Chapter 11

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Chapter 11

                I never even knew that there were so many types of vases until I entered the flower shop. Immediately, my nose was filled with an empowering scent of many mixtures of flowers. I scrunched up my nose in disgust, noticing that Everett didn’t seem to content with the smell, either. Everything in the flower shop was so pink and girly, and it made me cringe.

                An old woman appeared from the back of the flower shop, holding a pair of scissors in her hand, while wearing an apron that had a rose print on it. “How may I help you?” she asked.

                Everett scanned his eyes around the shop, before he cleared his throat. “We’re looking for flower vases?”

                The woman clapped her hands together, nodding eagerly. “Yes! Would you like to see metal, ceramic or glass vases?”

                Everett blinked, before licking his lips. “Um, which ones are used for weddings?”

                The elderly woman gasped, before she hurried towards us. She stared between Everett and I with a twinkle in her eyes, as I frowned, glancing over at Everett. Everett seemed to be just as confused as I was, as he rubbed the back of his neck with confusion. “Oh my!” the woman let out a shrilled squeal. “Are the two of you getting married?!”              

                My eyes immediately widened, as I choked on my own saliva. I let out a misfit of coughing, as Everett, who stood beside me, had an impassive look on his face. My cheeks turned scarlet red, as I immediately shook my head. “No, no, miss, you’ve misunderstood.” I hurriedly said, trying to make everything not so awkward. “Can we just see the wedding vases?”

                The old lady winked at me, as I blinked back at her. “Right this way.” She cheered, as we followed her over to the right side of the shop, where there was a shelf of glass vases. They were all lined up according to the types of vases, as I raised an eyebrow. Never have I ever seen so many vases at one time. The vases ranged from colored ones, to round ones, rectangular ones, and even a unique one that had many twists and turns. I nudged Everett’s elbow, whose gaze was focused on the round vase that was on the bottom shelf.

                Another customer suddenly came into the shop, as the old lady excused herself to go help her while we decided. “What vase is your dad looking for?” I asked, picking up the round on that Everett was looking at.

                Everett shrugged. “I don’t even know.”

                I bit on my lower lip, suddenly remembering the time when Everett and I accidentally broke his mother’s vase when we were little. We were chasing each other around the house, when I accidentally tripped over the leg of a table, and pushed Everett’s mother’s vase on the ground. The vase exploded, as the shards of glass fell everywhere.

                “What are you thinking?” Everett asked.

                “About the time when we broke your mother’s favorite vase.” I whispered, a faint smile appearing on my face just from the old memories.

                Everett stayed quiet for a moment, before he licked his lips. I looked over at him, his eyes casted on the ground. At that moment, I knew that he knew exactly what I was talking about. I knew at that moment that he remembered. “I meant what you think about those vases.”

                My lips suddenly parted, as I stared back at Everett with a blink. His eyes weren’t filled with hatred towards me, like they have been for the past two years. But, for once, he stared back at me just like the way he used to. His blue eyes welcomed me in, like he still loved me the way he did two years ago.

                My heart was mending into pieces inside my best, as my lips parted just slightly. My hands were shaky, as my fingers trailed along the edges of the vases, before deciding on a round one that was in a shape of a cylinder. “What about this?” I asked, clearing my throat.

                Everett took the vase from my hands, his fingers just brushing against mine for a split second. I felt my fingers tingling, literally dropping the vase if Everett hadn’t snatched it in his hands just in time. I let out a breath of relief, as my cheeks turned bright red.

                “Have you decided on what you’d like?” the old woman came back moments later, pen and notepad already in her hands.

                Everett looked at the vase hesitantly, before nodding. “Yeah, I’ll take twenty five of these.”

                The old woman nodded, writing something down on her yellow notepad. She had the pen cap in her mouth, as she tilted her glasses to the bridge of her nose. After a moment of calculating how much Everett would owe to her, she nodded. “Okay, each of these cost twelve dollars. So, your total is three hundred dollars.”

                Everett nodded, taking out a credit card that his father gave to him for wedding purposes, only. The woman disappeared over to the cash register, swiping Everett’s card, before returning it back to him. “There you go, dear.” She smiled sweetly at Everett. She handed the receipt to him, which had the order and her signature on it. “Come back in two weeks with that, alright?”

                Everett nodded, shoving the receipt in his wallet. “Thank you.”

