‹ Prequel: I Hate You; No, Not Really
Status: Completed, with love
Coming Home
Change
1 year later:
Derrick lugged his luggage through the stone walkways of his Alma mater, struggling to keep his coat on as he had been evicted by a new batch of freshmen from his dorm room before he straighten up. He was about to make it to the lunch hall when he bumped into Norma. He looked at her brown hair and tiny stature, looking remotely just like Cass.
“Hey Derrick, I-I-I just wanted to thank you for the time you spent with me,” she said, just shying away from kissing him. He looked at Norma, a small grin coming onto his face. Norma had anxiety, and she was almost just like Cass in the way she behaved. So shy, so afraid of attention. Derrick had been her friend in his second year of college, and had remained so ever since then. He always had a soft spot for girls with problems after leaving home. It was like a problem he could never solve, a metaphorical way of bringing his problems with him as he left.
“It’s alright, I’ll keep in touch with you,” he smiled, before setting down his luggage and giving her a hug. She returned her embrace, smiling into his jacket.
“Hey Derrick,” winked Sasha as she sauntered past. Derrick managed a tepid smile at her while Norma scurried off to her waiting cab.
“Bye Sasha, it was fun,” he sighed as he picked up his luggage again.
“By ‘it’ I hope you mean those nights where you fucked me so-" Derrick cut her off with her a wave of his hand. Like most college kids, Derrick never went through his lengthy 5 year course without screwing around. He had his fair shares of drunk party encounters, but Sasha was the one that lasted. They were friends with benefits, or as she termed him, her ‘bone pal’.
He was technically single, even though he had never forgiven himself for what he left behind back home. 5 years was a long time, and the closest contact he ever had with home were phone calls to his parents and Crystal and webcam conversations with Caleb and Angela. If it took him 5 years to forgive himself, he wondered if it would take her equally as long to forgive him.
Perhaps there was a part of him that never forgot his first love, the first time when you meet a girl and you loved her so much that you would do anything for her. He swallowed the irony bitterly, he did everything he could, but it ended in tatters- so much for anything.
“Call me babe,” she winked. He smiled back. Their relationship was strictly sexual, nothing else. Most days she just came over and did the deed with him. Sometimes he would bring her out for dinner, but it usually ended in twisted bed sheets and condom wrappers.
He continued walking, before bumping into his professor.
“Ah, Derrick. It’s been quite a lengthy period of time, you’ve grown,” Professor Lee smiled, his salt and pepper hair framing his Asian features- thoughtful and delicate. Derrick nodded, remembering the light of his arrival. He had gotten drunk frequently, messed around, and basically failed his first year.
“Thanks Professor.”
“What awaits you back home?”
Derrick thought for a moment, not very sure. All he knew that his future was not dull.
“The Monarchy ended 2 years ago. I think I’m expected to join the democracy,” he smiled. Professor Lee nodded his head.
“A bright future Derrick. You need to be sure however, to be aware of the dangers we discussed about politics yes?”
Derrick nodded, before releasing out a breath of cold mist.
“All the best Professor, maybe you could visit sometimes,” Derrick smiled.
“Perhaps when it’s a little safer in your country,” Professor Lee winked before rubbing shoulders with Derrick, officially parting ways.
Shoes scuffing in the snow, Derrick plodded towards his waiting cab. This time he was ready to face what he had left behind, hopefully she would be too.
~
“Cassie, sweetheart?”
Cass rolled over, expecting the face of the boy she had engaged with sexual escapades the previous day. Instead she saw her mother, looking over her. Sitting up, pulling the blanket towards her naked chest, Cass groaned.
“Mum!” She whined, trying to cover herself up for her aged mother. Cassadee came home to a lady whose wrinkles were more pronounced, movements were more lumbering and slow. But her mother never changed, she still had that kindred spirit living inside her despite the initial shock of Cassadee’s change.
“No worries, the boy left before I arrived,” she smiled, Cassadee noticed, with a lurch of her heart that her eyes were sad.
