve wanted to do for so long. It's horrible I know but all I can say is thank you."
"Okay, that was unexpected. But you're welcome Forest." Kylie smiled and gave him a thumbs up, which then made Shadow let out a laugh.
They all looked up when they heard a door slam and Forest knew it was Uncle, or it was some insane thief that walks into people's houses.
"Sorry I’m late!" Uncle sang, before stepping into the doorway.
They all stared for a moment before Shadow was the first to speak.
"What the fuck?"
Hazel sat next to the front door holding her nose as blood seeped out of it. She was too shocked and scared to call out to her dad or uncles that were all gathered in the backyard. Plus music was blaring too loud so they probably wouldn’t hear her, the same reason they hadn’t heard her yelling at that girl and guy that stood on her doorstep moments before.
She finally pushed herself off the floor, leaving a bloody handprint on the shining hard wood floor. She ignored it, knowing the cleaning lady that came every other day would get to it sometime. Plus she didn’t even know how to clean up blood from a floor so why should she learn now?
Hazel made her way up to the bathroom and locked the door behind her, leaving more bloody fingerprints on the doorknob, another thing the cleaning lady could take care of. She carefully took her hands off her nose and nearly fainted.
Her nose seemed to be slightly crooked, a sign that it was broken, and blood was everywhere. She couldn’t stand it anymore.
She took a deep breath and screamed at the top of her lungs, “DADDY!”
The music stopped abruptly and she heard pounding footsteps downstairs as she turned from the mirror, her hands going back up to her broken nose.
“Hazel?” Someone was pounding on the door and Hazel stood and unlocked it.
Opening the door she faced her father and Matt. She noticed people off to the left including her other uncles and aunts.
“What happened?” Zacky asked, rushing forward and putting his hands up to hers.
“She punched me…” Hazel whispered, her eyes starting to water.
“Who punched you?” Matt asked.
Hazel started crying and let her dad remove her hands from her nose.
“The girl that came to the door, She said she was here for Forest, no as Forest, and then…we yelled and she just punched me!” Hazel wailed.
“We need to take her to the hospital.” Zacky said cringing at the state her daughter’s nose was in.
“Val, get ice and meet us at the car.” Matt stated, slipping past Zacky as Hazel covered her nose again and began crying.
“Shhh, it’s going to be okay.” Zacky wrapped her in a hug and took the towel Matt handed to him.
“Here, try and stop the bleeding.” he said, pulling back to give her the dampened cloth. He kept his arm wrapped around her as Zacky lead Hazel down to the car so they could make the trek quickly to the hospital.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hazel sniffed and looked at her nose in the mirror, there was a little bump that would forever be there from the broken bone and she felt hate brewing in her chest at the girl that had punched her. If she ever saw her again she was going to beat the girl to a bloody pulp and she didn’t care who saw.
“Hey sweetie.” Hazel looked up at Val standing in the doorway and pouted.
“I’m ugly now.” she cried and ran her finger over the bump, grimacing as light pain shot through her head.
Other then the bump, she was sporting one and a half black eyes and her nose was red and bulged out slightly.
“Honey you got punched, you’re not ugly you’re injured.” Val said, stepping into the girl’s bedroom.
She hadn’t been in Hazel’s room for a long time it seemed, one of the once purple walls was painted black with chalkboard paint and random scribbles were all over it. Her large bed had been pushed to the corner by the bay window that spilled light into the room. But thick curtains were pulled over half the window, leaving it dimmed on one side of the room.
“I’m going to kill that girl.” Val heard Hazel grumble to herself.
“Stooping down to their level isn’t the answer Hazel.”
“But Val, the girl punched me and ruined my face.” Hazel whined, stomping her foot on the ground like a child.
Val sighed and shook her head, about to open her mouth to say something but Matt called her from downstairs.
“I’ll see you later honey.” Val said.
“Bye,” Hazel mumbled, not bothering to look away from the mirror.
She sighed and turned away, needing some fresh air in her lungs and the memories of earlier today to leave her mind. So she slipped a pair of white flats on her feet and headed for the front door. Her steps faltered on the stairs when she heard her dad and uncles talking in the living room below.
“…I mean that girl came for Forest. There must have been a good reason she punched Hazel. I mean lately she‘s really been…” she heard Brian trail off.
“A bitch.” Val finished for him. Hazel’s eyes widened and her heart filled with hurt.
Is that what they all thought about her? She wasn’t intentionally being a bitch, she just…well she didn’t know why she was.