                As we were about to leave, the woman stopped Everett. “Bring your girlfriend when you come back, too!”

                My eyes widened, as my cheeks turned blush red. Everett shifted uncomfortably on the heels of his feet, as the two of us looked like a deer in the headlights.

*

                “My God, am I tired.” Everett groaned, as we slumped back into his car.

                We had just finished ordering the customizable napkins from a store thirty minutes away from town. The sun had already set, meaning that it was getting late outside. Everett and I were completely exhausted from running around the town for the entire day just to finish half of the errands that were on our list.

                “Can you call Max and Cassandra to see how they are doing?” Everett asked, already taking out his phone from his back pocket. “I’ll call Maria.”

                I agreed, already speed dialing Max in the process. Max picked up within a few rings, and I could tell that he was still with Cassandra, since I could hear her voice in the background. “Riley?” Max spoke. “How’s everything going?”

                I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I glanced over at Everett, who was in his driver’s seat. He looked just as stressed out as I was, as he spoke to Maria over the phone. “Everything’s fine.” I groaned. “We just wanted to check up on you guys. Did you finish everything, yet?” I heard Cassandra giggling on the other line, as I gagged. I rolled my eyes, knowing that they weren’t doing something together that was appropriate.       

                “Um, yeah.” Max’s voice went high, as if he was distracted. “We finished reviewing the playlist and finalizing the guest list.”

                “Good.” I let out a breath of relief. “Everett and I just need to finish up-“

                “Oh my God, Max, stop!” I heard Cassandra laugh.

                I cringed, as I heard something drop on the other line. The sound of the crash loud enough for me to know that Cassandra and Max weren’t up to anything good. “C-can I call you back later?” Max said through muffled laughter.

                I sighed, as I heard another murderous crash. Before I could even to get Cassandra’s laughter, I hung up on Max. I shoved my phone back in my back pocket, as I turned to Everett. I noticed that he was already off of the phone, his head buried in his palms. “Is everything alright?” I asked nervously, noticing that Everett had a hint of irritation in his eyes.

                “Maria said that there was a bit of a malfunction in the bridal shop, whatever the fuck that means.” Everett muttered. “She can’t go pick up the wedding favors tonight.”

                I licked my lips. “Well, she can always get it tomorrow, right?”

                “Wrong.” Everett immediately said, throwing his head back in frustration. “The place we ordered the party favors from allows us a minimum of fourteen days to pick them up, and today is the last day.”

                I frowned, raising an eyebrow. “Is that even illegal?”

                Everett shrugged, as he started up the car. “It’s getting late, and the place closes at ten.” He mumbled under his breath. “It’s getting late. I should probably drop you off at home, and then I’ll go get the wedding favors myself.”

                I noticed that Everett had a maximum of two hours until the place closed, and the party favors were gone for good. I bit on my lower lip, as I let out a sigh. “I’ll go with you.” Everett gave me a look of surprise, as he raised his eyebrows. I turned my face away from him, so that he couldn’t see my massive blush. “Just to save time, though.”

                Everett blinked at me, before nodding slowly. He licked his lips, before he pulled the car onto the freeway. “Okay.” He repeated, the faintest smile appearing on his face. Even the slightest gesture of affection he showed towards me made my heart hammer against my chest.

                The place where Mr. Rosenfeld ordered the wedding favors was at least an hour away from where we were. The traffic on the highway wasn’t the best either, so when we arrived to the store, we had five minutes until they were closing.

                “You kids got lucky.” The storeowner said with a light chuckle. “Just a few more minutes, and these wedding favors would’ve gone in the trash.”

                I wasn’t amused by the storeowner’s crude humor, and I could tell that Everett wasn’t either. We nearly had to run a stop sign to get here, and when we did, we sprinted towards the store as fast as we could. It was drizzling outside, so the two of us were soaked in water, and out of breath.

                “I’m sure we did.” Everett muttered sarcastically, as he lifted three boxes in his arms, leaving me with one. We exited the store, right as the storeowner decided to turn their ‘open’ sign off.

                Right when Everett and I got back into the car, my eyes narrowed its way towards the digital clock that was on the dashboard. It was just a few minutes past ten, and I found it shocking that I had spent so much time with Everett today. None of us bickered- and I think I almost enjoyed it.