“Your father and I will be at Clary’s at 1 in the afternoon okay?” She asked again, smoothing her daughter’s hair, eyeing her sharp but so beautiful features. Cass nodded, silently. After she left for Ireland, she made sure to call home, every single year on February the 19th to talk to her parents. It was particularly hard on the first two years, but Dave paid surprise visits with her and both siblings spent a weekend together, bonded together by death and remembrance of their younger sister.
It was funny, because in those moments- Cassadee missed her family the most. She lay awake in bed, thinking of the irony of how her family was so sorely defined by tragedies and blood.
“Sweetie, get dressed,”” her mum sighed, before standing up and shuffling out to the kitchen of Cassadee’s apartment. They were no longer poor, Cassadee had risen within a year, to become an executive reporter and journalist and earned enough money to provide for her parents- who were now in charge of their restaurant fully manned by strangers as workers.
She had the privacy of her own apartment, and the privacy of her own life.
“Mum! Wait!” She yelled, springing up from bed, yanking on a pair of flannel pajama bottoms with pink flamingos stupidly adorning the black material. Rushing to the kitchen, Cassadee popped a cup of tea she had sitting in the fridge from the previous night into the microwave oven.
“Sit, sit,” she urged her mother- gently guiding the hobbling lady onto her clean blue couch. Then as the microwave teetered to a stop, Cassadee pulled the cup out and put a toaster over it before handing it to her mum.
“I had it soaking since yesterday, it should be good,” she smiled as her mother gingerly took her tea. It was a tea infusion she had from Ireland, and ever since she presented it to her parents, her mother had since deemed it as her favourite tea.
“Thanks sweetie,” she smiled, taking a small sip. They sat in tepid silence as Cassadee picked at her toes.
“Are you going tomorrow?” Her mother asked, eyeing a discarded letter on her coffee table.
“I don’t know, maybe?” Cassadee asked, picking up the letter from her high school. It was invitation to a dinner reunion and while she wasn’t wildly popular, she did miss seeing Angela, Caleb and Jared. Hopefully they would be there this year. She had turned up last year to strangers- people who had gone to school with her, but never really talked to her. She left early with a strange boy she apparently took art lessons with and ended up getting wasted and sleeping with him.
“Good, good. Good to see you reconnecting darling,” her mother muttered again.
“A lot’s change hasn’t it,” smiled Cassadee.
Her mother looked out of the wide windows of her apartment, pouring the warm sunshine in and pooling at their feet. The city had grown, metropolitan buildings surrounded the old royal castle- which was now used as a charitable museum. There were governmental protests and political groups attested for the upcoming elections. Everything was different, even the people were different. Everyone was busier, and impatient with each other.
“Nothing has changed Cassie, you’ve just grown up,” her mother smiled, wry lines crinkling next to her eyes.
“The country, it’s so foreign to me now,” Cassadee shrugged, unsure whether she felt positively or negatively about this.
“A change is always good,” her mother sighed, blowing at her tea.
“You’ve grown too honey, into a beautiful, fine young lady.” Cassadee forced a smile, if only her mother knew.
“I just wished there was more of my daughter in you sometimes.”
~
Cassadee watched the old hedge stone, with moss and wild flowers sprouting over it, shaded by the old tree that held so many memories. She watched as her mother sombrely placed flowers onto the bottom of the stone while her father ran a wrinkled hand over the grey stone. Memories were struggling to burst open like every year, but this time, Cassadee could control it.
“Cass,” came a warm voice and she turned to see her brother.
“Dave,” she smiled, and they hugged each other. She looked at her brother’s face and for a moment, they were kids again. She could never be too grown up with Dave.
“Carnations?”
“Purple this year.”
“You hear that Clary? He got you purple! Must be a rainbow up there where you are,” Cassadee said, her voice echoing around her. Dave smiled as he noticed a similar packet of carnations in his sister’s bony hands.
“Look who’s speaking sissy,” he teased, before being joined by their parents.
“Nice to be back together kids,” Cassadee’s father said, his greying hair combed neatly to the side. Cassadee smiled at her doting father before kissing his cheek.
“You guys head on home, its cold. We’ll mend the stone,” she assured, handing Dave a rubbish bag.