“Didn’t she say something the other day about Forest going back to Colorado for their uncle? I didn’t even know she had a biological uncle until then.” Matt said.
“He was asking her to go back and help deal with their mother’s things. Because the uncle was living there but he’s moving or something.” Jimmy commented.
“How do you know Jimmy?” Zacky asked.
“DON’T QUESTION ME!” Jimmy boomed, making Hazel wince.
“Okayyy,” Johnny said, “Anyway, so why didn’t she go? I know they’re fighting but it’s their mother’s things. I thought she’d at least want to be there.”
“Oh my god.” Hazel perked up when she heard Brian’s wife, Michelle, say that.
“What?” Nearly everyone asked.
“I know why that girl punched Hazel,” she stated, “I was coming to get the other bottle of mustard and I heard Hazel talking at the front door. I just thought it was one of her friends or something so I let it go but I heard the girl saying something about needing support and going somewhere alone…I think she was talking about Forest going to Colorado alone.”
“He’s going alone?” Zacky asked.
“Zacky I don’t know. That’s what the girl was saying though so I guess he is.” Michelle stated.
“That’s so sad.” Val said quietly, so quietly Hazel barely heard it.
“Can’t we do something for him? We could talk Hazel into going or..."
"But that doesn't mean she'll be nice to him. And Forest doesn't need any shit right now." Matt said.
Hazel could just see how he looked, with his arms crossed and his face down turned as he thought about whatever he was thinking about. She also couldn't believe that her uncles and aunts and even her own father were saying that she was a bitch. Was she really that bad of a person to Forest? She couldn't believe it.
"I know what we can do!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"We're not going on some Russian mission Jimmy." Johnny said.
"Russian missions are what establish society short shit, and that's not even what I was getting at. We could go to Colorado and surprise Forest! I heard Colorado is awesome looking this time of year anyway!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"I don't know Jimmy, what if he gets pissed that a whole shit load of people just show up at his house?" Matt reasoned.
"Oh he'll get pissed for sure, but we'll help him through his time of need and he'll be grateful to us!" Jimmy said, trying to convince them.
"Jimmy..." Zacky started.
"I think it's a good idea." Everyone stopped and looked up at Hazel, who had gone to stand in the doorway of the living room.
"Were you there the whole time?" Johnny asked. Hazel shrugged a frown on her lips from hearing what they had said about her.
"I've taught you so well!" Jimmy yelled jumping up and pulling Hazel into a tight hug. She smiled and hugged her uncle back, thinking about Forest and how he never got hugged after their mother died.
Was he lonely because of that? Was he lacking affection and hurting internally because no one had shown him that they loved him for simply being him? As she thought about all these things she realized just how horrible she had been to him, to everyone. She didn't think about anyone but herself, she didn't care about anyone but herself and her immediate family for so long. And now she knew she had done wrong. She done goofed, and she done goofed badly.
Hazel couldn't breathe and tears stung her eyes as Jimmy pulled away from the tight hug.
"Hazel?" Zacky asked, standing up from his seat as he witnessed tears running down her cheeks. She covered her face, not wanting anyone to see her face.
"I've been so horrible to everyone, Forest especially. I didn't think of anyone else but myself and i'm just realizing it. I've really betrayed my mother and she probably hates me because of it. And I want to go to Colorado and be with my brother and uncle while we take care of my mom's things like I should have in the first place." Hazel wiped her eyes and looked at her smiling father before he wrapped her in a hug.
"Admitting you were wrong is the first step to making it all better." Zacky said.
"So...does that mean we should pack for Colorado?" Jimmy asked from behind them. Hazel laughed and pulled away from her father, gazing at her uncle as he balanced his slender frame onto the arm of the couch.
"Why can't you sit like a normal person Jimmy?" Johnny asked.
"BITCH!! I'm not normal!" Jimmy screamed, before running out of the room.
There was a crashing sound from the hallway, "I'm okay!" Jimmy yelled.
Hazel smiled and shook her head, her family was everything to her, and she wasn't so sure sharing it with Forest would kill her.
♠ ♠ ♠
So..I took about three days off writing and then kicked myself in the ass and wrote this today...finished it literally just now.So at least I updated at the right time! And there WILL be an update on Monday no matter what. Because it's my duty to write and I don't go to school so what else is there to do? Well actually I should study for my GED...but yeah writing is what i'll probably do haha.
So did you like this chapter? HAZEL FINALLY GOT HER HEAD OUT OF HER ASS!! And...everyone's taking a trip to Colorado...yay......drama!
Soo...what do you think is up with Forest's Uncle??