                “Are you hungry?” Everett asked, halfway in our way back to town. The traffic had cleared up by now, and the roads were empty. We were making our way back into town pretty quickly.

                I bit my lower lip, not wanting me to bother him any longer for the night. “Are you?” I asked, glancing over at Everett.

                “I asked you first.”

                “I asked you second.”

                As Everett came to a red light, the two of us turned towards each other. He held my gaze, as a small smile slipped across his lips. “You haven’t changed a bit.” He said, just as the light turned green, once again.

                I blinked, before staring down at my fingers, which were tangled on my lap. “We haven’t changed a bit.” I corrected him.

                Everett remained quiet for a moment, until we exited off of the highway, back into our town. I studied his face for a moment, trying to figure out what he was thinking about, but nothing came into my mind. Throughout the years of knowing him, I’ve always been able to read his mind just by staring at the expression he had on his face, but I couldn’t now. Everett had done a pretty damned good job hiding his emotions for the past two years.

                “Pancakes are fine, right?” Everett asked under his breath, as we pulled up to the parking lot of a local breakfast diner that was open twenty-four hours a day.

                Licking my lips, I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was until now. My stomach felt empty, and my mouth had been dry for a while now. The last time I ate was during lunch earlier today, and that hardly counted as anything, since I only ate half an oatmeal cookie. Max stole the other half of it. “Pancakes sound good.” I nodded, as we got out of Everett’s car.

                The rain had stopped by now, but the temperature had turned chilly and cold outside. I crossed my arms to try to keep warm, as I followed Everett towards the diner. When we stepped in, we were immediately welcomed by the scent of sweet maple syrup, and fresh roasted coffee. I closed my eyes, breathing in the warm smell, as a small smile graced upon my lips.

                Everett and I took a seat at a booth near towards the back, as an elderly waitress set down two sets of menus in front of us.“Can I get you guys anything to drink for now?” her heavy, smoker’s voice croaked out.

                “Hot chocolate.” Everett and I said at the same time.

                My eyes widened, as my head snapped over towards his. Everett seemed just as surprised as I was, until he cleared his throat. He licked his rosy red lips, before giving the cranky waitress a weak smile. “Two hot chocolates, please.”

                The waitress raised an eyebrow at us, before nodding slowly. “Alright.” She murmured. “I’ll be back with your drinks in a minute.”

                Hot chocolate was Everett and mine’s traditional drink every time we went to the Gingerbread House. We were known as regulars there, coming at least twice a week, and ordering the exact same drink each time.

                The two of us stopped going once Colette died, though.

                I haven’t stepped foot in that café until Cassandra invited me to come with her a few weeks ago.

                I stared away from the ground, turning my gaze back towards Everett. His face was already buried in the menu, as I reached over to grab mine. My eyes scanned the pictures on the menu inside, making my mouth water. There was a picture of a stack of chocolate pancakes, with chocolate syrup dripping off of the sides.

                Once the waitress came back with two steaming hot mugs of chocolate, she took out her notepad. “You guys ready to order?” her breath smelt of fresh smoke, as if she just finished smoking a cigarette not too long ago.

                I resisted the urge to make a face at the overpowering scent, as I gave her a tight smile. “I’ll take a stack of chocolate pancakes.” I said in a tiny voice, folding my menu over.

                “And I’ll take a stack of blueberry pancakes.” Everett ordered, once the waitress finished jotting mines down.

                The waitress muttered something under her breath, before taking the menus away. “Your pancakes should be ready in ten minutes.”

                I stared down at my fingers, trying to remember the last time Everett and I were together at a place like this. It was the day his mother died, and that was the last I’ve heard of the real Everett; my Everett. I let out a low sigh, before sulking back in my seat. I didn’t dare to glance over at Everett, since I was scared that if I did, he would be able to read all of the emotions that were in my eyes.

                “It’s not as good.” Everett suddenly said, making my jolt up in surprise by his sudden voice. Raising an eyebrow, I noticed that Everett was pulling the mug of hot chocolate away from his lips. “The hot chocolate, I mean. It’s not as good the ones we used to get at the Gingerbread House.”

                I blinked at him for a minute, trying to register what he was saying- or what he was trying to say.

                Before I could reply, however, the grungy waitress came back with our pancakes.

                All I could think was- Everett remembered.

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