“Dinner at 6 kids, don’t run off now,” said her mother, eyeing her two surviving children carefully. Cassadee swallowed, knowing what she meant. Dave had been in a steady relationship with a girl for almost 6 years now and he had proposed to her in the summer of the previous year. Wedding plans were being made. Cassadee had made known her reputation of boy hopping to her mum, and it was funny how a simple statement could mean two different things.
“Boy, how long has it been since we were here together?” sighed Dave as he walked towards the grave.
“6 years dude. The last time we were here together, all we ever did was cry,” Cassadee said, laughing slightly as she started to pull weeds from the ground. Cassadee felt Dave’s eyes on her for a while before leaving.
“You’ve changed Cass,” he muttered.
“I know,” she sighed in defeat. She had been hearing that phrase repeatedly over the past year.
“For the good or the bad?”
“Hopefully both.”
“Fair enough.”
“How’s Wendy?”
“Oh, I wanted to save it for dinner…”
“Come on Dave.”
“We’re having a kid,” he replied, sheepishly. Cassadee dropped her tools for a moment, the reality of their age catching up with her.
“I would hug you right now, but we’re at a graveyard and I don’t want to wake the dead,” she replied, struggling to keep her excitement down.
“She found out yesterday,” he shrugged, as the cleaned up.
“Oh god, I’m an aunt now,” Cassadee whispered.
“Not for another 9 months.”
“That’s so exciting! Did you hear that Clary?” Cassadee asked, a wide smile erupting on her face. Dave deserved this, he had done so much for her over the years, it was his turn to be happy.
“How’s the wedding by the way?”
“She wants you to be the bridesmaid.”
“Really?” Cassadee asked, sceptical. Wendy knew about her habits, but Wendy loved her anyway. But she had doubts over whether Wendy would want someone like her to stand next to her during the wedding.
“Wendy adores you Cass,” Dave assured.
Cassadee thought for a moment, it would be nice, for once, to be the one watching her brother be happy. She felt genuinely happy for him, and she wanted to be here for him as much as he was for her.
“Okay, tell her I said yes,” she smiled.
Derrick lugged his luggage through the stone walkways of his Alma mater, struggling to keep his coat on as he had been evicted by a new batch of freshmen from his dorm room before he straighten up. He was about to make it to the lunch hall when he bumped into Norma. He looked at her brown hair and tiny stature, looking remotely just like Cass.
“Hey Derrick, I-I-I just wanted to thank you for the time you spent with me,” she said, just shying away from kissing him. He looked at Norma, a small grin coming onto his face. Norma had anxiety, and she was almost just like Cass in the way she behaved. So shy, so afraid of attention. Derrick had been her friend in his second year of college, and had remained so ever since then. He always had a soft spot for girls with problems after leaving home. It was like a problem he could never solve, a metaphorical way of bringing his problems with him as he left.
“It’s alright, I’ll keep in touch with you,” he smiled, before setting down his luggage and giving her a hug. She returned her embrace, smiling into his jacket.
“Hey Derrick,” winked Sasha as she sauntered past. Derrick managed a tepid smile at her while Norma scurried off to her waiting cab.
“Bye Sasha, it was fun,” he sighed as he picked up his luggage again.
“By ‘it’ I hope you mean those nights where you fucked me so-" Derrick cut her off with her a wave of his hand. Like most college kids, Derrick never went through his lengthy 5 year course without screwing around. He had his fair shares of drunk party encounters, but Sasha was the one that lasted. They were friends with benefits, or as she termed him, her ‘bone pal’.
He was technically single, even though he had never forgiven himself for what he left behind back home. 5 years was a long time, and the closest contact he ever had with home were phone calls to his parents and Crystal and webcam conversations with Caleb and Angela. If it took him 5 years to forgive himself, he wondered if it would take her equally as long to forgive him.
Perhaps there was a part of him that never forgot his first love, the first time when you meet a girl and you loved her so much that you would do anything for her. He swallowed the irony bitterly, he did everything he could, but it ended in tatters- so much for anything.
“Call me babe,” she winked. He smiled back. Their relationship was strictly sexual, nothing else. Most days she just came over and did the deed with him. Sometimes he would bring her out for dinner, but it usually ended in twisted bed sheets and condom wrappers.
He continued walking, before bumping into his professor.
“Ah, Derrick. It’s been quite a lengthy period of time, you’ve grown,” Professor Lee smiled, his salt and pepper hair framing his Asian features- thoughtful and delicate. Derrick nodded, remembering the light of his arrival. He had gotten drunk frequently, messed around, and basically failed his first year.
“Thanks Professor.”
“What awaits you back home?”
Derrick thought for a moment, not very sure. All he knew that his future was not dull.
“The Monarchy ended 2 years ago. I think I’m expected to join the democracy,” he smiled. Professor Lee nodded his head.
“A bright future Derrick. You need to be sure however, to be aware of the dangers we discussed about politics yes?”
Derrick nodded, before releasing out a breath of cold mist.
“All the best Professor, maybe you could visit sometimes,” Derrick smiled.
“Perhaps when it’s a little safer in your country,” Professor Lee winked before rubbing shoulders with Derrick, officially parting ways.
Shoes scuffing in the snow, Derrick plodded towards his waiting cab. This time he was ready to face what he had left behind, hopefully she would be too.
~
“Cassie, sweetheart?”
Cass rolled over, expecting the face of the boy she had engaged with sexual escapades the previous day. Instead she saw her mother, looking over her. Sitting up, pulling the blanket towards her naked chest, Cass groaned.
“Mum!” She whined, trying to cover herself up for her aged mother. Cassadee came home to a lady whose wrinkles were more pronounced, movements were more lumbering and slow. But her mother never changed, she still had that kindred spirit living inside her despite the initial shock of Cassadee’s change.
“No worries, the boy left before I arrived,” she smiled, Cassadee noticed, with a lurch of her heart that her eyes were sad.
“Your father and I will be at Clary’s at 1 in the afternoon okay?” She asked again, smoothing her daughter’s hair, eyeing her sharp but so beautiful features. Cass nodded, silently. After she left for Ireland, she made sure to call home, every single year on February the 19th to talk to her parents. It was particularly hard on the first two years, but Dave paid surprise visits with her and both siblings spent a weekend together, bonded together by death and remembrance of their younger sister.
It was funny, because in those moments- Cassadee missed her family the most. She lay awake in bed, thinking of the irony of how her family was so sorely defined by tragedies and blood.
“Sweetie, get dressed,”” her mum sighed, before standing up and shuffling out to the kitchen of Cassadee’s apartment. They were no longer poor, Cassadee had risen within a year, to become an executive reporter and journalist and earned enough money to provide for her parents- who were now in charge of their restaurant fully manned by strangers as workers.
She had the privacy of her own apartment, and the privacy of her own life.
“Mum! Wait!” She yelled, springing up from bed, yanking on a pair of flannel pajama bottoms with pink flamingos stupidly adorning the black material. Rushing to the kitchen, Cassadee popped a cup of tea she had sitting in the fridge from the previous night into the microwave oven.
“Sit, sit,” she urged her mother- gently guiding the hobbling lady onto her clean blue couch. Then as the microwave teetered to a stop, Cassadee pulled the cup out and put a toaster over it before handing it to her mum.
“I had it soaking since yesterday, it should be good,” she smiled as her mother gingerly took her tea. It was a tea infusion she had from Ireland, and ever since she presented it to her parents, her mother had since deemed it as her favourite tea.
“Thanks sweetie,” she smiled, taking a small sip. They sat in tepid silence as Cassadee picked at her toes.
“Are you going tomorrow?” Her mother asked, eyeing a discarded letter on her coffee table.
“I don’t know, maybe?” Cassadee asked, picking up the letter from her high school. It was invitation to a dinner reunion and while she wasn’t wildly popular, she did miss seeing Angela, Caleb and Jared. Hopefully they would be there this year. She had turned up last year to strangers- people who had gone to school with her, but never really talked to her. She left early with a strange boy she apparently took art lessons with and ended up getting wasted and sleeping with him.
“Good, good. Good to see you reconnecting darling,” her mother muttered again.
“A lot’s change hasn’t it,” smiled Cassadee.
Her mother looked out of the wide windows of her apartment, pouring the warm sunshine in and pooling at their feet. The city had grown, metropolitan buildings surrounded the old royal castle- which was now used as a charitable museum. There were governmental protests and political groups attested for the upcoming elections. Everything was different, even the people were different. Everyone was busier, and impatient with each other.
“Nothing has changed Cassie, you’ve just grown up,” her mother smiled, wry lines crinkling next to her eyes.
“The country, it’s so foreign to me now,” Cassadee shrugged, unsure whether she felt positively or negatively about this.
“A change is always good,” her mother sighed, blowing at her tea.
“You’ve grown too honey, into a beautiful, fine young lady.” Cassadee forced a smile, if only her mother knew.
“I just wished there was more of my daughter in you sometimes.”
~
Cassadee watched the old hedge stone, with moss and wild flowers sprouting over it, shaded by the old tree that held so many memories. She watched as her mother sombrely placed flowers onto the bottom of the stone while her father ran a wrinkled hand over the grey stone. Memories were struggling to burst open like every year, but this time, Cassadee could control it.
“Cass,” came a warm voice and she turned to see her brother.
“Dave,” she smiled, and they hugged each other. She looked at her brother’s face and for a moment, they were kids again. She could never be too grown up with Dave.
“Carnations?”
“Purple this year.”
“You hear that Clary? He got you purple! Must be a rainbow up there where you are,” Cassadee said, her voice echoing around her. Dave smiled as he noticed a similar packet of carnations in his sister’s bony hands.
“Look who’s speaking sissy,” he teased, before being joined by their parents.
“Nice to be back together kids,” Cassadee’s father said, his greying hair combed neatly to the side. Cassadee smiled at her doting father before kissing his cheek.
“You guys head on home, its cold. We’ll mend the stone,” she assured, handing Dave a rubbish bag.
“Dinner at 6 kids, don’t run off now,” said her mother, eyeing her two surviving children carefully. Cassadee swallowed, knowing what she meant. Dave had been in a steady relationship with a girl for almost 6 years now and he had proposed to her in the summer of the previous year. Wedding plans were being made. Cassadee had made known her reputation of boy hopping to her mum, and it was funny how a simple statement could mean two different things.
“Boy, how long has it been since we were here together?” sighed Dave as he walked towards the grave.
“6 years dude. The last time we were here together, all we ever did was cry,” Cassadee said, laughing slightly as she started to pull weeds from the ground. Cassadee felt Dave’s eyes on her for a while before leaving.
“You’ve changed Cass,” he muttered.
“I know,” she sighed in defeat. She had been hearing that phrase repeatedly over the past year.
“For the good or the bad?”
“Hopefully both.”
“Fair enough.”
“How’s Wendy?”
“Oh, I wanted to save it for dinner…”
“Come on Dave.”
“We’re having a kid,” he replied, sheepishly. Cassadee dropped her tools for a moment, the reality of their age catching up with her.
“I would hug you right now, but we’re at a graveyard and I don’t want to wake the dead,” she replied, struggling to keep her excitement down.
“She found out yesterday,” he shrugged, as the cleaned up.
“Oh god, I’m an aunt now,” Cassadee whispered.
“Not for another 9 months.”
“That’s so exciting! Did you hear that Clary?” Cassadee asked, a wide smile erupting on her face. Dave deserved this, he had done so much for her over the years, it was his turn to be happy.
“How’s the wedding by the way?”
“She wants you to be the bridesmaid.”
“Really?” Cassadee asked, sceptical. Wendy knew about her habits, but Wendy loved her anyway. But she had doubts over whether Wendy would want someone like her to stand next to her during the wedding.
“Wendy adores you Cass,” Dave assured.
Cassadee thought for a moment, it would be nice, for once, to be the one watching her brother be happy. She felt genuinely happy for him, and she wanted to be here for him as much as he was for her.
“Okay, tell her I said yes,” she smiled.